Upgrading your School to iOS 7

iOS 7 has been out for a while now, but your school iPads are working fine on iOS 6 – should you upgrade ?

That is not an easy question to answer.  The old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" often fits quite well in ICT, but there are a few things to consider:

1. Do you need to 'Supervise' any new iPads, as they will be forced to iOS7, so you may wish to upgrade all your iPads so they are the same.  After people get the hang of iOS7, then they are all the same.
2. Do you wish to plugin 'supervised' iPads to a Mac or PC to download photos ?  Configurator 1.4 allows you to set this, but again forced to iOS7
3. Do you have apps that you wish to run that require iOS7.  If so, it's time to upgrade.
4. Do you want to take advantage of new features such as Internet filter, or AirDrop?  If so, it's time to upgrade.

So, what is the best way to upgrade ?

First, use Software Update on your Mac to get the latest Apple Configurator v1.4

Then, if your iPads are already 'supervised' in Configurator, you can change the 'update iOS' setting to 'When update is available' and click Apply.  It will take a while for iOS7 to download the first time, then it installs on all USB connected iPads.

Alternatively, if you wish to take advantage of the new 'Allow devices to connect to other Macs' to allow download of photos and videos over USB, you will need to unsupervise and re-supervise the iPads.  Note:  Don't forget to remove paid apps BEFORE you unsupervise.