apple configurator 2 does not save changes of home screen to iPad or iPhone

So it seems that as of iOS 13, the device has to be supervised by the macOS device to take Home Screen management instructions.

I wiped my device and found that in Supervision, the Home Screen modifications work perfectly.

But in order to keep my iPhone data, I want to be enter Supervision AND have my iPhone's data in place.

But (!), in order to switch Supervision on without starting afresh on your iOS device, you not only need to backup/restore your device, you need a temporary second physical device too!!! Yes, you read that correctly.

Why? Because Configurator will only enrol the device into supervision while it's having data restored if the backup comes from a different physical device than the one you're restoring to.

So the temporary device is used to basically clone your backup but with a different hardware identifier. Then, that backup can be restored to your actual phone with Supervision in play too.

https://help.mobilock.in/article/w830ax76x0-supervise-i-os-devices-without-data-loss-backup-supervise

I spent 6 hours on this so far. Quite an extraordinary situation.

So, next experiment will be to get a temporary iPhone (with enough space) to run this process on and will report back.

Just discovered that if you sign into the Public Beta for IOS 14 and then use Apple Configurator 2, the modify home screen changes DO save when applied. Been waiting for a while for this to work. And now it does!

Hi jas57,

There is a workaround, yes.

You need to enrol your iPhone in supervision with your computer. To do that without losing data, you'll need an additional temporary physical iOS device as part of it.

Then you follow these steps:–

https://help.mobilock.in/article/w830ax76x0-supervise-i-os-devices-without-data-loss-backup-supervise

Then you'll be enrolled in supervision and the iOS 13 device will take Home Screen modification instructions from Apple Configurator 2 without issue.

I would like to confirm that after installing a beta version of iOS 14 (beta 4) Apple Configurator 2.13 works fine and allows me to re-arrange my Home Screen Layout.

It failed before i upgraded to the beta version (both iOS and Apple Configurator).

Further testing of mine:–

(1) iOS 12.4.5 iPad DID work (upgraded to 12.4.7 and still worked)

(2) iOS 13.4.1 iPhone 7 didn't work

(3) iOS 13.5.1 iPhone XSM didn't work

Triedthe non-working devices on different macOS computer and made no difference.

The main reason I went looking for this today was to delete apps whose icon I couldn't find.  It seams to work very well for that purpose. I am going to continue to play around with it, since you say it works for some people.  If I do discover the reason, I will be sure to post it. Is this only working for people that are doing it with supervised iPhones?

I did find this tidbit about supervised iOS devices:

What Does Supervision Allow For?

The following are examples of what’s possible under supervision:

Restrict access to apps

Filter web content

Configure home screen layouts

App lock (Single App Mode)

Activation lock bypass

Silent app installations

Enable Lost Mode

Push remote OS updates

Enable additional restrictions

This may imply the function does not work on Unsupervised iPhones.

The app was written for those that manage many iPhones not just one. If people are complaining about the lost feature from iTunes and using this instead, that is the reason apple does not care. After all, it was apple that took the function away from iTunes and still has not added the function to the side bar interface. So, Apple does not want to allow users of iPhones to have this functionality anymore. This is clearly the case, since they have removed that functionality from the interface on the Mac; this is whether we are talking about the old iTunes or the new iPhone interface built into the finder (in the sidebar).

Tested this with my old phone.

Works fine with iOS 10, won't work with iOS 13.

Looks like an iOS compatibility issue for me.

This is a shame it takes Apple that long to get this resolved.

Yes, I'm also planning on manually enrolling my iPhone into Supervision (involves full backup/"prepare for supervision"/restore) and I guess the home screen modification will then work! Won't get to do this until next week cause it's a several-hour job.

Same here MacOS Catalina 10.5.1, brand new iPhone 11 iOS 13.2.3.

This is a basic function of the Configurator that was removed from iTunes and is now hobbled.

Please fix.

I've just spent an hour now on the phone to Apple Education/Enterprise Support. A very nice chap I spoke to in rural Ireland working from home.

First, the guy was able to reproduce the issue on his unsupervised iOS device. On his supervised iOS device he didn't have the issue. Is this the cause then? Is this a hypothesis, that it has to be supervised to work?

But then that hypothesis was broken, as you can see:–

(1) iOS 13 iPod (supervised) DID work.

(2) iOS 12.4.7 iPod (unsupervised) didn't work

(3) iOS 13.5.1 iPhone 11 Pro (unsupervised) didn't work.

(4) iOS 13 iPad Pro 9.7" (unsupervised) DID work.

All tests on latest MBP 16" and latest Configurator (2.12.1) with latest macOS.

So it doesn't seem to be related to what kind of iOS device it is (pad, pod, phone), or what iOS version (12, 13), or whether it's supervised or not (can be either).

So we still don't know what causes this behaviour.

Other hyotheses of mine:–

• too many apps?

• too many folders?

• too many folders?

• does your home screen layout contain web shortcuts?

I have 700 apps, 12 screens and around 5 folders on each screen (50 folders) and 25 web shortcuts.

If folks can check in we might be able to find a common factor that stops it from working on our devices.

If you turn off the passcode on your iOS device temporarily, does that make any difference?

The bloke I spoke to on the phone is escalating his test log to his teams. I'll report back with any updates.

Since at least September 2019 support has known of this problem and they have been able to reproduce the problem, 8 Months at this point. If you call support, after a lengthy period of time, they will simply confirm that the software does not work and end the phone call. Feedback has been provided, support has known of this issue. If everyone of us, once a week, calls about this same issue...... never mind, they'll just block all of our phone numbers anyway..........

I’ve managed to get iOS 13 Home Screen modifications working on my phone following this procedure (involving a temporary device):-

https://help.mobilock.in/article/w830ax76x0-supervise-i-os-devices-without-data-loss-backup-supervise

I'm afraid the issue still exists as of macOS Catalina, iOS 13.3.1 and App Configurator 2