How to Set Up a Work Profile on Android Without an Employer

A work profile is Android’s built-in way of running two separate sets of apps on one phone. Companies use it to keep work apps apart from personal ones, but on phones that support it you can also create one for yourself: to keep a second copy of an app signed in to a different account, or to have a group of apps you can switch off in one tap. Creating it takes an app that acts as the profile’s administrator, a device policy controller. Two open-source ones on this site can do it: Test DPC and OwnDroid.

The Android documentation describes a work profile as “a managed profile that has separate app data from the primary user profile but shares some system-wide settings, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.”

What a work profile separates, and what it shares

Separate:

• App data. An app installed in both profiles is two independent copies, with its own data and sign-ins in each.
• Accounts. “Accounts in the work profile are unique from the primary user and credentials can’t be accessed across the profile-user boundary.”
• Storage. The personal and work profiles “have separate storage areas”, so apps in one profile can’t read the other’s files directly.

These are the defaults. Android also has ways to pass things between the profiles that you or the profile’s administrator allow, such as opening a link or sharing a file across.

Shared:

• System services: “Additional shared system services include IME, A11Y services, Wi-Fi, and NFC”, that is, the keyboard, accessibility services, Wi-Fi and NFC.
• Screen lock and encryption settings, which apply to the whole device.
• The launcher. Work apps aren’t hidden: they are “badged and typically made available inline” with your personal apps, usually in a Work tab of the app drawer.

Before you start

• Check that your phone supports it. Google tells app developers to check for the work profile feature first, because some devices don’t have it.
• At most one work profile per eligible parent user. Android’s source code allows a managed profile at most one per parent user (setMaxAllowedPerParent(1)); which users can have one at all depends on the device.
• Don’t combine it with device owner mode. OwnDroid’s README warns that “creating work profile is not allowed by the system when the device owner exist” on most devices, and that a device owner can’t be set while a work profile exists: “Delete secondary users, including work profile, private space and app cloning.”

Option 1: Test DPC

Test DPC is Google’s sample administrator app. It is a testing tool, but creating a work profile with it is simple. The README’s steps:

1. Install Test DPC and open the app called Set up TestDPC.
2. Follow the setup flow.
3. Skip adding an account at the end.

The profile appears with Test DPC as its administrator. If the setup doesn’t finish with the copy hosted here (9.0.12), use the current 9.0.16 if your phone runs Android 6.0 or later: its release notes include “Fixed issue preventing Work Profile setup from completing successfully”, and the Test DPC page links to it. On Android 5.x, 9.0.12 is the version that runs. IzzyOnDroid’s listing warns that Test DPC is “for development purposes only” and “should never be used with real data”; it is fine for trying out a work profile, less so as the long-term manager of one. Don’t use its device owner mode on a phone you depend on: removing it “may require a factory reset”.

Option 2: OwnDroid

OwnDroid is a device policy controller made for managing your own phone. Its README lists three working modes: device owner, Dhizuku and work profile. For a work profile, create it from OwnDroid’s work profile option; that starts Android’s own profile setup, and OwnDroid becomes the profile’s administrator.

Don’t activate OwnDroid as device owner first. Shizuku, Dhizuku, root and adb are its ways of becoming device owner, which is a different mode: a device owner usually blocks creating a work profile, and the README warns that the device owner and the work profile owner “can’t be the same app”.

Getting apps into the profile

How you install apps inside the profile depends on what is available in it, which varies with the phone and the administrator app. One rule from Google’s documentation is worth knowing: “If you manually install an app over a USB cable to a device which has a work profile, the app is installed on both the personal and the work profile.”

Pausing and removing it

Pause: open the Work tab in the app drawer and turn off Pause work apps, or use the work profile tile in Quick Settings. Google: “When your Work Profile is paused, work apps won’t run, generate notifications, or consume data and battery life.” Digital Wellbeing can also pause it on a schedule.

Remove: delete the profile in the phone’s settings, or from the administrator app (Test DPC has Remove work profile). Google: “After the Work Profile is deleted, all local data on the device within that profile is deleted.” Your personal profile isn’t touched.

Common questions

Is a work profile the same as Samsung’s Secure Folder or Xiaomi’s Dual apps? Those are the phone makers’ own features; we haven’t found official documentation of how they relate to Android’s work profile.

Can my personal apps see what’s in the work profile? Not directly: app data, accounts and storage are separate by default, apart from sharing across profiles that you or the administrator allow. The launcher shows work apps alongside yours, and shared services such as the keyboard work in both profiles.

Will deleting the work profile delete my photos and apps? Only what is inside the work profile. Everything in your personal profile stays.