Is it possible to migrate from fully managed to COPE without a factory reset?

No. There is no supported method to migrate a device from fully managed (Device Owner) to COPE - work profile on company-owned device (Profile Owner) - without a factory reset.

This is an Android platform constraint, not an EMM limitation. The management mode is set during initial device provisioning and cannot be changed in-place. There is no API in DevicePolicyManager or AMAPI to convert a Device Owner into a Profile Owner, or to add a work profile to an already-provisioned fully managed device while simultaneously changing the management architecture.

Fully managed and COPE are fundamentally different architectures:

• Fully managed: The EMM holds Device Owner. The entire device is under corporate control with no profile separation.
• COPE (Android 11+): The EMM holds Profile Owner with a subset of device-level policies. There is a clear separation between a personal profile and a work profile, with privacy protections aligned to the BYOD model.

Converting between these modes would require restructuring the device's user and profile architecture at the OS level - creating a personal profile, migrating user data, and downgrading the DPC from Device Owner to Profile Owner. Android does not support this.

The AMAPI DPC migration feature only supports migrating from a custom DPC to Android Device Policy within the same management mode. It cannot change the mode itself. A fully managed device migrated via DPC migration remains fully managed.

The only path from fully managed to COPE is a factory reset and re-enrolment:

1. Back up any user data on the device that needs to be preserved.
2. Wipe the device through the EMM or manually.
3. Re-provision as COPE using QR code or zero-touch enrolment. Note that NFC provisioning and afw# are not available for COPE on Android 11+.
4. Restore work apps and data through Managed Google Play and any managed configurations.

For organisations managing large fleets, plan this as a phased rollout. Zero-touch and Samsung KME can streamline reprovisioning significantly by ensuring devices automatically enrol into the correct COPE configuration on first boot after reset.

Prior to Android 11, COPE was implemented as a "fully managed device with a work profile" (sometimes called WPoFMD). The device was provisioned as fully managed first, and a work profile was added on top. The EMM held full Device Owner control over the entire device.

Android 11 replaced this with a new architecture where the EMM acts as Profile Owner only, with a defined subset of device-level policies. This change improved user privacy but also means there is no continuity between the old and new COPE models. Devices running the old WPoFMD model on Android 9-10 cannot be migrated to the modern COPE model without a factory reset.

For more on the Android 11 COPE changes, see Android 11 COPE changes.