You want to make sure that the device you are buying is not under MDM management. MDM stands for Mobile Device Management, but doesn’t just apply to Mobile devices. They can set all kinds of policies for the device to follow such as blocking software and application updates. I’ll provide a link to the full list at the bottom of this article on everything they have control over, which would probably be easier to list what they DON’T have control over.
It’s their machine, they have every right to manage it the way they want. MDM is very popular in schools and just about any corporation with 10 or more employees. It’s also very popular for people to purchase their work laptop or desktop when a new round of upgrades come out, but no one bothered to take the devices off the MDM list. So, the employee finds out about it down the road when trying to do something and is able to get it remedied with his MDM administrator. But, quite often, it’s not discovered until a machine/device is sold and the new owner wants to make a change, upgrade OS’s, whatever it might be that they are met with a window telling them it’s controlled by So and So Corporation or a School.
Anyway, we’ll begin on the Mac.
If you want to skip down to the iPhone/iPad section, click here.
First thing you want to do is go to the Apple menu and System Settings…
Next, your System Settings will pop up, scroll down to Privacy & Security on the left hand side:
Next, you will want to scroll down on the right side to a field labeled Profiles:
Go ahead and click or tap on Profiles:
The above will be listed, ideally, empty is what we like to see. There shouldn’t be any profiles there for any reason. If a profile does show up, you can click on it to get more information on what it does, but at that point, I would probably be asking some questions. If they can’t remove the profile right there and then, pass on the deal and tell them if they get rid of that, maybe you’ll still buy it or just move on.
Checking a mobile device, you will want to go to the Settings app, and then this screen will appear, scroll down to General:
Tap on General, scroll down to VPN & Device Management:
Tap on VPN & Device Management and a new screen will open like this:
Again, we have my Email account profile, but ideally for a device you are buying, this should be entirely empty. You can tap on the Profile and get a more detailed explanation and also a “Remove” button if that’s an option.
