Intro to configuring settings in Apple Business Essentials
With Apple Business Essentials, you can configure settings for devices. Examples of settings are Wi-Fi, VPN, and iCloud. After a setting is changed from its default, it’s known as a configured setting.
To quickly get to settings you may want to apply, Apple Business Essentials shows them in four categories—Recommended, Security, Network, and Presentation. (You can also view All Settings to see which ones you want to apply.) Some settings have only one configuration per device, whereas other settings (like Wi-Fi) can apply multiple configurations to a device. Which setting you apply to a device depends on the device’s operating system.
Watch a video on configuring a setting.
Multiple configuration settings
You can add more than one configuration of a setting to a device through a collection. For example, you can have more than one configured Wi-Fi setting. You may have a configuration for users in one physical location and one configuration for users in another physical location. Some users may travel between locations and need the configured setting for both.
Single configuration settings
Certain settings, such as Application Layer Firewall, can have only one configuration per device. You can still create more than one configured Application Layer Firewall setting, but you must set a priority for it before that configuration is saved. For example, you may have two locations and you created two configured Application Layer Firewall settings, each with different rules. If there is more than one setting, you must then decide which setting is applied.
The following table shows the name of each setting and the operating system supported by that setting. For a specific setting in Apple Business Essentials, you select either iOS, macOS, or both (if applicable). The iOS button automatically includes iPadOS. For specific settings, you can also select tvOS.
Setting | Supported operating systems | Multiple or single configurations |
|---|---|---|
 | macOS | Single |
 | macOS tvOS | Single |
 | iOS iPadOS macOS | Multiple |
 | iOS iPadOS tvOS | Single |
 | iOS iPadOS macOS | Single |
 | macOS | Single |
 | macOS | Multiple |
 | macOS | Single |
 | iOS iPadOS macOS tvOS | Multiple |
 | iOS iPadOS macOS | Single |
 | macOS | Single |
 | macOS | Single |
 | macOS | Single |
 | iOS iPadOS macOS | Single |
 | iOS iPadOS macOS | Single |
 | iOS iPadOS macOS | Single |
 | iOS iPadOS macOS | Single |
 | iOS iPadOS macOS | Multiple |
 | iOS iPadOS | Multiple |
 | iOS iPadOS | Single |
 | iOS iPadOS macOS tvOS | Multiple |