Figurin' Out Apple Configurator - Assign

I've been responsible for deploying over sixty iPads in a school which is small fry when I google and find schools deploying over 300 plus devices.  Click here to read my post on 'Figurin' out Apple Configurator.'

In Apple Configurator, under 'Supervise' I created groups for each class, like 'Room 13.'  I then selected the iPads I wanted to add to this group, and dragged and dropped them into the Group 'Room 13.'

Some of our junior classes wanted different apps, so I created a Junior back up and a Senior back up.  In my last post I blogged about creating a back-up to deploy iPads.  A back up can be done in the prepare pane or in the 'Supervise' pane (if the supervised iPads have already been through the prepare stage).

We decided to put about six iPads into each classroom.  At this stage we still need to sort out a few things, like printing and Dropbox.  So for this reason I decided to 'Assign' the devices.  'Assign' allows you to back up users work, data, and settings.  If you don't want to use 'Assign' you can just configure your iPads in 'Supervise' and give them to the end user.

In 'Assign' I had a Group, ie Room 13.  For this group I had to create five Users, ie Rm 13-1, Rm 13-2, Rm 13-3, Rm 13-4, Rm 13-5.  The reason for this is you can't of course 'Assign' five iPads to one classroom.  I could then 'check out' five iPads to this group.  If you are setting up an iPad Cart click here for a pdf with more information.


Assign...
I really played around with 'Assign'...and found out a few things.  So, lets use the example above.  I assigned a group of five iPads to Room 13.  I hadn't yet given these iPads to the class.  After assigning to this group I noticed I'd forgotten to add a few apps and some apps needed updating.

First I 'checked in' all the iPads for this group.  I removed the restrictions.  After updating some apps in iTunes I imported them into Apple Configurator.  The easiest way to do this is to sort by dated modified, this puts the most recent apps at the top of the list.

I then selected some apps that I'd forgotten to add.  Then I clicked 'Apply.'  Once the apps were added I some in folders on the iPad itself.  I checked the layout of the iPad and went and created a new back-up.

I then applied this new back-up to the other four iPads (I removed the restrictions first).  Wow!  I thought this was great...all the iPads had the new apps, the apps that needed updating, and they all looked the same.  I then went into Assign and assigned this group of iPads back to Room 13.

Hmm....after checking out these iPads in 'Assign' the iPads all looked different!  The new apps were there...but not in folders.  The iPads had reverted back to the original back-up applied to the iPad.  In fact I had discovered that when you 'Assign' out a group of iPads to the same group/users it remembers the last configuration used, i.e. the back-up used to prepare the device, or the back-up applied in the 'Supervise' pane.

To get around this I deleted the Group and Users in 'Assign.'  I created a new Group and Users, checked out the iPads and they all looked exactly like the most recent back-up I'd applied.  Yeah!

In the future I am thinking that if I needed to do a lot of app updates or add apps would it just be easier to create a new back up on one device and use this to configure a groups of iPads for each class.  However, if I were going to continue to use 'Assign' I'd need to create a new group/users for each class. If I didn't use 'Assign' all iPads would look the same and this would be a much easier process...

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