Setup guide

Setting up ArmorKept

Plan on about 45 minutes. Do it together: the person being protected and his partner, side by side, with a Mac. It's a one-time job, and it's what makes ArmorKept impossible to quietly remove.

What you need

• The iPhone, its passcode, and the owner's Apple Account (iCloud) password
• A Mac with Apple Configurator (free in the Mac App Store) and a USB cable
• The partner, signed in to ArmorKept Reports on the web or on their iPhone
• A Wi-Fi connection and enough iCloud space for a backup

1. Supervise the iPhone

1. Back up. On the iPhone: Settings → [your name] → iCloud → iCloud Backup → Back Up Now. Wait for it to finish.
2. Turn off Find My. Settings → [your name] → Find My → Find My iPhone → off.
3. Supervise. Connect the iPhone to the Mac and open Apple Configurator. Select the phone → Prepare → Manual Configuration → check Supervise devices. Leave “Allow devices to pair with other computers” off. For the organization name, use “ArmorKept”. Click Prepare. This erases the phone.
4. Restore. On the iPhone, during setup, choose Restore from iCloud Backup and pick the backup you just made.

2. Add the profiles

5. Download them. The partner opens ArmorKept Reports → Device management → the person → Set up device management, and downloads both files onto the Mac.
6. Install them in order. In Apple Configurator, select the phone → Add → Profiles. Add 1 · Device management profile first, then 2 · Lock profile. The lock profile blocks any other profiles, so the order matters. If the phone asks, approve them in Settings → General → VPN & Device Management.
7. Delete the downloaded files from the Mac when you're done. The partner keeps control from the web from now on.

If “Set up device management” isn't showing for you yet, do steps 3 and 4 below now and come back to this part later. Everything else works in the meantime.

3. Install ArmorKept

8. Install the app and create an account (the protected person's own email).
9. Follow the setup in the app. Allow Screen Time and notifications when asked. When it asks which image-heavy apps to watch (for example Instagram, X, Reddit, YouTube), pick the ones you use.
10. Turn on the Safari filter. Settings → Apps → Safari → Extensions → ArmorKept Filter → on, and set All Websites to Allow.

4. Link your partner

11. Make an invite code. In ArmorKept on the protected phone, create a partner invite. You get an 8-letter code that works for 24 hours.
12. Partner enters the code in ArmorKept Reports. From now on, requests and alerts go to them.
13. Set the Screen Time passcode. The partner sets it in Settings → Screen Time → Lock Screen Time Settings, on the protected phone. The person being protected must not see it.

5. Check it worked

• Within a minute the partner's page shows the phone as Managed, with Supervised yes and Lock profile on. The list of installed apps appears shortly after.
• Open a blocked app on the phone and tap Ask partner. The partner should get the request right away.
• Try installing another browser or a VPN app. It should be blocked.

What the partner is told about

The partner gets an alert if someone tries to move the phone to another account, device management is removed, the lock profile goes missing, the phone stops checking in, the app stops reporting, or the screen monitor is turned off. ArmorKept never sees messages, photos or passwords. More in the partner guide.

Undoing it

Only the Mac used in step 3 can undo supervision. In Apple Configurator, select the phone and either remove the profiles or restore it. That's on purpose: it means removing ArmorKept takes a deliberate decision made together, not a moment of weakness.