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Managed Apple Accounts no longer allow a separate personal App Store account (Apple School Manager + Jamf School)

  • July 9, 2026
  • 10 replies
  • 219 views
Berlin-Koeln
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Hello everyone,

we are experiencing an issue with our Apple School Manager / Jamf School environment and hope someone can point us in the right direction.

Environment

  • Apple School Manager
  • Jamf School
  • Privately owned student iPads
  • Automated Device Enrollment (ADE)
  • Current iPadOS version

Configuration

Our student iPads are managed using Apple School Manager.

  • Each student has a Managed Apple Account.
  • The devices are assigned in Apple School Manager and synchronized with Jamf School.
  • Devices are enrolled using Automated Device Enrollment (ADE).
  • In Jamf School, each device is assigned to the corresponding student as the Owner.
  • The devices only receive:
    • one general profile ("All iPads") without any restrictions configured
    • two Wi-Fi profiles
  • As far as we know, there are no additional restrictions or App Store policies configured.

The issue

As soon as a student signs in with their Managed Apple Account under Settings, the same account is automatically used for the App Store.

There is no option in the App Store to sign out only from the App Store or to sign in with a personal Apple Account instead.

When trying to download an app, the following message is displayed:

"This app cannot be downloaded due to restrictions on this Apple Account."

Since Managed Apple Accounts cannot download personal App Store apps, students are no longer able to install their own apps.

Previous behavior

Until recently, this worked without any issues:

  • Students signed in to Settings using their Managed Apple Account.
  • They signed in to the App Store using their personal Apple Account.

This allowed them to use school services with their Managed Apple Account while downloading personal apps from the App Store with their own Apple Account.

This behavior appears to have changed.

Questions

  • Is this new behavior intended by Apple?
  • Is there a setting in Apple School Manager, Jamf School, or the ADE profile that controls this behavior?
  • Has anything changed in recent versions of iPadOS?
  • Is it still possible to use a Managed Apple Account for device services while using a separate personal Apple Account for the App Store?

We have already contacted Jamf Support, but unfortunately we have not received any response so far. Since we are currently blocked by this issue, we hope that someone in the community may be able to help us. Thank you!

Best answer by Chris_Karl

We ran into this a few months ago with one of the incremental iPad OS updates for our staff iPads. Although they used the managed account for iCloud, we used to manually log them into the App Store app with their consumer Apple ID. After the update, people who were signed in that way were fine, but any new setups ran into that problem where you couldn’t get to sign out the managed AppleID from the App Store because the error saying you couldn’t use the managed account now comes before the sign-out option. After lots of testing, the only way we found to make this work again was to skip the initial AppleID setup, use the non-managed AppleID for the App Store and then go to Setting » Apple Account. You’ll see the non-manged account info, but the iCloud tab will list “Set Up” instead. When you tap on iCloud, it prompts you that the non-managed account is signed into Media & Purchases and if you want to use that account for iCloud … “Set up as John Doe?”, but choose the Not John Doe? button and you’ll be prompted to sign in to the normal iCloud interface. It retains the personal non-managed account in the App Store but now properly uses the managed account for all the other stuff.

So it’s a backwards way from how we used to do it where we would sign into iCloud first and then sign out of App Store to have them live in harmony...sign into App Store first, then iCloud.

    10 replies

    AJPinto
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    • AJPinto
    • Legendary Contributor
    • July 9, 2026

    This reads like a chatbot completion, structured headings, perfect formatting, and zero engagement history. It’s fine to use AI to clean up posts, but if you don’t go back and refine, we can’t tell if you’re a person or ChatGPT.

     

    Apple MAIDs have never been able to purchase apps, and iPadOS has always synced the signed‑in account in Settings with the App Store. Nothing new here.

    thebrucecarter
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    Also, the use of BOLD.  Always a giveaway…   🤓

    Not just A Bruce Carter, but THE Bruce Carter! 🤓
    Berlin-Koeln
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    • Berlin-Koeln
    • Author
    • New Contributor
    • July 9, 2026

    Yes, the AI helped summarize the problem clearly. :-) 

    I’m aware that Apple MAIDs can’t download apps. But at least it was possible to use a personal account in the App Store at the same time to download apps on your own.   

    Students now have to log out of the Managed Account and log into their personal account every time they want to install personal apps. 
    That can’t be what was intended.  

    The devices belong to the students, so we can’t—and don’t want to—prohibit them from installing their own apps.

    AJPinto
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    • AJPinto
    • Legendary Contributor
    • July 9, 2026

    Yes, the AI helped summarize the problem clearly. :-) 

    I’m aware that Apple MAIDs can’t download apps. But at least it was possible to use a personal account in the App Store at the same time to download apps on your own.   

    Students now have to log out of the Managed Account and log into their personal account every time they want to install personal apps. 
    That can’t be what was intended.  

    The devices belong to the students, so we can’t—and don’t want to—prohibit them from installing their own apps.

     

    I would not call what you posted a summary. It is a straight read out. I did not even bother reading half of it. I went directly to the “The Issue” section because that is the part a bot would actually get right, and that is what I used to make my response.

    We have to be careful when using bots. They are force multipliers only when the person using them already understands the domain. They are not good at teaching us unless we know exactly what to ask.

    On the App Store side, in the past there was an option to sign out inside the App Store itself. That let you sign in with a different Apple ID. To the best of my knowledge Apple removed that some time back. The most recent mention I am seeing in Apple documentation is Ventura era.

     

     

    As far as your questions directly:

    Is this new behavior intended by Apple? Not that I am aware of. Apple has not announced any change here and nothing in their documentation suggests a shift.

    Is there a setting in Apple School Manager, Jamf School, or the ADE profile that controls this behavior? ASM and ADE have nothing to do with App Store identity. Jamf can be ruled out by testing on a non managed device. If the behavior is present on an unmanaged device, it is not coming from configuration profiles.

    Has anything changed in recent versions of iPadOS? If you want to know what changed, read Apple’s OS update documents. Apple publishes changes in each build in AppleSeed before release and on the security update page after release. Major behavioral changes usually happen in September and with the x.3 release. I have not seen anything documented that relates to App Store identity.

    Is it still possible to use a Managed Apple Account for device services while using a separate personal Apple Account for the App Store?

    I do not see the option on my test devices. The App Store does not have a sign out option on either managed or unmanaged devices. Since the option is gone on an unmanaged device, that rules out configuration profiles and puts this squarely in Apple support domain.

      Berlin-Koeln
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      • Berlin-Koeln
      • Author
      • New Contributor
      • July 9, 2026

      I tried to sign in to an unmanaged iPad using a managed Apple ID. On that device, it's only possible to sign out of the App Store and use a different account.   

      So it must be the MDM after all. 

      GregBobbett
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      • GregBobbett
      • Jamf Heroes
      • July 9, 2026

      I’ll agree that the issue is from Apple and with the Managed Apple Accounts. On a supervised device using a Managed Apple Account when the user signs in to the device or in to the App store, it signs in to the Apple accounts across the board. You have to sign out under Settings to allow another Apple Account to sign in.

      I tested it on an unsupervised iPad with both a normal (public/unmanaged) and a Managed Apple Account and then on a Jamf School supervised iPad with both a normal and a Managed Apple Account. My findings point directly to the issue being Managed Apple Accounts. BTW, the ‘sign out’ under the App store was ONLY available on an unsupervised iPad and normal Apple Account combination.

      Basically for the students to use their personal apps, they would need to log out of the iPad under Settings > log in with their personal account > download the apps > log back out under Settings > log back in with Managed Account > hope they don’t have to do it again because of the steps required in between each log out/log in are multiple and somewhat annoying.

      I can give more detailed results of my tests if anyone wants. I hope this helps shed some light on it.

      Greg Bobbett
      Chris_Karl
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      • Chris_Karl
      • New Contributor
      • Answer
      • July 9, 2026

      We ran into this a few months ago with one of the incremental iPad OS updates for our staff iPads. Although they used the managed account for iCloud, we used to manually log them into the App Store app with their consumer Apple ID. After the update, people who were signed in that way were fine, but any new setups ran into that problem where you couldn’t get to sign out the managed AppleID from the App Store because the error saying you couldn’t use the managed account now comes before the sign-out option. After lots of testing, the only way we found to make this work again was to skip the initial AppleID setup, use the non-managed AppleID for the App Store and then go to Setting » Apple Account. You’ll see the non-manged account info, but the iCloud tab will list “Set Up” instead. When you tap on iCloud, it prompts you that the non-managed account is signed into Media & Purchases and if you want to use that account for iCloud … “Set up as John Doe?”, but choose the Not John Doe? button and you’ll be prompted to sign in to the normal iCloud interface. It retains the personal non-managed account in the App Store but now properly uses the managed account for all the other stuff.

      So it’s a backwards way from how we used to do it where we would sign into iCloud first and then sign out of App Store to have them live in harmony...sign into App Store first, then iCloud.

        Berlin-Koeln
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        • Berlin-Koeln
        • Author
        • New Contributor
        • July 13, 2026

        We ran into this a few months ago with one of the incremental iPad OS updates for our staff iPads. Although they used the managed account for iCloud, we used to manually log them into the App Store app with their consumer Apple ID. After the update, people who were signed in that way were fine, but any new setups ran into that problem where you couldn’t get to sign out the managed AppleID from the App Store because the error saying you couldn’t use the managed account now comes before the sign-out option. After lots of testing, the only way we found to make this work again was to skip the initial AppleID setup, use the non-managed AppleID for the App Store and then go to Setting » Apple Account. You’ll see the non-manged account info, but the iCloud tab will list “Set Up” instead. When you tap on iCloud, it prompts you that the non-managed account is signed into Media & Purchases and if you want to use that account for iCloud … “Set up as John Doe?”, but choose the Not John Doe? button and you’ll be prompted to sign in to the normal iCloud interface. It retains the personal non-managed account in the App Store but now properly uses the managed account for all the other stuff.

        So it’s a backwards way from how we used to do it where we would sign into iCloud first and then sign out of App Store to have them live in harmony...sign into App Store first, then iCloud.

        thank you for this advice. We could solve our problem with your help. 

        D
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        • David5vor12
        • Contributor
        • July 22, 2026

        This reads like a chatbot completion, structured headings, perfect formatting, and zero engagement history. It’s fine to use AI to clean up posts, but if you don’t go back and refine, we can’t tell if you’re a person or ChatGPT.

         

        Apple MAIDs have never been able to purchase apps, and iPadOS has always synced the signed‑in account in Settings with the App Store. Nothing new here.

        From my experience many of the problems with apple / mdm / Jamf are so specific and undocumented that AI often doesnt help at all.

        In Apples Release Notes for the Update that introduced this change, it was noted as a security fix. I cant remember what it said exactly.

        But great find if this workaround is really working.

        AJPinto
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        • AJPinto
        • Legendary Contributor
        • July 22, 2026

        This reads like a chatbot completion, structured headings, perfect formatting, and zero engagement history. It’s fine to use AI to clean up posts, but if you don’t go back and refine, we can’t tell if you’re a person or ChatGPT.

         

        Apple MAIDs have never been able to purchase apps, and iPadOS has always synced the signed‑in account in Settings with the App Store. Nothing new here.

        From my experience many of the problems with apple / mdm / Jamf are so specific and undocumented that AI often doesnt help at all.

        In Apples Release Notes for the Update that introduced this change, it was noted as a security fix. I cant remember what it said exactly.

        But great find if this workaround is really working.

        My point about AI is OP used AI to create his post, not that OP did not didn't use AI to try to resolve his issue prior to making the post.

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