Limit access to contacts on managed devices

Learn how to use Mobile Device Management (MDM) to choose which apps can access contacts.

This article is for system administrators.

Use MDM to control whether unmanaged apps can access contacts associated with managed sources. The following general restrictions apply to contacts:

  • Documents from managed sources appear in unmanaged destinations

  • Documents from unmanaged sources appear in managed destinations

These restrictions prevent unmanaged apps from accessing contacts from managed accounts, and prevent managed apps from saving contacts to the local Contacts app.

MDM can make exceptions to these rules for contacts using the following settings:

  • Allow unmanaged apps to access managed contacts

  • Allow managed apps to save contacts to the local Contacts app

Unmanaged destinations

  • Unmanaged apps

  • Unmanaged contacts and email accounts

  • Local storage like On My iPhone contacts and notes

Managed sources

  • Managed apps

  • Managed accounts

Get more help

Learn more about restrictions for iOS and iPadOS.

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