MOSYLE: How to Deploy Contactzilla Address Books to iOS Devices using Mosyle MDM

This guide assumes you already have Mosyle configured and iOS devices enrolled. We’ll walk you through creating the mobile configuration file in Contactzilla and deploying it via Mosyle.

What You’ll Need

1. A Contactzilla account with an existing address book. Please see our getting started guide here
2. An MDM team member created in your Contactzilla account (required prerequisite – see setup below)
3. Mosyle configured with enrolled iOS devices (Admin access to your Mosyle dashboard)

Prerequisites – MDM Team Member Setup

⚠️ Important: Before you can create mobile configuration files for MDM deployment, you must first set up an MDM team member in your Contactzilla account. This creates the specialized user account needed for device deployments and generating the .mobileconfig file.

If you haven’t created one yet, follow the steps for creating an MDM team member in our detailed setup guide:
Setting Up MDM Deployments in Contactzilla

Creating the MDM Device Connection in Contactzilla
Step One: Set Up Your MDM Connection

1) Login to Contactzilla and select the address book that you wish to deploy to your iOS devices.

2) Click on ‘Device Connections’. From here we will create a CardDAV connection specifically designed for MDM deployment.

3) From the ‘Create New Device Connection’ screen that follows configure the following settings from the dropdown menus:

Connection Type: ‘iOS’
Assign to Team Member: Select your MDM team member (created in the prerequisite setup above)
Label Sync Method: Leave as default ‘As Group VCards’
Access Type: Choose based on your needs

• ‘Full Read Only’ (recommended for managed devices to prevent accidental changes)
• ‘Selective Read Only’ (if you only want specific labeled contacts)
• ‘Full Read/Write’ (if devices need to add/edit contacts)

Tip 💡: For Read only deployments you have an option to append a lock emoji to each contact in the native contacts app to make it clear to a user that any changes will not be written to the server.

Number of Device Connections: Set to the number of devices you plan to deploy to

Click the ‘Create’ button to generate your new Device connection.

Step Two: Download the Mobile Configuration File

1) After clicking Create, you’ll see your new CardDAV connection listed in the connections panel. Click the ‘Setup’ button on your new connection and choose ‘Download Profile’.

Save the .mobileconfig file to your computer – you’ll need this file for the Mosyle deployment.

Step Three: Deploy via Mosyle (upload and assign your Contactzilla profile)

We’ll start by enabling the “Custom Profiles” profile type in Mosyle.
This unlocks the option to upload .mobileconfig files directly into Mosyle for deployment to iOS devices.

1) From the top navigation bar click Management > in the left sidebar, under Management Profiles, click Activate New Profile Type > Locate Certificates / Custom Profiles in the list and click the Activate button.

This is a one time action – You will now see ‘Certificates/ Custom Profiles’ in the left menu for future deployments

2) From the screen that follows choose Add new profile – A custom profile config screen will appear on the right > Give the profile a clear name so it’s easy to identify later. In our case we’ve referenced the name of our address book ‘Project Cascade Tower’
Contactzilla – CardDAV – Project Cascade Tower > Choose Select the file and locate the Contactzilla file you saved earlier.

3) Leave Enable Variables for this profile ticked.

This only replaces Mosyle variables if they appear in the file (e.g., device/user tokens). Contactzilla’s .mobileconfig is a standard CardDAV payload with fixed values, so the checkbox has no effect either way—but leaving it on is harmless.

4) Click + Add Assignment

5) From the screen that follows select your device group (in our example ‘SKYLINE-DEV-GRP-CO-PCT) > Hit the Tick icon in the top right.

6) Back on the Certificates / Custom Profile screen, leave the optional checkboxes unticked (defaults are best for auto-deploy) > Hit Save.

7) Your custom profile is now active

Auto-install vs push now

• Once active and assigned, Mosyle will auto-install the profile on the device at the next check-in/APNs wake. This usually happens quickly when the device is online, but timing can vary if the phone is locked/offline.
• If you want it immediately (e.g., for testing), go to Management → Devices → Devices Overview > tick your iPhone > click Send Push

Step Four: Verify the Deployment on iPhone

Once the profile has been sent, you can confirm the Contactzilla address book has been successfully installed in a couple of ways.

1) Open the Contacts app. Your shared contacts should now appear within the native Contacts app.

2) On the iPhone choose Settings > Contacts > Contacts Accounts.

You should see your Contactzilla address book listed there. If you click through you can see a detailed look at the CardDAV connection and make sure the Account toggle switch is on

You’ve now successfully deployed Contactzilla address books to your iOS devices using Mosyle.
Managed users will see the contacts automatically appear in their native Contacts app, with ongoing sync handled silently in the background.