iPads are more likely to show up with device type as “MacOS Catalina” than iPhones.
This is not a misinterpretation on Cloudpath.
Cloudpath uses the information provided from the iPad to determine the device type. The iPad sends it’s user agent information to Cloudpath (visible in an HTTP packet). The information contained within this user agent string determines the device type of the iPad.
If a certain iPad shows "MacOS Catalina" under device type, check the following settings on the iPad.
Settings > Safari > scroll down to “SETTINGS FOR WEBSITES” section > click on “Request Desktop Website” > On the next page, check if “All Websites” is enabled
If this setting is enabled, Safari browser utilizes desktop mode, instead of mobile mode. Hence, the browser identifies itself as MacOS, to cloudpath. (Based on user agent).
How to find user agent on iPad/ iPhone:
Open Safari and search for “my user agent”. You should see something similar to the following:
Copy the highlighted string. > Browse to https://explore.whatismybrowser.com/useragents/parse/
Paste the string here to parse the user agent. The above user agent string decodes to iOS 16.1.
If the above decoder is not available, just search for “decode user agent” on a search engine to find similar services.
On the other hand, if Settings > Safari > scroll down to “SETTINGS FOR WEBSITES” section > click on “Request Desktop Website” > On the next page, check if “All Websites” is enabled; you will see the user agent decoded as MacOS Catalina. Note the difference in the user agent string, between the two images. Both are sourced from the iPhone.
