Renew an Apple Push Certificate

The Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) certificate is used to establish a trusted connection between an MDM server, Apple services, and managed devices. This certificate is crucial to managing Apple devices with Miradore. See this article for more information on the Apple Push Certificate.

The importance of renewing an APNs certificate

Your APNs certificate must be renewed once a year in order to retain the MDM communication with your managed Apple devices. Without an active certificate, you cannot enroll or manage your Apple devices.

Important information

The APNs certificate can only be renewed with the same Apple ID that was used to create the certificate. If you cannot find or do not remember the Apple ID that was used to create a certificate, check our Troubleshooting Apple Push Certificate renewal article for troubleshooting information.

Apple offers a 30-day grace period for renewing an expired certificate. However, to avoid issues that might result in having to re-enroll your devices in Miradore, we suggest you renew the certificate before it expires.

Warning: Do not delete the old certificate when it expires and create a new one instead. If you delete the existing certificate, you must re-enroll your Apple devices. Even if a certificate expires, it can be renewed without having to create a new one.

Renewing the APNs certificate: video tutorial

To renew your APNs certificate, watch this short video tutorial or follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Identify the correct APNs certificate

If you have more than one APNs certificate created in the Apple Push Certificates Portal, ensure that you are renewing the correct one.

Compare the Subject of the APNs certificate found in Miradore's Infrastructure diagram to the Subject DN found in the Apple Push Certificates Portal, available at https://identity.apple.com/pushcert/ after logging in with the correct Apple ID.

Note: While the certificate serial number can also be checked to see if the certificates match, the serial number changes every time the certificate is renewed. The subject, on the other hand always stays the same.

Renew the APNs certificate

Follow these steps to renew the APNs certificate:

1. In Miradore, navigate to System > Infrastructure diagram and hover over the Apple Push Notification Service icon.
2. Select Renew.
3. Select Download the CSR to download the certificate signing request file (csr.txt), then select Next.
   
4. Select Open Apple Portal to open the Apple Push Certificates Portal. Do not close Miradore.
5. Sign in to the Apple Push Certificates Portal using the Apple ID that was used to create the certificate.
6. Find the correct certificate to renew, then select Renew.
   
7. Select Choose File to upload the csr.txt file that you downloaded from Miradore and select Upload.
8. Once the upload is confirmed, select Download to download the certificate. You may close the Apple Push Certificates Portal.
   Note: The downloaded certificate file's extension is .pem.
9. Navigate back to Miradore and select Next.
10. Save your Apple ID in Miradore by entering it in the text box to make it easier to find the Apple ID used for managing the certificate in the future.
11. Select Upload certificate to upload the .pem file.
    
12. Once the upload is confirmed, close the wizard by selecting Close.