Is Supervised Mode Supported on iOS 27?
Supervised mode is still supported on iOS 27, but if you'd like to remotely supervise your iPhone, it might be worth waiting a little bit longer before upgrading.
If you’ve enabled supervised mode on your iPhone and are considering whether it’s a good idea to upgrade to iOS 27, there are a few important considerations. It is still possible to enable Supervised Mode on an iPhone or iPad without data loss using Tech Lockdown's supervision tool , but the new early-access Remote Supervision feature was impacted.
We briefly disabled the use of the Supervised Mode setup tool for devices running iOS 27 so that we could patch some issues we discovered on iOS 27. Now that we've fixed those issues, the tool can be used to supervise devices on iOS 27. Existing devices that updated from iOS 26 to 27 should work as expected.
What Happens to iPhones that Upgrade to iOS 27?
You can safely update from iOS 26 to iOS 27 now that our tool was adjusted to supported it. Supervised Mode will remain in-place, and you should be able to continue using your iPhone with restrictions as normal. Configs are still protected like they were previously.
If you already set up the new early-access Remote Supervision feature on iOS 26 and want to update to iOS 27, it should continue to work as expected and stay enforced.
Devices on iOS 27 being configured with Supervised Mode for the first time
During testing, we discovered that customers who are setting up an iOS 27 device with supervised mode will notice a change in Remote Supervision being enforced.
- You can still enable Supervised Mode without data loss, install configs using the config generator and enforce restrictions like previously. Configs can still be protected from removal, so Supervised Mode using manually installed configs is just as effective as before.
- Remote Supervision (MDM, early access) will no longer lock-on "Remove Management." On iOS 26 and devices that updated from 26 to 27, tapping "Remove Management" for the MDM profile wouldn't do anything - it stayed enforced. As of iOS 27, newly set up devices can actually remove management. We're working on some options to mitigate this and have a promising path forward.
Enforcing Remote Supervision on iOS 27 devices
If the early access Remote Supervision feature is important to you, and you are specifically interested in the ability to lock down "Remove Management," there is a path forward for you temporarily:
- If you are currently on iOS 26, make sure the device is set up with Remote Supervision and confirm that tapping "Remove Management" doesn't do anything. Once confirmed, you can update to iOS 27 and the restrictions will carry forward.
- If you are already on iOS 27 and are setting up supervision for the first time, your only workaround currently is to downgrade to iOS 26, set up Remote Supervision, then update to iOS 27 afterwards.
- For parental control/accountability scenarios, "Remove Management" will alert a partner when MDM is bypassed. We are also working on a promising companion app that will lock down a device until Remote Supervision is enabled again.
If you want to upgrade your iPhone or iPad to iOS 27, you should first enable supervised mode or upgrade to remote supervision before updating.