Installing Enterprise app on IOS fails with "Waiting..."

[Aaron_F_2]

Using XDK release 3400, after rebuilding all the certs and provisioning profiles, I was able to build my app using XDK no problem.

It leaves me with an IPA file that I can upload to my MDM that's about 20MB.

However, when installing the IPA on the device using the MDM, the install icon says "Waiting..." for about one second then disappears. The app never installs.

I have several other apps that I've done in XDK (though not updated recently, so old versions of XDK I suppose) that are distributed through the MDM that work fine. I'm at a loss why this one fails, and there's no information that I can find that indicates why it might be failing.

Any thoughts?

[Swati_S_Intel1]

Have you tried installing using the OTA link?

[Aaron_F_2]

The OTA link doesn't seem to work. Safari thinks it's a ZIP file and doesn't give the option to install it.

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

Sometimes, on iOS devices, you need to uninstall the old version of an app before it will install. Another thing that can cause this behavior is trying to install an app onto an older version of iOS (for example, building with CLI 5.4.1 can only be installed on iOS 8 and above). Also, if you have an out-of-date provisioning file or certificate, you will see this mysterious "starts to install but then fails" behavior.

[Aaron_F_2]

Unfortunately none of those situations apply; certs & profiles are current, the app wasn't installed, and the OS is current (9.3.2).

[PaulF_IntelCorp · Accepted solution]

Did you try the OTA link? When Swati is referring to the OTA link she means the link that you email to yourself from the build tab. If you "share" the build result with an email that your iOS device has access to you can open it on the device for direct installation. This is the easiest way to install an iOS app onto your device. The OTA link in the email ONLY works if you open the email with the default iOS email app, it will not work with other email clients on our iOS device. Safari is not used for this process.

[Aaron_F_2]

Ah, that worked. I was using Gmail.

That's a tad frustrating...I was hoping to use the MDM to install the app. Oh well.

Thanks!

[Aaron_F_2]

I guess I have to revisit this again.

The app will install with the link from the email, however if the email is forwarded, the link doesn't work. That's a problem, since I then have to sign in to the Apple email app personally on every. Single. Device. I have hundreds across the country.

Loaded in Meraki, even with the app installed from the email, Meraki is unable to even update the app. I load a new compiled file up to Meraki, then force the update, and the app on the iPad shows the blue dot indicating it's been updated but it's not. It's still the old version.

So I guess I'm back to trying to figure out why Meraki is unable to load the app. (I've also posted over on the Meraki forum, but no luck).

Any thoughts folks?

[Aaron_F_2]

Argh!

Okay, I got it working, but don't ask me why.

When I download the IPA file through the XDK interface, it downloads a file without the ".ipa" extension. Fine. The app still installs using the email link, but it would never work when uploaded through Meraki.

In the email, there's also a link to download the file, but this time it downloads with a ".ipa" extension. Same. Darn. File. Upload that into Meraki, and voila. It works.

Lessons's learned I guess.