Resolving Upgrade Errors Related to App Policies

When upgrading SOTI MobiControl to 15.3.0 or a later version, you may encounter errors that are due to conflicts between pre-15.3 Application Catalog Rules that were replaced with App Policies in 15.3.0.

App Policies (see Using App Policies) have a more stringent approach to app uniqueness than Application Catalog Rules had. You get an upgrade conflict error if you had multiple copies of the same enterprise application, with the same unique identifier:

  • Different from each other in size, and/or
  • Uploaded to the different Application Catalog Rules from the different sources:
    • Internal source – from a local file system
    • External source – from an external URL

You might face the above conflict on the Android and Apple (iOS and macOS) platforms. The unique identifier of an enterprise application is, per platform:

  • For iOS: app bundle id + app build + app version
  • For macOS: app bundle id + app version
  • For Android: app bundle id + app version

The conflict error message appears once the SOTI MobiControl installer attempts to connect to the database. This message lists the categorized conflicts and indicates the Application Catalog Rule and the enterprise application for each conflict instance. The following table lists the conflict categories and offers a remedy for each category.

Conflict Category Category Description Remedy Best Practices
File size conflict Multiple copies of the same enterprise application, which share the same unique identifier, were uploaded to the different Application Catalog Rules with the different app file size Before upgrading:
  1. Decide which copy/size of the enterprise application you want to keep.
  2. Remove all other copies of this application with the same unique identifier from all Application Catalog Rules. Note that removing an application from a Rule will result in uninstalling that application from the devices the Rule applies to.
 Make a new version of the application every time you change its content
Internal/External conflict Multiple copies of the same enterprise application, which share the same unique identifier, were uploaded to the different Application Catalog Rules from the different sources (local file system and external URL(s)) Before upgrading:
  1. Decide which copy/source (internal or external) of the enterprise application you want to keep.
  2. Remove all other copies of this application with the same unique identifier from all Application Catalog Rules. Note that removing an application from a Rule will result in uninstalling that application from the devices the Rule applies to.
 Use one source (internal or external) to add any given enterprise application to multiple Applications Catalog Rules
URL conflict Multiple copies of the same enterprise application, which share the same unique identifier, were uploaded to the different Application Catalog Rules from the different external sources (URL) Before upgrading:
  1. Decide which copy/source (URL) of the enterprise application you want to keep.
  2. Remove all other copies of this application with the same unique identifier from all Application Catalog Rules. Note that removing an application from a Rule will result in uninstalling that application from the devices the Rule applies to.
 Use one source (one URL) to add any given enterprise application to multiple Applications Catalog Rules