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Managed apps for iPhones and iPads

iPhone and iPad apps can be installed as managed or as unmanaged apps.

You can check an app’s management status on the Installed apps tab of the Show device page.

Differences between managed and unmanaged apps

  • When a user installs an app from the Enterprise App Store, an installation task is created and processed in Sophos Mobile. For unmanaged apps, the user is redirected to the Apple App Store.
  • You can uninstall managed apps in Sophos Mobile Admin. This is not possible for unmanaged apps.
  • On supervised iPhones and iPads, managed apps are installed and uninstalled silently, that is without user interaction.
  • Some device policy settings are only available for managed apps.
  • Managed apps are automatically uninstalled when the device is unenrolled from Sophos Mobile. Unmanaged apps remain installed.

Installing a managed app

You have the following options to install a managed app:

  • Install the app in Sophos Mobile Admin.
  • Turn on Sophos Mobile managed installation in the app settings and let the user install the app from the Enterprise App Store.

The second option is not available for apps you’ve added to Sophos Mobile by uploading the IPA package file or for devices where Sophos Mobile only manages the Sophos container.

Changing an unmanaged app to a managed app

To change the status of an already installed app from “unmanaged” to “managed”, turn on Sophos Mobile managed installation in the app settings and create an installation task. This will not install the app again but will make it a managed app.