Supervision of existing iPads

[ChrisRupert]

We are new to JAMF and thinking that someone somewhere has had this scenario and came up with an answer.

We have a bunch of existing iPads already given out to teachers and staff. We are going to send them the enrollment invitation so we can manage their iPads but we know we have to enroll them in DEP and wipe them to get them supervised.

What has everyone done for teachers and staff that already have their iPad and need to back it up before it's wiped? We made the mistake of making a backup and wiping and restoring the data but the supervision is lost (because you are backing up to a time with no supervision on that iPad).

[qhle373]

They would have to set as new, and not load from a backup. What you're finding is correct that the backup holds the supervision state of the device inside of it.

[plawrence]

Have a read of this Apple Support article it sounds like if you restore the backup to a different device it will respect the DEP configuration

[RLR]

Have a read of this Apple Support article it sounds like if you restore the backup to a different device it will respect the DEP configuration

This is correct. You need to restore back to a different device. We had to do this for all our students. We only found this out once we had already done a couple year groups and found out they hadn't been supervised so we had to do it again.

[revorick]

So how would you recommend getting data back onto the same iPad after a reset? Unfortunately my environment won't support trading iPads.

[qhle373]

This would end up being more work on the users' ends with guidance from you.

Nowadays, most items are saved via iCloud, fileshare, or some type of account-based server system. The backup is just nice that it places configurations back in place so users don't have to hunt and peck at what apps, arrangements, and settings they had before. Granted there is some data that is stored locally on the device, but that is going to be specific to users. If it is something like photos, and they are not using iCloud with Photo Stream or anything, then they will have to plug into a computer to save those photos. A nice rule of thumb for end-users is that if they can see it elsewhere on another medium, they can bring it back to the device.

Its all predetermined on what allowed use your environment has concerning these iPads as to how to coordinate with users to put that data back.