Device Enrollment and MDM
Device Enrollment allows organizations to have users manually enroll 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 Enrollment also enforces supervision on the Mac.
When a user removes an enrollment profile, all configuration profiles, their settings, and Managed Apps based on that enrollment profile are removed with it.
Device Enrollment has a larger set of payloads that can be applied to the device. For the complete list, see Device Enrollment MDM payload list.
Account-driven Device Enrollment
In iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS 14, visionOS 1.1, or later, organizations can use an account-driven Device Enrollment process, built into Settings and System Settings to make it easier for users to enroll 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 enrollment URL. The user then enters their organization user name and password. After the authentication succeeds, the enrollment profile is sent to the device. A session token is also issued to the device to allow ongoing authorization. The device then begins the MDM enrollment 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 enrollment 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 Enrollment, organizational data is cryptographically separated from personal data (see How Apple separates user data from organization data). Due to this separation, some changes are required to the way apps and backups are handled. For example:
Apps installed before MDM enrollment can’t be converted to become Managed Apps.
Managed Apps are always removed during unenrollment.
Restoring from a backup doesn’t restore MDM enrollment.
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 Enrollment, organizations can choose—based on the device model and Managed Apple Account of the user—which account-driven enrollment type (User Enrollment or Device Enrollment) should be used.
How Apple separates user data from organization data
The table below shows how Apple separates user data from the organization’s data with Device Enrollment.
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 |