iPhone etching
Posted by Elensea@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 27 comments
Hi we have all our phones in mdm but many times phones are swapped between crews and people. How are you guys tagging your phones to know what phone is what? I would think engraving the serial numbers or imei is probably my best bet. But interested to see what you all recommend.
DarthPneumono@reddit
These suggestions are wild, the IMEI is printed inside the SIM tray.
Elensea@reddit (OP)
America hasn’t had sim trays in years.
Candid_Ad5642@reddit
If you lease, or in any way reuse the phones, go with a label, or engrave the case
Yes a dinky UV laser will happily engrave on the back of an iPhone, but you cannot unengrave it
BTW, unless they've changed it, iPhones have the imei engraved on the sim card slot, and the serial engraved on near the bottom of the back. Both are small and not very visible
magfoo@reddit
Wir haben die einfach personalisierten Geräten erklärt. Da wir die iphones refurbished kaufen, kaufen wir einfach genügend Geräte. Die zugehörigen Verträge kosten ja quasi nix.
ExceptionEX@reddit
We don't do anything, but ya'll fancy, Label maker, stick that on and a case over it.
We also don't have people swapping phones without turning them in, so not really an issue for us.
sryan2k1@reddit
Perfect way to get them to buy you a laser engraver
Elensea@reddit (OP)
Yea do you have one in mind?
justinDavidow@reddit
Basically any UV laser would do a solid job.
Any of the ComMarker Omni series lasers will do a hang-up job engraving glass or natural materials; it'll do some light duty metal marking, but don't expect one to deeply engrave metal surfaces.
s1ncere@reddit
xtools makes great stuff
sryan2k1@reddit
A glowforge would be the most "commercial" solution.
Assumeweknow@reddit
Lol, never. Gloforge uses a glass tube, and for glass etching you need pulsing. Pulsing kills glass tubes fast. Find something with a Metal Laser in it. Universal, Epilogue or you can do ceramic ones(pricey)
Mister_Brevity@reddit
Engraving the rear glass on employee iPhones will lead to the glass shattering. Ask me how I know.
Also, kills the warranty (or at least it used to). Maybe engraving the info on the metallic edge below the volume buttons?
Elensea@reddit (OP)
Ya our phones are metal.
Mister_Brevity@reddit
Engraving the rear glass on employee iPhones will lead to the glass shattering. Ask me how I know.the engraving makes warranty service complicated to impossible
chin_waghing@reddit
In the MDM manager you should be able to push a profile that adds the device name to the Lock Screen
CeC-P@reddit
We use the cheapest, thin, recycled, 94% brightness trash-tier, non-laminated labels because those are never coming off. A pawn shop near us had fancy, waterproof, plastic style thermal labels but people kept swapping them between similar products to get a better price. Then they put on these garbage paper ones and they come off in 20 pieces over 10 minutes.
Entegy@reddit
Using the Asset tag field in our MDM so the iPhone lock screen has whatever I put in there.
Elensea@reddit (OP)
Thanks! I just rolled it out. I like that I can have it display the serial and phone number. Since these are crew phones that helps the users identify them much easier.
krilu@reddit
I use a screwdriver and make tally marks.
5 Tally marks = iPhone #5
Unable-Entrance3110@reddit
We use MDM to replace the lock screen image with one that has an identifier on it.
Elensea@reddit (OP)
That’s a good idea will definitely do that as well.
ahaley@reddit
labelmaker my dude.
unkiltedclansman@reddit
Label under a phone case. In the ultra rare instance that the label is removed or worn off, powering the device on shows the asset id on the lock screen.
Recent_Carpenter8644@reddit
Yes, works great. And the label doesn't have to be on the phone, it can be on the cover.
Unfortunately you can't put the label on the front these days. It blocks either part of the display, or the face sensor.
SamakFi88@reddit
We put a general (inexpensive) label directly on the phone under the case, and then a strong/resilient one on the phone case itself.
koki_li@reddit
Labels can come off easily, but I would give it a try because it’s cheap. I always put a label on the device, even if not visible and a second one, which could be seen from the outside.
Ihavefourknees@reddit
A quick label would be cheaper than etching. Pick the right one and they won't come off easily.