How to Fix This iPhone is Supervised by Another Computer

Problem: This iPhone is Supervised by Another Computer

iPhone is Supervised by Another Computer

I'm getting the "this iPhone is supervised by another computer and cannot be used with this computer" error and don't know what is causing it.

- Question from Apple Community

This problem usually occurs on second-hand iPhones or iPhones purchased by companies or schools. If you do not want the iPhone to be supervised, you can take some measures to remove supervision from iPhone.

Why New iPhone is Supervised by Another Computer

The iPhone you just got prompts you that the iPhone is supervised by another computer, which means that your iPhone may be a phone that has been used by the school or company.

For compliance and security purposes, the school or company will supervise these iPhones and set a special password for protection. Users can neither operate certain applications on the iPhone nor connect to any other computer.

This kind of operation is called Mobile Device Management (MDM), which is the most commonly used security feature in businesses and schools. Once the iPhone is supervised, the iPhone cannot be connected to any other computer because it is protected by a special password. If you get such a phone, you need to delete the MDM before you can perform any operations on the iPhone.  

How to Know Who is Supervising This iPhone

How can I know who is supervising my phone when I just got it? You can follow the steps below to check if your iPhone is supervised by another computer.

1. Open Settings on the iPhone.

2. On the Settings page, you will see whether the iPhone is supervised or not. If it is supervised, it will show that “This iPhone is supervised and managed by xxx". From here, you can know who is supervising this iPhone.

3. If you want to see what features are disabled on this iPhone, you can tap General, then scroll down the page, find and tap VPN & Device Management to see what type of changes are made on this iPhone.

How to fix “this iPhone is supervised by another computer” problem? We have provided you with 8 ways to remove device supervision from iPhone below, and we believe there will be a method for you.

How to Remove Device Supervision from iPhone

If your iPhone is supervised by another computer, and you already know who supervises the iPhone and the information that is restricted on the iPhone, you can try the following 8 ways to remove device supervision, but only if you know the lock screen password of that iPhone.

Method 1. Check the Device Management Profile

How to fix this iPhone is supervised by another computer? You can remove device supervision by deleting the MDM configuration file on the iPhone. But the premise is that the administrator who sets up supervision for the iPhone does not restrict the user's right to delete the configuration file, and you need to know the iPhone's MDM configuration password, then this method can be executed.

1. Open Settings on your iPhone.

2. Tap General.

3. Find and tap Device Management.

4. If your iPhone has an MDM profile, you will see it in Device Management.

5. After that, choose Remove Management and enter the password (this password is the MDM configuration password).

Method 2. Remove Supervision via MDM (Mobile Device Management)

 If you are an administrator, you can set the iPhone to allow pairing with macOS computers in the DEP account of MDM, but this method needs to be done when setting up the DEP account for the first time.

The setting to allow pairing with macOS computers in the DEP account has been enabled in iOS 13 and OS 10.15.

1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac computer with a USB cable. When the trust prompt appears, click Trust this computer.

2. Open Apple Configurator 2.5 or later on computer. Make sure it is displayed and the iPhone is not supervised.

3. Click iPhone, and then right-click to select the Ready button.

4. Select Manual Configuration, then select Add to Device Enrollment and Allow devices to pair with other computers, then click Next.

5. After that, just follow the prompts for the next steps.

Method 3. Use Apple Configurator 2 App to Remove Supervision

Apple Configurator 2 is a free Mac OS tool that can configure iPhone through a USB connection and supervise the iPhone, as well as remove the supervision of the iPhone through it. But using Apple Configurator 2 to delete iPhone supervision will erase the data on the iPhone, so you need to back up the iPhone data first. 

★Tips:

This method requires an administrator to execute, if you are not an administrator, please contact the administrator.

If you do not have Apple Configurator 2, you can download and install Apple Configurator 2 on your Mac from the App Store.

1. Connect the iPhone to the Mac computer via USB cable.

2. Then launch Apple Configurator 2 application.

3. Find your iPhone in Apple Configurator.

4. Select Actions in the taskbar, and then click Advanced.

5. Finally choose Erase All Content and Settings.

Method 4. Put iPhone into Recovery Mode

After discovering that the iPhone is supervised by another computer, you can put iPhone in recovery mode, which may solve the “this iPhone is supervised by another computer” problem. This method requires the use of iTunes, so you need to download the latest version of iTunes on your computer.

1. Connect the iPhone to the computer with the USB cable and enable iTunes.

2. Quickly press and release the Volume Up button > Quickly press and release the Volume Down button > Press and hold the Side button until the recovery mode screen appears (or press and hold the Power button and Home button).

3. After that, iTunes will recognize the iPhone and prompt you whether you want to restore the iPhone, click OK.

4. Then choose to Restore iPhone.

5. Select Restore on the pop-up window. Then follow the prompts of iTunes to make it.

Method 5. Reset iPhone

You can also reset your iPhone to solve the “this iPhone is supervised by another computer” problem. Please note that it will erase all iPhone data.

1. Open iPhone Settings.

2. Tap General and select Reset. (In iOS 15, you should first tap Transfer or Reset iPhone, then tap Reset.)

3. Select Erase All Content and Settings.

4. Enter the password to start the process.

Method 6. Change Miradore and Apple Business/School Manager Configuration

If the iPhone is still supervised by another computer after restoring the iPhone to factory settings and resetting, you can try to change the configuration of Miradore and Apple Business/School Manager to remove device supervision from iPhone.

1. Click Register on Miradore, and then select the Apple DEP page.

2. Select the device to be unsupervised.

3. Then click Actions and select Delete Registration Profile.

4. Then reset the iPhone to factory settings.

After completing the above operations, you can open the settings to see if the iPhone is still supervised.

Method 7. Remove iPhone from Apple Business

If your iPhone is supervised by Apple Business, then you need to use a managed account to delete the supervised iPhone.

1. Use a management account to log in to Apple Business.

2. Find the iPhone you want to delete in the device management taskbar, or search for your iPhone using the serial number, order number, or CSV file.

3. After you find the iPhone you want to delete, read the pop-up dialog box and then click Release Device.

4. Then an additional dialog box will pop up to let you understand that after your device is removed from Apple Business, you will not be able to assign your iPhone to the MDM server. Tick I know this cannot undo the deletion to remove iPhone.

Method 8. Put iPhone into DFU Mode

If your iPhone cannot delete the supervision settings by restoring to factory settings, then you can put your iPhone in DFU, which may help you remove device supervision from iPhone.

1. Launch the latest version of iTunes on the computer and connect the iPhone to the computer.

2. Then turn off the iPhone, and then press and hold the Power button for about 3 seconds after shutting down.

3. Then press and hold the Power button and the Volume Down button at the same time for about 10 seconds.

4. Then release the Power button and continue to hold down the Volume Down button for about 5 seconds.

5. If the screen remains black all the time, then the iPhone has entered DFU mode.

6. After that, check if your iPhone is detected on iTunes.

7. If the iPhone is detected, follow the instructions on iTunes to restore the iPhone.

How to Backup iPhone before Factory Reset

We mentioned more than once in the above method that removing device supervision from iPhone. requires resetting iPhone, and resetting also means wiping all the data on iPhone, so you need to backup iPhone before wiping data. You can back up your data to iTunes or iCloud, or you can also back up your data to your computer via FoneTool.

FoneTool is a professional iPhone data backup software that supports multiple backup methods. You can back up all data or selected files from iPhone to computer, external hard drive, flash drive. Compared with iTunes and iCloud, FoneTool backup iPhone data does not require you to log in to your Apple ID account, so it is very convenient to use.

How to Backup iPhone with FoneTool

1. Download and install FoneTool.

2. Connect your iPhone to computer with USB cable, when you connect to computer for the first time, iPhone will prompt you if you trust this computer, just click Trust.

3. Open FoneTool, then click Phone Backup, Choose Full Backup or Selective Backup to selectively backup your photos, videos, messages, etc, then, click Get Started to begin.

You can also click Transfer to Computer option to transfer data from iPhone to computer as backup.

4. You can choose the backup path. After setting the backup path, click Start Backup.

Final Words

In this article, we have provided you with 8 ways to fix this iPhone is supervised by another computer problem. If you encounter such a situation, you can try the methods in this article to remove device supervision from iPhone.

But we remind you that no matter which of the above methods you use, you need to back up your iPhone data to prevent it from being erased when you delete the iPhone supervision settings. If your iCloud space is full and you can't connect to iTunes, then you can use FoneTool to back up the data on your iPhone, which provides faster backup and more comprehensive services.