Apple Configurator Questions

Generally speaking, if you cannot restrict something throught the settings and restrictions on an iPad individually, you will not be able to restrict it using Configurator or other MDM solution.

According to the documentation, you can configure an iPad the way you want it (complete with apps organized in folders), create a backup, and then apply that backup to the iPads using the Configurator. However I have not tried this yet.

I have been experimenting with backups and my cart of iPads today and this is what I found:

1. There does not appear to be a way to restrict Settings, Messages, Reminders, Game Centre, and Contacts. This is a huge disappointment for me since Apple is promoting the configurator for use in schools. There should be a way to disable those programs in an educational environment.

2. There doesn't appear to be a way to keep users from changing the wallpaper either. This is another huge disappointment. I have two iPad carts in a secondary school and kids love to change the wallpaper.

3. The restrictions that you can configure using a profile are actually LESS restrictive than if you set the restrictions manually. I applied a backup of a device that had the restrictions set the way I wanted them but because I also installed a profile the profile restrictions took precedence. Furthermore, I could not find a way to keep users from creating a restrictions password and going into the restrictions. They can't change the settings that were set by the profile restricitons via the configurator, but they can still change other restrictions that you can't set using the configurator. For instance, the user may not be able to turn off Find my iPad, but they can turn off location settings, rendering Find my iPad useless!

Applying a backup did enable me to create a layout with folders, etc. and layering the profiles enabled me to create email settings on a per-device basis which I really like. However, I am extremely disappointed in the lack of restrictions capability with the profiles. We are going to have to go in and create the restrictions manually after configuration and reapply them manually every time we update anything using the configurator. It seems obvious to me that Apple did not actually TALK to educators who are using cart setups to get input when developing the Configurator. I am very disappointed.

If anyone has figured out ways to do the things I listed above using the Configurator, or via any other method, I welcome your input!

Location services is not located under "Restrictions" on the iPad. Neither is Passcode lock, wallpaper, and other settings. The problem is not with Configurator, per se, it is in how Apple handles restrictions -

"Generally speaking, if you cannot restrict something through the settings and restrictions on an iPad individually, you will not be able to restrict it using Configurator or other MDM solution. " (from my earlier post). I agree, it is frustrating to not be able to lock down things like iMessage and the wallpaper, and it is issues like this that will slow down the adoption of iPads in education. These items should be under the "Restrictions" category along with Facetime, etc.. You have to remember that Configurator was developed for both businesses and schools. It is apparent to me that Apple would like us to have 1:1 deployments in our schools. The iBooks textbook licensing is structured that was as well.

Does your primary backup have restrictions turned on?

Yes, the primary backup did have the restrictions turned on. They were overridden by the profile restrictions, which are more limited, if that makes sense.

Regarding the Location Services - I was referring to was the fact that on the Ipad, under Settings>>General>>Restrictions, you have the choice to Allow Changes to Location Services which enables the user to turn them on or off. In the Apple configurator, you can prevent Find My iPad from being turned off, but if you have created a profile which Allows Location Services to be on it does not appear that you can prevent someone via the Configurator from going into the restrictions and turning location services off. (If you have figured out a way to prevent this via the Configurator, please let me know. It didn't work in my testing!) All a user has to do is create their own Restrictions password. And yes, by manually creating a Restrictions passcode, you can lock down ipad restrictions more tightly on the iPad than you currently can using the Configurator. The Configurator can create a device passcode but that is not the same as a restrictions passcode. If the Configurator could create/deploy a restrictions passcode, that would VERY helpful.

Actually, I don't think any of the big commercial MDM solutions can create and deploy a restrictions password either... big loophole. I have been manually adding it - tiresome.

Yes...and I was so hoping that the Configurator would be able to do this! Fingers crossed that they add this functionality in the next version...

Lion Server profile manager will not do this either.

OOC, is there something inside the Configurator that allows for a single iPad to be 'shared' by more than 1 student? We have classes throughout the day and I'd like to have each student have a 'workspace' on the iPad that they could sign into. In a typical day, the same iPad could be used by 8 different students.

We're also looking at some MDM (mobile device management) cloud services - not sure if woking with those would help make this need a reality.

You can create users in the Configurator and then create backups of their documents and data when the device is checked in. See the "Assign devices" section in the help files. However in the scenario you are describing you would have to create the backups after every single class and I don't know how practical that would be in a school environment.

You might want to investigate cloud services such as DropBox or google docs to see if that might meet your needs - the students would just have to associate the iPad with their individual account in order to save their work. Unfortunately not all apps allow you to save a project in the cloud and then re-import it to keep working on it. At my school when a student is working on a "long term" project using an app like iMovie we check the lab out to that class for a week. I woudl be interested to know if there are any 3rd party MDM services that can do what you would like to do.

In my testing I was able to both apply a backup (enabling me to create folders with apps inside) and apply a profile that kept the wireless configuration. Unlike applying a backup in iTunes, it did not rename the devices in the configurator. I was also able to add individual profiles to each device that added individualized email account settings. Have you tried doing both? You might have to uncheck and recheck a profile for a specific device and hit apply to make sure it "sticks."