How to Manage MacOS Apps with Microsoft Intune

Posted on by Summa Lai

The feature is in public preview.

Use the information in this article to help you add a macOS DMG app to Microsoft Intune. A DMG app is a disk image file that contains one or more applications within it. Many common applications for macOS are available in DMG format. For more information about how to create a disk image file, see Apple’s website.

 Note

The DMG file must contain one or more files with .app extensions. DMG files containing other types of installer files will not be installed.

Prerequisites

The following prerequisites must be met before a macOS DMG app is installed on macOS devices.

Important considerations for deploying DMG apps

A single DMG should only contain a single application file or multiple application files that are dependent on one another. The containing application files can be listed under the Included apps section in the Detection rules tab in order starting with the parent app to be used in reports.

It is not recommended that multiple apps that are not dependent on each other are installed using the same DMG file. If multiple independent apps are deployed using the same DMG app, failure to install one app will cause other apps to be re-installed. In this case, monitoring reports consider the DMG installation a failure as well.

Select the app type

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Intune admin center.
  2. Select Apps > All apps > Add.
  3. In the Select app type pane, under the Other app types, select macOS app (DMG).
  4. Click Select. The Add app steps are displayed.

Step 1 – App information

Select the app package file:

  1. In the Add app pane, click Select app package file.
  2. In the App package file pane, select the browse button. Then, select a macOS DMG file with the extension .dmg. The app details will be displayed.
  3. When you’re finished, select OK on the App package file pane to add the app.

Set app information

  1. In the App information page, add the details for your app. Depending on the app that you chose, some of the values in this pane might be automatically filled in.
    • Name: Enter the name of the app as it appears in the policy name and company portal. Make sure all app names that you use are unique. If the same app name exists twice, only one of the apps appears in the company portal.
    • Description: Enter the description of the app. The description appears in the company portal.
    • Publisher: Enter the name of the publisher of the app.
    • Category: Select one or more of the built-in app categories, or select a category that you created. Categories make it easier for users to find the app when they browse through the company portal.
    • Information URL: Optionally, enter the URL of a website that contains information about this app. The URL appears in the company portal.
    • Privacy URL: Optionally, enter the URL of a website that contains privacy information for this app. The URL appears in the company portal.
    • Developer: Optionally, enter the name of the app developer.
    • Owner: Optionally, enter a name for the owner of this app. An example is HR department.
    • Notes: Enter any notes that you want to associate with this app.
    • Logo: Upload an icon that is associated with the app. This icon is displayed with the app when users browse through the company portal.
  2. Click Next to set the requirements.

Step 2 – Requirements

You can choose the minimum operating system required to install this app.

Minimum Operating System: From the list, choose the minimum operating system version on which the app can be installed. If you assign the app to a device with an earlier operating system, it will not be installed.

Step 3 – Detection rules

You can use detection rules to choose how an app installation is detected on a managed macOS device.

Ignore app version: Select Yes to install the app if the app is not already installed on the device. This will only look for the presence of the app bundle ID. For apps that have an auto-update mechanism, select Yes. Select No to install the app when it is not already installed on the device, or if the deploying app’s version number does not match the version that’s already installed on the device.

 Note

To Uninstall group assignments, consider the Ignore app version setting. When Ignore app version is set to No, the app bundle ID and version number must match to remove the app. When Ignore app version is set to Yes, only the app bundle ID must match to remove the app.

Included apps: Provide the apps that are contained in the uploaded file. Included app bundle IDs and build numbers are used for detecting and monitoring app installation status of the uploaded file. Included apps list should only contain the application(s) installed by the uploaded file in Applications folder on Macs. Any other type of file that is not an application or an application that is not installed to Applications folder should be excluded from the Included apps list. If Included apps list contains files that are not applications or if all the listed apps are not installed, app installation status does not report success.

 Note

  • The first app on the Included apps list is used for identifying the app when multiple apps are present in the DMG file.
  • Mac Terminal can be used to lookup and confirm the included app details of an installed app. For example, to look up the bundle ID and build number of Company Portal, run the following:defaults read /Applications/Company\ Portal.app/Contents/Info CFBundleIdentifierThen, run the following:defaults read /Applications/Company\ Portal.app/Contents/Info CFBundleShortVersionString
  • Alternatively, the CFBundleIdentifier and CFBundleShortVersionString can be found under the <app_name>.app/Contents/Info.plist file of a mounted DMG file on a Mac.

Step 4 – Select scope tags (optional)

You can use scope tags to determine who can see client app information in Intune. For full details about scope tags, see Use role-based access control and scope tags for distributed IT. 1. Click Select scope tags to optionally add scope tags for the app. 2. Click Next to display the Assignments page.

Step 5 – Assignments

You can select the Required or Uninstall group assignments for the app. For more information, see Add groups to organize users and devices and Assign apps to groups with Microsoft Intune.

 Note

A macOS app deployed using Intune agent will not automatically be removed from the device when the device is retired. The app and data it contains will remain on the device. It is recommended that the app is removed prior to retiring the device.

  1. For the specific app, select an assignment type:
    • Required: The app is installed to /Applications/ directory on devices in the selected groups.
    • Uninstall: The app is uninstalled from /Applications/ directory on devices in the selected groups.
  2. Click Next to display the Review + create page.

Step 6 – Review + create

  1. Review the values and settings you entered for the app.
  2. When you are done, click Create to add the app to Intune. The Overview pane for the macOS DMG app is displayed.

The app you have created appears in the apps list where you can assign it to the groups you choose. For help, see How to assign apps to groups.

 Note

If the .dmg file contains multiple apps, then Microsoft Intune will only report that the app is successfully installed when all installed apps are detected on the device.

Ref: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/apps/lob-apps-macos-dmg