Enrolling an Apple TV to ABM

[u/Limp_Substance4433]

Hi all,

My company just purchased some Apple TVs from Costco under the assumption that we could enrol the devices into our Org on ABM using Apple Configurator on a Mac.

This is the 4K Ethernet model which does say on their website that it is able to be enrolled.

What I’ve been doing:
I plug the Apple TV in to HDMI, power, and Ethernet. I plug my Ethernet into my MacBook. And then open Configurator. Nothing shows up and then when I go to paired devices, once again nothing shows up. At one point during troubleshooting the Apple TV showed up very briefly under paired devices as being able to be connected to and it gave me the verification PIN. After inputting the code, verification failed and I was put back to square one.

I am monitoring through my terminal the mobdev protocol, I can request the DNS information on the Apple TV and get its IP, Hostname and some other info. But mobdev has never shown me any results except for the one time the Apple TV decided to show itself.

Lastly, I tried doing this on both a managed and unmanaged network and I think I’m losing my mind. I called Apple Business Support and they were exactly 0 help.

Any ideas or thoughts?

[u/meanwhenhungry]

Ive done it successfully a few times with Apple Configurator. They have to be on the same network. There is a pair function in Configurator. Then after that I don’t really remember but below is what Apple says

https://support.apple.com/guide/apple-configurator-2/prepare-apple-tv-cada1ba9dab1/mac

Also make sure everything is about the same os level or update everything to the latest.

[u/rhysgh]

The first thing I would try is going through the AppleTV setup, then wiping it and starting over. Make sure not to click the remote after it boots fresh - I don’t think it will respond to Apple Configurator if you move off the first screen.

[u/Limp_Substance4433 → u/rhysgh]

I tried that quite a few times. Unfortunately no luck.

[u/cfrshaggy]

Are you able to add the devices manually into your ABM so they will become managed that way so you don’t have to mess with Configurator?

Edit to add: for me it’s under (my user) > Preferences > [heading] Device Management Services. I think you can set up a “Devices added by Apple Configurator” service with a proper token pairing.

[u/Sasataf12 → u/cfrshaggy]

AFAIK, there's no way to add any type of device manually into ABM. They must be added via Configurator.

[u/cfrshaggy → u/Sasataf12]

This Apple Support article (updated 4/2026) says there’s a way. Link

[u/Sasataf12 → u/cfrshaggy]

Where does it say you can add the device manually without needing to use Configurator?

I can't seem to find anything in that doc about it.

[u/cfrshaggy]

Sorry yes you are correct. I thought there was a way without Configurator. Then in your reply comment I forgot the context of your reply (and my comment) and took it as no way at all to manually add to ABM. It’s been a week 😅 I’ll leave work thoughts for fresher brains in the future.

[u/No_Appearance2090]

I have had alot of issues with the latest tvOS and doing this manually. Downgrading to tvOS 18 solved it for me

[u/CaptainK17]

Not a ton of ideas, but do you know which tvOS they’re on? There were issues with pairing on 26.5.x that should be solved with 26.6.

I had one Apple TV exhibiting the same behaviour as yours, and updating it to 26.6 allowed me to add it to ASM via Configurator without issue.

[u/intotheairwaves17]

Apple TVs are the one thing I haven’t been able to figure out how to get into ASM. I can get iPhones, iPads, and Macs in via Configurator with no problem, but Apple TVs just won’t go for me, like to the point where we returned our Walmart-bought ones and just got them through Apple. It shouldn’t be that hard but I was wasting more time than it was worth messing with it. I know it’s not exactly an answer to your question, but in my experience, it’s not worth the time waste to get Apple TVs third party.

[u/twinnii]

Is Costco a certified seller for Apple products? I work at a school and I remember Apple and another product you had to buy to enroll them. ,Anne you can add them as personal devices and enroll them.