The Swif silent installer for macOS simplifies the process of enrolling devices into Swif's management system and removing existing MDM profiles. This guide outlines the steps to retrieve required configurations, prepare the installer, and deploy it silently on macOS devices.

The Swif silent installer for macOS is designed for corporate-owned devices and does not support Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) enrollment. Ensure that all devices being enrolled using the silent installer are organization-owned.

The Swif silent installer attempts to remove an existing third-party MDM enrollment profile before enrolling the Mac in Swif. However, macOS permits only one active MDM enrollment at a time, and Swif cannot remove a profile that the previous MDM provider configured as non-removable.

When this occurs, Swif enrollment may fail with the following message:

Profile installation failed.
Your computer is already enrolled with an MDM server. It can be enrolled with only one MDM server at a time.

This commonly affects Macs enrolled through Apple Business Manager using Automated Device Enrollment, formerly called Device Enrollment Program or DEP. Automated Device Enrollment allows the previous MDM provider to prevent users, local administrators, and command-line tools from removing its enrollment profile. An MDM profile identifier or removal key cannot override this protection.

Apple documents this behavior under Automated Device Enrollment and device management.

If the remove control is disabled, the profile cannot be removed locally. The Swif silent installer will continue trying to remove the profile, but macOS will reject the request.

Use one of the following methods.

Use the previous provider’s administration console—such as Jamf, Jamf Now, Mosyle, or another MDM service—to send an unenrollment or profile-removal command to the Mac.

If the previous provider successfully removes the enrollment profile, you normally do not need to erase the Mac.

After unenrollment:

Contact the previous MDM provider or administrator if you cannot send the unenrollment command.

Important: Swif removes only the existing MDM enrollment profile when macOS permits it. Swif does not automatically remove applications, agents, services, scripts, or other components installed by the previous MDM provider.

Use this method when the previous MDM provider cannot remotely unenroll the Mac or when you want the device to use Automated Device Enrollment with Swif.

Erasing the Mac deletes its local data. Confirm that required files, recovery keys, activation-lock information, and application data have been preserved before proceeding.

Important: Reassigning the Mac to another MDM server in Apple Business Manager is generally preferable to releasing it from the organization. Releasing a device is intended for devices the organization no longer owns and may be irreversible.

The Mac may still be assigned to the previous MDM server in Apple Business Manager.

Before erasing it again:

If the assignment is not changed, Automated Device Enrollment can enroll the Mac in the previous MDM again during Setup Assistant.

Before downloading the silent installer, you need to retrieve and save the identifier and removal key of the existing MDM profile in the Swif configuration area. These values are required when the MDM profile is password-protected, as the removal key serves as the profile's password.

You can download the silent installer directly from the Swif admin dashboard. However, macOS may flag browser-downloaded files as potentially unsafe. To avoid this, we recommend using the CURL command in the Terminal to download the installer securely.

Run the following command in your Terminal to download the installer:

Replace {{TEAM_ID}} with your organization’s Swif team ID.

Once the installer is downloaded, use the following command to install Swif silently:

The silent installer uses the configured identifier and removal key to attempt to remove the existing MDM profile before enrolling the Mac in Swif.

Note, profiles configured as non-removable through Automated Device Enrollment must first be removed through the previous MDM provider or migrated through Apple Business Manager.

For additional support, visit our help center or contact Swif support.

You can also use the silent installer on existing MDM-managed machines to silently migrate the existing MDM to Swif. Here are 2 examples:

Note, that the silent installer package can not be opened by double-clicking because of Apple policy or you might get this error "macOS silent installer can't be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.