AvailableOSUpdates on non-supervised iOS devices

Question

Created May ’21

Replies 3

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Views 1.2k

Participants 2

Hello,

AvailableOSUpdates command used to be acknowledged by non-supervised iOS devices (it's still the case for iOS 12.5.3 devices for instance), but it is now returning an error on iOS 14.5+.

Code Block <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>CommandUUID</key>
	<string>96bc818b-5e2c-f83b-b710-0197fba79474</string>
	<key>ErrorChain</key>
	<array>
		<dict>
			<key>ErrorCode</key>
			<integer>12021</integer>
			<key>ErrorDomain</key>
			<string>MCMDMErrorDomain</string>
			<key>LocalizedDescription</key>
			<string>“AvailableOSUpdates” is not a valid request type.</string>
			<key>USEnglishDescription</key>
			<string>“AvailableOSUpdates” is not a valid request type.</string>
		</dict>
	</array>
	<key>Status</key>
	<string>Error</string>
	<key>UDID</key>
	<string>***</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Is this expected, and if yes, could you clarify when the change happened ?
Thanks !

Boost

Answer 1

Device Management Engineer OP

Apple

May ’21

An unsupervised device should respond to a supervised-only MDM command with a "not a valid request type" error.

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Answer 2

sysedit OP

May ’21

Understood - but my point is that AvailableOSUpdates command did not require supervision in the past - iOS 12.5.3 unsupervised devices do accept the request, while it's not the case with recent iOS versions like 14.5.1.

So the supervision requirement changed over time - and I was just curious to know:

if this was expected or if it is a bug. In 2016, the MDM protocol PDF documented:

Only Supervised DEP-enrolled iOS devices and DEP-managed Macintosh computers are eligible for software update management. However, the AvailableOSUpdates query is available to non-DEP managed devices.

So in 2016 supervision was not required.

if this is not a bug, when (Which version) did that change.

Our MDM solution still support older devices which can't upgrade to iOS 14.5 and we would like to make sure we send the right command to the right version of iOS.

Thanks !

0

Answer 3

Device Management Engineer OP

Apple

May ’21

All software update MDM commands should be supervised-only, even on older versions of iOS.

If you have a use case for using AvailableOSUpdates on non-supervised devices, please share it with us using Feedback Assistant.

0