Forum Discussion
[iOS] does disabling iCloud backup via app assignment work?
Unfortunately, I don't that that method works for your intent. I'm not even sure what it's supposed to do myself. It may only apply to Microsoft's own apps and supporting third-party/Intune-branded apps.
Apple is frustrating because they don't give you an alternative or granular control. It's either disable iCloud all together (which you can do), or have iCloud on.
To disable iCloud altogether: Under the Restrictions Template, go to General --> "Block modification of account settings" and change this to yes. After that, make sure that profile is assigned directly to all devices (use filters if you need to control which ones have that restriction). That stops people from signing into an apple ID if they have not already done that. Disable it and manage all your app deployments through VPP; users might find it annoying, but it saves a lot of headaches with "I forgot my apple id password; can you reset it for me?"
Note for config deployments: If you use groups, it takes too long for a new device to grab those settings, so users can still log in to an apple ID and have iCloud enabled. By speed "All devices" is the fastest, then "All users" is second, and by a significant margin "Groups" is in last place (whether assigned or dynamic).
- underQualifriedFeb 13, 2025Brass Contributor
Thanks for the info. I think we're probably past the point of avoiding headaches, these devices are a mix of Managed Apple ID's and non-managed Apple ID's and BOTH managed/non-managed. Good to know about the grouping delay - when we onboarded, we created groups with the user's Entra IDs, as I couldn't seem to make static groups of their devices until they were paired with a user. Allegedly, this is supposed to be possible, but I figured having the different policies apply as soon as the user logged in was better than waiting until they logged in, then grouping the device