MDM Shared iPad for Business

[DatITguy]

Do we know when Meraki plans to implement the Shared iPad for Business support to the MDM? We are in need of taking advantage of this and would rather not have to do this through the Apple Configurator 2 or assigning the "Shared iPad" setting within the DEP profile. If we go that route, it does function as a Shared iPad for Business, but we do not have administrative control over it in the sense of knowing what users have logged into the device or configuring how many users are able to have a login. A good handful of MDMs out there already have this supported, but unclear what control or settings are available on an administrative level are offered in this mode. Any information on this would be helpful.

[BlakeRichardson]

@DatITguy  My impression is that shared iPads are only supported in Apple school manager not Apple Business Manager. 

[DatITguy]

Yes, that is true currently in Meraki's MDM, but I'd like to know if or when they plan to add this. There are other MDMs that have this as a manageable feature. Just was hoping this was on a road map with Meraki

[ZachL54]

I would like to second this request for whether or not this is on the roadmap.

We are considering using this model at retail locations with Azure AD credentials. Here is how you can do this on InTune, but many other MDMs support it as well.

https://vmlabblog.com/2021/01/setup-shared-ipad-for-business-in-intune/

Or from Apples own help site: 

"Shared iPad can be used not only in education but also in business. Multiple users can use the iPad and the user experiences can be personal even though the devices are shared." https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mdm/cad7e2e0cf56/web

[DatITguy]

Thank you for pointing that out @ZachL54 and providing an example. The logic from Apple has always been one user to one device setup. I was excited to see that they took this step with iOS for iPad near the end of 2019 to support multi user on devices for business. I've just been waiting for Meraki to support it, but the demand for this is getting very high with my end users. We have been suggesting dropping Meraki's MDM to implement Intune surprisingly. So any kind of update or details on whether this is road mapped would be nice

[DatITguy]

@BlakeRichardson  - Do you know if you have an update to the comment you made at the end of this thread here back at the beginning of this year? I haven't heard anything official back from Meraki yet.

https://community.meraki.com/t5/Mobile-Device-Management/Shared-iPad-for-Business/td-p/86420

[MattMorg · Accepted solution]

Systems Manager does indeed support Shared iPad for Apple Business Manager devices. 

One of the main difference currently between Apple School Manager and Apple Business Manager is there's no way to sync the Owner accounts in SM > Owners page for ABM (where there is an API to do this for ASM managed Apple IDs). Also as you'd expect, ASM can only use the Classroom app and Education profiles to configure the classes. However, Shared iPad does indeed work for Apple Business Manager in Systems Manager, just without those school features. 

If you enable "Shared iPad" in the DEP settings from Systems Manager for an Apple Business Manager device it will setup as a Shared iPad device upon initial setup. From there you can sign in with a managed Apple ID from the business.apple.com account or use a guest temporary session to sign in.