iPhone not showing in Apple Business Manager or Hexnode for ABM enrollmentSolved

Hey @benjay,

For iOS enrollment through Apple Business, simply adding a user account or linking your Apple tokens isn’t enough. The iPhone itself must be registered in your Apple Business account and assigned to the Hexnode MDM server.

If the device was not purchased directly from Apple or an authorized reseller, it won’t automatically appear in your inventory. To fix this, you will need to manually add it using Apple Configurator. You can follow the step-by-step instructions in our Hexnode Guide on Adding iOS Devices to ADE via Apple Configurator.

The complete setup flow is:

1. Add the iPhone to Apple Business.
2. Assign the device to the Hexnode MDM server within your Apple Business portal.
3. Sync the Apple Business devices from your Hexnode portal.
4. Confirm the iPhone appears under the Apple Business/Apple School Manager, Devices section in Hexnode.
5. Assign the enrollment profile.
6. Erase/factory reset the iPhone so it goes through the initial iOS Setup Assistant again.

Once reset, the phone will detect the Hexnode configuration during activation and display the Remote Management screen.

Best Regards,
Isabel Lora
Hexnode UEM

So just creating the Managed Apple Account in ABM doesn’t automatically add the iPhone to ABM? I don’t currently have another Apple device available to use Apple Configurator.

Correct. A Managed Apple Account is for the user identity and Apple services, but it does not add hardware to Apple Business Manager.

If you cannot use Apple Configurator to add the iPhone, the other option is to ask the reseller or vendor from whom the device was purchased to add it directly to your Apple Business account. Once the device appears in Apple Business, assign it to the Hexnode server and sync it in Hexnode.

As an alternative, you can enroll the iPhone using the Hexnode enrollment URL or the Hexnode UEM app. However, this would be a regular/unsupervised enrollment unless the device is supervised separately. Some iOS management features, including kiosk-related restrictions, require supervision and will not work on an unsupervised device.

Best Regards,
Isabel Lora
Hexnode UEM