Manual Enrollment

An enrollment process where users manually install an MDM enrollment profile on their device. Commonly used for BYOD scenarios or non-ADE devices.

What to Know

Manual enrollment provides flexibility for organizations that need to manage devices not purchased through authorized resellers or devices that predate Automated Device Enrollment. It’s the primary enrollment method for BYOD programs, contractor devices, or legacy hardware that can’t leverage ADE. While manual enrollment requires more user interaction than ADE, it enables organizations to extend management to any device regardless of purchase channel or ownership model.

However, manually enrolled devices cannot be supervised, limiting the management capabilities available. They also lack the persistent enrollment of ADE devices—users can remove the MDM profile at any time, removing all management. Organizations must balance the convenience of manual enrollment against these security and management limitations, often reserving manual enrollment for low-security scenarios or personal devices where privacy concerns outweigh management needs.

Common Scenarios

Enterprise IT: Employees bring their personal MacBooks or iPhones and enroll them to access corporate email, VPN, and internal resources. IT provides an enrollment link, users authenticate with their corporate credentials, and the enrollment profile installs. The profile enforces minimum security settings like passcode requirements and disk encryption without invasively managing personal data.

MSP: MSPs managing small businesses often use manual enrollment for existing devices that weren’t purchased through Apple Business Manager. When onboarding a new client with legacy devices, the MSP sends enrollment links to each user, walking them through the installation process remotely. This allows immediate management without requiring hardware refresh.

Education: Students with personal iPads enroll manually to access school Wi-Fi, install required educational apps, and receive class materials. Schools distribute enrollment instructions during orientation, and students complete enrollment themselves. Manual enrollment respects student privacy while providing necessary institutional access.

In Addigy

Addigy provides a simple manual enrollment workflow through its enrollment portal. Administrators generate unique enrollment URLs for users, who visit the URL, authenticate, and download the enrollment profile. The profile installs with a single click, enrolling the device into Addigy. You can customize the enrollment experience with branding, pre-enrollment authentication requirements, and initial configuration profiles.

Addigy tracks manually enrolled devices separately from ADE devices, clearly indicating their unsupervised status in the device inventory. You can apply policies to manually enrolled devices, but Addigy respects the limitations of unsupervised management, automatically preventing you from deploying supervised-only restrictions or configurations.