Shared iPad in Intune Issue

Hello everybody!

Our primary MDM person recently left the organization and a good portion of the responsibilities have fallen in my lap. With that being said, a good portion of our iPads are single-user iPads which we do not seem to have hardly any issues with.

On the other hand, we have a decent amount of shared iPads in our environment as well. I am by no means a fan of shared iPads. One of our tier-1 techs came across a few shared iPads that are cellular capable (with activated SIMs, whether they are eSIM or physical) that randomly lost the ability to connect. The fix/workaround they are currently using is to wipe the problematic devices, which seem to “resolve” the issue. One theory was maybe an iOS bug with updates given the timeframe the tech estimated was about a month and a half ago. The tech thinking maybe the device updating via Wifi instead of manually through iTunes may have been a culprit. Apple has released about 2-3 iOS updates within that timeframe if memory serves me correctly. I had my tier-1 tech also examine the SIMs to make sure they are activated and functioning (swapping them into other devices etc) and they have no issues. Going into the iPad settings shows the device recognizing the SIM, the phone number, etc.

Today though, I had a department reach out that we had factory restored/wiped through iTunes about two weeks ago (which would rule out the possible theory mentioned earlier). I know that shared iPads do not “support” cellular capability (no cellular setting available in settings on a shared iPad etc), but the situation just isn’t make much sense.

I put in a ticket with Microsoft Premiere Support and they have yet to come back with a response yet, but I have provided them quite a bit of information on my end. Anybody else experienced something like this recently?