Alternatives to sideloading Vector Tile Packages onto MDM Devices (Field Maps)

[LindsayRaabe_FPCWA]

Our organisation has recently started implementing Mobile Device Management using InTune on new devices as they are rolled out. This has cause us to hit a bit of a snag. Up to now, we have recommended that users take a Vector Tile Package that is generated by our GIS Team covering the state and sideload it to their device to streamline offline area downloads. This file is then referenced in the webmap settings to be used for offline areas. 

We don't use Mobile Map Packages or specify offline areas in Field Maps Designer, as our staff are too irregularly dispersed to manage it that way. Staff instead determine what areas they need offline when they need them. 

This has worked fine until now, where the MDM devices prohibit the user from sideloading our .vtpk onto their device (via USB connection to their PC). No file explorer option is available to them. 

Does anyone else have experience with this and possible solutions we can look at?

[JamesTurner2]

@LindsayRaabe_FPCWA Any updates on your process and where you settled with this workflow? I am thinking about transitioning to this method to avoid having to have users sideload their own basemaps. 

[LindsayRaabe_FPCWA]

We pretty much do as described in and below the reply marked as the solution. We set the Vector Tile Package that covers the whole state as the default Basemap file in the webmap settings. When a user goes to create an offline area in Field Maps, it defaults to the vtpk. If it's the first time they are doing this, it downloads the file automatically to the device and reuses it across all offline areas for any map that specifies that vtpk is the default. 

[JamesTurner2]

Our IT department also uses In Tune. Most of the users I work with have iPhones, although another agency uses primarily androids. It sounds like we have a little bit more leeway with our devices, we can use iTunes and windows explorer to manage files on the devices. However, we had issues with iTunes for a while (you are making me think this was actually an MDM issue, not iTunes as IT suggested) and the only way we were able to distribute tile packages using OneDrive. If you're allowed to have OneDrive on the devices, that also might be another method, although it is cumbersome because the files must be moved from OneDrive to the field maps folder on the device. It seems like you have arrived your preferred solution already, but I wanted to offer this alternative for anyone else out there. It is more suited to one off users who are managing their own vtpks.