I was given an iPad by my boss to use at the store, but he's not really tech-savvy and it still has a lot of company restrictions in place. I can't download any apps or make changes since it says it's managed and supervised by my company. Is there any way to fix this and remove the restrictions?
5 Answers
Your best bet is to check with your company's IT department. They're the only ones who can remove the restrictions. But don't be shocked if they suggest returning it instead.
You'll definitely need the device management to be removed since you can't do that on the iPad itself. That's really the only way to regain control over it.
Only your company's IT can remove the device from management. If you care about keeping it, have your boss speak to them directly about it. If you go through the process yourself, you might risk them interpreting it as trying to keep something that isn't yours.
First, the IT team needs to unlink the iPad from their Apple Business Manager and remove any management profiles. Each time the iPad powers on, it checks in with Apple servers for management profiles. Once that’s cleared, you can reset it and associate it with your personal Apple ID, which will allow you complete access to it.
Unfortunately, if you don't have the necessary credentials for a factory reset, that iPad is pretty much stuck as is. I have a similar situation with one from a previous job.
Even if you do a factory reset, the device will likely revert to its managed state, because management profiles get enforced upon setup. You'll need the company to take it off the management system to really free it up.
Legally, if your boss was authorized to give it to you and they take it back, that could look sketchy. But if it was more of a casual handoff, then it's a different story.