Apple Configurator Fundamentals

Digital Maestro 

Magazine 

Apple Configurator 

Fundamentals 

Prepare devices for distribution 

Supervise device settings 

Install and manage free Apps 

Create an Apple ID so you can 

download free apps. 

Manage a few or hundreds of iOS 

devices with these basic skills. 

Empower yourself and your students to use iPads or 

iPod Touches for instruction and learning. 

April 2, 2015

Apple Configurator Basics 

Introduction 

What is Apple Configurator and why should I as 

a teacher use this tool in my classroom? Isn’t that 

someone elses job? You might be lucky enough 

to have someone at your campus support and 

maintain the technology, but that isn’t often the 

case. If you have someone, this person is usually 

busy and difficult to find. My focus in these lessons 

is the classroom teacher. I believe as teachers 

we should empower ourselves to manage our 

classroom instruction, and that involves instructional 

technology tools. 

I’ve been a teacher for over twenty years and over 

those twenty years I’ve learned that we wear many 

hats and one of those hats in today’s classroom is 

tech support. That’s why I write this magazine. We 

don’t have time to wait weeks, days or even hours 

for someone to get some technology done for 

us. This is why you should know how to use Apple 

Configurator if you have iOS devices in your 

classroom. 

You probably have a handful of iPads or iPod 

Touch devices in your classroom for students to 

use. If you’re like most teachers you’ve probably 

spent hours downloading and installing apps for 

your students. You’ve probably also spent time 

re-installing Apps after a student has removed 

them from the device. You’ve probably had to reset 

some settings that were changed by students 

and struggled with getting into an iPad after a 

student has set a password. There are probably a 

dozen more things you’ve had to do to make sure 

those devices are working and ready for your students. 

You might have given up and decided not 

to use them. They’re probably locked in a closet 

somewhere never to see the light of day until they 

are sent to that technology cemetery of outdated 

devices. I see that happen all too often in school 

districts. 

I don’t want you to struggle with those iOS devices 

and I want your students to use them. I 

want you to look forward to asking students to 

get those iPads out and get to doing some great 

things. Plan to spend a couple of hours learning 

how to do this. I know how precious your time is 

and that’s why you should spend at least a couple 

of ours learning how to use Apple Configurator. 

Once you learn how Apple Configurator can help, 

you will spend less time managing and more time 

using them. 

When a device isn’t managed, students can get 

into things they shouldn’t. This often means they 

remove apps or change device settings. The most 

important step in preventing students from doing 

stuff they shouldn’t is to have effective classroom 

management. This is true if you are going to use 

technology like iPads or traditional technologies 

like paper and pencil. I want to focus less on what 

they shouldn’t be doing and more on what can be 

done with them and how Apple Configurator can 

help you get things done. 

You won’t be able to get much done if you download 

and start Apple Configurator. You need to 

have some things in place first and you need to 

have some information ready. Apple Configurator 

is a software tool that is designed to help setup 

and manage iOS devices like iPads, iPod Touches 

and iPhones. It can be used to quickly setup one 

to several hundred iOS devices. Apple Configurator 

is easy to use but you need to understand 

some things before it can help you work effectively. 

We will be learning the basics to get you started 

with Apple Configurator. I won’t cover all the 

options available because that would entail an 

lengthy book. Instead I will chunk the instructions 

for you so that in time you will learn all you need 

to know to effectively manage these devices. 

Digital Maestro


What will you need? 

Your OS 

Apple Configurator is a free utility from Apple 

and it can be downloaded through the Apple 

Store. To access the Apple Store, you will need a 

computer with OS X, Version 10.6 or later. Version 

10.6 is Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard is no longer 

available to download from Apple or to Purchase. 

You might be able to find someone selling a copy 

on Ebay or Amazon. The price is usually about 

$20 plus shipping and handling. 

Your RAM 

If your computer does not have at least version 

10.6 of OS X, it might be too slow to help you 

manage the iOS devices. If this is all you have, 

then you might look into upgrading the RAM on 

the computer. Most computers that old came with 

1GB of RAM. You should look into purchasing 

2GB or 4GB of RAM. I recommend 4GB of RAM. 

This additional memory will help compensate for 

the slow processor on the computer. 

The Latest OS X 

Updating to Snow Leopard and updating the 

RAM is only half the process. You need to update 

Snow Leopard to the latest OS X, which is Yosemite. 

If your computer was purchased in 2007 

or later you will be in luck because the minimum 

requirements for Yosemite is an Intel MacBook or 

iMac built in late 2007. If your computer doesn’t 

even match this minimum hardware requirement, 

don’t bother with Snow Leopard or the RAM. 

If you can update to Yosemite then your in luck 

once again because the latest OS X versions are 

free. Go to the Apple Store and search for Yosemite. 

Click the get button and follow the instructions 

for updating your OS X version. 

After Yosemite 

If you are reading this after Yosemite is no longer 

available and the latest OS X version is out, there 

might be issues. I don’t know yet if the newer OS 

X will support your older computer. It might not. I 

will post helpful information if that does happen 

when it happens. 

In the mean time I highly recommend purchasing 

an updated computer to help handle future 

updates from Apple. 

Software Licenses 

Apple Configurator will help you install apps onto 

iOS devices. Apple Configurator is programmed 

to abide by Apple’s software license agreement. 

This means that unless the app is free, you will 

need to purchase a license for any paid apps. 

This includes the installation of even one paid 

app. You will need the Redeem code those that 

apps. Redeem codes are available when apps are 

purchased through the Apple Volume Purchase 

Program. If you are not part of the Apple Volume 

Purchase Program then your district can apply to 

be part of the program. 

Don’t worry too much about not being able to install 

purchased apps through Apple Configurator. 

There are plenty of great free apps to install. In 

the future I will be expanding the list of free education 

apps on my site to help you. 

Digital Maestro


Get An Apple ID 

Having an Apple ID is essential for using Apple 

Configurator to setup your iOS devices. An Apple 

ID is used to authenticate a computer to manage 

your iOS devices and it is used to install Apps 

from the Apple App Store. 

Where do you get an Apple ID? I’m glad you 

asked. In this lesson we will learn how to get our 

own free Apple ID. You might already have an 

Apple ID for your campus or district. How do you 

know if we have one? Ask the technology person 

at your campus or in your district. 

Sometimes campuses or districts will setup Apple 

IDs that can be used to purchase and distribute 

Apps to iOS devices. This is often done in concert 

with Apple’s Volume Purchase Program. Find out 

if there is an Apple ID that can be used by you at 

your campus. If there is, use that. 

An Apple ID is usually an email address. Make 

sure to get the password for the Apple ID too. If 

the district has given you an Apple ID as part of a 

Volume Purchase Agreement, you won’t be able 

to purchase anything with that ID. The ID in this 

case will be used to install apps and manage the 

device only. There is a volumen purchase ID that 

is used to purchase and in some cases distriubute 

those apps onto devices. 

Free’s good, there’s lots of great stuff you can use 

on the iPad for free. On the other hand if your 

district is in the Volume Purchase Program, then 

the district can use that program to purchase lots 

of Apps and media at 50% discounts. You get the 

discount when you purchase 20 or more of one 

item. 

If you don’t have an Apple ID provided by your 

campus or the district, we will walk through the 

process of getting your own Apple ID. Keep in 

mind that this Apple ID is to be used in your classroom 

and associated with the iOS devices you 

plan to manage. Apple IDs are free, so you can 

get one for your class and one for yourself. 

Apple IDs are usually associated with a credit 

card or other payment method. The idea is that 

you will be using this ID to purchase media from 

Apple. In this lesson I will show you how to create 

an Apple ID with the option to opt out of a payment 

method. To get the no payment method 

option we need to select a free application from 

the iTunes Store. 

Start iTunes 

Most people have a personal iTunes account and 

you might be using yours on this computer. If 

you are, you will need to sign out of that account. 

Click on Store in the menu and select sign out. 

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I recommend you use a designated computer in 

the classroom to manage the devices. Try not to 

use your personal computer. If you will be using 

your personal computer and use it to purchase 

items with your personal iTunes account, I recommend 

you create a separate iTunes library. I cover 

the process for creating a separate iTunes library 

at the end of the lesson. A separate iTunes library 

will provide a clear way of separating apps purchased 

with your account from apps purchased 

through your classroom, campus or district. 

If for some reason your personal app purchases 

get mixed in, Apple Configurator will not install 

them and you will get an error message. The error 

message doesn’t tell you exactly what went wrong 

and it can be very frustrating. I know because 

campus technolgists and teachers have called 

me ready to give up because they have made this 

very simple mistake. Head my advice, separate 

your apps. 

You will be prompted to enter your Apple ID and 

password. 

Below the Apple ID login fields, you will see a 

button to create an Apple ID. Click on this button 

to begin. 

Let’s search for a free application to purchase. I’ll 

search for Evernote because I know this App is 

free. Search for this free app or a free app of your 

own. Click on the Get button. 

A welcome page will open. Click the continue 

button. 

A page with Apple’s Terms and conditions will 

open. Click on the box to indicate you have read 

the information and click the agree button. 

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The next step is where you create your Apple ID 

name. Don’t use your personal email. Use your 

personal email for your personal Apple ID. I recommend 

you create an email address just for this 

account. There are lots of services out there that 

provide free email accounts. These include Google, 

Yahoo and Microsoft. Stop here and go create 

an email account using one of these services. 

Enter the email address you created for the Apple 

ID and create a password. I recommend using a 

different password from the one you used for the 

email. Knowing the password for both the email 

and Apple ID is a serious security problem. A 

student could easily change both passwords and 

you would have no way of accessing either. 

Keep the password complex but easy for you to 

remember. For example, the password could be 

aardvark but instead of spelling it the regular way, 

try it this way, @@RdV@rK. I used the @ symbol in 

place of the letter ‘A’ and alternated upper and 

lower case letters. Apple requires that you include 

a number in the password and that the password 

be at least eight characters. To accommodate this 

requirement my password will be @@RdV@rK#1. 

This password is more than eight characters long, 

includes both upper and lower case letters and at 

least one number. 

The security questions are important. If you forget 

the password or Apple ID, Apple will not be 

able to help you until you answer these questions. 

Click on the pull down menu and select a 

question. Provide an answer for each of the three 

questions. 

These security questions are great, but if you are 

in any way involved with social media, most of 

these answers can be easily answers by anyone 

that knows you, and your students pay close attention 

weather you know it or not. 

Digital Maestro


Here’s a trick to up the level of these security 

questions. Provide the answer from one of the 

other questions. For example, for the question 

that asks for your favorite children’s book, which 

you’ve probably read to your students a few 

times, provide the answer to your first car. If the 

Velveteen Rabbit is your favorite children’s book, 

type Mustang for your favorite children’s book. 

For the question about the model of your first car, 

enter Velveteen Rabbit. 

For the third question you could spell out the 

name backwards. For example if you grew up on 

Mocking Bird Lane, Type Lane Bird Mocking. 

Yes, these tricks are all fine but that just makes it 

harder to remember! When you forget a password, 

you’re already stressed about forgetting the 

password or Apple ID. In addition to these tricks, I 

recommend you use a password manager. There 

are several free apps that help keep passwords. 

These apps include Keeper password manager, 

Password Manager, and last pass just to mention 

three. Your probably tempted to write this information 

down on a sticky and place it under one 

of your desk drawers. That could work, just don’t 

forget it’s there. 

Please don’t use stickies I know dozens of teacher 

password because they are taped to their laptop 

or to their screen. 

A rescue email is where Apple will send a link to 

reset your password or with a reminder of your 

Apple ID. This email can be your personal email. I 

recommend you use your personal email because 

if anyone ever tries to reset the password the 

email will go to you and you’ll know somethings 

rotten, and it ain’t that cafeteria food. 

Provide your date of birth. This serves two purposes. 

It identifies you as being older than 13, 

Apple won’t provide IDs for children thirteen or 

younger, and it is one of the security questions. 

Don’t lie on this one. Several teachers have, and 

then can’t remember what date they gave. Provide 

you real birth date. I’m 51 and I’ve managed 

to stick around this long so I’m proud to let people 

know I’m still here and made it through the 

eighties and punk rock music. 

You can choose to receive email from Apple or 

not. Remove the check marks if you don’t want to 

get email from Apple about announcements or 

offers. 

Click the continue button. 

A payment method page will open. We selected 

a free App to purchase and by doing so we are 

provided the option to not provide a payment 

method. This option is automatically selected for 

us. You can use gift cards with an account that 

does not include a payment method. Leave the 

option set at none or choose a payment method 

if you are creating this as a personal account. 

DON’T use your personal credit card for payment 

options with an account that is going to be used 

at your school. That’s just crazy! 

If you have a gift card to use with this account, this 

is the time to enter the redeem code in the box 

provided below the payment methods. 

Provide your campus mailing address. Use your 

personal address for your personal Apple ID account. 

Click the Create Apple ID button. 

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A page will let you know that the email address 

used to create the Apple ID needs to be verified. 

You will be prompted to login with your Apple ID 

to complete the verification process. 

Go over to the email and click on the verify link. 

When the account is verified you will see this verification 

page. 

Now we’re going to use this Apple ID in our next 

step. 

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Authorize iTunes 

We are going to use your Apple ID to authorize 

the computer to manage the iOS devices through 

Apple Configurator. This is an important step. The 

first time I tried to use Apple Configurator it took 

me a couple of days to figure out what was going 

wrong. Not matter what I did, I could not install 

Apps through Apple Configurator onto the iPads. 

Authorizing the computer permits Apple Configurator 

to install Apps onto managed devices. 

Enter your Apple ID and password and click the 

Authorize button. 

A message will display to let you know the computer 

is now authorized to manage the media 

purchased from iTunes. 

That’s all there is to this step. You can quit iTunes. 

Open iTunes and click on the Store option in the 

menu. 

If you are using your personal computer it might 

already be tied to your personal Apple ID account. 

If it is, you will need to log out of the account. 

You won’t loose anything. It’s like logging 

out of your online back account. 

Digital Maestro


Get Apple Configurator 

Apple Configurator is a free application from 

Apple. To run Apple Configurator, you will need 

the latest version of OS X. The current version is 

Yosemite. If you don’t have the current version, 

the App store will not permit you to download 

and install Apple Configurator. Luckily Apple’s 

operating systems are free as long as you have 

a computer with OS 10.6 or later installed. That’s 

the Snow Leopard OS X. 

To begin the installation, click the Get button. 

You will be prompted to enter your iTunes account 

information. Type in your information and 

click the sign in button. 

The App Store will download and install Apple 

Configurator onto the computer. 

Go to the App Store. 

Click once in the search box and type Apple Configurator. 

Press enter to search the App Store. 

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When the installation is done, you will see the 

installation button change to read Open. Click on 

the open button to start Apple Configurator. 

When Apple configurator starts for the first time 

you will see this welcome screen. 

In the future when opening Apple Configurator, 

you can find it in your Applications folder. 

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Reset Your iPads 

The first step is to prepare your devices. This may 

involve two steps on your part. If you’ve been using 

the iOS devices and they currently have Apps 

and accounts setup, you will need to wipe these 

devices before you can use Apple Configurator to 

prepare them. 

You will need to wipe them because we are going 

to use Apple Configurator to manage the devices 

and they cannot have other account or Apps installed 

that may conflict with the way Apple Configurator 

will manage the devices. 

I’ve worked with teachers that have spent hours or 

days setting up their iPads with the settings and 

Apps for their students and frown when I tell them 

it all has to be erased. I let them know that it will 

be alright because this will make their job much 

easier in the future. In the future they won’t have 

to spend hours or days setting up Apps or resetting 

iPads that have been changed by students. 

If you have brand new iOS devices out of the box 

you won’t need to wipe them. Leave them as they 

are, don’t bother going through the setup process 

on each device. That’s Apple Configurator’s 

job. 

If you have new devices in the box, I encourage 

you to read this part, because it might come in 

hand in the future. 

Grab a device and tap on the settings icon. 

In the General settings area scroll down to the 

bottom. 

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At the bottom of the General settings you will see 

a button named “Reset”. Tap on the “Reset” button 

If the devices is protected with a passcode, you 

will be prompted to enter the passcode. 

On the reset page you will see several reset options. 

Tap on the “Erase All Content and Settings” 

button. 

You will see a message letting you know that this 

will delete all media and data from the device. It 

will also reset all settings. Tap the Erase button. 

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Reset Your iPads 

You get one more warning to make sure you want 

to erase the device. Tap the erase button. 

You’ll be prompted to provide the password for 

the iTunes account that is currently associated 

with the device. This might be different from the 

iTunes account we created earlier. Type in the 

password for the account and tap erase. 

The device will now restart and reset itself to the 

original factory settings. The process could take 

a few minutes. You’ll need to do this to all your 

devices. 

Digital Maestro


Preparing Devices 

The first step in the process is to prepare you device 

for supervision. This means that Apple Configurator 

will modify the iOS on the device so that 

it has increased security and can be managed by 

Apple Configurator. 

On the welcome page we see there are three sections. 

The prepare section prepares the device for 

supervision. Once the device is supervised it can 

be assigned to students, if that is your intention. 

You don’t have to assign a device to a student but 

the option is there if you need to do so. In most 

situations you will prepare the device for supervision 

and determine the components of the device 

you want to supervise. This option is best when 

you plan to use a group of devices and don’t want 

to keep track of which student will use a specific 

device. Assigning a device to students takes us to 

another level of supervision and I won’t be covering 

that process in this issue. 

Click on the prepare button and connect one iPad 

to your computer. Start with one iPad because it 

will make the learning process easier. What you 

learn to do with one iPad you can use on a dozen 

to a hundred devices if needed. 

From now on you will see this screen when preparing 

or supervising devices. The welcome 

screen only appears the first time you start Apple 

Configurator. 

Next to the prepare icon you’ll see a number 1. 

This number represents the number of devices 

you will be preparing. If we had ten devices connected 

through a USB hub, then this number 

would appear as 10 next to the icon. 

This number is very useful. I’ve used it often when 

helping teachers prepare several devices. These 

devices are usually in a cart that holds about 

thirty. The number sometimes doesn’t match what 

we have connected. 

This number will not match because of a couple 

of reasons. The cable to the device is loose 

or not connected. The device battery might be 

completely drained and doesn’t have a charge. In 

which case it can’t send a signal to your computer 

to let it know it’s available. 

If the number doesn’t match what you think 

should be connected, check he connections 

first. If the connections are good, then one of 

the devices might not have enough of a charge 

to be recognized by the computer. If the device 

doesn’t have enough charge, you might need to 

wait about five to fifteen minutes for the device to 

have a sufficient charge. 

If the device isn’t connected to a charging cart 

or powered USB hub, then you will need to plug 

it into a charger. Make sure all devices are fully 

charged if they are not connected to a charging 

cart or powered USB hub. If a device runs out of 

power during a preparation or supervision, it will 

not complete the process and you’ll need to do 

that one by itself later. I recommend that all your 

devices are charged at 100% or connected to a 

power source. 

Digital Maestro


Preparing Devices 

The first option you see in the Prepare section 

is the option to name each device and add a 

sequential number to each. This is very useful if 

you want to provide a name and number to each 

device. 

I’ve worked with several teachers that want the 

devices to be numbered according to the number 

on the physical device. For example if they have 

devices numbered from 1 to 30, they want Apple 

Configurator to give them the same number. 

Apple Configurator is software and is not smart 

like we are. It can’t see the number on the device 

and give it the same number internally. Teachers 

get frustrated because the numbers don’t match. 

If you plan to give each a name and number with 

Apple Configurator, keep in mind that the internal 

name and numbering won’t match the external 

name and numbering. If you want to give them 

the number that matches outside, you will need 

to do that one at a time. 

Digital Maestro 

The supervision switch is automatically set to off. 

This is because you don’t have to supervise a 

device. Apple Configurator can be used to prepare 

devices for distribution only. This could be 

distribution to teachers. The purpose in this case 

would be to make sure each has the most current 

iOS installed and to setup some basic configurations 

on each device. The most basic configuration 

would be to setup access to the campus or 

district wireless network. 

Typically we would turn the supervision switch to 

ON and then click the prepare button. If you are 

preparing devices that have been used before 

and you had to reset them, we won’t supervise 

them right away. If you have several devices connected 

to a USB hub or cart we won’t supervise 

them right away either. 

Why not supervise them right away? I’ve done this 

training several times and without fail we forget 

one device or more. There is often some issue 

with one of the devices. During the supervise process, 

Apple Configurator downloads and installs 

the latest version of the iOS. It will do this even 

if the latest version is already installed. With one 

device we will know if there is an issue right away. 

With a dozen or more devices, we won’t know if 

there is an issue for a while. This could typically be 

a few minutes into the the supervise process or at 

the end of the process. If a device encounters an 

error during the supervise process we can’t stop 

the process to take care of that one device. We 

would have to pull that one device, or others if it’s 

more than one and supervise it separately once 

the others are complete. This will add some more 

time to our process. One device could take us a 

half hour or more. Several devices could take a 

few more hours. 

This is why I want to recommend that you hold off 

on the supervision process for a few seconds because 

it could pay off in lost time later. We are going 

to click the prepare button without supervising 

the device or updating the system. The point 

here is to get Apple Configurator to communicate 

with each device and give us instant feedback on 

any issues we might encounter during the supervision 

process. The process will take us less than a 

minute and save us hours later.


Supervising Devices 

In this lesson our goal is to prepare devices so 

they can be supervised for distribution to students. 

If you plan to simply prepare devices for 

teacher distribution without supervision I’m planning 

on covering that in a separate issue. 

Leave the supervision option off and click on the 

update iOS pull down menu and select never update 

device. Leave the other options as you see 

them in this example. Click the prepare button at 

the bottom. 

Apple Configurator will begin to prepare the 

device. This will only take a few seconds with one 

device. With several devices it could take a minute 

or less. I’ve done this with about 35 devices at 

once and had results in less than a minute. 

Turn the Supervision switch on. 

Click on the Organization Info. 

If everything wen’t well then you will see a screen 

like this with a checkmark next to each device. 

This means that Apple Configurator did not encounter 

any issues with the device. 

Apple Configurator will prompt you to enter this 

information when supervising devices so let’s do 

it now. This information is embedded onto the device 

and can be very useful when trying to recover 

a lost or stolen device. Police can use this information 

to verify the device belongs to your campus 

or district. 

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I recommend providing your campus name, 

phone number and address. Don’t provide the 

specific name of an individual because we all 

know that personnel at the campus can change 

over time. Don’t provide the email for yourself or 

anyone at the campus because you or that person 

might not be there in the future. 

Click Done. 

Click on the Setup section. 

We reset the devices and in doing so the devices 

return to their factory settings. This means they 

are like they came out of a fresh box. You will 

need to go through the typical setup process. 

That’s several steps. In the Setup section we can 

instruct the devices to skip some of the questions 

and save us some time. This is also useful if you 

plan to distribute the devices to teachers during a 

professional development. It can save you some 

time in walking them through the process. 

Place a check mark next to each of the steps you 

want to skip during the setup process on each 

device. 

I’ve placed a check mark next to all the options. I 

plan to control all of these later with a profile. 

Click back on the Setting section. 

I mentioned a Profile. A Profile is a set of instructions 

and settings that can be set on each device. 

In this example we will create a simple Profile for 

the devices. I won’t go into detail on all the possible 

settings in this issue. I plan to cover this in 

a separate lesson. Most of the settings are self 

explanatory but others require some background 

information. 

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Click on the plus button at the bottom of the Profiles 

box. Select Create New Profile from the menu 

options. 

At the bottom we see a security option. The automatic 

setting is set to always. This is a good 

setting but I like to change it. Why? Good question. 

The always option is good but it displays a 

remove option button on the device. This means 

that anyone with the correct password can remove 

the Profile. We don’t want to provide the 

option for anyone to remove the Profile. The 

ultimate aim is to provide secure devices that 

can be used by all students and where students 

cannot have the opportunity to bypass any of our 

settings. 

The first section we see is the General section. In 

this section we need to provide a name for our 

profile. I recommend naming the profile for your 

campus or district, but you can give it any name 

you want. In future issues I will discuss the use of 

multiple profile options. 

This is the only required field. For this example 

well leave the other fields empty. Scroll down in 

the General section area to the bottom. 

Click on the pull down menu and select never. 

The never option provides the same security but 

does not present a remove button on the device. 

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Click on the Wi-Fi section and click on the Configure 

button. 

Select the security type from the security type pull 

down menu. You will need to get this from your 

campus or district network person. 

In the first box provide the name of your wireless 

network. 

Type in the password for the secure wireless network 

type. That’s all we’ll do with this Profile for 

now. Click the Save button. 

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computer. In the future it will simply install the 

latest update. Updating each device could take 

between ten to fifteen minutes. The more devices 

you have connected the longer it will take. 

The Profile will appear in the Profiles box. It isn’t 

automatically selected for installation onto our 

devices. This is because we can create multiple 

profiles to deal with multiple devices or groups of 

devices. Place a check mark on the profile. 

When the process is complete, the device will no 

longer appear in the Prepare section. It will be 

placed in the Supervision section. Next to the icon 

in the Supervision section, you will see a number 

representing the devices that are supervised. 

Click on the Supervise section. 

We are now ready to supervise our device. Click 

the Prepare button at the bottom. You will be 

prompted to apply the settings to the device. 

Click the Apply button. 

We skipped the Apps section for now. I’ll cover 

that later. 

Apple Configurator will download the latest 

version of the iOS for your devices and install it 

onto each device. Apple configurator will only 

download the latest iOS once and save it on your 

You’ll see the supervised devices listed on the left. 

Each device that is currently connected will have 

a green dot next to its name. On the right side 

you’ll see similar options to the ones we saw in 

the Prepare section. 

Digital Maestro


Managing Apps 

One of the advantages of using Apple Configurator 

is that we can install Apps onto the device 

quickly. This is much faster and less tedious than 

installing each app on each device. In this lesson 

we’ll learn how to install Apps onto devices. There 

are two class of Apps we can install onto devices. 

Free Apps can be easily installed and this is what 

we will focus on in this lesson. Paid apps are a 

little more difficult to work with because they 

require that you have a Volume Purchase Program 

Account. I’ll go over the differences in the lesson. 

Before we can use Apple Configurator to install 

Apps onto devices, we need to download them 

with iTunes first. 

Switch over to Apple Configurator and click on 

the Supervision icon. 

Click on the Apps section. 

Open iTunes 

Find some free apps and download them with 

iTunes. Free apps have the Get button. 

Enter the password to your classroom or campus 

Apple ID when prompted. You will only be 

prompted to provide the password once per 

session. This means that the next time you start 

iTunes and wish to download free Apps, you will 

be prompted for the password again. Download 

as many free apps as you like and would like to 

install onto the devices. 

This is where we manage the Apps we plan to 

install onto devices. 

The first thing we need to do is import the Apps 

from iTunes. Click on the plus icon at the bottom 

of the section. 

Digital Maestro


Apple Configurator will find the current active 

iTunes library and take you to the mobile Apps 

section. This is a list of all the Apps you downloaded 

through the iTunes App store. You will 

need to select the apps to import into Apple Configurator. 

If you are using this library for the device 

Apps only, then you can select all of them. 

You will be prompted to provide the Apple ID 

and password for these Apps. This has to be the 

same ID used when downloading the Apps. This 

is where you could encouter an error if you are 

mixing your personal apps with classroom apps. 

Your personal apps are under one account and 

classroom apps are under another account. You 

can only use one account to install apps through 

Apple Configurator. 

I’ll select all my Apps and click the Select button. 

You can select all of them by clicking on one app 

then using the short cut key Command A. 

In this example I’ve downloaded and imported 

some paid Apps to demonstrate the difference 

between them when it comes to installing them 

onto devices. You shouldn’t see this message if all 

you did was download free Apps. 

Digital Maestro


Managing Apps 

The Apps are listed in alphabetical order automatically. 

There is a check box to the left of each 

App. This is so you can select the Apps you want 

to install onto devices. Why not just install all of 

them? Great question! Your devices might not 

have enough space to install all the Apps available 

under your account. You might also have 

devices that are designated for different grade 

levels. In this case you can install Apps that are 

specific to those grade levels. You might have one 

App that is to be used by a special needs student 

and in that case you can make sure it is installed 

onto one device only. This is important when 

dealing with apps purchased through the Volumen 

Purchase Program. If only one app is purchased 

it can only be installed onto one device. 

I can select the Apps I want to install by placing a 

check mark next to each App. 

To install all the Apps, I can click on the select all 

button at the bottom of the section. This button 

selects or unselects all the Apps. 

In my example I want you to notice that not all the 

Apps are selected. The check mark for these Apps 

is whited out. That’s because these Apps were 

purchased. Purchased Apps cannot be distributed 

with Apple Configurator without the proper 

redemption codes. 

Notice that there is an exclamation mark and a 

number box to the right of the paid apps. 

Digital Maestro


If I click on the number box, I will get an option to 

import redemption codes. These codes are provided 

through the Volume Purchase Program. The 

codes are downloaded in a spreadsheet file. This 

file is imported by clicking the Import Redemption 

Codes button. Without a redemption code, 

these apps will not be installed onto any device. 

To install the fee Apps onto the devices, click the 

Apply button. 

One of the drawbacks with managing Apps 

through Apple Configurator is that you need to 

keep importing apps from iTunes. Another drawback 

is that Apple Configurator does not automatically 

retrieve the latest version of the Apps. 

Before you drop your head in disappointment, 

keep in mind that this could be a good thing. 

Children and adults don’t always like change. 

Apps can change drastically and children might 

have difficulty with the change. As a teacher you 

don’t want to pause your lesson because an app 

was recently updated and students aren’t familiar 

with the changes. This recently happened with a 

tool called Penultimate. The new version is great 

but it was very different in many ways from the 

previous version. 

If you like having the latest version of any app 

then there is an option for you. I will demonstrate 

how to keep your apps updated at the end of the 

lesson. 

The process for installing apps onto the devices 

will depend on the number of apps you will install 

and the size of the apps. When the process is 

complete we can take a look at what we’ve done. 

Digital Maestro


Managing Apps 

When the process is complete, click the stop 

button at the bottom. Disconnect the device from 

the computer. It doesn’t have to be ejected. Go 

through the setup process. During this process 

you will select the language and country as usual. 

When you get to some other steps in the process 

the will either not appear or already include the 

information. In our case the WiFi network should 

already be set and all you need to do is click the 

next button. In my example I placed a check mark 

on all the options to bypass, so I won’t be asked 

about the license agreement, Apple ID setup and 

some other usual setup settings. 

Once the setup is complete check the installed 

apps on the iPad. You have just prepared and 

supervised your first device. I recommend you 

go through the process with one or two more 

devices before you jump into prepareing dozens 

or more. The practice will be worth the price of 

frustration if you forget a step in the process. 

Digital Maestro


App Updates 

Devices can be set to automatically download 

and install App updates. This setting is usually 

turned on automatically. To verify follow the steps 

below. Use these same steps to turn off automatic 

updates. 

On the device tap on the Settings icon. 

The option to automatically update the apps is 

turned on. This means that apps will automatically 

be updated on the device as they become available. 

This doesn’t mean that the update will be 

installed as soon as it is available. The iOS device 

will wait until there is not activity for a while, usually 

overnight, and then download the updates. If 

you plan to rely on updates through this function, 

I recommed you plug in the devices to power 

source every evening and make sure they have 

access to a WiFi network. 

In the settings look for the iTunes & App Store 

section. Tap on this section. 

Digital Maestro

Apple Configurator Fundamentals

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