Why is Profiles/MDM asking to make changes on my MacBook Air?

Hello crabpaws,

Configuration profiles let you standardize settings for Mac computers. For example, an administrator can set up profiles that configure Mac computers to interact with servers on a school or workplace network.

A configuration profile can contain settings for a user’s Mail account, Wi-Fi settings, VPN settings, and more. Configuration profiles can work on Mac computers, iOS and iPadOS devices, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.

Your network administrator might provide you with one or several profiles, or provide you with a profile that, once installed, allows your administrator to install additional profiles automatically.

For information about Apple’s privacy policy, see the Apple Privacy Policy website.

Just to confirm, do configuration profiles show as being installed on your device in System Preferences? You can find the steps to review and manage configuration profiles here: Use configuration profiles to standardize settings on Mac computers

View an installed configuration profile

1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Profiles.

2. If you haven’t installed any configuration profiles, Profiles preferences isn’t available.

Select a profile in the Profiles list to view information about it.

If you want to remove a configuration profile, please check out the "Remove a configuration profile from your Mac" part of the above link for those steps.

Thanks!

crabpaws,

At this point you'd want to reach out to Apple Support so they can look into your particular situation further: Contact Apple Support They'd be in the best position to assist further.

Take care.

Isn't that the point? You need to authenticate in order to modify the settings of this profile and to remove the profile.

Did you allow anyone at a security checkpoint access to your laptop and macOS? If you provided your password, then the security agent may have been able to install something on your laptop.

If this was a used laptop, then the laptop is likely still being managed by a previous owner. Sometimes the MDM notice won't be seen for days, or even months after a clean install of macOS if the macOS clean install & setup was done off network.

crabpaws,

If this is a profile you can reinstall without any issues at a later date, then removing it would isolate the issue. Before doing so though, do you use a Comcast email account that is set up in the Mail app? We ask as we don't want that to be removed along with the profile and possibly with the inability to re-add it while you're traveling.

Thanks.

crabpaws,

What happens if you attempt to enter your account password if you click the "Use Password..." button?

If getting an error when trying to use your password, then we'd recommend reaching out to Apple Support directly from this link here: Get Support - Apple

Best regards.

crabpaws wrote:

Thanks. I only have one profile in my Profiles. It's from Comcast, my US Internet provider, for automatic connection to their wi-fi network (which usually is useless). Should I remove it? I can always reinstall it when I'm back in the US.

You don't need to use any software from Comcast (or usually any other ISP) to access the Internet or your ISP email. There may be some exceptions with some ISPs, but generally the ISPs software is not needed. Always question the need to install third party software.

As for removing the Profile, you may need to run the uninstaller app/utility for the Comcast software. Sometimes the uninstaller may be hidden within the vendor's folder, or within the app bundle for their software. Usually it is best to check with the developer (in the case Comcast) on how to properly uninstall the Comcast software and MDM Profile.

As for your failed attempts to remove the Profile, what happens after you enter your admin user name & password? If there are any error messages, please provide them. I won't be able to assist much more with this issue since I am not a macOS software expert.