Apple Configurator

Submitted by Aaron Freimark on April 12, 2012 - 9:29pm
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Apple Configurator is a free Mac app (available here) for automating the development and assignment of iOS devices. Originally focused on education, it can be useful in a variety of scenarios.

Configurator knows some unique tricks:

Prepare devices

  • Configure up to 30 devices at a time
  • Update devices to the latest version of iOS
  • Create and restore a backup of settings and app data from one device to other devices
  • Import apps into Apple Configurator and sync them to new devices
  • Use the built-in editor to create and install iOS configuration profiles
  • Enroll devices with your Mobile Device Management solution for remote management

Supervise devices

  • Organize supervised devices into custom groups
  • Automatically apply common configurations to supervised devices
  • Quickly reapply a configuration to a supervised device and remove the previous user's data
  • Import apps into Apple Configurator and sync them to supervised devices
  • Define and apply common or sequential names to all devices
  • Restrict supervised devices from syncing with other computers Assign devices
  • Add users and groups manually or autopopulate via Open Directory or Active Directory
  • Check out a device to a user and restore the user's settings and data on that device
  • Check in a device from a user and and back up the data for later use, possibly on a different device
  • Apply custom text, wallpaper, or the user's picture to a device's Lock screen
  • Import and export documents between your Mac and Apple Configurator
  • Sync documents between assigned devices and Apple Configurator

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