How to back up an iOS/iPadOS device when using an MDM solution

After a repair, when changing devices or when switching from unmanaged to managed devices, iPhones/iPads can be restored from a backup without data loss. This is possible both on unmanaged devices and on devices that are managed via the Apple Business Manager or the Apple School Manager when using an MDM solution.  

Aim

In this How-To, we use three different scenarios to show you what you need to bear in mind when restoring from a backup of managed iOS/iPadOS devices that are managed via ADE (Apple Device Enrolment).

Implementation

1. Restore the backup of a managed ADE device to the same device.

This is certainly the most common case of backup recovery. For example, due to a device defect, the previous state should be restored after repairing a supported device. When restoring a backup to the same managed device, proceed as described on the Apple help pages. As the MDM profile is part of the backup, the device is restored from the backup to the same state as it was when the backup was created.

2. Restoring the backup of a managed ADE device to another device

Backups can also be easily imported to new iOS/iPadOS devices. To do this, make sure that the user has created an up-to-date backup on the old device. Or use a policy to force the automatic creation of a backup. Then restore the status of the old device (from the backup) on the new device. You can find out how to do this in our help article How to import an iCloud backup onto a new supervised iOS/iPadOS device.

3. Enroll an existing but unmanaged device in Apple ADE without losing data

It is possible to register a previously unmanaged iOS/iPadOS device with Apple ADE and restore the data and content on the same device. However, the implementation is somewhat more complicated and requires an additional iOS/iPadOS device. You can find out why this is the case at Apple.

So if you want to "convert" an unmanaged device to a managed device without data loss, proceed as follows: 

1. Create a backup of the unmanaged device (in this example we call it device A).
2. Reset another device to factory settings (device B) and restore the backup from device A to device B.
3. Then create a backup of device B.
4. Reset device A to factory settings.
5. Add device A to your Apple Business or School Manager using a Macs or another iPhones/iPads. Assign the device to the MDM server in Apple Business Manager. A Cortado ADE profile must be configured. Now restore device A from the backup of device B. Proceed as described here.

Device management-related settings are not taken from the backup, but are applied according to your Apple ADE profile configured in Cortado. For example, the device is only in supervised mode if this has been configured in the profile.