Supervising Mobile Devices with Apple Configurator

Supervision allows you to control additional functions on a device using Jamf Now. This feature is intended for institutionally-owned mobile devices.

The best way to use supervision is to enroll devices via Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager. Any devices that are enrolled with Jamf Now via Automated Device Enrollment through Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager 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 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.

Important:

Any time you enable supervision on a mobile device, the device is wiped.

Requirements

Apple Configurator 2.5.0 or later

For more information on how to download the latest version of the app, see Apple Configurator.

  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 Automated Device Enrollment from the Server pop-up menu, and then click Next.

    Screenshot showing the option to not enroll in MDM from the Server menu.

  6. Enter organization information to display details about the institution that owns this device, and then click Next.

    Screenshot of the information to enter about an organization under Create an Organization.

  7. Unless you have previously worked with supervision identities, select the Generate a new supervision identity checkbox to complete this process, and then click Next.

    Screenshot showing that generate a new supervision identity is selected.

  8. (Optional) Select the steps you want presented to the user in the Setup Assistant, and then click Prepare.

    Screenshot of 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 Open Enrollment to enroll the device with Jamf Now and take advantage of the additional features that require supervision. For more information, see Enrolling an iPad or iPhone Using Open Enrollment.