Purchase and Register App Store Apps (Without VPP)

This page explains how to distribute App Store applications to devices without using the VPP feature of Apple Business (formerly Apple Business Manager).
To distribute an app created by this procedure to a device, you must first register an Apple ID on the device.
Because MDM cannot force Apple ID registration on a device, register an Apple ID on each device individually.

warning

You cannot perform this procedure in a unit where VPP is enabled.
If you use Apple Business, purchase apps in Apple Business.
When you purchase an app in Apple Business, it is automatically displayed as a VPP app on the CONFIG → Applications screen.

1. Click [Create] on the CONFIG → Applications screen.
   
2. Enter the required information on the application information screen that opens, and then click [Save].
   Input items (★ indicates a required item)

OS	Select iOS.
Type	Select AppStore.
Application Name★	Enter the application name on the App Store or the application's App Store ID.
Name	Enter the name used to manage the application. If you leave this blank and specify Application Name, the application name on the App Store is entered automatically.
Description	Enter any information.
Identifier	Filled in automatically for a valid package name.
Version	Filled in automatically.
Management Flag	Select if needed. Remove app when MDM profile is removed: Select this if you want to delete this application when the device is removed from BizMobile Go! management. Prevent backup of app data: Select this if you want to exclude the application's data from backups.
Default Attributes	Used for the Per-App VPN setting feature. Sample: {"VPNUUID":"FFEC64C0-E181-11E3-8B68-000000000000"}
Default Configuration	This feature applies only to applications that support it. When creating the application, you can define arbitrary tags inside the application and set their values. Click the Create button to set values using the input form. For details, see Distribute Application Settings (Default Configuration).
Template	Select the template to register this application to. If you have not created a template yet, you do not need to fill in this item (you can also select the application from the template side when you create the template).

You can upload an application to the server as long as at least one of Identifier, Name, and Version differs. However, because devices manage apps internally by Identifier, you cannot assign multiple apps with the same Identifier to a template for distribution, even if their Name or Version differs.

3. When the message Created is displayed, the process is complete.
   The application name is a link. Click it to open the application details.
   

Version information

After you create an app, open the app details to check the app version.
When the app has an update, the date and time when the server detected the update is displayed.

Automatic updates

▶ Related video (app updates)

Normally, when an update is released for an App Store application distributed from BizMobile Go!, the app is not updated to the latest version unless the device user updates it manually on the device.
If you enable automatic updates, applications installed on managed devices are updated to the latest version automatically.
You can then use the latest version of the application without its in-app settings being reset.

For the procedure to run an update on a specific device at any time, see Update (Reinstall) Apps on a Specific Device Individually.

The server detects app update information once a day.
• Regular apps: After 12:00 AM
• Custom Apps (Custom B2B apps): After 11:30 PM
If a new version is released before the detection time, an app update command is sent at the next sync (including automatic sync).

You can configure automatic updates in either of the following ways.
Steps from creating/editing a template

1. Click the Create button, or the Edit icon of a template, under CONFIG → Templates.
   
2. Click the magnifying glass icon for Application.
   
3. Set Auto Update to ON / OFF.
   

Steps from editing an application

1. Click the Create button, or the Edit icon of an app, under CONFIG → Applications.
   
2. Click the magnifying glass icon for Template.
   
3. Set Auto Update to ON / OFF.
   

warning

Under either of the following conditions, apps can be updated only by an MDM command, so you must use Auto Update to update them.

• The app was purchased using VPP
• App installation is prohibited by a profile restriction

Auto management (iOS 9 or later)

On iOS/iPadOS, if an application you try to install from BizMobile Go! already exists on the device, it cannot be installed. An application that already exists on the device remains unmanaged (Unmanaged) and cannot be controlled. The device's sync status also does not become Synchronized.
When you enable auto management, you can change the management mode of an application that already exists on the device from Unmanaged to Managed, so the app no longer prevents the device's sync status from becoming Synchronized.

Note: Auto management is available on devices running iOS 9 or later.
Note: Only Supervised devices can change the management mode automatically and silently. On Unsupervised devices, the message described later is displayed and the device user's permission is required.
Note: On Supervised devices running a version earlier than iOS 9, enabling the auto management setting causes an error, so disable auto management when you distribute applications.

You can configure auto management in either of the following ways.
Steps from creating/editing a template

1. Click the Create button, or the Edit icon of a template, under CONFIG → Templates.
   
2. Click the magnifying glass icon for Application.
   
3. Set Auto Management to ON / OFF.
   

Steps from editing an application

1. Click the Create button, or the Edit icon of an app, under CONFIG → Applications.
   
2. Click the magnifying glass icon for Template.
   
3. Set Auto Management to ON / OFF.
   

Prevent deletion

You can prevent users from deleting apps distributed from BizMobile Go!.
You can configure deletion prevention in either of the following ways.

Steps from creating/editing a template

1. Click the Create button, or the Edit icon of a template, under CONFIG → Templates.
   
2. Click the magnifying glass icon for Application.
   
3. Set Prevent Deletion to ON / OFF.
   

Steps from editing an application

1. Click the Create button, or the Edit icon of an app, under CONFIG → Applications.
   
2. Click the magnifying glass icon for Template.
   
3. Set Prevent Deletion to ON / OFF.