Hello, I’d like to clarify the technical limitations around app updates in an Apple School Manager (ASM) + MDM environment. Environment • iOS/iPadOS devices supervised and managed via Apple School Manager • Apps are distributed via ASM (VPP / Custom App) and managed by MDM • Apps are App Store–signed (not Enterprise/In-House) • Some apps include NetworkExtension (VPN) functionality • Automatic app updates are enabled in MDM Question From a technical and platform-design perspective, is it possible to: Deploy app updates for ASM/MDM-distributed App Store apps via a separate/custom update server, and trigger updates simultaneously across all managed devices, bypassing or supplementing the App Store update mechanism? In other words: • Can an organization operate its own update server to push a new app version to all devices at once? • Or is App Store + iOS always the sole execution path for installing updated app binaries? ⸻ My current understanding (please correct if wrong) Based on Apple documentation, it seems that: 1. App Store–distributed apps cannot self-update • Apps cannot download and install new binaries or replace themselves. • All executable code must be Apple-signed and installed by the system. 2. MDM can manage distribution and enable auto-update, but: • MDM cannot reliably trigger an immediate update for App Store apps. • Actual download/install timing is decided by iOS (device locked, charging, Wi-Fi, etc.). 3. Custom update servers • May be used for policy decisions (minimum allowed version, feature blocking), • But cannot be used to distribute or install updated app binaries on iOS. 4. For ASM-managed devices: • The only supported update execution path is: App Store → iOS → Managed App Update • Any “forced update” behavior must be implemented at the app logic level, not the installation level. ⸻ What I’m trying to confirm • Is there any supported MDM command, API, or mechanism that allows: • Centralized, immediate, one-shot updates of App Store apps across all ASM-managed devices? • Or is the above limitation fundamental by design, meaning: • Organizations must rely on iOS’s periodic auto-update behavior • And enforce version compliance only via app-side logic? ⸻ Why this matters In large school deployments, delayed updates (due to device conditions or OS scheduling) can cause: • Version fragmentation • Inconsistent behavior across classrooms • Operational issues for VPN / security-related apps Understanding whether this limitation is absolute or if there is a recommended Apple-supported workaround would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance for any clarification

Details: Device: iPhone 12 Pro Max System: iOS 26.1 beta 2 Issue Description: When testing MDM device restriction capabilities on iOS 26.1 beta 2, I found that the allowCamera restriction does not work as expected. Observed Behavior: • On a BYOD device: When allowCamera is set to false, the Camera and FaceTime apps disappear from the Home Screen, as expected. However, third-party apps (such as WeChat) can still access the camera and take photos. • On earlier versions (e.g. iOS 26.0.1): Setting allowCamera to false correctly blocks all apps, including third-party apps, from accessing the camera. Initially, I assumed Apple might have changed this restriction behavior so that allowCamera only applies to supervised devices. However, after testing on supervised devices, I found that even there, when allowCamera is set to false, the Camera and FaceTime apps are hidden, but third-party apps can still use the camera. This indicates that the restriction is not functioning correctly in iOS 26.1 beta 2. Expectation: When allowCamera is set to false, all camera access — including third-party apps — should be blocked. Request: Could someone from Apple’s development or MDM team confirm whether this is an expected behavior change or a potential bug in iOS 26.1 beta 2?

Hi everyone, I want to enable Single App Mode (SAM) for my custom app that’s installed on the device. However, my device is not supervised. Is there any way to: Enable Single App Mode without supervising the device? Any guidance or workaround would be appreciated. Thanks, Arnab Lahiri

It's a great platform to grow your knowledge. Apple Teacher

I am trying to correctly manage about 20 Mac, iPhones and PC inside a Wi-Fi network built through System Settings > Sharing > Internet Sharing To achieve this task I defined a complete configuration file: /etc/bootpd.plist which is used by /usr/libexec/InternetSharing. But every time /usr/libexec/InternetSharing is starting the file /etc/bootpd.plist is overwritten by another file and my configuration is thus fully lost. How to set a correct /etc/bootps.plist file and avoid its total overwrite by /usr/libexec/InternetSharing? Is it necessary to write this bootpd.plist in some other directory for /usr/libexec/InternetSharing to load it without destroying it? I got the same configuration total erase on macOS Big Sur and Sequoia.

I registered in this summer, uploaded 2 apps. But recently I decided to add iAP to my apps, everything is ready, in Xcode sandbox everything works fine, but when I uploaded new version to TestFlight to test, when I tap on the subscription it says something like "Product not found". (I have added subscriptions to the app, and added them to the version before submitting, also, this version is in status "awaiting developer release" so I can tap a button and this new version with iAPs will be on App Store. But im unsure what to do, because exactly this verified by Apple's version is not working in TestFlight.) In Business section of my Apple Developer Account in Agreements I only have agreement of free apps, but not about the paid apps. 
When I registered I used my (R)(us)sian passport, I think this is the reason that I simply don't even have the agreement of paid apps to accept it. 
I have multiple passports, and multiple EU debit cards. I emailed apple to change the location of my account (to another EU country), but they ghosted me. They sent me emails to upload documents about 4 or 5 times, every time I uploaded my another passport, got an auto email "thank you, we will write you in 2-3 days", but either they did not write me, or they said that the document is not in English (it isn't). 
What do I do? Also, to my situation, someone of my family has a company in (R)(us)sia, and I have in EU (Estonia). Maybe if nothing will work out with "Individual account", I should change to my company? And what is better EU or (R)(us)sian? 
Im new to this community, hope to hear an answer, or just an advice. Thank you!

Can I upload custom app onto the ABM? if yes then how can we install it into the user's devices?

I'm the IT Admin in my company. We use Microsoft Intune, which is a Mobile Device Management tool, to manage our devices and apps. I created an app protection policy, restricting the data can only be shared between the allowed apps. For example, if our user want to copy the content in Outlook for iOS to WeChat or personal memo, the action will be blocked. However, may be it's too strict, here is the scenario that we need to hadle: A user selected the content in the Outlook for iOS mail, and wanted to use the "translate" function to do translation. Before the app protection policy was deployed, he can do the translation successfully. And now, it's blocked. Therefore, we need to find a way to exempt the app "Translate" so that users can do the translation successfully. We put the value "com.apple.Translate"(this is a package ID listed in the official document of Apple) to the exemption, but it's not working. May I know what is the correct "value" for the iOS native Translate APP? I need to put this value to our app protection policy to exempt Translate app. Thank you so much.

We are having issues working with bypass codes the server creates when initiating Activation Lock through MDM. We are able to use the device-generated bypass codes without issue. When using the end point to request activation lock as specified in https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement/creating-and-using-bypass-codes/ we get a 200 response. But when using the endpoint to bypass the activation lock, we get a 404 response. If we try to manually input the activation lock bypass code, it also does not work. Both of these methods work with the device-generated bypass codes. Just to clarify when testing the server generated codes, we ensured that we did not test the device-generated codes. All of this was tested on iOS devices. Created feedback ticket FB21365819 with device specific details.

Im trying to make my own iOS MDM Server with SCEP. I cant send a response to the PKIOperation without the iPad rejecting it. Can someone post the PKIOperation response structure

Hello, I am running into a bit of an issue with the Screen Timeout/Screen Lock setting and would like some clarification on. First for a bit of context, I am enrolling personal iOS devices 18.0+ into the company MDM (Intune) with Account Driven User Enrollment. We are trying to set a screen timeout of 5 minutes and immediately after it asks for the passcode on the device, though this setting is not being applied and the device timeout setting can be set as "Never" on the user's end. This is a big security risk for the company I work for and and the issue with being HIPAA compliant. According to the Microsoft Intune Support, "In iOS 18, when using Account-Driven User Enrollment for BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) scenarios, the screen lock timeout setting is indeed marked as “Not Applicable”. This is because Apple’s privacy-preserving model for personal devices restricts administrative control over system-level settings like screen lock or idle timeout." I am needing clarification on the item mentioned from Microsoft Intune Support and if this setting is no longer able to be applied from the MDM with devices enrolled with Account Driven User Enrollment?

I have an issue with my MDM setup. The Push notification that installs and updates configuration profile in the device is no longer working. It was working before Apple developer account got expired we renewed our apple developer account and then retried and we got the device enrollment working just fine. Now when we are updating configuration profile and MDM server is supposed to notify the device using push notification, this is the part where its not working. Are the certs faulty now since the account was expired? Would just renewal of the Push cert work? Will I have to setup the certs all over again? Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hello, We have an internal enterprise app. After the provisioning profile (certificate) expired, some employees' iPhones still retained the old certificate when updating the app, causing the app to fail to open. We’ve tried restarting and reinstalling the app, but the issue persists. Having each employee manually reset network or device settings would be too operationally costly. Since this involves a large number of devices, we cannot use Apple Configurator to remove and reinstall certificates one by one. Therefore, we’d like to ask if there is a more efficient, batch-oriented solution to quickly resolve the certificate residue issue. We’d appreciate any suggestions for large-scale deployment methods. Thank you very much!

We have applications RME and RMEUI, which are added under FileProviders section. Looking for MDM profile that can lock these entries so that users cannot disable them. Currently we are using JAMF Pro MDM to control our applications. In Sequoia OS -> Open System Preferences -> General -> Login Items & Extensions -> Under Extensions section -> File Providers In Tahoe OS -> Open System Preferences -> General -> Login Items & Extensions -> Under By Category/App section -> File Providers (In the screen shot you can find RME entry)

What is the proper payload for the FDEFileVault? Do I need to provide a user password in the payload to proceed with turning on the FileVault? Isn't that a privacy issue? Why UserEntersMissingInfo does not work for me? How to properly turn off FileVault - every try failed? Below I attach tested payloads and results. Test 1: Enable: "On" Result 1: Error ErrorCode: -319 LocalizedDescription: The ‘FileVault Settings’ payload could not be installed. User authentication failed. Test 2: Enable: "On" Username: "username on a device" Result 2: Error ErrorCode: -319 LocalizedDescription: The ‘FileVault Settings’ payload could not be installed. User authentication failed. Test 3: Enable: "On" Username: "username on a device" Password: "password of the user" Result 3: Success: FileVault turned On Test 4: After previously turning On FileVault successfully after restarting a machine. Enable: "Off" Result 4: Fail: FileVault didn't turn off, but the profile in settings updated. The machine restart didn't help. Test 5: Enable: "On" UserEntersMissingInfo: True Result 5: Error ErrorCode: -319 LocalizedDescription: The ‘FileVault Settings’ payload could not be installed. User authentication failed. Test 6: Enable: "On" Username: "username on a device" UserEntersMissingInfo: True Result 6: Error ErrorCode: -319 LocalizedDescription: The ‘FileVault Settings’ payload could not be installed. User authentication failed. Test 7: This is example payload from: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement/fdefilevault#Profile-Example Defer: True Enable: "On" ShowRecoveryKey: True UseKeychain: False UseRecoveryKey: True UserEntersMissingInfo: False Result 7: Success: FileVault turned On Test 8: Same as test 4, but after turning on like test 7. Test 9: Defer: True Enable: "Off" ShowRecoveryKey: True UseKeychain: False UseRecoveryKey: True UserEntersMissingInfo: False Result 9: Fail: FileVault didn't turn off, but the profile in settings updated. The machine restart didn't help. Test 10: Defer: True Enable: "Off" ShowRecoveryKey: True UseKeychain: False UseRecoveryKey: True UserEntersMissingInfo: True Result 10: Fail: FileVault didn't turn off, but the profile in settings updated. The machine restart didn't help. Test 11: Defer: True Enable: "Off" ShowRecoveryKey: True UseKeychain: False UseRecoveryKey: True UserEntersMissingInfo: True DeferForceAtUserLoginMaxBypassAttempts: 0 Result 11: Fail: FileVault didn't turn off, but the profile in settings updated. The machine restart didn't help. Test 12: UserEntersMissingInfo: True Enable: "Off" Username: "username on a device" Result 12: Fail: FileVault didn't turn off, but the profile in settings updated. The machine restart didn't help.

I just want to add a in-app purchase project to my app, steps: 1.i create a product in App Store Connect ,the product id is "com.buy.once.me" 2.in Xcode,i create " SubscriptionStoreView(productIDs:["com.buy.once.me"])" in a view 3. the view show "subscription unavailable the subscription is unavailable in the current storefront" I don't know what the problem is ,anyone help me,thanks

Apple face app is used to fore video calling and chatting and voice calling AP same a what’s app tango etc…

We are trying the renewal the apple Enterprise program. It asks set of questions after that it shows the below message "Thank you for your request to renew your membership in the Apple Developer Enterprise Program. We’ll review your submission and get back to you shortly to let you know if we can process the renewal or if another program better serves your organization’s needs." We have submitted for review for over two months now. During these two months, we have contacted the official customer service multiple times, only to be told to wait for news. Now, with only a few days left, The status hasn't changed, neither approved nor rejected，what should we do？This account is very important to our company. Thank you

New devices coming to this year is named as iPhone 17 .... Why we care not going for iPhone 26. .... ? if it is named as iPhone 26... in line with new version policy, it will be easier to relate in all perspective.

Hi everyone, I’m working as an IT engineer in the cruise industry and need to troubleshoot passenger complaints about Apple’s new RCS messaging feature (introduced with iOS 18). Could someone help confirm which domains and ports iPhones use when they send RCS messages? My firewall team wants specifics: domains (or subdomains) that need whitelisting and the ports involved. Any official or community-sourced info would be super helpful—thanks in advance!