Steps to get from institutionally owned, supervised iPad, with VPP, to unsupervised.

Do these steps work for you? For an iPad to become unsupervised it has to be reset.

I'm trying to find a way for a student to not lose everything. Was hoping there was a way to backup, then reset the device, then restore from backup e.g. so they can keep documents, photos, etc.

Not found out how to do this yet.

You could follow these steps but will have to do some testing first.

Thanks for that.....I have posted those steps below. This was written before iCloud Drive - I think, so hopefully backing up to that will protect those documents.

In Apple Configurator under the Supervised tab, back up the student's iPad (click the Restore drop down menu and select "Back Up.")
Give your back up a name and click "Create Backup." After the back up completes, click on the Restore drop down menu again and select “Edit Stored Backups."
A new window will open showing you a listing of back ups available. Hold down the Option key and two new button will appear in the lower left corner (a "+" for importing, and a sharing icon for exporting). Highlight the backup of your iPad and click the sharing icon.
Choose a location where you want to save the backup (for this example, lets save it to the Desktop) and click "Export."
When the export is complete, click Done.
Now, Unsupervise the iPad (Ctrl+click the iPad listed in Apple Configurator and choose Unsupervise. In the pop up window, select Unsupervise Device). This will wipe the device of all data and apps.
Once the iPad restarts, select the Prepare tab. You will see your iPad listed there.
Next to Supervision, turn the switch to "Off." Next to iOS, choose "No Change." Click on the Restore drop down menu and choose "Other." Navigate to your Desktop and highlight the .iosdevicebackup file. Click "Open."
Click the Prepare button. This will restore the back up to the iPad but it will now be Unsupervised. NOTE: You will still see the Supervision profile listed under Profiles. However, you can now connect the iPad to iTunes on a different computer and you won't see the message "This iPad is supervised by another computer and cannot be used with this computer" anymore. Even though you can't get rid of the Supervised profile listed under Profiles on the iPad (because its a part of the back up), it is now dormant and does not affect the iPad anymore.
Apps are not restored from the back up. However, even though the apps are not on the iPad the app data has been restored to the iPad (the app data is hidden). So once the back up restores to the iPad, the student can download/install apps from the App Store. For this example, I will go to the App Store and use my personal Apple ID to download Notability. After Notability installs, I launch the app and now see my data. I am now on an Unsupervised iPad with my data from a Supervised device.

Is the student purchasing an institutionally owned device?

Per Apple's design, restoring an iCloud/iTunes backup to the same device retains the Supervision. However if it is a different device (that does not go through DEP/Configurator) the new device would not be Supervised.

Does it really matter to you that the device be Unsupervised? To provide full usability to the student, it just needs to be Unmanaged.. and the iCloud backup has to know that .

1. Send the UnManage command to unenroll the device from JSS
2. Back up device to iCloud
3. Disown device from Device Enrollment Program (WARNING: PERMANENT)

I happen to keep the record in my JSS for permanent inventory purposes (I set a "Removed Permanently" EA to "Yes").

IF the student or family complains about the Settings -> General -> About saying "This iPad is supervised by..." then you'll have to go through painful steps.

1. Send the UnManage command to unenroll the device from JSS
2. Back up device to iCloud
3. Restore to a different, Unsupervised, non-DEP device
4. Take another iCloud backup
5. Disown original device from Device Enrollment Program (WARNING: PERMANENT)
6. Reset original device and restore from iCloud
7. Reset the second device

chris

I'm curious though why you don't want to have the iPad supervised? With it being supervised gives you a lot of great abilities to help the students manage the device without getting in their way. You also have the ability then to collect activation lock codes and do more with the device if needed. It also just puts a happy reminder in the device that you as the school have ultimate administrative abilities to assist with the device.

I guess more information about what you're ultimately trying to do here would help. If the school is no longer owning the device, that's different, but that doesn't sound like the case here.

Hi,

This is the proper procedure if you want to backup a supervised iPad and then restore that iCloud backup to another device (supervised or unsupervised).

• Disable "Find my iPad” on the original supervised iPad, perform iCloud backup on the same device

• Plug in the new device to Configurator, Supervise and update the device to the latest iOS. Do not install any profiles here (except the temporary Wi-Fi profile). If you don't want a supervised device, skip this step or prepare a new device without supervising it.

• Once Supervised, unplug the new device and go through the Setup Assistant to restore from iCloud

• When the iCloud restore of the new device is complete, do not touch the Setup Assistant, plug it back into Configurator

• Before you refresh, change the "Restore" and "Update iOS" options to "Do not Update/Restore"

• Once refreshed, proceed through the Setup Assistant, your device should now be Supervised and ready for MDM Enrollment