Device Enrolment and MDM
Device Enrolment allows organisations to have users manually enrol devices into a mobile device management (MDM) solution and then manage many different aspects of device use, including the ability to erase the device. On Mac computers using macOS 11 or later, Device Enrolment also enforces supervision on the Mac.
When a user removes an enrolment profile, all configuration profiles, their settings and Managed Apps based on that enrolment profile are removed with it.
Device Enrolment has a larger set of payloads that can be applied to the device. For the complete list, see Device Enrolment MDM payload list.
Account-driven Device Enrolment
In iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS 14 and visionOS 1.1, or later, organisations can use an account-driven Device Enrolment process, built into Settings and System Settings to make it easier for users to enrol devices.
To do this, the user navigates to Settings > General > VPN & Device Management or to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Profiles and then selects the Sign In to Work or School Account button.
As the user enters their Managed Apple Account, service discovery identifies the MDM solution’s enrolment URL. The user then enters their organisation username and password. After the authentication succeeds, the enrolment profile is sent to the device. A session token is also issued to the device to allow ongoing authorisation. The device then begins the MDM enrolment process and prompts the user to sign in with their Managed Apple Account. On iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro, the authentication process can be streamlined by using enrolment single sign-on to reduce repeated authentication prompts. After a user is signed in, the new managed account is displayed prominently within Settings and System Settings.
As with User Enrolment, organisational data is cryptographically separated from personal data (see How Apple separates user data from organisation data). Due to this separation, some changes are required to the way apps and backups are handled. For example:
Apps installed before MDM enrolment can’t be converted to become Managed Apps.
Managed Apps are always removed during unenrolment.
Restoring from a backup doesn’t restore MDM enrolment.
Users who sign in with their personal Apple Account can’t accept an invitation for Managed App distribution.
Because the discovery process uses the same com.apple.remotemanagement discovery file as User Enrolment, organisations can choose — based on the device model and Managed Apple Account of the user — which account-driven enrolment type (User Enrolment or Device Enrolment) should be used.
How Apple separates user data from organisation data
The table below shows how Apple separates user data from the organisation’s data with Device Enrolment.
Data | Can MDM see it? | Supported operating systems |
|---|---|---|
Capacity and space available | Yes | iOS iPadOS macOS visionOS 1.1 |
Device name | Yes | iOS iPadOS macOS tvOS visionOS 1.1 |
Installed apps | Yes | iOS iPadOS macOS tvOS visionOS 1.1 |
Model name and number | Yes | iOS iPadOS macOS tvOS visionOS 1.1 |
Operating system version number | Yes | iOS iPadOS macOS tvOS visionOS 1.1 |
Phone number | Yes | iOS |
Serial number | Yes | iOS iPadOS macOS tvOS visionOS 1.1 |
Device location | No | iOS (Supervised) iPadOS (Supervised) |
FaceTime or phone call logs | No | iOS iPadOS macOS visionOS 1.1 |
Frequency of app use | No | iOS iPadOS macOS tvOS visionOS 1.1 |
iMessage or SMS messages | No | iOS iPadOS macOS visionOS 1.1 |
Personal calendars, contacts, mail, notes, reminders | No | iOS iPadOS macOS visionOS 1.1 |
Safari browser history | No | iOS iPadOS macOS visionOS 1.1 |