I'm setting up iPhones through Apple Business Manager and Intune Automated Device Enrollment. The devices are assigned to the correct MDM server in Apple Business Manager, syncing into Intune, showing as ready to enroll, and have an enrollment profile assigned. However, after erasing an iPhone with Apple Configurator, setup goes from Hello > language/region > Wi-Fi straight into normal iPhone setup without displaying the Remote Management screen.
I've already checked that enrollment restrictions allow iOS/iPadOS enrollment, APNs is active, the devices are correctly assigned and haven't been released, they appear under the right enrollment token, and the profile is assigned. I'm also no longer using a dynamic group in the enrollment policy's device group field because that appears to be intended for enrollment-time grouping.
This worked once on one iPhone, but newly erased devices now skip Remote Management. Can Intune show "Ready to enroll" and "Profile Assigned" even when Apple's activation service is not delivering the ADE profile? Is this usually caused by stale assignments, profile or policy differences, or something else? What settings or assignment steps should I check?
1 Answer
In Apple Business Manager, unassign the device from the Intune MDM server, wait for the change to sync, and then assign it back to Intune. After the reassignment reaches Intune, erase and activate the iPhone again. This can refresh the assignment when the device appears ready in Intune but Apple activation is still using stale information.

That fixed it! Is there a reliable way to make the assignment work on the first attempt for future devices?