Question on Backups and Content Monitoring on Supervised iPhones

[CPatel]

Hi there, 
I am a network and infrastructure engineer. I recently joined a company that works with Meraki MDM. Although I've worked with Cisco Meraki tech for a few years now, the MDM tech is new to me. I would like to learn and understand 2 things: 

1- This company uses Meraki MDM to manage all company iPhones but does not use apple accounts on them (so features like it iTunes, iCloud, etc. are not used). Now my question; is there a feature where Meraki MDM can back up the device? I tried researching about it but had no luck.

2- I am working closely with the security team, and we would like to make sure no content is removed from the device for auditing purposes. The configuration that is currently setup in the MDM currently is pretty robust, but I did find some loose ends one being iMessages. Was wondering if there was a way to not allow the users to delete their messages that are sent via iMessages on these supervised devices? 

Any insight on this is appreciated as I'm still new to the Meraki MDM environment. 

[alemabrahao]

No, Meraki MDM does not offer native device backup functionality like iCloud or iTunes. It can manage, configure, and monitor devices, but it does not back up user data like photos, messages, or app data, as Apple restricts full device backups to iCloud or iTunes, both of which require an Apple ID.

Unfortunately, no MDM — including Meraki — can prevent iMessage deletion or logging due to Apple’s privacy policies and end-to-end encryption.

If you wish, you can disable iMessage completely via Meraki MDM on supervised devices by applying a restriction profile.

Some usefull links.

Apple User Enrollment Deployment Guide - Cisco Meraki Documentation

Configuration Settings Payload - Restrictions - Cisco Meraki Documentation

MDM para iOS - Impedir a exclusão de mensagens de texto. : r/sysadmin

[BlakeRichardson]

I would suggest setting up Apple business manager if you haven't already and use managed accounts on the devices. This will allow you to backup devices and also make use of features like iCloud drive as well as iMessage and Facetime. 

[nbv]

This is likely the best solution. If the company is currently using iMessage, these users need to be tied to an organization account while using the devices. Apple Business/School Manager is the best solution here even if they don't connect it to Active Directory.