Apple Configurator 2 says "Pairing Prohibited." I need a Supervision Certificate.

[Laurence5905]

I need to get Apple Configurator 2 (I'm gonna call it AC2) to connect to my managed iPads. Period.

I created a new DEP profile that does allow "pairing."  It works on any iPad I push it to -- as long as I do not restore that iPad's iCloud backup.  If I choose to restore the iPad's iCloud backup, it apparently also restores the DEP profile?  Even though it doesn't show that on my DEP Profile's page -- it still show's that iPad to have the new DEP Profile...

So it appears maybe I'm screwed?  But the exact error message that AC2 gives me is this: "The supervision configuration for these devices does not allow pairing without the supervision certificate.

Create an organization with the correct supervision identity, or re-supervise these devices with pairing allowed."  Which would seem to indicate that if I had the Supervision Certificate, I could install that certificate on my computer, and AC2 would connect to the iPads without me having to install a new DEP Profile on them, right?

So where do I get this Supervision Certificate?

Thanks,

Laurence MacNeill

Ball Ground, Georgia, USA

[Laurence5905]

Please take a look at the following screenshot:

Why is the "Settings" column blank for all of them?  (FYI, the "Settings" column is not blank for the one that I assigned the new DEP Management Profile to.)

How could we have received a bunch of iPads WITH NO SETTINGS?!!!  Is that why I cannot pair with AC2?!

PLEASE HELP!!!  

[PhilipDAth]

>I need to get Apple Configurator 2 (I'm gonna call it AC2) to connect to my managed iPads.

I was under the impression this was meant to be mutually exclusive.  You can use one or the other.

@jared_f might be able to help.

[BlakeRichardson]

@Laurence5905  Yes you can use configurator to setup a device from scratch however yes restoring from a backup will ovewrite settings such as DEP information. From what I understand there is no way around this. 

Restoring device backups doesn't really work with DEP enrolled devices because the backup contains the devices activation information. 

[Laurence5905]

Ok, so I cannot restore the backup without restoring the DEP info...

Where do I get the Supervision Certificate for the existing DEP profile, then?  And how do I install that certificate into Apple Configurator 2 so I can pair it with these iPads?

Thanks,

L.

[BlakeRichardson]

@Laurence5905  Your options are either set the device up from scratch with DEP and not restore any info or restore the data and not have the device in DEP. 

You won;t be able to access the missing certificate I wouldn't have thought. 

[Laurence5905]

The device automatically puts itself into DEP.  I can't stop that -- unless you know of a way I can stop that?  It enrolls itself in DEP during the factory-reset process, pretty much right before it gives me the option to restore (or not) from the iCloud backup...

Even if I were to somehow remove the device from DEP so it didn't automatically enroll itself, wouldn't the iCloud restoration cause it to re-enroll itself?

But at this point, I'm willing to try anything - if you can tell me how to keep it from DEP'ing itself when I do a factory-reset, I am all ears.  Thanks.