Quick tip: Manually adding devices to Apple Business Manager

This week a quick extra post. I noticed that there was not a lot of information available regarding manually adding devices to Apple Business Manager (ABM) for usage with Automated Device Enrollment (ADE). That makes sense, because the idea is that devices are automatically added to ABM after purchase. However, sometimes it’s useful to be able to manually add devices. Manually adding devices, can be achieved the easiest by following the two steps described below. Before starting with those steps make sure that:

• an enrollment program token is available and that the synchronization between ABM and Microsoft Intune is active,
• Find My {AppleDevice} is disabled, and that
• a mobile configuration is available that contains the WiFi configuration to simplify the enrollment

Step 1: Create an Apple Configurator enrollment profile

The first step is to create an Apple Configurator enrollment profile. That profile will not actually be used, but that’s a relatively easy action to retrieve the URL that is required in the second step. To retrieve that URL, simply follow the next seven steps.

1. Open the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center portal navigate to Devices > iOS/iPadOS > iOS/iPadOS enrollment > Apple Configurator to open the Apple Configurator | Profiles blade
2. On the Apple Configurator | Profiles blade, click Create to open the Create Enrollment Profile wizard
3. On the Basics page, provide a valid Name and (optional) a Description and click Next
4. On the Settings page, select Enroll without user affinity and click Next

Note: The actual configuration doesn’t really matter – this configuration simply requires the least steps – as we only need the enrollment URL

5. On the Review + create page, click Create to finish the wizard
6. Back on the Apple Configurator | Profiles blade, open the just created profile and click Export Profile to open the Setup Assistant Enrollment blade
7. On the Setup Assistant Enrollment blade, copy the Profile URL

Step 2: Prepare the Apple device

The second step is to prepare the Apple device. That preparation will make sure that the Apple device will be registered in ABM and that the device will be prepared for the out-of-the-box experience. To prepare the device, simply follow the next ten steps on a MacBook.

1. Open Apple Configurator 2 on a MacBook, connect the Apple device that should be prepared, select the device and click Prepare
2. On the Prepare Devices page, provide the following information and click Next

• Prepare with: Select Manual Configuration as value
• Select Add to Apple School Manager or Apple Business Manager
• Select Allow devices to pair with other computers

3. On the Enroll in MDM Server page, verify that New Server is selected and click Next
4. On the Define an MDM Server page, specify the following information and click Next

• Name: Provide a valid name for the enrollment server
• Host name or URL: Specify the URL that was copied from the Apple Configurator profile in step 1

5. On the Define an MDM Server page, select DigiCert Global Root G2 and click Next
6. On the Sign in to Apple School Manager or Apple Business Manager page, sign in with a Managed Apple ID and click Next
7. On the Create an Organization page, select Generate a new supervision identity and click Next
8. On the Configure iOS Setup Assistant page, click Next

Note: The actual configuration doesn’t really matter – this configuration simply requires the least steps – as the configuration will be controlled by Microsoft Intune

9. On the Choose Network Profile page, select the mobile config and click Next
10. On the Automated Enrollment Credentials page, click Prepare to bring the device to Apple Business Manager and to prepare the device for Apple ADE