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Configuring Apple Apps (Apps & Books)

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Table Of Contents

  1. Requirements
  2. Create Your Content Token
  3. Add Your Content Token To Addigy
  4. Add Apps To Your Library
  5. Unlimited Apps
  6. Adding Apple Apps To Addigy
  7. Expected Behavior for Unsupervised Devices
  8. Deployment Preferences

Requirements

Apple Business Manager and Apple School Manager (ABM/ASM) provide the same methods of purchasing and assigning apps from the App Store using Apple Apps (formerly Apps & Books). Below are the requirements to configure Apple Apps:

  1. An Apple Business Manager account.
  2. Administrator access in Apple Business Manager.
  3. Owner access in Addigy (or sufficient privileges to edit Integrations & Settings).
  4. A MDM Enrollment Profile configured in the policy that will be deploying Apple Apps.

Note: Content tokens should not be re-used as doing so may cause issues with deployment. If you are migrating from another MDM provider, or if a token has previously existed in any other MDM server (even if it has since been removed), it is best practice to create a brand new content token to use in Addigy.

Create Your Content Token

Prior to configuring Apple Apps in Addigy, set up what is required in Apple Business Manager and Apple School Manager. First, create your content token by following these steps:

  1. Log in to Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager.
  2. Click your organization's name (top right) > Settings > Organizational Units.

  3. Click the Add button to add a new Organizational Unit and fill in the required details. Click Done to save your new Organizational Unit.

  4. Click Download to download the Content Token for the Organizational Unit you have created.

Add Your Content Token To Addigy

  1. Navigate to the desired policy > Integrations & Settings > Apple Apps.
  2. Click Upload New Token and select the token you downloaded.
    • Note: You can select a token that is currently in use by another policy, but licenses will be shared between all policies that have the token in use.
  3. Review the token details and click Save.

Note: The same Content Token can be used in multiple policies within the same tenant without issue. Doing so allows you to use the same Apple Apps assets in multiple policies. The available licenses for those assets are shared by the policies that use the token.

Add Apps To Your Library

Before an app can be deployed through Addigy, it must be added to your Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager Library and assigned to the Organizational Unit that matches your content token.

  1. Log in to Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager.
  2. Click Apps & Services > Apps & Books > App Store.
  3. Search for and select the app you would like to add to your Library.
  4. Click Add. 

  5. On the Add to Library page, click the Organizational Units dropdown and select the Organizational Unit(s) that should have access to the app. Select the Organizational Unit that matches the content token you uploaded to Addigy. 

  6. Click Review and follow the on-screen prompts to finish adding the app.

Purchase Licenses for Paid Apps

Paid apps, and apps whose developers have opted out of unlimited licensing, require you to purchase licenses. These apps show a price per license on the button instead of Add.

  1. On the app's App Store page, click the price button (for example, $199.99).

  2. On the Purchase App Licenses page, select Managed Licenses as License Type. Managed Licenses means your organization owns the licenses and can reassign them. 

  3. Click the Organizational Unit dropdown and select the Organizational Unit that matches the content token you uploaded to Addigy. You can transfer licenses to other units later.
  4. Under Licenses, enter the number of licenses you want to purchase. You can adjust the quantity at any time.
  5. Click Review and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the purchase.

Once added, the app appears in Apps & Services > Apps & Books > Library. Open the app from the Library to see its assigned Organizational Units (click Edit to change them) and its license counts.

View Apple's user guide on Selecting and buying content in Apple Business Manager for additional details.

Unlimited Apps

Apple now provides unlimited licenses for free apps in Apple Business Manager and Apple School Manager. When an app is unlimited, you no longer need to buy licenses or worry about running out of them as you deploy it to more devices.

In Addigy, the license count for an unlimited app appears as 2147483647. If you see this number for an app in Addigy, the app is unlimited.

In Apple Business Manager, the app's Licenses table in your Library shows In Use for each Organizational Unit, with no purchased total or available count.

View Apple's release note: Volume purchase free apps.

Things to Know About Unlimited Apps

  • Developers can opt out. App developers can choose to opt out of unlimited licensing and require licenses to be purchased. This is a developer-side change that is outside of Addigy's control. For these apps, you must purchase licenses as before.
  • If a free app becomes a paid app, it is no longer unlimited. Licenses already in use remain assigned, but the app stops being unlimited. For example, if you are using 10 licenses of an unlimited app and the developer makes it a paid app, the token shows 10 licenses instead of 2147483647. You must purchase additional licenses to deploy the app to more devices.

How to Update Existing Tokens to Show Unlimited Apps

If you already owned licenses for a free app before Apple introduced unlimited apps, your existing content token will not show the app as unlimited until the token is renewed. To renew it:

  1. Log in to Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager.
  2. Click your organization's name (top right) > Settings > Payments & Billing > Apps & Books tab. Scroll down to the Content Tokens section.
  3. Click Download to download a new Content Token for the Organizational Unit.
  4. In Addigy, navigate to the policy > Integrations & Settings > Apple Apps.
  5. Click Upload New Token and select the new token you downloaded, then click Save.

Adding Apple Apps To Addigy

  1. Navigate to the desired policy > Software > Apple Apps.
  2. Click the empty box next to each app you want to add to the policy. Once all apps have been selected, click Add/Remove and click Add to policy. Click Confirm to confirm the change.

    Upon the next policy deployment, each device receives the assigned apps.

Note: Apple Apps can be deployed to individual devices via GoLive. View Deploying Apple Apps to Individual Devices via GoLive for more info.

Expected Behavior for Unsupervised Devices

Unsupervised devices receive the following prompt when an Apple App is deployed:

If the prompt is not accepted, the app will not be installed on the device. Be sure to advise your end-users that these prompts must be accepted if you are working with unsupervised machines. There is no way to suppress or work around this prompt on unsupervised machines.

For more information about device supervision, see: Overview: Device Supervision

Deployment Preferences

View the articles below to learn more about these deployment preferences:

Notes

  • It is not possible to set a Deployment Schedule for Apple Apps installations or updates.
  • It is only possible to install the latest available version of an application via Apple Apps.
  • It is not possible to downgrade an application via Apple Apps.

If you encounter any problems with deployment, tips for troubleshooting Apple Apps can be found here:

Apple Apps: Troubleshooting Tips

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