• General
  • Apps, work profile and background running/data

Having finally moved (almost) all my stuff from Samsung to Pixel+GOS, there is one remaining small issue that I have partially solved, but not completely.

On my past Samsung (Android 14), I had the 3-4 apps from Microsoft used in my company, duplicated from the main profile and gated in what is known as the Secure Folder (based on Knox). Following the suggestions in some threads about user and work profiles, I had initially created on GOS a separate user profile, and then I had installed there Outlook, Skype for Business and a couple more of Office apps, plus Signal. On my main profile, Outlook was also installed because I have personal accounts on Outlook.com, one of those I did not want to manage with FairEmail (the reason behind I will not enter into further details here).

My needs were/are the following: I do not want to have my apps put their nose in the company's data (including contacts and calendars), and vice-versa. Additionally, as it is my personal device and there is no mandate from my company to stay always connected to the company's communication servers, having the apps in the Secure Folder made me able to start them at my will (well, until at least I would unlock the Secure Folder with its PIN). I don't remember how I did it (I don't have access anymore to the Samsung device), but for sure I was not annoyed by the notifications of Outlook running in the Secure Folder. Indeed, I seem to remember that every time I accessed Outlook in the Secure Folder it synced with the company's server, like it was not really running in background.

Unfortunately, I didn't find too comfortable the solution of the alternate user profile. I have had also problems in transferring Signal from my original phone, so I undid everything and decided to use Shelter and opted for a work profile. For my needs, even understanding that Shelter should not be used (is there another more trusted solution, BTW?), the work profile fits perfectly the bill. There is one thing however that is not working as with the Secure Folder (well two, as I have no mean to have the work folder locked until I input a PIN): Outlook (work profile) continues to run in the background even if I have disabled the background battery/data capabilities. Matter of fact, I receive notifications from Outlook whenever a new business email gets in, and I don't want to.

Maybe I have not understood at all how work profile's apps work, or maybe it's just an issue with Outlook. Or maybe it is because I have another instance of Outlook running in my main profile (but with a different account/data, of course). What I would like to achieve is to run in background my Outlook app in the main profile (or for that matter, any other app of my choice), and have a the same time Outlook in the work folder starting "on demand", and to stop when it looses the focus.

Is the above possible to achieve?

Thanks, and I apologize for the rather long text.

    Graffiti I think shelter is fine. You have only 2+1 options. Another user profile, work profile, and the upcoming private space feature in android 15. You can pause the work profile to deny those apps from running in the background. Password locking the work profile is not possible, but if somebody got their hands on your unlocked device, you're srewed already. App lock is not real security usually. If you want real security, use the user profile feature. You can also wait for android 15 private space, it likely supports PIN locking those apps.

    Hey, thanks @Rizzler . I know user profiles are probably the best option, but I've found them uncomfortable to work with when I do use the phone also for my job: switching from one profile to another is rather slow, and just today while switching back from a test user profile I created /i.e. switching to the main profile) the phone got completely stoned with the message "Switching to main profile" (or something similar) and it died there. I was forced to reboot the phone by long-pressing the power button.

    Now I am testing the freeze feature of Shelter. I don't know yet if it will work, and work according to my requirements. Having said that, the new feature announced for Android 15 seems to be very promising. Lets see.

    Thanks!

    @Graffiti You actually do have the option to lock the work profile:
    Settings - Security & Privacy - More security & privacy - Use one lock

      Rizzler glad my odd knack for finding settings wasn't in vain!

      21 days later

      pml Oh thank you, somewhat I managed to miss your precious hint until now.

      • pml likes this.