Change Device User Without Wiping — New in WS One Power Admin v1.1.0

By mirko.saarinen@mdmarchitect.com

One of the most common headaches in Workspace One UEM fleet management: a device changes hands, the original user leaves the organisation, or a shared device needs a new owner — and the only way to fix it in the console is to wipe the device and re-enroll from scratch. That ends with v1.1.0 of WS One Power Admin.

The Problem with Manual Reassignment

Workspace One’s web console does not offer a straightforward way to change the enrolled user of an existing device without unenrolling it first. For IT administrators managing hundreds or thousands of endpoints, that means:

• Wiping and re-enrolling the device — which takes time and disrupts the end user
• Losing the device’s current friendly name set at enrollment (a known WS1 REST API limitation)
• Manually repeating the process for every device in a fleet transition or employee offboarding cycle

The WS1 REST API has supported user reassignment via PATCH /api/mdm/devices/{deviceID}/enrollmentuser/{userID} for some time, but building a workflow around raw API calls is not something most IT teams have the bandwidth for.

Change Device User in WS One Power Admin v1.1.0

The new Change Device User feature (Power Admin Pro) exposes this API operation through a clean, auditable UI directly in your Mac app. No scripting, no Postman, no risk of typos in device or user IDs.

How It Works

The feature operates in two modes depending on your workload:

Single Mode

Load devices and users from an Organisation Group, select the device you want to reassign, pick the new user, review the FROM → TO summary card, and click Assign New User. The app calls the WS1 REST API and logs the result in real time.

Bulk Mode

For fleet transitions, employee offboarding batches, or shared device pools, you can map dozens of devices at once. Add rows manually or paste a CSV in the format:

deviceSerial,newUsername
C02XG0YJLVCG,john.smith
DMPXQ1234567,anna.korhonen

Click Validate to resolve serials and usernames against the loaded inventory, review the status of each row (Ready / Error), and then Apply All to execute the batch. Each result is logged individually so you have a full audit trail.

Test Mode

Both modes include a Test Mode toggle that is on by default. In Test Mode the app logs exactly what would happen without making any API calls — so you can validate your mapping before committing to a live run. Switching to live execution requires an active Power Admin Pro subscription and a deliberate toggle.

Important: Device Friendly Name

This is worth highlighting clearly: Workspace One preserves the original friendly name set at enrollment on the device record. Renaming a device via the REST API is not currently supported by Workspace One. After reassignment the device will have its new enrolled user, but the friendly name will remain as it was. This is a WS1 platform limitation, not a Power Admin limitation.

Requirements

• WS One Power Admin v1.1.0 or later
• Power Admin Pro subscription (Change Device User is a Pro feature)
• Workspace One UEM with OAuth API credentials configured
• API account with MDM device write permissions