Silently Install iOS Apps with Meraki to an iPad Cart

A bit of background for this post.  I work for a quickly growing school district on a team that manages around 4000 Macs, iPads and Chromebook.  We have approximately 1200 iPads that are in carts for each grade level to use.  We needed a method to silently push the apps to each of the carts.  The method we chose was to create a different Apple ID for each cart at each school and use Apple's VPP Managed Distribution.

NOTE:  You will need to invite the user accounts via VPP before proceeding.  Follow my previous post here for instructions.

1. Purchase the paid or free apps via the Apple VPP website.
2. Go to meraki.com and login to your Systems Manager dashboard.
3. Go to MDM > VPP
4. Click the Licensed Applications tab if it isn’t already selected.
5. Check the name of the app you want to assign to an Apple ID.

NOTE:  If the app you are looking to assign is listed, but has been purchased from the Apple VPP website, you may need to sync the Apple API.  Click the Force sync now button in the upper right of the window.

1. Check the box next to the user(s) (Apple IDs) you want to assign the app to.
2. Click Grant license to user(s)

Now that the license has been granted, we need to assign the app to the devices.

1. Go to MDM > Apps
2. Click + Add new > iOS App
3. Search for the app.
4. Click Add next to the app to be assigned.
5. Set the scope to select which devices should receive the app.
6. Click Save

OPTIONAL:  We usually check the box next to Remove with MDM.  This way if a user removes the management profile, the apps will also be removed.

Add Apple VPP Accounts to Meraki Systems Manager

1. Login to Meraki Systems Manager
2. Go to MDM > VPP
3. Click on User Management
4. Click +Add User
5. Enter the name and the email for the account you want to add.
6. Go to the iPad you want to use this account with.  Add the email account and sign into the App Store.  You should receive an email invitation from Meraki inviting you to participate in the VPP program.
7. Click the link and accept the prompts when the App Store opens.
8. When the App Store confirms the assignment was successful you are now ready to assign apps to this Apple ID.
9. Go back to Meraki MDM > VPP > User Management and the account should now show Associated.  If not you may have to click Force sync now.

IMPORTANT:  If this is a cart of iPads you can share the same account on each iPad the cart.  Be sure to only accept one VPP invitation on a single iPad.  If you accept invitations for two different accounts on a single iPad an error will be presented in the User Management section of Systems Manager.