Adding devices you already own to Apple Business Manager

Key facts

• Apple Configurator is free and lets you add devices to Apple Business Manager manually, after purchase.
• Devices added this way get a 30 day provisional period in which the user can release the device from Apple Business Manager, supervision and management.
• The 30 day clock starts once the device has been assigned and enrolled, not when you bought it.
• After 30 days the option disappears from the device and it can only be released through Apple Business Manager.
• Devices bought through a linked Apple Authorised Reseller never get a provisional period.
• The device has to be erased as part of the process, so this is a task for a refresh or a handover rather than a Tuesday afternoon.

When this is worth doing

Most businesses set up Apple Business Manager after they already own Apple devices, which raises the obvious question of what to do with the fleet you have. The honest answer depends on the device.

For a device about to be handed to a new starter, or one coming back from someone who left, do it. You are erasing it anyway, and the 30 day window is far less of a concern for a device you are about to hand over with an explanation of how it works. For a device in active daily use by someone who would be inconvenienced by a full erase, weigh it up. You are trading a day of disruption for management you could otherwise get for free at the next refresh.

For any device you are about to replace within the year, it is usually not worth it. Put the effort into making sure the replacement is bought through a linked supplier instead.

How it works

Can you add devices you already own to Apple Business Manager?

Yes. Apple Configurator, which is free from Apple, can add a device to your organisation after the fact. There is a Mac version and an iPhone version, and between them they cover adding iPhones, iPads and Macs.

Once added, the device shows up in Apple Business Manager under a placeholder server named for Apple Configurator, and you assign it from there to your actual management platform. From that point it behaves like any other enrolled device, including mandatory supervision, with the single exception of the provisional period.

What is the 30 day provisional period?

It is a window Apple gives the user of a manually added device to opt out. During those 30 days the device shows an option to leave remote management, and if the person takes it, the device is released from your management platform, loses supervision and drops out of your Apple Business Manager account.

The clock starts once the device has been successfully assigned and enrolled, and after 30 days the option disappears from the device. From then on it can only be released deliberately through Apple Business Manager by you.

Apple’s reasoning is reasonable enough. Manual addition does not prove the organisation owns the device, so the user gets a chance to object. It does mean that for the first month your management of that device is conditional on the user not removing it, which is worth knowing rather than discovering.

What do you need to add an existing device?

A Mac running Apple Configurator or an iPhone running the iPhone version, a cable or the relevant pairing method depending on which device you are adding, administrator access to your Apple Business Manager account, and a device you are willing to erase.

The erase is the practical constraint. If the device is in use, back up anything that matters first, sign out of iCloud and turn off Find My before you start, and leave it plugged in while the process runs. Turning off Find My beforehand matters, because otherwise you can end up dealing with Activation Lock on top of everything else.

Is it worth doing for devices already in use?

Sometimes. The case for it is that an unmanaged device holding company data is a real exposure and 30 days of conditional management still beats none. The case against is the disruption of a full erase and restore for someone who is trying to work.

A reasonable middle path for most small businesses: do it for devices passing through your hands anyway, at handover, refresh or return. Leave devices in active daily use alone unless there is a specific reason, and fix procurement so the problem stops growing. Within a hardware refresh cycle the fleet becomes properly managed without a single disruptive day.

If a device in daily use is holding sensitive client data and is entirely unmanaged, that calculation changes and it is worth the disruption. That is a judgement about the data rather than about the device.

The better answer

Everything on this page is a workaround for hardware bought outside a linked supplier. The version that does not need a workaround is covered on the zero-touch enrolment page: link your suppliers to Apple Business Manager, buy through them, and every future device is supervised from first boot with no provisional period and no erase.

If you have a fleet of Apple devices that were never enrolled properly, 4iT works out which are worth adding now and which to catch at refresh, and sorts out purchasing so new devices arrive already managed. Request a callback or get in touch.