Installing applications purchased under Volume Purchase Program (VPP) is no different than publishing normal iTunes applications. However, there is some additional information related to Licenses that will be displayed so as to help you see if there are enough licenses available.
This document is the second of a two-part VPP help guide, and here we focus on how to install VPP applications and view the license information.
Before you Start
Complete the VPP configuration step as described here How to Setup Volume Purchase Program guide.
Create an Apple Device Profile and Enroll an iOS device- Company-owned or Personal (BYO) device.
Video Guide
Please watch the video below to get a visual walkthrough.
Installing VPP Applications
Sign In to your Scalefusion Dashboard.
Navigate to Application Management > APPLE APP STORE tab.
Click on any application that you want to install to open the app-info side panel from the right.
From the app-info dialog, you can view license details and perform actions based on the configurations below:
A. VPP Licenses Section
The section header is displayed as VPP LICENSES. Instead of a single aggregated count, the dashboard displays individual cards for each VPP token containing licenses for this app:
Card Details:
Location Name: Displayed as the primary label.
Organization Name: Displayed below the location name.
Total License Count
Available License Count: The total available licences, color-coded by availability thresholds:
Green: Available licenses are greater than or equal to 50% of the total.
Orange: Available licenses are between 10% and 49% of the total.
Red: Available licenses are less than or equal to 10% of the total (including 0).
Display Conditions:
If an app has no VPP licenses across any token, the VPP LICENSES section is completely hidden.
If an app has licenses in only one token, a single card is displayed.
If an app has licenses across multiple tokens, one card is displayed per token.
B. Per-App VPP Settings
Click the Gear icon to view additional token-level tracking:
View Assignments: Check which specific devices have installed this application and which token provided the license.
Sync Licenses: Sync newly purchased licenses from the Apple VPP portal with your Scalefusion dashboard.
Purchase Licenses: A shortcut to navigate directly to your Apple VPP portal.
Application Publish Behavior
When you click PUBLISH to deploy the application to your Apple Device Profiles, the publish dialog will display the following controls under the Installation & Management Options tab:
1. Configure Installation Mode
Choose whether the application should be silently installed (for Supervised devices) or added to the App Catalog for user-initiated installation.
Mode as per Profile: The application would be silently installed or added to the app catalog as per profile settings
Silently Install: This would attempt a silent installation of the application on the device. Silent installation works for Supervised devices.
Add to Catalog: Add this app to the catalog for user-initiated installation. If the App catalog is not enabled at the profile level, then the app will be silently installed.
2. Configure Installation Source
Dropdown menu is displayed only if the app has licenses in at least one VPP location and it defaults to the token previously used for this specific app and profile/group combination. If no historical data exists, it defaults to the first accessible token.
License Availability: Selecting a token displays an inline chip to the right of the dropdown showing "X of Y available". The chip color dynamically changes based on remaining inventory:
Admin Access & Validations:
Expired tokens or tokens where the requesting admin lacks access permissions are automatically hidden from the dropdown.
If the app contains VPP licenses but the admin has no access to any associated token, the dropdown is replaced with a blocked state. In this scenario, the Publish button is disabled, and hovering over it displays the tooltip: “This app has VPP licenses but you don't have access to any of its associated tokens.”
Once successfully published, the chosen token mapping is saved against that app and profile/group combination.
3. License Assignment
Radio button group to determine how license inventory is handled for existing installations:
Assign licenses for new installs only (Default): Devices with the app already installed keep their current license. Only newly targeting devices draw a license from the selected token.
Reassign existing licenses to this token: Revokes previously deployed licenses and reassigns them from the newly selected token. The app remains installed on the client device during this transition.
If the number of devices is more than the number of licenses available, then the application will not be published. You would have to procure more licenses and then publish the application.
Updating a VPP Application from Dashboard
Log in to Scalefusion Dashboard.
Navigate to Application Management > Apple App Store. Click on the VPP application that you have added.
In the right side panel, click on the Check for Updates link at the bottom.
Click on this link to check if there is an update available. If there is an Update available, then an alert will be displayed to you with two options
UPDATE: This will update the application information on the dashboard. In addition, a dialog box will come up where you can select the Device Profiles on which you want to push the updated version of the app. Select/deselect the device profiles and click on the Publish button. Once done, the updated app will be installed on those selected device profiles.
Any new device that enrolls to a profile/group where the new version is not published will still get the most updated version. This is because Apple does not allow us to push a version of the app. Whenever we push an app, it only installs the latest version.
LATER: Click on this to push the update later.
Frequently Asked Questions?
Question: Can I install a VPP application to only one device in the Apple Device Profile?
Answer: No. At this point in time, we don't support installing only one device. You have to publish the application to a Device Profile.
Question: We enrolled a new device into Scalefusion, but the VPP application is not getting installed.
Answer: Please make sure that you have sufficient licenses for the VPP application that is not getting installed. If you need more licenses, then please Purchase more licenses and then publish/install the application again from Enterprise > My Apps > APPLE APP STORE tab.
Question: How do I remove a License from one particular device?
Answer: At this point, it is not possible to Uninstall or Reclaim the license only from one device. You would have to do it at a Device Profile level. So if you have one or more devices where you want to reclaim the license, then you can either remove this device from the profile or please create a new Apple Device Profile without the said application and then move all the devices to this new profile. This would make sure that the license is reclaimed.
Head over to our Application Configuration guide to learn how to configure iOS applications from Dashboard. Note that Application Configuration is NOT supported for macOS applications.