Remove a device

Remove a device

You can remove devices that are being managed by Profile Manager. This unenrolls them from device management, removes all settings and removes any in-house enterprise apps and books on the device. Two of the most common methods are to remove the device from Profile Manager or have the user remove the MDM profile from the device. Revert to Placeholder is intended to be used when a device has been unenrolled outside of Profile Manager (i.e., by removing the MDM profile).

When you remove a device that’s being managed, a device placeholder is left in its place. The placeholder retains the assignment of the device’s profiles and apps, which will be restored to the device if it’s enrolled again. The placeholder also retains the last previously known information about the device, such as its owner, hardware and software configuration, and its Activation Lock Bypass Code. Under some circumstances a device can’t be remotely unenrolled, such as if the user wiped the device or it has been damaged and can’t communicate with Profile Manager. In these instances, you may want to revert the device entry to a placeholder because the unenroll task won’t complete.

  1. In the Profile Manager sidebar, select Devices, then select the device you want to remove.

  2. Click Delete, then select from two options:

    • Select Revert to Placeholder if you want to skip the step of attempting to remove the device over the network and simply mark it as no longer being remotely managed.

    • Select Unenroll to attempt to remove the device over the network and if successful, convert the entry to a placeholder.

    You can remove the device placeholder at any time by deleting by deleting it from the device list.