SOTI Pulse Logo

Apps added to App Catalog appear in MobiControl agent but aren't installed

DS
Daniel Sigurgeirsson
Edico

Hi,

what could be the cause the following happens? I create an app catalog rule which enables certain PlayStore apps, then assign that rule to a device, and open up the MobiControl agent on the device and navigate to the "App Catalog" page. The apps are displayed there with a "Mandatory" text since that is what I selected, plus there is a "Free" button on the right side of each app. However, the apps are not installed automatically.

The device has been enrolled with an Android Enterprise rule, has an Android Enterprise profile assigned to it (and the non-playstore app which that profile specifies is installed just fine), and the app rule is also Android Enterprise.

Any ideas? Is this perhaps just a matter of patience? I.e. do I have to wait for a certain time for the apps to be installed?

Regards,

Daníel

Play Store App Policy
2 years ago
Android
ANSWERS
SB
Simon Breuer
2 years ago

Hi Daniel,

yes, it may be a matter of patience.

The time of installation is defined by Google's algorithms.

It depends on device usage, battery load, wifi access and possibly some more parameters.

In my experience an app which is marked as "Mandatory" should install within 1-2 hours.

DS
Daniel Sigurgeirsson
2 years ago

Good to know. I believe that time has already passed, but I'll give it this day and see if it eventually installs.

EDIT: the rule was assigned almost 24 hours ago, so I'm assuming it should have been activated by now...

RS
Rafael Schäfer
2 years ago

I assume you provided the apps via a managed playstore and not via Enterprise.

  • Open the playstore on the device, are the apps listed there?
    • They should be visible there also and able to trigger installation each manually (you could just try for testing)
  • In the playstore check if there are updates stuck
    • tap on the circle in the top right
    • choose "Manage apps & device"
    • Select the second menu point from the top (could be named like "All apps up to date")
    • Press "check for update"  if there's nothing shown, otherwise press cancel all and then update all

After the updates are made (if there haven been some), wait again a bit if the apps are getting installed now.

MD
Matt Dermody Diamond Contributor
2 years ago

https://support.google.com/googleplay/work/answer/9350374?hl=en

Multiple criteria have to align for a Managed Play app to be installed. Device has to be idle, the app being updated can't be in the foreground, and the device needs to be detected as in a charging state. These criteria are ultimately a carry over from the consumer side of Google Play as it was built under the assumption that apps could auto-upgrade on someone's personal phone while it sits on the charger at night on their bed side table. These update criteria however are not particularly great in the enterprise use case and they can result in long delays before apps get updated automatically. This is one of the many challenges with relying on Managed Play for the dedicated device use case. 

RC
Raymond Chan Diamond Contributor
2 years ago

On top of what were mentioned in the above posts and in the Google's document referenced in Matt's post, please also note that Google back-end servers of different region may have maintenance and other deployment related problems from time to time. 

My company had previous projects providing enrollment services of many hundreds of devices of the same model for customers that span multiple work days. Everything worked fine initially for many days, and we could unbox each new device, got it enrolled and all policies and apps deployed before we put it back in the box ready for deployment to the end-user.  In the middle of the project, we had to stop for day(s)  because managed Google Play apps were not deployed to the newly enrolled devices.  We had to box the unfinished devices and waited patiently day after day until Google backend problem disappeared.  Once recovered, we just unboxed & powered up the unfinished enrolled devices to get the missing apps deployed.  

The above, though rare, happened more than once in the past.  So do NOT feel too surprised if you are stuck occasionally.

M
MPMOD@SOTI
2 years ago

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for posting on SOTI Pulse! 

Is this still an issue you are still having? Perhaps having the app policy set to have the application on high priority can help in your case. 

Can you confirm if this has been done already?

Kind regards,

Technical Support Specialist | SOTI | +1 905.624.9828 | SOTI.net lDiscussion Forum | Log a Case Online l Facebook l LinkedIn l Twitter 

A
Admin
a year ago

Hello ,

I am having the exact same problem.Freshly enrolled devices. Deployed an app policy , the applications doesn't auto install. Is there maybe a workaround possible , except from manually pressing the FREE button to install?Maybe something to trigger the installation with a script?

Have you find any solution to this?

I am pretty sure that waiting more than 1h in not acceptable since this is a mass deployment enterprise devices.I guess we could say that this feature doesn't work and move on to find a different solution?

Thanks in advance.

Similar Discussions