Work Profile Has Taken Over Lockscreen. Any way to unlock?

I've no experience with "work profiles", because as far as I'm concerned if my employer wants me to have a "work phone" they can pay for it themselves, but they don't get to touch my private property. So if there are any subtleties related to work profiles I won't know about them - hopefully someone else will.

However the purpose of the lockscreen password is to prevent a thief accessing your data, so if there was a way of doing what you ask that would defeat the whole point of the lockscreen. As such if any such method existed, it would be regarded as a bug and patched once discovered. I know of no way of doing this. What I will say is do not reset the phone until you've been able to back the photos up: there are paid shills out there who will tell you that this, that or the other software tool will be able to recover your photos, but they are lying: your phone's storage is encrypted, and the encryption key will be lost if you reset the phone, so there is no way you will get your photos back after a reset.

I think you need to lean on your company's IT people. If it's using a password that comes with the work setup (I assume you have tried your own password) then they have set it, so someone will know it. If they think you need the phone for your job with them then this problem of their making is preventing you from doing your job. And as it has your personal data on it resetting isn't an option, so they need to sort out the mess they have made.

 

Let's try something simple.

Do you have the owner's manual (not the folded single piece of paper called the Quick Start Manual)?

It should be available on a PDF file if you don't.

Inside it, there should be instructions for setting a security PIN.

Because you did not set this number yourself, I am hoping/guessing that it could still be set to the factory default.

I don't know how many digits are in your device's PIN, but if memory serves correctly it is usually all zeros.

A question- did you try your normal PIN yet?

I ask because when I was using a work profile, there was no separate PIN- the same PIN worked no matter which profile I was using.

This only makes sense, because if there was a company PIN, then anyone else with that PIN would be able to unlock everybody's device.
That would be very insecure.

 

Chalk this up as a loss I'm afraid

 

Well, that is not good.
As I said before, I never had this issue with the work profile, and have not heard of it before.

Was this device originally a company phone or your own device?

Did the company actually require you to use the work profile?

These questions are important, as the answers may/may not be relevant as far as how to get your personal data back.

It may sound tacky, but if blame can be assigned to someone besides yourself, you may have ground to stand on.