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Typically, Apple’s fall updates for IT are around better way to manage devices, etc. This year, there was an underrated update that I think will be a real win in certain situations: remote AppleCare log collection.
About Apple @ Work: Bradley Chambers has been an Apple IT admin since 2009.
Through his experience deploying and managing firewalls, switches, a mobile device management system, enterprise grade WiFi, 1000s of Macs, and 1000s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple IT managers deploy Apple devices, build networks to support them, train users, share stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for IT departments.
If you’ve ever opened an AppleCare support case for a hard-to-reproduce issue in your Apple fleet, you know how hard this process is. AppleCare needed a sysdiagnose and getting one meant either physically having the device or walking a user through a series of steps they’ve never done before.
That process worked eventually, but it was slow, required the user to be available and willing to help, and, for remote employees or traveling executives, made it appear that IT didn’t have sufficient visibility into the logs of what was happening on the devices. The issue is that they somewhat didn’t.
The harder the issue was to reproduce, the more frustrating this was for IT. By the time you got the logs, the device had rebooted, the macOS state had changed, and you were starting over with your troubleshooting.
TriggerEnhancedLogCollection is your friend
Apple introduced two new device management commands in iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS 27: TriggerEnhancedLogCollection and a cancel command. The process is straightforward.
You open an AppleCare case, AppleCare provides you a token, and you pass that token through your device management when you trigger the command. The device collects the logs and uploads them directly to Apple, where they are automatically attached to the ticket with Apple.
The device also reports its status through declarative management at all times, so you can see whether log collection has started, whether it’s finished, whether it’s waiting on user consent, and if the upload is in progress.
Interactive vs non-interactive
There are two modes for this command, and the difference matters depending on what you’re managing. On iOS, non-interactive mode is available when the device has no passcode and no accounts, so it collects and uploads logs in the background without user involvement. I think this would be applicable in kiosk/POS type settings. On tvOS and Shared iPads, non-interactive is always available.
On macOS, interactive mode is required. The user sees a notification and is prompted to consent to both the log collection and the upload. They can decline, but this is still dramatically better than the old process, but it’s not completely hands-off. The user is in the loop., but at least it’s a simple UI box..
Wrap up
Remote and hybrid work make manual log collection harder and a remote user in a different city experiencing intermittent macOS issues is one of the more challenging support scenarios an IT team can face. With this feature, the moment that Apple’s team asks for logs, you can send the command from your device management console, the device does the work, and Apple has the info it needs to work the case.
Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle , the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage, and protect Apple devices at work.
Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple .