Requirements for Device Supervision

Before starting the supervision process, complete the following steps to ensure that you can complete the supervision process.

Tech Lockdown Team

Are you ready to start the supervision process? Select each checkbox on this page to confirm you are ready to go.

1). Download Apple Configurator on an Apple Computer

Apple requires you to use a tool called Apple Configurator to manually configure supervised devices.

Confirm you have an Apple computer, such as an iMac or Macbook

I don't have an Apple Computer, what do I do?

These tutorials depend on Apple Configurator, which is only available on Mac. If you do not have a Mac, use iMazing and follow their tutorial here. Supervising a device with iMazing costs $50.

Download Apple Configurator from the app store on your Apple computer.

Confirm that you can download and open Apple Configurator on your Apple computer

2). Prepare to Reset and Restore with iCloud

Supervising an iOS device requires you to hard reset the device.

Double-check your iCloud sync settings to ensure that you are backing up important data.

Confirm your iCloud sync settings

Once we start the supervision process and you reset your iPhone for the first time, you won't initially be able restore apps & data during the first-time setup.

You'll select Don't Transfer Apps & Data.

Confirm that you know to select Don't Transfer Apps & Data after resetting your device

Getting access to your Apps and Data again

You can restore your photos, messages, contacts, and anything else you've synced with iCloud once you sign in using your Apple ID.

3). Temporarily Disable Activation Lock and Find My iPhone

iOS devices have an activation lock feature, which we temporarily need to disable to supervise the device. You will re-link to iCloud after you supervise the device.

In order to disable the activation lock feature, we will need to remove your device from the Find My app.

To disable activation lock (remove it from the Find My app):

Turn off your iPhone. Read more here if you don't know how to do this.

Go to www.iCloud.com/find

At the top, click All Devices.

Select the device that you are attempting to supervise

Click Remove from Account. Read more here if you don't know how to do this

Note

The device must be turned off in order for you to remove it.

Apple should present you with this pop-up when you try to remove the device:

The feature we're trying to disable is the activation lock feature.

Removing the device from Find My will immediately disable the activation lock feature.

Double check that the device is being marked as removed after a certain date; this confirms that activation lock is disabled on that device.

Next Steps

Did you complete each of the above steps? Then you're ready to get started!

Apple Configurator

Use Apple Configurator to Supervise an iPhone

This section uses the Apple Configurator application to set up Supervised mode on an iPhone.