Looking for best ways to deploy business apps on iPadsSolved

Hey mate, sounds like you went full throttle there! Happens more often than you’d think. When you deploy all apps at once, it’s easy to overload the network, especially if those apps are big or syncing through VPP servers.

Try staggering your app deployments; you can split devices into multiple groups and push apps in phases. That’s how we handle large rollouts at our end.

But here’s where it gets tricky: I did that once, and while it fixed the bandwidth issue, I noticed users missing one or two apps even after everything was deployed. Took me a while to realize Hexnode was rechecking compliance only during the next policy sync.

I feel like I’ve had similar nightmares! The key’s all in the prep. What I do now; before even touching deployment; is tidy up the App Inventory. Add everything there first, even if you’re not deploying them immediately. Makes configuration and updates so much easier later on.

And about the missing app issue, that’s actually covered under the Required Apps policy. If you’ve got it tied to a policy instead of using a one-time install action, Hexnode automatically checks and reinstalls missing apps on sync. Keeps compliance tidy without any manual follow-ups.

Oh, and Rocky, don’t forget silent installs only work on supervised iOS devices, you’ll want to ensure your iPads are supervised if you’re expecting those installs to go smooth as butter.

I am not sure if anyone else has faced this issue but recently our users were complaining about losing access to blocked apps too aggressively when we applied allowlisting. We’d blocked everything except a few work apps, and it ended up restricting even basic tools they needed.

Ha! Been there, done that. The blocklist/allowlist policies can be ruthless if not planned right. I learned the hard way, instead of hard blocking, I now combine that with Web Content Filtering and network usage rules. That way, I restrict data-heavy or unapproved apps without cutting users off completely. Keeps everyone sane.

Also, for your compliance checks, I’d suggest setting up real-time app compliance alerts. If something goes missing or fails to install, you’ll know straight away via email; no need to manually dig through reports.

Any of you guys tried managing app updates for kiosk-mode devices? I’ve noticed updates aren’t silent there, even when they’re VPP apps. Feels weird since they’re supervised.

Yeah, Store and VPP app updates aren’t silent in kiosk mode. It’s an Apple limitation, not Hexnode’s doing. I usually handle that by scheduling maintenance windows when devices can exit kiosk mode briefly, allowing updates to install silently before locking them back down. Bit of a workaround, but works fine in practice.