Under specific conditions, the mobile iOS app takes 60 seconds to start, because the app is unable to reach “itunes_apple_com” to search for new versions. This could be prevented, if we could disable the lookup for new versions.
Q1. What is the problem that you are trying to solve?
If you are using the passbolt app (iOS) for your own passbolt server (self-hosted and on-prem), you need to tunnel the iOS app using MDM (mobile device management) tools like Apple Jamf, Airwatch or MobileIron, so the app is able to contact the on-prem server using your corporate network (VPN/MDM tunnel). In this scenario, the app will be unable to contact sites on the internet like apple_com. Unfortunately the iOS app of passbolt, contains a “AppVersionsFetchNetworkOperation” method, to contact “https://itunes.apple.com/lookup” twice on a cold start of the app. There is a timeout (30 seconds) and it attempts twice. (2x30 seconds)
It would be awesome if we could set a so called “managedAppConfiguration” to disable to search for new versions. New versions of passbolt in an enterprise environment gets automatically deployed on a regular basis by MDM. So there is no need to let the app search for new versions in this scenario.
Q2 - Who is impacted?
Everyone that is using the passbolt app on an iOS device managed by MDM using their own on-prem passbolt-server connected through MDM tunnel.
Q3 - Why is it important and/or urgent?
Users getting annoyed by using passbolt app in general, if they need to wait 60 seconds before they can use it (and access their passwords).
Q4 - What is your proposed solution? (optional)
Allow an MDM-admin to disable the update-lookup by using “managedAppConfiguration” (deployed through MDM).
It’s well documented and easy to implement:
Specifying and decoding a configuration | Apple Developer Documentation
(This is not new to iOS at all. There are different ways to read managedAppConfiguration, even for older versions than iOS_18.4+)