Supervise your iPhone without erasing it

Supervision is a device mode Apple built for schools and companies. It is the only way to make a profile unremovable and to hide apps. Apple's official path wipes the phone. This guide keeps your data.

What you get

Apps you choose disappear and cannot open, even if they get downloaded again
The profile cannot be removed from Settings
The App Store keeps working, so your apps keep updating
Everything else on the phone stays exactly as it is: photos, messages, apps, logins

What it costs

About 45 minutes of your attention, plus up to an hour of waiting if the iPhone asks for a security delay before Stolen Device Protection turns off
A Mac with a cable (Windows works with iTunes but our tool is Mac only for now)
Apps re-download from the App Store after the restore; a few ask you to log in again; Face ID needs to be set up again
Find My iPhone has to be off during the restore; you turn it back on after

Before you start

Know your iPhone passcode and your Apple account password
Settings > Face ID & Passcode > turn off Stolen Device Protection first. If the iPhone shows a security delay, it is a one-hour wait, so do this step at home (a familiar location skips the delay on many phones) or start it an hour before you sit down
Settings > your name > Find My > Find My iPhone > off
Recommended: a local backup on your Mac (Finder > Back Up Now). Faster than iCloud, one click to restore. iCloud backup as a second net if you have the space.
On the Mac: free space equal to what the iPhone uses. A 64 gb phone with 40 gb in use needs about 40 gb free, because the backup is a full copy
On the Mac: System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access > add your terminal app, then quit and reopen the terminal

Step 1: back up to your Mac

Plug the iPhone into the Mac, unlock it, tap Trust
Finder > your iPhone > General > "Back up all data on this iPhone to this Mac"
Leave "Encrypt local backup" as it is. The tool handles both kinds of backup
Click Back Up Now. A 14 gb phone took about 9 minutes for us
Keep the backup encrypted if it already is: an encrypted backup carries your saved passwords, Health data and keychain, so more survives the restore. The tool asks for the backup password once and keeps nothing. An unencrypted backup works as well

Screenshot coming

Step 2: flip the supervision flag

The backup contains a small settings file named CloudConfigurationDetails.plist. It has one switch, IsSupervised, set to false. We set it to true and keep the file exactly the same size so the backup stays valid. Nothing else in the backup changes.

Install the tool with the first line below (with pipx instead: pipx install supervise-iphone)
check lists your backups: device, iOS version, encrypted yes/no, current flag
patch shows the change, asks for confirmation, and keeps an untouched copy of the file next to your backups. On an encrypted backup it asks for the backup password first
unpatch undoes the change, as long as you have not restored yet

curl -fsSL https://attentionawareness.com/install.sh | sh
supervise check
supervise patch
supervise unpatch

Example output

$ supervise check
Backup folder: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
Found 1 backup.

  UDID: 00008140-001878AE0CF9401C
  Folder: 00008140-001878AE0CF9401C
  Kind: current
  Device: iPhone
  iOS: 26.6.1
  Backup date: 2026-09-10 16:21:22
  Encrypted: no
  Supervision file: found
  IsSupervised: false

Step 3: restore the backup

The order is not optional: Finder refuses to restore while Find My iPhone is on, and iOS refuses to turn Find My off while Stolen Device Protection is on. Stolen Device Protection, then Find My, then the restore
Finder > your iPhone > Restore Backup > pick the backup you just made > Restore
The iPhone reboots, shows an "Upgrade" screen, asks for your passcode, then lands on the home screen
Open Settings. The top of the page should read "This iPhone is supervised"
Optional: verify asks the connected iPhone itself (needs Apple Configurator from the Mac App Store)

supervise verify

Screenshot coming

Step 4: put things back

The iPhone runs a short setup: it asks you to set up Face ID or Touch ID again, to choose a passcode, and it offers to turn Stolen Device Protection back on. Say yes
Then it downloads your apps again. The greyed-out icons take a few minutes, so keep the iPhone on wifi and on power
Turn Find My iPhone back on
Install your attentionawareness profile from the generator: AirDrop the file, Settings > Profile Downloaded > Install. Blocked apps vanish, sites are blocked, the profile shows as unremovable
Every download is its own profile: a later one stacks on top of the one before it instead of replacing it. Only erasing the phone takes them off

Screenshot coming

Verified on

Device	iOS	Date	Result
iPhone 16e class (iPhone17,3)	26.6.1	2026-09-10	Supervised, all data kept, 5 hidden apps removed by cable afterwards
iPhone SE	26.2.1	2026-09-12	Encrypted backup, supervised, all data kept

Earlier community reports: iOS 15, 16 (Ask Different, 2023), iOS 17 encrypted via iMazing (2024)

If something goes wrong

"Operation not permitted" when the tool runs: The terminal lacks Full Disk Access. Grant it, quit and reopen the terminal
The backup password is wrong: It is the password you set in Finder for the backup, not your iPhone passcode
The phone comes back unsupervised: The restore probably used a different backup. Run check, confirm IsSupervised is true on the backup you restore, retry. Until the phone is supervised, installing the profile fails with "unsupervised devices require a contentfilteruuid"
You want to go back: Settings > General > Transfer or Reset > Erase All Content and Settings removes supervision. Restore from your local or iCloud backup afterwards. This is the only way Apple gives to leave supervision

Honest notes

This is not an Apple supported procedure. It uses the backup format, which Apple can change. It works on iOS 26.6.1 today
Supervising with a Mac and no company MDM means the phone is "supervised by" whoever ran the tool; the organization name shows empty
A Windows version is on the list

Alternatives

Erase path: if you do not mind starting fresh, Apple Configurator's "Prepare" with "Supervise devices" ticked, then set the phone up as new stopa.io/post/297