Intro to Apple Configurator
Apple Configurator is a macOS app that configures iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV and restores Mac computers with Apple silicon or an Apple T2 Security Chip.
Note: In the rest of this document, the term iPhone refers to both iPhone and iPod touch.
Configure large numbers of devices
Apple Configurator features a flexible, device-centric design that enables you to quickly and easily configure one or dozens of iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV devices connected to your Mac through USB or—in the case of Apple TV—wirelessly. After you connect a device, it can be seen in Apple Configurator. Simply select a single device—or many at once—and perform an action. With Apple Configurator, you’re able to update software, install apps and configuration profiles, rename and change wallpaper on devices, export device information and documents, and much more.
Apple Configurator also includes a window that displays information for devices—such as operating system version, serial number, hardware IDs and addresses, available capacity, and log messages collected by your computer.
Revive and restore Apple devices
In certain circumstances, you may need to revive or restore an Apple device. The table below shows which Apple devices can be revived or restored.
Device | Revive | Restore |
|---|---|---|
iPhone, iPod touch | User data may be retained if recoverable. | User data is erased. Erases and reinstalls latest version of iOS. |
iPad | User data may be retained if recoverable. | User data is erased. Erases and reinstalls latest version of iPadOS. |
Apple TV | User data may be retained if recoverable. | User data is erased. Erases and reinstalls latest version of tvOS. |
Mac with Apple silicon | Updates sepOS and recoveryOS to latest publicly shipping versions. User data may be retained if recoverable. | User data is erased. Erases and reinstalls sepOS, recoveryOS, and macOS to latest publicly shipping versions. |
Intel-based Mac with an Apple T2 Security Chip | Updates T2 chip firmware only. User data may be retained if recoverable. | User data is erased. Erases and reinstalls T2 chip firmware only. recoveryOS and macOS must be reinstalled using Internet Recovery. |
See:
Activate devices without an internet connection
You can use Apple Configurator to activate iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV devices that have no internet connection. To do this, when you’re setting up the devices, just make sure they’re connected to a host Mac that’s connected to the internet. Administrators can restore, activate, and prepare devices with their necessary configuration including Apps, Profiles, and Documents without ever needing to connect to either Wi-Fi or cellular networks. This feature doesn’t allow an administrator to bypass any existing Activation Lock requirements normally required during nontethered activation.
Customize or automate your device configuration
Apple Configurator automates MDM enrollment to distribute apps seamlessly from the App Store. It does this by integrating with Apple School Manager, Apple Business Manager, and Apple Business Essentials. The Prepare Assistant makes it easy to supervise and configure a cart of iPad devices for the classroom or to quickly enroll a large number of devices in your MDM solution for ongoing management. The built-in configuration profile editor supports creating and editing profiles with the latest iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS settings.
If you’re configuring devices in an environment where consistency is critical, use Blueprints in Apple Configurator to create a custom configuration for your devices, one that can be applied with one click. A Blueprint is a template device to which you add configuration profiles and apps and perform actions, just as you would do for a connected physical device.
You can also fully automate Apple Configurator and integrate its capabilities into your existing device management workflows using the included command-line tool, the AppleScript scripting library, or Automator Actions.
Support for iCloud Drive enables you to keep your configuration profiles and other settings consistent across multiple Apple Configurator computers.
Here’s how you use Apple Configurator to configure and deploy devices:
Create Blueprints: Blueprints let you record actions that can be applied to actual devices. You add configuration profiles and apps to Blueprints, just as you would add them to a physical device. You can prepare a Blueprint so that it has the mobile device management (MDM) information and supervision identity attached. You can also add specific actions to a Blueprint, such as putting the device into Single App Mode. After you have the Blueprint the way you want, you can apply it to devices. See Use Blueprints.
Create configuration profiles: You can change device settings, letting users automatically connect to Wi-Fi networks, preconfigure mail and Microsoft Exchange settings, and more. See Create and edit configuration profiles.
Prepare devices: You first configure one device and then deploy that configuration to many devices at once. Preparing devices is a great deployment option for enterprise organizations and schools that provide devices to employees or students for their day-to-day use. You can reuse devices the organization already owns, or you can begin with new ones. See Intro to preparing devices.