Leaving a job when your phone, or part of it, is managed by work

Phones blur work and life. A company phone ends up with family photos and a personal messaging account. A personal phone gets a work profile so you can read email. When you change jobs, the line has to be drawn again, usually in a hurry, often on your last day, sometimes with an IT colleague waiting for the phone. A little preparation means nothing personal is lost and nothing personal is left behind.

Which situation are you in?

A work profile on your own phone. Common on Android. Work apps live in a separate profile, marked with a briefcase icon. The official help says your organization manages your work apps and data, while your personal apps, data and usage remain private. When you leave, the work profile is removed, and with it only the work side.

A phone the company owns. It may be fully managed, meaning IT can control settings, install apps and wipe it remotely. Whatever you’ve put on it, including personal photos, will go back with the phone.

A personal phone enrolled in full management. Less common, but some employers require it. Treat it like a company phone until the management is removed.

If you’re not sure, ask IT, or look for a work tab in the app list or a management notice in Settings.

What to do now

1. Find your personal photos and files. Check the gallery, downloads, messaging apps and any notes. On a company phone, assume everything personal needs to move.

2. Copy them somewhere you control. Use your personal cloud account, a computer or your own phone. Check a few files open on the new device before you delete anything.

3. Export from any vault apps. A vault keeps files inside the app, and returning or resetting the phone erases them. Export first; see exporting photos from a vault app.

4. Sign out of personal accounts on a company phone: your phone account, email, messaging, social media, banking and password manager. Then remove the phone from your accounts’ device lists; see checking which devices are signed in.

5. Turn off syncing to the work side. If personal photos were syncing into a work cloud or work email, stop it and remove what’s there, where policy allows.

6. Leave work data alone. Don’t copy client files or work documents to personal storage unless you’re clearly allowed to. That can breach your contract and the law.

7. Hand the phone back as asked. IT will usually reset it. If they ask you to, the reset option is in Settings; on Android under System, then Reset options.

What doesn’t help

• Deleting personal photos from a company phone without copying them. They’re gone for you, and may survive in a work backup.
• Assuming the reset protects you. It erases the phone, but not copies already synced to work systems.
• Storing personal files on the work side of a work profile. They’ll be deleted when the profile is removed.

Next time

Keep work and personal apart from the start. On a work profile, store personal photos only on the personal side. On a company phone, keep personal accounts and photos off it, or at least out of anything work can back up.

Where a vault helps

A vault on the personal side of your phone keeps private photos apart from work apps and your everyday gallery. Silo, coming soon to iPhone and Android, keeps its vault only inside the app, so on a phone you’re returning, use Export everything first and import on your own phone.