Google Workspace Account Federation within Apple Business Manager

Apple have recently updated Apple Business Manager to enable Managed Apple ID account federation with Google Workspace. Until now, this feature was only available to organisations using Azure AD/Microsoft 365 accounts.

The main benefit is, that once configured, your Google Workspace users can sign-in to their Apple devices using their existing Google credentials, automatically creating a Managed Apple ID for them. The password for their Managed Apple ID will always stay in-sync with their Google account password, too. Our video below, will guide you through the process of enabling this brand-new feature within Apple Business Manager.

Account Conflicts

Account conflicts arise where an Apple ID already exists on the domain you've just federated. For example, suppose you registered the domain ‘somecompany.com’ years ago and set up email addresses for all of your users. An employee, Peter Jackson, then decided to use his work email address ‘pjackson@somecompany.com’ for their personal Apple ID.

Even if Peter leaves your organisation, he still has his personal Apple ID with that domain name. Because you’re setting up federated authentication for the domain name ‘somecompany.com’, Peter must change his personal Apple ID so that you can re-use the Managed Apple ID pjackson@somecompany.com, if you need it for another employee. The new hire, Paula Jackson has come onboard since and therefore could have the same username.

If there are any account conflicts detected after enabling federation, Apple will notify those users to change their Apple ID, automatically. You will not be able to see which specific Apple IDs are conflicted due to Apple (rightfully) maintaining user privacy. If, however, those users fail to change their Apple ID within 60 days then Apple will forcibly do it for them. This action frees the Apple ID up for re-use by your organisation.

You can freely use Managed Apple IDs for any individual account that isn’t conflicted, so a few conflicts shouldn’t bring your federation goals to a standstill.

Managed Service

Managed Apple IDs give your organisation complete ownership and management of the Apple IDs that your users sign-in to their devices with but, it’s vitally important that your device fleet is also expertly managed. Powered by Jamf Pro, plus our team of Apple and Jamf-certified experts, our BusinessClass Managed Service means that you can leave all the hard work around data security, automatic device setup, app deployment and so much more, to us. And, its all at an affordable price. For more information, head over to our info page, email us at info@krcs.co.uk or, give our friendly team a call on 0115 985 1797.