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Autopilot & Hybrid-Joined devices: I've noticed that while Microsoft has promoted that Autopilot is definitely an option for those customers with Active Directory interested in moving to the cloud, I've also noticed Microsoft has also frequently and strongly recommended against this. My question is what are the known issues behind Microsoft's recommendation to avoid using Autopilot for hybrid-joining devices?
- Joe_LurieDec 11, 2025
Microsoft
stdcsb There are a number of reasons where Entra-joined is better than hybrid-joining a device. Mainly, the device works anywhere there is an internet connection: whether in the office or out of the office, and you can enable Conditional Access, MFA, and other Zero Trust principles even without relying on an on-prem infrastructure.
To your question on what are the known issues with Hybrid-joining during Autopilot that make us recommend Entra-joined instead, there's only one main issue and that's the VPN configurations necessary to enable Hybrid-joining during Autopilot. But the reason for our recommendation isn't so much an Autopilot reason but more of a 'moving from hybrid joined to Entra-joined requires a device reset' and since Autopilot is provisioning a brand-new or resetting an existing device, this is the perfect place to take advantage of the new device being Entra-joined. And once it's Entra-joined, then you get the other benefits, such as those I listed above.