News and Announcements

JAMF Connect Rollout for Apple Mac Users

Posted: 2025-05-20 14:14:56   Expiration: 2025-06-30 14:14:56

Disclaimer: This news item was originally posted on 2025-05-20 14:14:56. Its content may no longer be timely or accurate.

You may be seeing a change to your Apple Mac Login process in the coming weeks.

What's happening?

Recently, Campus’ Division of IT (DIT) has released new security IT standards (IT-20) that the Campus Community must follow. Notably, two of the requirements that affect our Apple users are:

  1. All University-Owned macOS devices must be enrolled in Campus’ central management system, Jamf.
  2. All University-Managed (and therefore University-Owned) macOS devices are not permitted to have local accounts.

What does this mean for you? In short, this means that your macOS computers will need to be reconfigured to allow you to log in with your Campus Credentials. Aside from first time setup, this will not significantly change the way you log into your computer(s).*Please note that any following support article links can only be accessed while connected to a Campus Network or to the GlobalProtect VPN.

What do I need to do? 

All UMD-owned macOS device users should:

  1. Back up data across all of their device’s accounts to Google Drive or Box Drive.
  2. Be on the lookout for a change to what their computer’s login looks like, sometime in the next month.
  3. Input University Credentials in the new login window, like this one.
    1. If prompted to select an account, please select your most-used account. More instructions can be found here.
  4. Be on the lookout for any potentially missing data upon first login, and restore that data from their Google Drive or Box Drive backups.
  5. Use University Credentials to log into their computer moving forward.

In the event a user chooses to not follow these instructions, DIT will be removing their computer’s access to the UMD network (see the “Compliance” section of this article).

More details:

EIT is handling most of the configuration on the backend, though we will need assistance from you to ensure that this process goes smoothly. If these instructions are not followed exactly, you may lose data, or place your computer out of compliance with these new security standards. In the event you choose to not follow these instructions, DIT will be removing your computer’s access to the UMD network. There are a few things that you’ll need to do to accomplish this:

  1. Back up any important data that you have on your current account. If you have multiple accounts, please ensure you back up important data from each of them. We’d highly recommend making use of Campus-provided cloud services, like Google Drive and Box Drive for this. Time Machine, while very useful, is not recommended for this particular use case.
  2. By the end of May 2025, you’ll notice a change to your login process. Please note that you only have to go through the following steps once:
    1. If the account name on your computer matches your University DirectoryID, your Campus credentials will be automatically matched to your local computer account, and your password will be updated to match your Directory password.
    2. If the account name on your computer does not match your DirectoryID, you’ll be met with an account selection screen. Please choose the account that you most often log into. 
      1. Further instructions on this particular step can be found here. (note that you’ll have to be on a Campus network or connected to the GlobalProtect VPN to view this article)
    3. Once your account has been linked to your University Credentials, you’ll now use your username (DirectoryID if it matches, local username if it does not) and your Directory Password to log into your computer. Further information can be found here.
  3. In the event that you are unable to log in using your University Credentials in the future, or you have multiple accounts on your device, you’ll still be able to log into the local accounts using the “local login” button seen on this page.
  4. This system, Jamf Connect, will also keep track of your current Directory password status, and allow you to reset it. Instructions can be found here.


If you feel that you have a valid reason to keep a purely local account on your computer, please reach out to the EIT Service Desk directly via email at eit-help@umd.edu. Exemptions to this are not guaranteed, but we can assist on a case-by-case basis.

-- Engineering IT: Ayla Hurley