Hello,
As Google has decided to turn encryption on as a standard in the upcoming Android 5.0, I thought I would give it a test on my CosmicCM 5.4.
I started the encryption and it prompts you that you for a passcode that will be used from now on, so far no problem.
It started encrypting my device and it was running for some time(I left it alone for an hour) and reboots a couple of times.
After he's finished the annoyance came.
first you will have to type twice your password with a reboot, one time do decrypt your device the second time to enter your device.
Be aware that performance can be slowed through encryption, and it can negatively impact battery life too.
So I decide to go back.
The Problem: Once encrypted, you can't decrypt it easily.
When encrypting the phone android will tell you you can only decrypt it using a factory reset. Naturally you assume it's talking about the "Factory Data Reset" option found in Settings --> Backup and Reset and this works.
Now I wanted to try a rom (TW 4.2.2 based) and see how this worked and after installing and booting.
I got prompted to enter the decryption and of course this didn’t work anymore as there is no data for the password.
So I assumed you can wipe everything from your custom recovery mod (CWM, TWRP, or one of those).
Wrong! You'll get beautiful "can't mount /data" messages and more.
After some hard time I got everything working again, by flashing CosmicCM again.
The phone booted al clean again without asking for encryption and when you check the menu it also mentioned encryption is deactivated.
Trying the previous rom again just triggerd the encryption again.
So It seems that there is still somewhere a hidden encrypted protection that will be activated when I flash a different rom.
So be warned and don’t play with encrypting your device as you could brick it.
Didn't have time to investigate further on how I can remove it completely, but my guess is I have to redo all the partitions.
I was on the same boat a month ago
akiratoriyama said:
I was on the same boat a month ago
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish you told me sooner
Did you redo all the partitions to get the encryption completely removed?
RichyE said:
I wish you told me sooner
Did you redo all the partitions to get the encryption completely removed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I had to wipe my data via Philz, CWM and stock to remove encryption.
akiratoriyama said:
I think I had to wipe my data via Philz, CWM and stock to remove encryption.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info, will try to flash stock this week and see if this helps
Hey guys,
Just as I wanted to update to an Android M ROM I realized decrypting the phone somehow doesn't work. In Settings it says "Encrypted Phone Encrypted" but if I click it nothing happens. Here is a video for demostration: https://youtu.be/cOFFZuckUU0 . In Recovery I can't mount any of the encrypted partitions yet when I restart my phone it does't ask for the decryption code and Android works like always. Any way to get the phone decrypted again?
Thanks in advance!
P.S.: After hours of research I couldn't find anything remotely similar to my issue. It doesn't even make sense that the phone decrypts itself without me putting in a code...
P.S.S: Oh and the issue appeared just a few days ago. Before that I could encrypt and decrypt my phone as often as i wanted to and android always asked for the code before booting.
Anyone?
.TanTien said:
Anyone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't decrypt. You mast make a full wipe. If You dont want lose date use Titanium Backup or TWRP Manager with live backup.
You can only turn off, not decrypt ! a sd card encryption
So I kind of like the fact encryption is turned on automatically by Nextbit (and I did figure out how to get out of my encryption loop)
And I have tried to encrypt the disk with
-Pacman ROM
-Reserrection ROM
-Paranoid Android
and all of them bootloop and never actuall boot up once you press "encrypt".... so is it impossible to encrypt once you have an unlocked bootloader and recovery installed? I get its detrimental to the whole process of flashing incessantly but still
Grrrrrrr
Can sum1 confirm
tlxxxsracer said:
If you unlock the bootloader,that alone won't cause encryption issues. You have to flash a specific boot.img or zip that will disable encryption.
Don't unencrypt and should be fine.
Not sure why you'd want to encrypt if your BL is unlocked. Encryption only hurts performance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the reply
I wanted to encrypt my current ROM to just get the extra protection from theft or lost device.
I really like the current ROM im using and dont need to flash anymore currentlty, so i would be fine locking it down with encryption
But i cant get ANY of the ROMS to encrypt like they normally do say compared to the G3
So there is a solution to this. Basically, when you encrypt the file system on one rom, even when you wipe the data certain things are still tied to the old file system. That's why when you go to encrypt the encryption fails, because the remnant stuff from the other rom is in the way. The solution is to completely reformat the data partition (using TWRP, select format data, or change the data file system to F2FS and then back to ext4.). This will clear the conflicts causing encryption to bootloop. However, this process will need to be repeated every single time you switch roms (updating a rom is fine).
I believe Cyanogenmod supports encryption, though I have never tried it.
yanowman said:
So I kind of like the fact encryption is turned on automatically by Nextbit (and I did figure out how to get out of my encryption loop)
And I have tried to encrypt the disk with
-Pacman ROM
-Reserrection ROM
-Paranoid Android
and all of them bootloop and never actuall boot up once you press "encrypt".... so is it impossible to encrypt once you have an unlocked bootloader and recovery installed? I get its detrimental to the whole process of flashing incessantly but still
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you flashed the custom boot image, you CANNOT re encrypt your phone. Won't work.
Hello all!
So I've been rooting and installing custom ROMs on my Android phones since getting started on my Galaxy S2 back in the day, and as it stands I've never encountered such an annoying roadblock as I've been forced to deal with over the past few days.
I just got a new HTC 10, and quickly went ahead and rooted my phone to get a custom ROM on there. The ROM seemed to boot fine, but the home button wasn't working and I had forgotten to download and install GApps. The other problem was, upon flashing the new LineageOS, TWRP would not recognize any files whatsoever on my device--including the backup I had made. So, I went ahead and flashed the latest RUU and returned to stock. After realizing the RUU is Nougat firmware, I got the latest TWRP and went ahead to try and reinstall Lineage again.
This time, however, the phone decided to stop on a screen asking for a password before it fully boots. I've tried this with every ROM I've installed and every time it will ask for a password. Boot into Recovery, and it will ask for a password there and have all my files hidden, keeping me from doing anything short of a re-flashing my RUU to return to stock. I know these ROMs evidently encrypt your phone during first boot, but I'm at a loss for info on what I'm apparently doing wrong to cause this issue.
Is this an Android N issue? On M, I was able to boot into Lineage, though TWRP still had the file issue. Anyways, whatever help would be fully appreciated. Since I'm a new user I wasn't able to inquire directly on the LineageOS thread, and so deferred to Q&A.
EDIT:
I've solved the issue. After re-flashing the RUU, flashing TWRP, and re-rooting over and over, I figured out what seemed to be going on.
In case anyone else has the same problem as me, here was my solution:
Starting from stock, I went ahead and flashed my phone with the latest TWRP compatible with N (3.0.3.0 at this current time). Afterwards I flashed LineageOS and GApps. As usual, upon reboot, the phone needed a password to get in. So, I rebooted to Recovery, which also required a password. I hit cancel, wiped the phone with a factory reset, formatted all data, and restarted. This did the trick, and I've been running LineageOS 7.1 with no problems whatsoever!
Which version of TWRP are you using at the moment. If you're on N firmware I'd recommend to use 3.0.3-0, that is to be found on the download tab of the TWRP thread.
Sent from my htc_pmeuhl using XDA Labs
dreDREb13 said:
Hello all!
So I've been rooting and installing custom ROMs on my Android phones since getting started on my Galaxy S2 back in the day, and as it stands I've never encountered such an annoying roadblock as I've been forced to deal with over the past few days.
I just got a new HTC 10, and quickly went ahead and rooted my phone to get a custom ROM on there. The ROM seemed to boot fine, but the home button wasn't working and I had forgotten to download and install GApps. The other problem was, upon flashing the new LineageOS, TWRP would not recognize any files whatsoever on my device--including the backup I had made. So, I went ahead and flashed the latest RUU and returned to stock. After realizing the RUU is Nougat firmware, I got the latest TWRP and went ahead to try and reinstall Lineage again.
This time, however, the phone decided to stop on a screen asking for a password before it fully boots. I've tried this with every ROM I've installed and every time it will ask for a password. Boot into Recovery, and it will ask for a password there and have all my files hidden, keeping me from doing anything short of a re-flashing my RUU to return to stock. I know these ROMs evidently encrypt your phone during first boot, but I'm at a loss for info on what I'm apparently doing wrong to cause this issue.
Is this an Android N issue? On M, I was able to boot into Lineage, though TWRP still had the file issue. Anyways, whatever help would be fully appreciated. Since I'm a new user I wasn't able to inquire directly on the LineageOS thread, and so deferred to Q&A.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Installing cm will encrypt your device, was you encrypted previously? Then you would have created a password to access your device.
In my case, I formatted data and then flashed my sense rom (venom) I chose not to encrypt, cm doesn't give this option when you flash it so you have no choice at the time. So if you don't have the password and the device has been encrypted you'd have to format data, don't jump into that just yet though.
Unless someone else knows a way around that, personally I couldn't. However I did have a rom installed so I could boot the rom and back up my data once in the OS. Then format (not wipe) and then reinstall the rom.
Sounds confusing, to be sure we need more info from you.
Do you have an operating system at the moment? If you do then back up your data so that's safe.
Do you know the password to decrypt your phone??
5m4r7ph0n36uru said:
Which version of TWRP are you using at the moment. If you're on N firmware I'd recommend to use 3.0.3-0, that is to be found on the download tab of the TWRP thread.
Sent from my htc_pmeuhl using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running 3.0.3.0. I had a problem after re-flashing my RUU where TWRP wouldn't boot, but I quickly realized this was due to using an M compatible TWRP with the new firmware.
dladz said:
Installing cm will encrypt your device, was you encrypted previously? Then you would have created a password to access your device.
In my case, I formatted data and then flashed my sense rom (venom) I chose not to encrypt, cm doesn't give this option when you flash it so you have no choice at the time. So if you don't have the password and the device has been encrypted you'd have to format data, don't jump into that just yet though.
Unless someone else knows a way around that, personally I couldn't. However I did have a rom installed so I could boot the rom and back up my data once in the OS. Then format (not wipe) and then reinstall the rom.
Sounds confusing, to be sure we need more info from you.
Do you have an operating system at the moment? If you do then back up your data so that's safe.
Do you know the password to decrypt your phone??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turns out formatting the data was the solution. Thankfully this phone is brand new, so there was no data to lose.
As for why Cyanogen and Lineage automatically encrypt without giving some sort of default password, I have no idea...
Thanks for the help, though!
dreDREb13 said:
Turns out formatting the data was the solution. Thankfully this phone is brand new, so there was no data to lose.
As for why Cyanogen and Lineage automatically encrypt without giving some sort of default password, I have no idea...
Thanks for the help, though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could have thought of that myself. Encryption used by Cyanogen/Lineage is different to HTCs encryption used on Sense based ROMs. Thanks for your feedback.
Sent from my htc_pmeuhl using XDA Labs
dreDREb13 said:
I'm running 3.0.3.0. I had a problem after re-flashing my RUU where TWRP wouldn't boot, but I quickly realized this was due to using an M compatible TWRP with the new firmware.
Turns out formatting the data was the solution. Thankfully this phone is brand new, so there was no data to lose.
As for why Cyanogen and Lineage automatically encrypt without giving some sort of default password, I have no idea...
Thanks for the help, though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no password and I've had it out in the cm thread, apparently it's common knowledge, which we've both found out its not, there is no password either so you did what was required.
Also, click thanks instead of saying mate [emoji6]
Glad you're back up and running.
thanks had same issue when installing Lineage 14.1 nightly on my HTC 10 today, which already had twrp on it and the stock rom - your solution worked.
i.e.
turn off device
hold volume down while pressing power for few seconds
choose reboot to bootloader from menu
choose boot to recovery mode
hit cancel when prompted for password
choose wipe from twrp, use default options
reboot
no more password prompt.
Hello everyone,
i finally got the unlock code and moved from chinese to xiaomi.eu MIUI 10 rom . I installed lazyflasher, TWRP 3.2.3 and was good to go in a reasonable amount of time but i hit a wall. for work i need to encrypt my phone, it's non-negotiable and has to be done. but when i try to do it, the operation fails. as much as i read it's because newest versions of twrp reserve/lock/enumerate all the blocks of /data and there's not enough space to store encryption files in the /data. There are two ways out of this: either downgrade to an earlier version of TWRP ( 3.1.0 should work) or extend the /data partition. Now the problem is that i have already set up a lot on this phone so a complete wipe will be painful..
So my question is, can i get encrypted without wiping my phone? is there a way to downgrade TWRP or extend /data without formatting / wiping?
I also need an encrypted phone ...
Have you tried this?
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi...very-twrp-3-2-3-1-nitrogen-t3866084?nocache=1
I still have to wait 255 hours to try this myself ....
ki01 said:
Hello everyone,
i finally got the unlock code and moved from chinese to xiaomi.eu MIUI 10 rom . I installed lazyflasher, TWRP 3.2.3 and was good to go in a reasonable amount of time but i hit a wall. for work i need to encrypt my phone, it's non-negotiable and has to be done. but when i try to do it, the operation fails. as much as i read it's because newest versions of twrp reserve/lock/enumerate all the blocks of /data and there's not enough space to store encryption files in the /data. There are two ways out of this: either downgrade to an earlier version of TWRP ( 3.1.0 should work) or extend the /data partition. Now the problem is that i have already set up a lot on this phone so a complete wipe will be painful..
So my question is, can i get encrypted without wiping my phone? is there a way to downgrade TWRP or extend /data without formatting / wiping?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use nijel8's twrp recovery for decryption
just flash recovery image in twrp
i flashed nijel's TWRP and now i can get through that window i was stuck on, but i get a toast with "find device closed unexpectedly" . i disabled find my phone and logged out of the xiaomi account i had on the phone, then rebooted and tried again. same thing. maby i should root and give full rights or something to the location app....