topic Re: Newly purchased "Opened - Never used" phone has previous organisation admi.. in Mobile Apps & Services

Newly purchased "Opened - Never used" phone has previous organisation admin restrictions

Les Hodgson — Sat, 25 Nov 2023 16:31:54 GMT

Hi Folks.

I just purchased a Galaxy S10E from a refurbishment company - sold as Opened never used.

The phone is absolutely pristine. On the opening screen is a message stating that the phone is "Owned by your organisation"
When the phone opens up there are Device Admin Apps which set restrictions. Apps are : Ivanti Go, Knox Enrollment Service, and Knox Service Plugin.

There is an admin account registered to the phone which I cannot access or delete. The account is called work-B0058C06FA6EEA4DDOB0F8416E708@android-for-work.gse....

It is not possible to delete or deactivate these apps. The deactivation option in settings is greyed out.

I have carried out a factory reset which did not change anything.
The restrictions include being unable to use Google.com, Facebook. Play store is restricted to only about 20 apps. I cannot acces any of my usual apps such as internet banking, or any social media, flight following, travel apps. As it stands thephone is useless.

I have reported the problem to the seller and am waiting for a response.

I found info online which references the Samsung Knox service where these phones are set up en mass to suit large employers but no info on how I can obtain any relevant code to enable me to access the settings to remove the restrictions.

Can anyone offer any advice on how I might resolve this while I am waiting for the seller to come back to me.

Kind regards

Les Hodgson

Re: Newly purchased "Opened - Never used" phone has previous organisation admin restrictions

JAMES4578 — Sat, 25 Nov 2023 17:48:45 GMT

@Les Hodgson clearly it is a Business device and the item certainly not as described. If desired you should certainly be able to receive a Refund.

Re: Newly purchased "Opened - Never used" phone has previous organisation admi..

Lord_Shiva — Sat, 25 Nov 2023 18:27:29 GMT

Just set to factory 🏭 reset

Re: Newly purchased "Opened - Never used" phone has previous organisation admi..

JAMES4578 — Sat, 25 Nov 2023 18:34:50 GMT

@Les Hodgson did Factory reset but apparently did not make a difference.

Re: Re: Newly purchased "Opened - Never used" phone has previous organisation ..

Lord_Shiva — Sat, 25 Nov 2023 18:36:14 GMT

Now that is a new one on me lol

Re: Newly purchased "Opened - Never used" phone has previous organisation admi..

Piper123 — Sat, 25 Nov 2023 19:18:43 GMT

Did you factory data reset from the settings menu? If yes then I would go for a factory data reset from the recovery mode.

My own organisation recommends this when we swap phones between employees and works fine for us.