Upload Student Information System data to Apple School Manager
You can use the Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to upload all the .csv files from your Student Information System (SIS) to Apple School Manager. You may want to do this for the following reasons:
Your Student Information System (SIS) isn’t currently supported by Apple School Manager but may be supported in the future.
You don’t have an SIS but want to import the exact same information from the system you currently use.
Note: SFTP upload requires a third-party app on a Mac. If you don’t have an SFTP client installed, you can find one in the Mac App Store.
Creating an SFTP connection to upload your data requires a user account with a role that has the “Configure organisation” privilege. Depending on your SFTP app, future uploads can take place automatically after the zipped file is placed in a folder. To see which roles have that privilege, see Intro to roles and privileges.
Set up and upload requirements for .csv files
Before you set up an SFTP upload, you must first do the following:
Verify a domain: After a domain is verified, Apple School Manager gives you Apple formatted template .csv files and the access information for a private SFTP server. You can open the files in a spreadsheet app (such as Numbers).
Decide how to create your Managed Apple Accounts: See Use Managed Apple Accounts.
Review the .csv file requirements: You can use .csv template files from Apple or files using the OneRoster version 1.1 specification. See Template information for importing records.
After the .csv files are successfully uploaded
You can then assign roles to your staff, instructors and students. Any time you upload new files, that information is automatically added to Apple School Manager and updated there. Data is never written back to your SIS from Apple School Manager.
After you create the initial connection, Apple School Manager expects updates to include every .csv file, even if nothing has changed in a particular file. For example, if you have new students to add but no new staff, classes or rosters, you must still upload those files.
Upload Apple-formatted .csv files
In Apple School Manager
, sign in with a user that has the role of Administrator, Site Manager or People Manager.Do one of the following:
If you’re uploading CSV data for the first time: Select your name at the bottom of the sidebar, select Preferences
, select Managed Apple Accounts 
, select Get Started, select "Create new accounts", then select Continue.If you’ve previously uploaded CSV data: Select the More button next to CSV, then select Upload CSV to upload new CSV data.
If you’ve started the process but didn’t finish: Select Complete.
Choose Use Apple-formatted CSV.
Select Add
next to Find Students, Instructors, and Classes, then select Set Up SFTP.Apple School Manager generates a URL, username and password to use when uploading files. Use this information to configure your SFTP app.
Select Download Templates to download the template files to your computer, then read the instructions for using templates in the Filling Out Data Files section, which explains in detail the formatting requirements and expected contents of each file.
Open the templates, add your data in the columns and then save the files that have a .csv extension.
When your files are filled out, create a zip archive of all six files (select the files in the Finder, go to the File menu and choose Compress 6 Items).
Open your SFTP app and create a new SFTP connection. This process will differ for each app.
Enter the URL, username and password generated by Apple School Manager.
After the connection is made, locate and open the Dropbox folder, then drag in your zipped file.
In Apple School Manager
, select Continue, then wait for the file to upload.If your upload contains errors, you can review a log identifying the files and lines that contain errors. Correct any errors in the data files and then upload a new zipped file. You don’t need to remove the previous file from the Apple SFTP server.
After you successfully upload your file, you’ll see what was imported — for example, the number and type of users, the number of classes and locations. You can also adjust the window to display additional users.
To review the information, select Review SFTP Data.
After you’ve reviewed the SFTP data, then select Continue.
This automatically opens Create Accounts and Classes.
Select Preview Accounts and Classes, preview the SFTP data, then select Create Accounts and Classes.
After the process is complete, select Close to close the SIS/SFTP Assistant.
You can now view the imported accounts and classes in Apple School Manager.
Upload OneRoster .csv files
In Apple School Manager
, sign in with a user that has the role of Administrator, Site Manager or People Manager.Do one of the following:
If you’re uploading CSV data for the first time: Select your name at the bottom of the sidebar, select Preferences
, select Managed Apple Accounts , select Get Started, select "Create new accounts", then select Continue.If you’ve previously uploaded CSV data: Select the More button next to CSV, then select Upload CSV to upload new CSV data.
If you’ve started the process but didn’t finish: Select Complete.
Choose Use OneRoster CSV.
Agree to the Claris terms of service.
You need to agree to the Claris terms of service only once.
Note: When you use the Claris Connect integration to sync data, your organisation name, organisation ID and organisation address are shared with Claris.
Using an SFTP client, upload your .csv files using the provided SFTP URL and generated credentials.
If the upload is successfully completed with no issues, select Preview Accounts to continue in the SIS/SFTP Assistant.
To view the data being added, select “Review [name of SIS] data.”
Make sure the data looks correct, then select Continue.
To view the accounts and classes being created, select Preview Accounts and Classes, then select Create Accounts and Classes.
After you've finished, select Close to return to the Managed Apple Accounts window.
If necessary, do any of the following:
To download a summary of data that was patched during the sync, select Patch Summary.
To download the resulting CSV files that were modified during the sync, select Modified CSVs.
Edit SFTP sign-in information
You can view all your SFTP connections for your location, view and reset the SFTP password, and disconnect your SFTP connection from Apple School Manager.
In Apple School Manager
, sign in with a user that has the role of Administrator, Site Manager or People Manager.Select your name at the bottom of the sidebar, select Preferences
, then select Managed Apple Accounts .Under Directory sync, select Edit next to your SFTP connection.
If necessary, edit the information used for the SFTP connection, then select Save.