What is Apple supervised mode?

An organization gains more control over an Apple device (iPhone, iPad, macOS) if it is supervised. Usually, company-owned devices are made supervised during the initial setup. This ensures that the organization can configure and manage the device more efficiently. There are many additional restrictions that the admin can configure if the device is made supervised.

There are two methods to enable supervision on Apple devices. 

Apple Configurator  

To use the Apple configurator, you need a Mac device and a USB cable. This method is preferred when there are a minimal number of devices are to be deployed. To enable supervised mode on your device, follow these steps.  

• Connect your iOS device to the Mac via USB cable  
• Open Apple Configurator 2  
• Select your iOS device from the list  
• Click on Prepare -> Configuration -> Manual  
• Define your MDM server on the ‘Enroll your MDM server.’ Doing so can add the device to the corresponding MDM web portal as well. 

• Enter the relevant information and create a supervision Identity  
• Click on ‘Prepare’ at the end of the dialogue boxes.  

Apple Business Manager – Automated Device Enrollment  

If you plan on deploying many devices, then it is best to opt for DEP Enrollment. The devices will get automatically enrolled as supervised when they are first unboxed and connected to a network using Apple Business You can enable supervision on your device via ABM by 

• Configure DEP in Hexnode Web Console 

• Assign the devices to the MDM server 
• Enable supervision while pushing the configuration profile