GPS tracking LOTS of iPads.

[UnderAPileOfiPads]

Hello,

My school district currently has LOTS of iPads between multiple buildings. I use Meraki MDM to manage these iPads but the GPS tracking software that meraki uses is useless. The iPad population is growing fast and I need to find a way to pin point the location of every single one because inevitably we are going to start losing these things.

I am looking into some apps that might work and I am going to start some trial runs with a few iPads but I was curious to find out what you guys might use for tracking lost iPads?

Thank you!

 

[scifan57]

I use Find My iPhone, which tracks all of my devices. I don't know if it'll work with your school iPads, though.

 

[UnderAPileOfiPads]

My iPads are generally not for individual use, so all of my iPads do not have itunes accounts on them. Signing into iCloud and iTunes is restricted. Correct me if i'm wrong but I believe apple's find my iPhone requires an account attached to the iPads.

Thank you for the suggestion.

 

[Jupiter7]

Yes, the iPads would have to be signed into the same account.

 

[scifan57]

My iPads are generally not for individual use, so all of my iPads do not have itunes accounts on them. Signing into iCloud and iTunes is restricted. Correct me if i'm wrong but I believe apple's find my iPhone requires an account attached to the iPads.

Thank you for the suggestion.

Yes, all the iPads would have to be connected to the same iCloud account.

 

[twerppoet]

Apple has their own iPad management software for education. It probably has the location feature you are looking for (based on the Find my iPad features). I'm under the impression it can be run alongside your other management software. Anyway, I'd contact Apple's education/business support and see what they say.

In case you are not aware of it, check out the Out of School podcats and blog by Fraser Speirs. This was the first shool to impliment a 1:1 iPad program, so they've met a lot of these challenges in the past. I follow it casually from time to time out of curiosity (I'm not and educator). Out of School: A Podcast

 

[NSquirrel]

It would be interesting to know if you can resolve your problem and broadly how you are doing it.