Reformat a supervised iPad?

Question

Reformat a supervised iPad?

Hello -

We are a school district. I have a group of 75 iPads that were used by students last year who have graduated. These were configured in Supervise mode using Apple Configurator. They also have a password.

I now need to recycle these iPads for new students ot use. I set up a blank/new iPad and used the Backup function of Configurator to build my "image" with iOS7. When I take one of the 75 iPads and plug it into configurator, and restore from my backup, I would think it would "reformat" the whole device. However, it does not... It just updates the device to iOS7, and still leaves the former student's password on the device... As well as pictures and I'm sure settings.

The only way I've found to totally "reformat" to a new device is to Unsupervise, then Supervise the device again. This works, and gives me a fresh iPad for a new student. However, it's an extra step I'd prefer to not take.

Am I missing an easier way to do this?

These are iPad 2 with Configurator 1.4 on OS 10.8.5

Thanks for any ideas you may have.

Carl Sundermann

Posted on Oct 11, 2013 10:06 AM

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Answer 1

burgback

Level 1

70 points

Oct 11, 2013 12:04 PM in response to Carl Sundermann

That's looking like the only way to do it currently that I see minus you going in to the devices and doing a reset yourself and then plugging htem back in to the device...if you had their pin codes. Although, now as I'm typing this....have you tried setting one up in recovery mode and doing a format that way in configurator?

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Answer 2

Oct 11, 2013 12:39 PM in response to burgback

I have not tried setting one up in recovery mode and doing a format that way... I am actually not sure how I can manually kick the Supervised device into recovery mode. Can you share, or do you have a link I can view?

The Unsupervise/Supervise does seem to work... It's just one of those things that, if there is a better way, I'd like to utilize it, since the process just takes a while.

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Answer 3

burgback

Level 1

70 points

Oct 11, 2013 12:53 PM in response to Carl Sundermann

Try this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808

I haven't tried to do this with my own supervised iPads. But in theroy, I'm thinking it should work.

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