App Management & Syncing of Multiple Devices

Here is a great article that a friend sent me that explains how one IT professional is managing the daunting task of syncing multiple iDevices throughout classrooms in his school.

http://speirs.org/

I know of several schools in Alaska that have already purchased or are on the verge of purchasing bulk iDevices.  When I heard this, of course my first reaction is usually, “AWESOME!” Soon followed by,  “Get your staff training and FAST!”  The training on how to actually use the iDevices is relatively easy as there are literally hundreds to thousands of great resources all over the Internet, but unfortunately what most schools are seriously lacking is the knowledge and framework to properly implement, manage accounts, sync apps, do regular backups and install a standard app system across all of the iDevices.

A few handy tips I’ll share for anyone that will be assigned the ominous task of setting up multiple iDevices:

1. Use ONE account!  Just trust me on this… I manage several different accounts on one computer and it can become a nightmare.
2. If you have 10 iPads and you want the same apps setup on all of them, name it “MASTER iPad”.  Plug it in and set it up the way you want, sync, then immediately do a backup of it.  Unplug it, then plug the next iPad in and instead of setting it up, just do a restore from your “MASTER iPad.”  This will save you HOURS of set up time.
3. Purchase a “master” iDevice that is not used for anything other than configuring the restore for the rest of the iDevices.
4. If you do decide to authorize more than one store account on the same computer, get a hard drive that you can transfer your apps to on a regular basis.  The reasoning behind this is what seems to me to be one of the many annoying design flaws in iTunes – if you purchase an app under teacher1@school.org and then plug in another iDevice, even if the computer is authorized and you have signed into the store as teacher2@school.org, if you sync the app from teacher1@school.org account – teacher2 will have to know teacher1′s password to do any updates.  The trick is to make an app folder on an external harddrive for each of your accounts and then when you sign into that account, replace your app folder on your local harddrive with whichever account you are signed into.  Otherwise you can have one device that has many, many, many apps from various accounts on it.  This will soon become a nightmare to manage.  As I mentioned before, I manage several different user accounts on my one computer and have a library of over 900 apps.  Trying to keep track of which account purchased which apps so I don’t accidentally put an ATLA purchased app on a client’s iDevice has taken some fine tuning (no thanks to iTunes)!

If your school is considering or already has purchased bulk iDevices, ATLA can provide training at a reasonable training fee.  If interested, please email me at mystie (at) atlaak (dot) org.