iOS devices re-enrolled with enrollment URL are not supervised and app blacklist policies failSolved

Hi @astrid-,

Apple requires iOS supervision to be enabled during the initial device setup process. If an iPhone was previously supervised and the MDM profile was removed, re-enrolling it through the enrollment URL will not make it supervised again.

Enrollment through a URL installs an MDM profile, but it does not enable supervision. Supervision can only be established through one of these methods:

1. Automated Device Enrollment through Apple Business or Apple School Manager.
2. Apple Configurator on a Mac.

In both cases, the device must go through Setup Assistant again, which means a wipe or factory reset is required to enable supervision.

If you need to avoid data loss, the practical workflow is:

1. Back up the iPhone using Finder or iTunes on a Mac, or use iCloud backup.
2. Confirm that the backup is available and usable.
3. Wipe the device.
4. Enroll the device through Automated Device Enrollment, or prepare it with Apple Configurator to enable supervision.
5. During Setup Assistant, restore the user data from the backup.
6. Once the device is supervised and enrolled again, apply the required Hexnode policies, including app blocklist restrictions.

The wipe is required to set the supervision state, but the user data can usually be restored afterward from a backup.

Best Regards,
Isabel Lora
Hexnode UEM

That explains why the enrollment URL did not work. The phones were enrolled, but the supervised-only restrictions still failed. We were hoping the profile reinstall would bring supervision back, but it sounds like that is not possible.

Yes @astrid-, that behavior is expected. The MDM enrollment state and the supervision state are separate. A device can be enrolled in Hexnode without being supervised, but several iOS management capabilities require supervision.

App blocklisting, certain restrictions, and deeper device controls may not work unless the device is supervised. If the device was removed from supervision, the reliable way to restore those controls is to back up the data, wipe the device, supervise it again through ADE or Apple Configurator, and then restore the backup.

Best Regards,
Isabel Lora
Hexnode UEM