How to Remove a Work Profile From Android

To remove a work profile from an Android phone, open Settings, go to Passwords and accounts (or Accounts), select the Work tab and tap Remove work profile, then confirm. On a Samsung Galaxy phone the path is usually Settings > Accounts and backup > Manage accounts > Work > Uninstall work profile. Removing it deletes only the work profile: the work apps, work email, work files and the settings your company put there. Your personal photos, apps, accounts and messages stay. If the option is missing or greyed out, your company manages the phone and IT removes the profile from its device management console instead.

If you have left a job and want the work apps off your own phone, the employee steps below take a minute; if you are in IT and offboarding someone's personal phone, the admin path and the checklist after it are for you.

TL;DR

• Removing a work profile deletes only work apps, work email and work data. Personal photos, apps and accounts are not touched.
• Employees: Settings > Passwords and accounts > Work > Remove work profile. On Samsung: Settings > Accounts and backup > Manage accounts > Work > Uninstall work profile.
• IT: remove the device from management in the MDM console. On a personal phone that removes the work profile the next time the phone checks in.
• Company-owned, fully managed phones are different: offboarding them means a factory reset by IT, not removing a work profile.
• Pausing work apps is not removing them. Pausing stops work apps until you turn them back on; the profile stays.

What an Android Work Profile Actually Is

If you already know how a work profile separates work and personal data, skip ahead to the removal steps.

A work profile is a separate profile on the phone for work apps and data, created when the phone is enrolled in a company's mobile device management (MDM) system. It has its own apps, its own copy of the Play Store and its own storage, and its apps show a small briefcase badge. Android keeps the two profiles apart: apps in one cannot read data in the other unless the company allows specific sharing, such as showing work contacts in the personal dialer. That separation is why removing the work profile leaves personal data alone. For how the profile is created in the first place, see Android work profile.

Profile Owner vs. Device Owner: Why the Difference Matters

How the phone was enrolled decides what IT controls and how offboarding works:

• Work profile on a personal phone (the MDM is the "profile owner"): the employee owns the phone; IT manages only the work profile. Offboarding removes the work profile.
• Fully managed company phone (the MDM is the "device owner"): the company owns the phone and manages all of it. Offboarding means a factory reset.
• Work profile on a company-owned phone: the company owns the phone, and the work profile sits next to a personal side the employee may use. IT can remove the work profile, and on some setups reset the whole phone, according to company policy.

Getting the enrollment type wrong at offboarding is where problems start: a factory reset on a personal phone wipes everything on it.

How to Remove a Work Profile from Android, Both Paths

There are two ways to remove a work profile: the employee removes it in Settings, or IT removes it from the MDM console. For formal offboarding, the IT path is the one that leaves a record.

Path 1: The Employee Steps (Personal BYOD Device)

On most Android phones, such as Pixel phones:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Passwords and accounts (on some versions, Accounts, or Passwords, passkeys and accounts).
3. Select the Work tab.
4. Tap Remove work profile.
5. Confirm. The work apps and their data are deleted.

No factory reset is needed and nothing personal is deleted. If you do not see Remove work profile, your phone may have a work account rather than a work profile; Google's help explains that path, and warns that removing a work account the wrong way can affect the rest of the device, so ask IT first.

Samsung-Specific Removal Steps

Most searches for this are from Samsung owners, and Samsung's menus differ from stock Android. On a current Galaxy phone with One UI:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Accounts and backup, then Manage accounts.
3. Switch to the Work tab.
4. Tap Uninstall work profile, or Remove work profile, and confirm.

On some Galaxy phones the option also appears in the Work tab of the Apps screen, under its settings. Menu names change between One UI versions, so if a label looks different, search Settings for "work profile". Samsung's Secure Folder is a different feature: it is not your company's work profile, and removing it does not unenroll the phone.

Path 2: The IT Admin Steps (MDM Console)

For offboarding, IT removes the profile from the MDM console, which leaves a record of who did what and when. The general steps:

1. Revoke the person's accounts and sessions first, so work data stops syncing straight away.
2. In the MDM console, find the person's phone in the device list and confirm it is a personal phone with a work profile.
3. Choose the action that removes the device from management. The name varies between products: unenroll, retire or remove management.
4. The work profile is removed the next time the phone checks in. If the phone is offline, the action waits until it connects.
5. Check that the device no longer reports in, then remove its record from your identity provider.

On a personal phone, only this kind of removal is appropriate. A full device wipe is for company-owned phones.

Android Work Profile Removal: Enrollment Mode Comparison

What Actually Gets Deleted When You Remove a Work Profile

Removing a work profile is not a remote wipe. It removes the work profile and nothing else.

What is deleted:

• Every app inside the work profile, with its data.
• Work email accounts and cached email.
• Files saved in work apps and the work profile's storage.
• Work Wi-Fi, VPN settings and certificates that were set in the work profile.
• The company's policies for the work profile.

What is not deleted:

• Personal photos, videos and files.
• Personal apps and personal Google and other accounts.
• Personal contacts, messages and call history. If your company let work contacts appear in the personal dialer, those work entries disappear with the profile.
• The phone's operating system and settings.

BYOD Offboarding vs. Company-Owned Device Offboarding

The rule is simple: on a personal phone, remove the work profile; on a company-owned, fully managed phone, reset the phone. Applying a factory reset to an employee's own phone deletes their personal photos and data, which is a serious problem with the employee and, in many places, under data protection law. Confirm how the phone was enrolled before you send any action.

If a company needs full control of a phone at offboarding, it should own the phone and enroll it as fully managed from the start. A work profile on a personal phone is the right choice when the employee owns the phone.

The Factory Reset Protection (FRP) Problem for Company-Owned Devices

Factory Reset Protection locks a phone after a reset until someone signs in with a Google account that was on it. On company phones this causes a familiar problem: if an employee's personal Google account was on the phone, IT may not be able to set the phone up again after a reset without that person's password.

The fix belongs at issue time, not at offboarding: set up company phones through zero-touch enrollment or a setup QR code, and use the MDM's setting for the accounts allowed to unlock a reset phone, so the company can always set it up again. See Android QR code enrollment.

What IT Admins Should Do After Removing the Work Profile

Removing the work profile is one step of offboarding. The rest of the checklist:

1. Confirm the work profile is gone: check that the device has checked in since the removal and no longer reports to the MDM.
2. Remove the device record from your identity provider, such as Microsoft Entra ID or Google Workspace.
3. Revoke credentials and sessions: email, VPN, single sign-on and any Wi-Fi passwords the person knew. Do this before or at the same time as the removal, not after.
4. Record what was done and when, including that personal data was left in place.
5. Watch for sign-in attempts from the old account or device in the weeks after.

The full list of accounts and systems to close is in the IT offboarding checklist.

Android Version Changes That Affect Work Profile Removal

Most confusion comes from two things that differ between Android versions and phone makers: the difference between pausing and removing, and the menu names.

Pausing Work Apps Is Not Removing Them

Recent Android versions have a work apps switch, often shown at the bottom of the app drawer or in Quick Settings as "Work apps". Turning it off pauses the work profile: work apps stop and their notifications go quiet until you turn them back on. The profile, its apps and its data stay on the phone. People searching for "how to turn off work policy" usually want this switch, not removal. Removal is permanent and is for when you leave the company or the phone no longer needs work apps.

Menu Names Differ by Android Version and Maker

Google has renamed the accounts menu more than once (Accounts; Passwords and accounts; Passwords, passkeys and accounts), and Samsung uses its own names. The work profile is always managed from the account settings, so if a step above does not match your phone, search Settings for "work profile" or "work".

Removal Can Be Blocked by the Company

On company-owned phones, the MDM can stop users from removing the work profile or the work account. If Remove work profile is greyed out or missing, the phone is company-managed and only IT can remove it.

What to Tell Employees About Work Profile Removal

Most friction at BYOD offboarding comes from employees who worry about their personal data. Tell them before offboarding starts:

• The company has never had access to personal apps, photos, messages or contacts. The work profile is separate.
• When the work profile is removed, only work apps and data are deleted. Their phone is not reset.
• Pausing work apps is different from removing the profile; removal is for offboarding.
• They may be asked to keep the phone online so it checks in and the removal completes.

For how employees add work apps in the first place, see how to add apps to an Android work profile.

Can't Remove the Work Profile?

• The option is greyed out: the phone is company-owned or the company blocks removal. Ask IT to remove it from the console.
• The profile is still there after IT removed it: the phone has not checked in. Connect it to the internet and open the work apps or the MDM app once.
• There is no work profile, only a work account: remove the account under Passwords and accounts after checking with IT.
• The phone was fully managed by your employer: only IT can release it, usually by resetting it.

Managing this across many devices

trio.so enrolls personal Android phones with a work profile, so work apps and data stay separate and personal data stays private, and shows when each device last checked in. Unenrolling a personal phone from the trio.so console removes trio.so's policies and apps, which removes the work profile and leaves the employee's own data on the phone. See Android device management.

Related reading: Android work profile, remote wipe on Android, managed Google Play and IT offboarding checklist.