How do you lock down the settings or apps so students can change them?

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Level 1

11 points

How do you lock down the settings or apps so students can change them?

I have 20 and soon more, iPads for our school and have been looking for a way to "lock down" the settings and several of the apps from students. I have downlaoded the iPhone Configuration Utility, but it does not seem to allow me to LOCK certain settings. I have been to the CASPER site and did not find the lock settings in that application either. I basically want ARD for an iPad!! or Worgroup Manager with ipad settings. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

Posted on Aug 23, 2011 2:29 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

rmom Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 6, 2012 5:01 PM in response to rmom

So I went to an Apple iPhone Management seminar and discovered that you can't lock some of the settings easily. Apparently there is some script you can get(I do not know where) to do this, but I'm not crazy about getting into the guts. But through iPhone Manager (FREE) you can set some things more restricted. Do not overlook the restrictions setting in the Settings area to restrict some things by password. Good Luck for now.

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Answer 2

dyneon64

Level 1

4 points

Sep 1, 2011 6:21 AM in response to rmom

I have been trying to find out the same thing in regards to "locking settings". My son (who has an intellectual impairment) uses the ipad for school and is continuously going into the settings and changing them. I have put restrictions on everything I can but still spend many hours resetting the ipad because he decides to give it a password then can't remember what it is. He also rearranges icons, changes colour settings, background pictures etc. I have tried hiding the icon in a "folder" and disabling the search option, but he still manges to find it. So if they have come up with a way to lock the settings I would be extremely relieved to hear about it.

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Answer 3

varjak paw

Level 10

170,200 points

Aug 23, 2011 2:33 PM in response to rmom

Other than those settings you can lock in the Restrictions area of the General preferences, which is what the configuration utlity and Casper set, you can't lock things down. There's just no way to do much locking in the current version of iOS. Whether that will change in any future version I can't say.

Regards.

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Answer 4

paulcb

Level 6

19,239 points

Sep 1, 2011 6:39 AM in response to dyneon64

So if they have come up with a way to lock the settings I would be extremely relieved to hear about it.

Currently, there's no way to lock the settings.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

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Answer 5

Oct 20, 2011 10:54 AM in response to dyneon64

Glad to hear I'm not the only one with this problem.

Many of the new major feature updates in IOS 5 are useless if they can't be locked down.

Apparently Apple did not intend for these devices to be used by anyone other than mature adults.

That is a shame since there are so many Apps for kids games and education.

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Answer 6

rccharles

Level 6

12,941 points

Oct 20, 2011 11:14 AM in response to dyneon64

maybe you could create a backup (master) configuration & then do a restore when the machine gets messed up.

I don't know how to do this. I've read about people creating a master configration & cloning to other machines.

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Answer 7

Skydiver119

Level 9

53,392 points

Oct 20, 2011 11:27 AM in response to rmom

Or look and see if there is a parental control app that can 'sterilize' the settings and keep changes from being made.

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Answer 8

paulcb

Level 6

19,239 points

Oct 20, 2011 11:29 AM in response to Skydiver119

There's not. No 3rd party app can access the Settings app.

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Answer 9

varjak paw

Level 10

170,200 points

Mar 7, 2012 7:03 AM in response to rmom

I think perhaps you misunderstood. Unless there's something hidden that I have missed and cannot find any mention of, there are no additional restrictions available via scripting; not in the current version of iOS, anyway. Scripting just allows an administrator to set up different configurations that can be deployed easily, without having to make manual settings in the iPhone Configuration Utility for each different scenario. There are no additional restrictions options over what is setttable in the Settings/Restrictions on the iOS device, at least none I can find. See page 75 of the Enterprise Deployment Guide for the Restrictions controls available via scripting:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Enterprise_Deployment_Guide.pdf

If you were told otherwise, I'd greatly appreciate your posting more details as to these hidden settings and where one can find information. Nothing of this has been mentioned in any of the Apple seminars or information I've been party to.

Regards.

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