Supervising Mobile Devices with Apple Configurator

Jamf Pro Documentation 11.16.0
Solution
Application
Content Type
Technical Documentation
Utilities & Services
version
11.16.0
ft:locale
en-US
vrm_version
11.16.0

Supervision allows you to control additional functions on a device using Jamf Pro. This feature is intended for institutionally owned mobile devices. If you have devices that are not eligible for inclusion in Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager, you can supervise them via Apple Configurator, a free app in the Mac App Store.
Best Practice:

Supervising Devices via Automated Device Enrollment

The best way to supervise mobile devices is to enroll them via Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager. Any devices that are enrolled with Jamf Pro via Automated Device Enrollment are supervised over the air. Contact your local Apple Business Team to determine if your existing institutionally owned devices can be added to an Apple deployment account. If your Apple Business Team cannot determine if your existing institutionally owned devices can be added, Jamf recommends using Apple Configurator for iPhone to add iPhone and iPad devices to Apple Business Manager. For more information, see .

Important:

Consider the following when supervising mobile devices with Apple Configurator:

  • Any time you supervise or unsupervise a mobile device, the device is wiped.

  • If you prepare a device with Apple Configurator and then enroll it using user-initiated enrollment, the device user can still manually remove management.

Requirements

Download Apple Configurator. For more information and to download the app, see Apple Configurator in the App Store.

  1. Connect your mobile device to a computer and open the latest version of Apple Configurator.
  2. Choose "Prepare" from the Actions pop-up menu at the top of your screen.
  3. Choose "Manual Configuration" from the Prepare with pop-up menu.

    Screenshot of the Prepare Devices screen, displaying that the device is prepared with Manual Configuration.

  4. Select the Supervise devices checkbox, and then click Next.
  5. Choose "Do not enroll in MDM" from the Server pop-up menu, and then click Next.
  6. Enter organization information to display details about the institution that owns this device, and then click Next.
  7. Select the steps you want presented to the user in Setup Assistant, and then click Prepare.

    The Setup Assistant, listing optional steps to select in the Setup Assistant.

The mobile device is wiped and reboots as a supervised device.

You can now use user-initiated enrollment to enroll the device with Jamf Pro and take advantage of the additional features that require supervision. For more information, see Device Enrollment for Mobile Devices.