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Getting Started Guide

Welcome to Addigy! We're excited to help you streamline your Apple device management with efficient operations and direct control. To ensure your trial experience is perfectly tailored to your needs, we'll guide you through a quick personalization process.

 

Part 1: Setup Wizard 

Upon initial login, a guided setup helps configure Addigy to your organization's needs, Apple devices, and priorities. This customizes your dashboard to display relevant features. You can invite team members during this phase or add them later. Afterward, you can perform essential tasks such as generating your Apple Push Certificate, enrolling devices, and configuring policies.

Part 2: MDM Configuration

Addigy uses Apple's Mobile Device Management (MDM) protocol to securely communicate with and manage your devices. Before you can enroll any devices, you need to create and upload an Apple Push Certificate to your Addigy account. This certificate is the security foundation that allows Addigy to manage your devices remotely.

Note: A complete Addigy MDM setup includes configuring Apple Business Manager (or Apple School Manager), but you can do that later. However, if you intend to use ABM/ASM, the Apple ID used to create your Push Certificate should be from the same organization that owns the ABM/ASM account and the devices.

 

Create and Upload Your Apple Push Certificate

On the onboarding dashboard, you'll see the first major task: "Let's create an Apple Push Certificate". Click the "Add Push Certificate" button or the task itself to begin.

A modal window will appear with clear step-by-step instructions:

  1. Download the Addigy CSR file — A Certificate Signing Request (.plist) file specific to your Addigy account
  2. Upload to Apple's Push Certificate Portal — Visit Apple's Push Notification Portal and upload your CSR file
  3. Generate your certificate — Complete Apple's process to generate a .pem file

  4. Upload to Addigy — Download the .pem file from Apple and upload it back to Addigy

    Click the "Addigy CSR" button to download your Certificate Signing Request file. Save this file—you'll need it for the next step.

Why This Matters: The Push Certificate is the foundation of MDM. Without it, Addigy cannot securely communicate with your devices using Apple's MDM protocol. This is a one-time setup that typically takes just a few minutes.

Visit Apple's Push Certificate Portal

Note: When using Addigy for Multi-Tenancy to create your APNs certificate, it is best to use an Apple Account that belongs to the customer with their domain and, if possible, that multiple people can access. If you or your customer have ABM/ASM, you can create a new managed Apple Account with the Staff role and use this account for your APNs certificate.

The onboarding interface will direct you to Apple's Push Notification Portal (also called the Apple Push Certificates Portal). Navigate to this portal using a web browser.

In the portal, you'll see a section titled "Certificates for Third-Party Servers" which lists any existing MDM push certificates, along with their service type, vendor, expiration dates, and status.

For Addigy, you'll be creating a new certificate under the "Mobile Device Management" service. The portal provides a "Create a Certificate" button (shown in green) to start the process.

Upload Your CSR File to Apple

Once you click "Create a Certificate" in the Apple portal, you'll see a screen titled "Create a New Push Certificate" with instructions to upload your Certificate Signing Request.

Here's what you'll do:

  1. Click "Choose File" to browse for the Addigy CSR file you downloaded earlier
  2. Optionally add Notes to identify this certificate (for example: "Company Name")
  3. Click "Upload" to submit your request

The Apple portal will process your CSR file and generate a .pem certificate file for you.

Download Your Certificate from Apple

After uploading your CSR, Apple will generate and confirm your new Push Certificate. The portal will show you a confirmation screen with the certificate details:

Click the "Download" button to save the .pem certificate file to your computer. You'll need this file for the next step.

Return to Addigy and Upload Your Certificate

Back in Addigy's onboarding interface, you'll see the push certificate creation workflow. Upload the .pem file you just downloaded from Apple:

  1. Click the upload area or "Choose File" button
  2. Select your downloaded .pem certificate file
  3. Click "Upload" to finalize the certificate in Addigy

Addigy will validate your certificate and confirm it's been successfully added to your account.

Fill out the required information for naming the certificate & the Apple ID used to create the certificate. 

Certificate Confirmation

A success screen will appear confirming that your new Apple Push Certificate has been created and is now active in your Addigy account.

At this point, you have the security foundation in place to manage devices. Your push certificate is valid and ready to support MDM communications.

Note: The steps shown are for accounts that only need one Enrollment Profile. If your organization needs multiple profiles (MSPs for example), we recommend using only internal or test devices for this guide. Later you can decide whether to use policy-scoped Enrollment Profiles or separate child accounts.

🤩 Great job! Setting up MDM is one of the trickier parts of getting started with Addigy. Now we can add devices and see how Addigy works.

Part 3: Enrolling Your First Device

Now that your Apple Push Certificate is configured and active, you're ready to add devices to Addigy. Enrolling a device into Addigy means installing an Enrollment Profile onto that device, which establishes the secure MDM connection between the device and your Addigy account. Once enrolled, Addigy can monitor, manage, and deploy settings and software to your devices remotely.

From your main Getting Started dashboard, you'll see the next task: "Enrolling Your First Devices". Click "Let's enroll devices" to begin the enrollment process.

Step 1: Click on the Let’s Enroll Devices Option​

Step 2: Select an Enrollment Policy

At the top of the Add Devices page, you'll see a dropdown menu asking you to select a policy. Policies in Addigy are collections of settings, software, and configurations that get deployed to devices. Every device must be assigned to at least one policy.​

For now, select the default policy that was created during your account setup (you can change this later). This assigns your test device to a policy immediately upon enrollment, which will allow you to explore policy features in the next phase.​

Once you select a policy, the enrollment options will appear below.

Why This Matters: Selecting a policy during enrollment means your device will automatically be assigned to that policy when it checks in, saving you a manual assignment step later.​

Step 3: Choose Manual Device Enrollment

You'll see several enrollment method options. For your first device, select "Device Enrollment" (also called Manual Device Enrollment). This method works for any Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV that you want to manage, regardless of whether it's in Apple Business Manager.​

The interface will display three convenient ways to distribute the enrollment profile to your device:

Download Profile — Downloads the .mobileconfig file directly to your computer, which you can then transfer to the target device via AirDrop, email, USB, or any file-sharing method.​

Copy URL — Provides a unique enrollment URL that you can paste into a browser on the target device, or send via email or messaging to your users.​

Scan QR Code — Displays a  QR code that can be scanned with a mobile device's camera to instantly download the enrollment profile (great for iOS and iPadOS devices).​

Step 4: Download or Copy the Enrollment Profile

For a Mac enrollment, the easiest method is to copy the enrollment URL:

  1. Click "Copy URL" to copy the enrollment link to your clipboard
  2. The URL is now ready to be pasted into a browser on your test Mac

For an iOS or iPad enrollment, you can either copy the URL or use the QR code:

  1. Click "Scan code" to display the QR code
  2. Open the Camera app on your iOS/iPadOS device and point it at the code
  3. Tap the notification that appears to download the profile

Pro Tip: This same enrollment URL can be sent to multiple users or devices. For example, you could send it in a bulk email to your team, and each person can use the same link to enroll their device into the selected policy.​

Step 5: Install the Enrollment Profile on Your Device

Now we'll complete the enrollment on the target device itself. The process varies slightly between macOS and iOS/iPadOS:

For macOS Devices:

  1. On your test Mac, open a web browser (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc.)
  2. Paste the enrollment URL into the address bar and press Enter
  3. The .mobileconfig file will download automatically
  4. Depending on your macOS version, you may see a notification or the file may appear in your Downloads folder
  5. Navigate to System Settings (macOS Ventura and later) or System Preferences (earlier versions)
  6. Click on Privacy & Security > Profiles or look for a "Profile Downloaded" notification
  7. Find the Addigy enrollment profile in the list
  8. Click "Install" and enter your administrator password when prompted
  9. Review the profile details and click "Install" again to confirm
  10. Once installed, the device will immediately check into Addigy MDM

Note: The approval process and terminology can vary slightly between macOS versions, but the general flow is the same: download, approve, and install.​

For iOS/iPadOS Devices:

  1. After scanning the QR code or opening the enrollment URL in Safari, you'll see a prompt: "This website is trying to download a configuration profile. Do you want to allow this?"
  2. Tap "Allow"
  3. A second prompt will appear: "Profile Downloaded. Review the profile in Settings if you want to install it."
  4. Open the Settings app on your device
  5. At the top of Settings, you'll see "Profile Downloaded" — tap on it
  6. Review the Addigy enrollment profile details
  7. Tap "Install" in the upper right corner
  8. Enter your device passcode if prompted
  9. Read the Remote Management warning and tap "Install" again to confirm
  10. Tap "Trust" when asked about Remote Management
  11. Once complete, tap "Done"

The device is now enrolled in Addigy MDM.​​

Step 6: Verify Enrollment in Addigy

Return to your Addigy dashboard and navigate to the Devices page from the left sidebar. Within a few moments (typically 30-60 seconds), your newly enrolled device should appear in the device list.​

You'll see key information about the device:

  • Device name
  • Device type (Mac, iPhone, iPad)
  • Last check-in time
  • Assigned policy or policies
  • Online/offline status

Nicely done! Your device is now fully enrolled and ready to be managed through Addigy. Not only is this specific device ready for management, but you can also reuse that same enrollment URL for any additional devices you want to add to the same policy—just send the link via email, post it on your intranet, or distribute it however works best for your organization.​

 

Additional reading:

Part 4: Policies

In Addigy terms, a Policy is a collection of settings and assets to be applied to many devices at once. Addigy automates the enforcement of those settings and deploys any assets to the assigned devices.

Here’s how policies work:

  1. You create and configure policies with settings and assets (like software, profiles, etc)
  2. You assign devices to one or more policies
  3. Addigy automates the deployment of any updated policy changes when devices check in
Diagram showing how policies automate the deployment of assets to devices. Assets can be things like pre-packaged or custom software, scripts, or MDM configuration profiles.

Policies can be configured in just about any way to fit the structure of your organization. Our support team and the Addigy community can help with recommendations and best practices.

What’s Next?

You’ve finished the very basics for setting up Addigy MDM, enrolling your devices, and deploying assets using policies. Next up depends on your needs. Here’s a list of articles we recommend next:

 

Getting Help

Additional Information

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