Get notified about username conflicts in Apple School Manager
In Apple School Manager, you can be notified about federated authentication username conflicts in case you need to tell specific users to create new username information. After a domain is successfully verified and federated, Apple searches through all existing Apple IDs to find one that uses that specific domain name. If one is found, Apple School Manager lets you notify that person — and any device connected to their iCloud account — to update their personal Apple ID username so you can use it for your organisation. Even though they update their username, they do not have to change their password, and all their purchases and data remain in their account.
For example, say your organisation registered the domain @townshipschools.org.uk several years ago and set up email addresses for all their users. Eliza Block decided to use the email address she was assigned “eblock@townshipschools.org” as her personal Apple ID.
Even if Eliza no longer works for the organisation that registered @townshipschools.org, she still has the personal Apple ID with that domain name. Because you are setting up federated authentication for the domain name @townshipschools.org, Eliza must change her personal Apple ID username so that you can create the Managed Apple ID eblock@townshipschools.org if you want.
How Apple notifies users whose Apple IDs conflict
Apple will identify users whose personal Apple ID contains the domain name you have registered. Those users receive a mail message and a notification telling them they must rename their personal Apple ID. If they have not renamed their personal Apple ID yet, they keep receiving notifications and mail messages, with one final mail message at 60 days. After 60 days, the user’s personal Apple ID is automatically renamed to a temporary username, and the original username is released and claimed by your organisation.
Get notified about federated authentication username conflicts
In Apple School Manager
, sign in as a user that has the role of Administrator, Site Manager or People Manager.Select Activity
in the sidebar, then look for any activity named “X Conflicts found”, where X is the number of conflicts.Select the activity, then review the domain these Apple IDs are using.
Select Preferences to go to the Accounts section under Preferences, then select Edit next to Domains.
Look for the domain with the conflicts, then select “X User Name Conflicts”, where X is the number of conflicts.
WARNING: Be aware that sending notifications will impact all users across the domain you federate. You should speak to your IT administrator before initiating the federation process.
Select Continue, select Send Notifications, then select OK.
A mail message is sent, and a notification to any device connected to their iCloud account, letting each user with a username conflict know they must change their personal Apple ID. The notification may be immediate or it may take some time.
You can view the process of sending mail messages to users with a username conflict in the Activity section of Apple School Manager but you cannot see their actual personal Apple ID.