Restricting Access to Settings (iPads, High School)

[wesch_goethegym]

Hi there,

we are experiencing more and more problems with our students changing settings on our iPads in order to mess them up for the following classes.

Examples of this include:

- changing operating language and keyboard settings (e.g. into Mandarin or Russian, so that the students may not even find the way back to dissolving the language settings)

- activating guided access so that the iPad is basically in lockdown for future classmates

- changing background graphics or sound settings

- ...

I have tried to restrict as many options in the payload settings in the respective profiles, but I cannot seem to restrict more of the access to the settings portion.

Is there any workaround here?

Thanks already in advance for any helpful tips!

Max

PS: ideally, the students could still be able to access the Wi-Fi networks to switch between two different Wi-Fis that we have installed.

[AJPinto]

I don't think you can restrict the Settings App. My suggestion is to make configuration profiles to manage the settings you don't want the students screwing with.

[wesch_goethegym]

thanks for your advice! seems like the proper solution, but I have struggled before to find the proper configuration parameters to restrict certain setting-access in the profile management system.

Do you have any tips on where to look exactly, for example on the problems mentioned in the OP?

[TraceyJoyce]

Hey Max! Just wondering you figured this out or are still looking for help? 

[MarvinM]

I haven't figured this out and would be really interested in a solution! Some of our students started tinkering with the WiFi Settings (although they are set by a profile) with the result that the iPad cannot connect to the Wifi/Internet anymore which is quite annoying.

[Phantom5]

Well, as for the Accessibility settings, there's no way to manage that from within the MDM protocol. To avoid students messing with the WiFi settings, you can use a configuration profile to lock the iPad to only managed networks (be sure to install a CP with your WiFi settings before or in the same profile), along with disabling the option that allows to turn off the WiFi.

I don't think there's a payload to restrict the language and keyboard either.

You can find the complete payload reference keys in the following link 

[MarvinM]

Thanks for your reply!

Interestingly enough, we acutally force the connection to our managed network and turning off WiFi is not possible. Nevertheless you can still access the WiFi settings and change the proxy or DNS settings which leads the connection to fail afterwards.