Supervised Apple devices

Apple provides an additional level of control for MDM providers through device supervision. Generally, devices are unsupervised (e.g., home-owned devices). Supervision must be achieved through specific enrollment methods. Mobile Guardian supports school-supervised devices, giving schools maximum control over Apple devices and allowing Mobile Guardian to send special commands and configurations to the device.

Why Supervise Your Devices?

Deciding whether to supervise your devices is important because a device must be reinitialized to enable or disable supervised mode. This reinitialization will also remove the device from the MDM platform, so supervision should be enabled before or during enrollment.

Identifying Supervised Devices

Mobile Guardian provides an icon to easily identify if a device is supervised:

• In the device list view, a supervised device will show the following icon: 

• In the device detail view, blue glasses indicate that the device is supervised: 

Advantages of Supervising an Apple Device

The most popular features available when a device is under supervision include:

• Lost Mode: Set a device to lost mode, displaying a message and preventing access without a specific code.
• Activation Lock Bypass: Prevent being locked out of a device due to Apple ID activation lock.
• Auto Application Install: Install applications without needing the user to accept prompts on their device.
• Single Application Mode: Force the device to run a single application, blocking all others.
• Home Screen Layout and Wallpaper: Customize the home screen layout and wallpaper, typically with the school's logo.
• Application Restrictions: Whitelist or blacklist specific applications.
• Safari Web Content Filter: Create a whitelist or blacklist of websites that Safari can visit and block adult content.
• Passcode Changes: Change passcode information on behalf of the user.

Setting Your Apple Device to Supervised Mode

#Note: The device will be factory reset during these processes.

Method 1: Using Apple Configurator

• Connect the device via USB to an Apple computer running Apple Configurator software.

For a step-by-step guide, see the following link:

Setting Your Apple Device to Supervised Mode Through Apple Configurator

Method 2: Using Apple Device Enrollment Program (DEP)

Purchase a new, pre-configured device through the Apple Device Enrollment Program (DEP).

For more details, see the following link:

Enrolling Using DEP on Apple School Manager

Supervising your Apple devices with Mobile Guardian provides enhanced control and security features that are beneficial for managing a school’s device fleet. By following the above methods, you can ensure that your devices are properly supervised and fully integrated with Mobile Guardian.

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