How to auto upgrade private Google Play app?

How to auto upgrade private Google Play app?

SA
Sterling Albury

So I can't figure out how to get our app to auto upgrade on kiosk devices. I've got a Google Play store page set up for a private app, and I'm able to issue upgrades through the play store page. Next, I have to go into the mobicontrol cloud and update the application catalog, which isn't ideal, but whatever, I can deal with that, but after updating the application catalog, none of our devices will download the upgrade. The only way I've been able to get devices to upgrade is to remote control into the device in Admin mode, go into the application catalog in the DPC and upgrade the app. Moreover, there seems to be a bug with this scenario because after I upgrade the app with these steps, when I go to set the device back into User mode, the app will be uninstalled! I then have to re-install the latest app and then I will be able to set the device back into User mode.

I've asked a sales engineer that has been helping me out some, but he's not very responsive and hasn't provided any information on how to get the app to auto upgrade. There was a Droidcon Berlin talk just last week I think about setting devices up in kiosk mode and through their own setup they were able to get apps to auto upgrade, plsu they were also able to use the test tracks in the Google Play Store. I've been trying to use the test tracks of the private google play store app for a while but Soti doesn't have any information about that either, and that probably deserves another question, but I know it's doable and getting the app to upgrade should also be possible.

Is it possible to get these private apps to auto upgrade without having to log into each one and manually doing it?

 

Thanks,

 

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5 Answers

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Matt Dermody | posted this 12 September 2019

Are the devices enrolled with Device Owner or Profile Owner? Presumably DO if you’re using them with kiosk which would imply a COSu /Dedicated Device use case. Assuming you have them managed by DO, a requirement for forced silent app updates, then you’d also need to mark the App Catalog apps as Mandatory instead of Suggested. Mandatory will be a push operation of sorts whereas Suggested requires user intervention as you have encountered.

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Sterling Albury | posted this 19 September 2019

So I've made sure the App Catalog app is marked as Mandatory, but I'm still not seeing any devices get updated. The devices are in lockdown/kiosk mode, so I guess they're enrolled with Device Owner.

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Matt Dermody | posted this 20 September 2019

Do the devices have access to the Play store from the network that they're connected to? Can you open the Play Store app on the devices and see the applications that have been approved?

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Raymond Chan | posted this 20 September 2019

Please provide the following:

- Version and build numbers of your MobiControl server and device agent

- Active MDM API's reported on the configuration tab of the device agent

- Firmware version and brand/model of your device

- Do you experience similar problems on the same device with non-private apps (i.e. free public app such as Google Map) from Managed Google Play store?

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Sterling Albury | posted this 20 September 2019

Version of MobiControl Cloud Server: 14.4.1.1195

Version of Device Agent: 13.8.0 Build 1047

Active MDM API's: Advanced Android Plus 1.0, Work Managed Device, RC+ (1.16.0.100)

We have multiple devices we're using. We have Nokia 2.2, Alcatel TCL 9027W, and Samsung Tab A SM-T387T. Not sure what you're looking for when you say firmware version. All the devices are running Android 8.1 and up.

We don't have any non private apps installed on the devices. I can try to think of an app that updates often and add it, but no idea if non private apps are updating. I would hope that they would be.

 

And to answer Matt's question, as I mentioned in the OP, the only way I can get the app to upgrade is by remote controlling into the device with Administrator mode, going to the Application Catalog in the MobiControl app, and updating from there. However, when I was going through and getting the above info and went to the Application Catalog, and it looked like the latest version had been updated, however, when I checked the app version through the app and through the device details in the Soti cloud console, the app version was not showing the latest. I then went into the google play store and clicked on the app, and there was an update available. After updating the app manually through the play store, the app and console's device details now shows the correct updated version. 

There's definitely some disconnect going on here. I felt like the apps on our devices had updated once before as expected, but this last update didn't seem to work. The device agent's app catalog showed that the latest version had been installed, but in fact it hadn't. Sounds like a bug. I'm sure I can get some video/screenshots of what I'm seeing and the process I just described.

 

Thanks for your guys' help

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