What do you use to manually add a Mac to Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager?

Apple Configurator for iPhone is the designated tool for manually adding Mac computers with Apple silicon or an Apple T2 Security Chip to Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager. This process allows organizations to bring devices that were not purchased through an authorized channel into their management framework. The app on the iPhone works in conjunction with the Mac during its initial Setup Assistant phase to assign the device to the organization's account, enabling automated MDM enrollment and supervision.

A. Apple Configurator for Mac: This application is primarily used for configuring and supervising iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS devices connected via USB; it is not used to add Mac computers to ABM/ASM.

C. System Settings: System Settings is used for configuring the local operating system and user preferences on a Mac, not for adding the hardware record to an organization's deployment account.

D. Xcode: Xcode is Apple's integrated development environment (IDE) for creating applications and has no function related to device enrollment or management in ABM/ASM.

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1. Apple Inc. (2024). Apple Platform Deployment.

Section: "Add devices from Apple Configurator"

Content: "You can use Apple Configurator for iPhone to add... Mac computers with Apple silicon or an Apple T2 Security Chip... to Apple School Manager

Apple Business Manager

or Apple Business Essentials." This section explicitly details the workflow using the iPhone app.

2. Apple Inc. (2023). Apple Configurator User Guide for iPhone.

Section: "Add a Mac to your organization"

Content: This guide provides a step-by-step procedure for using the Apple Configurator app on an iPhone to add a Mac. It specifies the requirements: "Mac computers with Apple silicon or the Apple T2 Security Chip running macOS 12.0.1 or later."