Last updated: August 13, 2026

App Management

With organizations moving to an extensively mobile-only workforce, corporate apps now act as the nucleus to such organizations. It becomes the foremost task of the IT admins to ensure all the requisite corporate apps are present on the device and are running the latest version, by constantly updating them. MDM lets you take complete control of app management - discover, installation, deletion, update and license management. You can manage both Store apps as well as Enterprise apps over-the-air(OTA), using MDM.

App Installation Workflow

Building an App Repository is the first step in managing apps using MDM. As the name suggests, App Repository contains both Store and Enterprise app, to be distributed to the devices. Once done, the apps are configured and they are ready for distribution. Once distributed, app installation is initiated through the Store, in case of Store app and in case of enterprise apps, the device contacts MDM server to initiate installation. Once the installation is initiated, the installation status is updated in near-real time on MDM. App updates follow similar workflows to that of app installation, while app deletion can be initiated with or without uninstalling the apps from the devices. Learn more about App deletion and Groups. When you want to remove the apps from all devices, its best to move the apps to Trash. You can learn more about app installation in MDM, using the flow chart given below.

Adding Apps to App Repository

Configure Managed Google Play on ManageEngine Mobile Device Manager admin console to add the Android Apps to the app repository. Refer our Managed Google Play with Workspace(GSuite) and Managed Google Play without Workspace(GSuite) documents for detailed information. For Adding Android Apps to the App repository, refer our MDM App Repository document. 
Configure APNs Certificate to Add iOS Apps to the App repository. For adding App store apps to the App repository, refer our MDM App Repository document. Refer to our Apple Token Management to Add and distribute the app through ABM/ASM.

Discovering user and system-installed apps

Device need to be enrolled to discover user and system install apps. Navigate to Inventory->Devices-> click on the Device name to view the Device inventory details. click on the Installed Apps tab to details of the list of Apps on the device. For more details on Installed Apps, visit our Device Inventory guide.

Even if you ignore to manage pre-installed apps, it will still be displayed, if any such app has been blocklisted. For example: You have blocklisted the app "twitter", this app has been discovered on few devices as pre-installed app, then this app will be listed on all blocklisted views.

App Configuration

For Android App configuration refer to our Android App configuration guide and for iOS app configuration, refer to our iOS App configuration guide.

Distributing apps

For Associating Apps to the Groups refer our Distribute Apps to group and for devices refer our Associate Apps to devices guide.

Updating apps

For App Update Policy, Scheduling and deploying enterprise app version updates using an app update policy, Managing and monitoring App Update Policies in MDM refer our App Update management guide.

Move to Trash, Restore and delete apps

When you want to delete app(s) associated with devices/groups, you can simply move the apps to Trash. Moving apps to Trash, ensures the apps are automatically disassociated from the devices/groups, instead of doing it manually. These apps are automatically deleted after 90 days. The apps can also be deleted permanently or restored manually from Trash by the user. 
Follow the steps given below to move apps to Trash:

1. On the MDM console, navigate to Device management and select App Repository.
2. You can view the list of apps added to the App Repository.
3. Select the apps to be moved to Trash.
4. Click on the Move to Trash button and the apps are moved to Trash.

Follow the steps given below to restore apps from Trash:

1. On the MDM console, navigate to Device management and select App Repository.
2. You can view the list of apps added to the App Repository.
3. Click on the View Trash option to view all the deleted apps.
4. you can restore the app from here or can delete the app permanently. However, the restored apps don't get automatically distributed to the previously associated groups/devices and need to be distributed again.

1. Moving Kiosk-provisioned apps to Trash, results in the removal of the associated Kiosk profile from the devices. Assuming you move Zoho Mail to Trash, any Kiosk profile containing this app as a Kiosk-provisioned app, will have the Kiosk policy automatically disassociated from the devices.
2. If you have moved bulk purchased apps to Trash, it is recommended to remove it from the account as well. This feature is not supported in Apple VPP but supported in Managed Google Play.
3. Any apps moved to Trash, will not be automatically added back to the App Repository, on subsequent app syncing. App syncing is done only for those apps present in the App Repository.