Activating multiple iPhones with one or many Apple IDs?

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Level 1

9 points

Activating multiple iPhones with one or many Apple IDs?

I'm wondering whether its possible to activate an iPhone with an iTunes Store account that is not the one the phone will be used with. I'm centrally activating a dozen iPhones and loading a configuration profile onto them but I need to know if I'll need to take the staffs Apple ID's off them in order to do that?
Equally they're all going to be on a company plan but I don't want them to be able to sync their phones and have access to the same account that was used to pay for the contract, otherwise they could go nuts on the company card! (I know there are some safeguards but it only takes one to read the password upside-down off the bosses desk and then...)

Is it possible to complete an activation without logging into an iTunes Store account and if not then how do you avoid either:
a) getting all the staff's personal information (and that is not something I would give out to anyone, they could post a silly question!)
b) giving the staff access to a single company account. I don't even know whether its allowed to activate a dozen phones on one Apple ID

I have an iPhone myself but I can't remember at what point I had to put in my information and the videos and tutorials I've seen either don't specify or are completely useless (the O2 one is my personal favourite http://shop.o2.co.uk/FAQ?category=iPhone&question=FAQHOW_DO_I_ACTIVATE_MYIPHONE given that you could re-write that whole page as just, "use iTunes")

Also, am I missing something basic, I thought this would at least be in the Enterprise activation guide as I'm sure I can't be the first one to ask this question?

Any help/thoughts appreciated

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jul 17, 2009 12:47 PM

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Answer 1

Envision99

Level 4

1,171 points

Jul 17, 2009 1:26 PM in response to laotuz2

With the iPhone 3.0 firmware you can now setup an iPhone and choose what iTunes account you want logged into the iPhone. So you could activate all the iPhones under your account, and then go into Settings->Store-> and then choose Sign Out.

From what I know, there is no way to stop them from syncing their iPhone with a computer at home. You can also restrict them from other portions of the iPhone, such as installing apps, from going into Settings->General->Restrictions. Inside the Restrictions you can set a 4 digit passcode that is only for that, and set the Restrictions up that you want.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 2

laotuz2 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 20, 2009 12:33 PM in response to Envision99

Ah excellent, so I can activate the phones on the company account and hand them over to each member of staff to sync with their own iTunes accounts. So I'll also be able to get the free apps on the company account and then give them over to the staff to sync with their own iTunes accounts. It means I'll have to update them manually but that's manageable at this scale.
Does anyone know if the ability to pre-load non-commercial apps is going to be a feature of the configuration utility at any point? Or at least have a post installation script which uses their account to download the apps (with appropriate dialogues requesting permission or whatever) so that you can ensure app deployment without knowing their Apple ID's?

Must remember to delete that initial text message too, if there is still one, as that'll have the account login details!

I've already got the iPhone Configuration Utility configured to set them up with Passcodes but I've not applied any restrictions, parental control wise. After all there's no point in having the iPhone if you can't have fun with all the features.

A second question but related, if you take the iPhone backup file and save it on another machine (having swapped it out for one that may already have been there) and then plug the phone in, will it sync? Does it still work if the phone backup is encrypted?
I'm thinking of backup solutions and the inevitable hardware failure that'll take the iPhone backup with it. I'll probably be trying to ChronoSync or RSync the User/Home/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup folder to a server location where it'll be rolled into our regular backup procedure but will I be able to restore that backup to another machine, the .../MobileSync/ folder and get the iPhone to work again? How have others handled this?

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Answer 3

FocherAU

Level 1

4 points

Jul 22, 2009 5:36 AM in response to laotuz2

Hi,

Chapter 4 of the Enterprise Deployment Guide has extensive information on setting up iTunes, including a section on page 57 on how to setup iTunes to simply do activations (like you see in the point-of-sale configurations for in-store activations).

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