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I have recently started working with Apple Configurator to use features meant for Supervised devices.

In the Restrictions payload there's a key called autonomousSingleAppModePermittedAppIDs with the description below

Optional. Supervised only. If present, allows apps identified by the bundle IDs listed in the array to autonomously enter Single App Mode.
Availability: Available only in iOS 7.0 and later.

I tried sending this key in the restrictions payload with a couple of app identifiers, but could not find any change in the behaviour of the OS. The Guided Access allowed all apps to enter into the SingleApp mode.

What I understand (and expect) from this is we can allow a list of apps to enter Guided Access (Single App) mode and no other app except the allowed ones will be visible on the device. Can you help me understand the things I'm missing or misunderstanding.

Sahil Khanna
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I believe the idea of this key that application itself can request a guided mode (vs guided mode triggered by a user or AppLock profile).

I believe application should use following API to request a guided mode:

void UIAccessibilityRequestGuidedAccessSession(BOOL enable, void(^completionHandler)(BOOL didSucceed));

In the case, if it's not on this list, this request will be rejected.

P.S. A device needs to be supervised.

Victor Ronin
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  • I wasn't able to get this to work. I added the autonomousSingleAppModePermittedAppIDs key with an array of strings with a single entry with the app bundle Id and called `UIAccessibilityRequestGuidedAccessSession` with `enable` set to `YES`. This key is not available through the Apple Configurator, but you can export and edit the config file manually to add the key and values. Does the configuration HAVE to come from an MDM? Can it not be set through Apple Configurator? This is for ios7 BTW. – Sandeep Phadke Mar 26 '14 at 18:45
  • Answering my own comment, but it looks like the config profile HAS to be distributed by MDM only for the UIAccess....() API to work. Relevant answer [linked](http://stackoverflow.com/a/22500240/2259509) – Sandeep Phadke Mar 26 '14 at 20:09
  • The for a device to be supervised. Supervision doesn't have to be over MDM. – Victor Ronin Mar 27 '14 at 12:45
  • Hey, @VictorRonin. Are you sure the supervision doesn't have to be via MDM? I tried installing profile with `autonomousSingleAppModePermittedAppIDs` using Configurator, and it gave this error: http://i.imgur.com/EGMHFm3.png – Nate Nov 02 '15 at 23:21
  • @Nate I am not sure. The answer was for iOS 7. These could have changed in iOS 8 or 9. – Victor Ronin Nov 03 '15 at 00:51
  • @VictorRonin, gotcha. Yes, this was on an iOS 9 device, with original Configurator. – Nate Nov 03 '15 at 04:19
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Apple Configurator doesn't have the settings to manage "autonomousSingleAppModePermittedAppIDs"

Instead I decided to manually edit a profile and include the appropriate XML with the above key (referenced from here).

Upon trying to install the modified profile, Configurator explicitly says "The profile must be installed by a Mobile Device Management server."

The profile will install fine if this key/value pair is removed.

It looks like you MUST use an MDM to install a profile for use with Autonomous Single App Mode.

Community
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Wonky
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I was not able to find autonomousSingleAppModePermittedAppIDs in Apple Configurator. Looks like need to buy Apple Profile Manager (OS X Server in the App Store) for this which costs about $20.

Nate
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zeah
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  • Do you mean "Apple Profile Manager"? If so - does that support this feature? – HaemEternal Sep 04 '15 at 10:56
  • @HaemEternal - yes i meant Apple Profile Manager in OSX Server. There was no need of a down vote here. And also the Profile Manager is broken for this feature right now. Apple confirmed and are working on the fix. – zeah Nov 09 '15 at 18:11
  • @zeah, you say this feature is "broken" in ProfileManager. Can you explain what you mean by that? Is it **missing** from the User Interface? Or, when you push profiles with this setting, they do not install? Do you have a link to an Apple bug report, or somewhere that you found out they're *working* on the problem? Thanks. – Nate Nov 27 '15 at 13:26
  • @Nate - The profile manager doesnt show applications other than the ones that are by apple (like mail, notes, maps etc) for autonomous single app mode support. Apple asked me to use another mdm software till its fixed (directed me to Jamf). – zeah Dec 15 '15 at 06:45
  • Thanks for the update. Did you say that they were going to **add** that feature to ProfileManager for all apps? – Nate Dec 15 '15 at 12:24
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    @Nate - yes they would fix it or should have by now. – zeah Dec 22 '15 at 17:02
  • @zeah - can anyone confirm whether this has been fixed/added yet? – Becca Jun 20 '16 at 17:17