I've been trying to figure out methods of basically circumventing the locked bootloader on this stupid device and the only solution that I could possibly think would work is completely wiping all data off the phone and installing a custom BL and rom all at once on a blank phone. I'm not entirely certain whether or not this is possible, though, and if it is, where I would go about finding the images I'd need to reflash the phone. Warranty is nothing to me, as I recognise that my behaviour will result in consequences I have to live with.
So, is it possible to wipe the whole thing and start over, or is the KNOX writelock still screwing everything up? Even without removing the bootloader, is it possible to wipe only /system and then reflash without write protect rearing its head?
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Hey guys, sorry if this has been answered somewhere else, but I just want to confirm my understanding about encryption.
I'm setting up MobileIron and TouchDown for my work email and paused when the IT policy asked me to encrypt my phone.
So, is doing encryption will make it impossible for us to flash rom, radio, any kind of flashing + impossible to do all other things in CWM - due to the partition is being locked and encrypted before the device boots up?
(I'm not good to explain it technically, hopefully you get what I mean).
Slower boot time? The only way to decrypt is to factory reset and wipe all data? Impossible to backup nandroid? etc etc...
Of course the device would be more secure from the company's security point of view, but is that it?
I'm pretty sure there's no other workaround if I want to setup my phone with work email, since of course the IT policy applies to all employees so I can't ask for an exception.
At the same time I don't want to lose my ability to flash just because of the work email, it defeats the purpose of me having Android (which is to tweak and mess with my phone).
I came from SGSII where the IT policy only enforces PIN/password/pattern requirement, or perhaps because SGSII doesn't have encryption capability.
Appreciate your comment and opinion guys.
Hopefully someone knows.
kisekio said:
Hey guys, sorry if this has been answered somewhere else, but I just want to confirm my understanding about encryption.
I'm setting up MobileIron and TouchDown for my work email and paused when the IT policy asked me to encrypt my phone.
So, is doing encryption will make it impossible for us to flash rom, radio, any kind of flashing + impossible to do all other things in CWM - due to the partition is being locked and encrypted before the device boots up?
(I'm not good to explain it technically, hopefully you get what I mean).
Slower boot time? The only way to decrypt is to factory reset and wipe all data? Impossible to backup nandroid? etc etc...
Of course the device would be more secure from the company's security point of view, but is that it?
I'm pretty sure there's no other workaround if I want to setup my phone with work email, since of course the IT policy applies to all employees so I can't ask for an exception.
At the same time I don't want to lose my ability to flash just because of the work email, it defeats the purpose of me having Android (which is to tweak and mess with my phone).
I came from SGSII where the IT policy only enforces PIN/password/pattern requirement, or perhaps because SGSII doesn't have encryption capability.
Appreciate your comment and opinion guys.
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Click to collapse
Once your device is encrypted you won't be able to flash roms because recovery can't see the SD when you try to flash a kernel or rom.
You can't remove the encryption through a factory reset if your device is rooted and running CWM recovery. It will fail and the phone just boots up as normal. The only way I was able to remove encryption was to ADB/Fastboot the stock images onto my Nexus.
Lastly, I noticed the phone being very slow to boot with encryption.
Until Google give the option to decrypt I won't go near encryption again. Hope this helps and answers some of your questions.
jd1001 said:
Once your device is encrypted you won't be able to flash roms because recovery can't see the SD when you try to flash a kernel or rom.
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Click to collapse
I assume any kind of flashing won't work with encryption, including rom, kernel, radio, circlesmod, and all other kinds of mods that require flashing from CWM.
Is that correct?
If that's the case looks like I'm not going to use my work email on my phone.
Yeah your assumptions are correct!
jd1001 said:
Once your device is encrypted you won't be able to flash roms because recovery can't see the SD when you try to flash a kernel or rom.
You can't remove the encryption through a factory reset if your device is rooted and running CWM recovery. It will fail and the phone just boots up as normal. The only way I was able to remove encryption was to ADB/Fastboot the stock images onto my Nexus.
Lastly, I noticed the phone being very slow to boot with encryption.
Until Google give the option to decrypt I won't go near encryption again. Hope this helps and answers some of your questions.
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Click to collapse
I'm in exactly the same situation, unfortunately found out that i can't decrypt it with factory reset after I'm already encrypted
Do you happen to know good tutorial for flashing via ADB/fastboot?
I flashed my CM10 4.1.1 using galaxy nexus toolkit
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1830108 You're welcome.
Hello All,
I've seen multiple threads but none that exactly answered that question I had, two part question actually.
1. So I have a replacement battery waiting for my at a Verizon store. What are the chances they will want to troubleshoot the phoen before making the swap, possibly seeing it's unlocked and rooted, then giving me some textbook well the problem might have been you unlocking your phone and voiding the warranty. Do you think they would check?
2. If it's probable, I would flash back to stock. Now I've done the unlocking and rooting manually as per suggested and had tons of fun flashing new ROMs, bricking, and restoring, but I have yet to do a full flash back to stock/relock. Will this wipe all of my current Nandroid backups or remove CWM? Or is flashing back to stock and relocking, just like any other factory reset/data wipe I do in between ROMS? I'm just curious of the workload I'd have to put in all to flash back to stock for 5 min to swap the battery, then literally flash my next favorite ROM in the parking lot.
I apologize for the newbness, still learning.
Thanks all.
For me what I do is that I restore to stock and wipe so they have no evidence or what you could try and do is go to stock download an app called bootunlocker and lock the phone. You can unlock the bootloader again without wiping. Then to hide the root apps just install a third party launcher with a hidden apps feature.
Galaxy Nexus-codenameandroid rom
Chances are 50/50. They might check hardware and software to see if it is the problem with the battery or just a phone.
Going back to stock using this guide.
Personally, I would do a nandroid first, transfer it to computer, so you won't lose nothing at all when you get it back.
I'm going to root my nexus, but the only thing making me hesitant is if for instance, the device were to fail on me in such a way that I could not flash stock firmware and wipe my private data off it.. I'd want to ensure my private info was wiped.
Say the power button were to fail... and I couldn't then boot it into recovery mode, I wouldn't mind paying for a repair/etc as it would be rooted, but I'm really hesitant about sending off a device with my pictures/data on it. So I was wondering what methods there are to wipe data from the flash memory without drowning the entire thing in water if I were to be left with a faulty device! aha
Thanks
iamtherealmungo said:
I'm going to root my nexus, but the only thing making me hesitant is if for instance, the device were to fail on me in such a way that I could not flash stock firmware and wipe my private data off it.. I'd want to ensure my private info was wiped.
Say the power button were to fail... and I couldn't then boot it into recovery mode, I wouldn't mind paying for a repair/etc as it would be rooted, but I'm really hesitant about sending off a device with my pictures/data on it. So I was wondering what methods there are to wipe data from the flash memory without drowning the entire thing in water if I were to be left with a faulty device! aha
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To root you'll have to unlock the bootloader, which will erase the device completely. It's the first step, so it should be almost impossible to get your device unbootable without first scrubbing it.
Hello, thanks I'm aware I'll have to wipe my data to root the device but once it is rooted, supposing the power button were to fail I would be unable to boot into recovery mode.. or if the device were to fail and refuse to turn on I would not be able to wipe my personal data or unroot the device?
I'm just wondering what my options would be if that were to happen ? (Although highly unlikely!)
There are al lot of topics about repairing bootlopping, bricked, etc. devices with most often solutions in different threads. But off course you read mostly about problems in those topics which could blur an objective view. But I pre-informed myself a bit before rooting. Off course there is always a risk, but I think the changes on failure are very very slim. If you read and follow nstructions carefully and understand what you're doing. Also about how to do there are great instruction videos.
Main questions: do I need root, do I understand instructions and is it worth the risk (perhaps losing waranty)? I for myself can not have Android anymore without root and rather buy a new Nexus in worst case scenario. Need it for Ad Away, Greenify, Titanium Backup, OTG read and write, Power Toggles, ES Root Explorer, Xposed with Gravitybox and Xtheme Engine, etc.
Hi,
I want to unlock the bootloader on my HTC 10. Yeah, I am going to root, but this is a bootloader question. I need to know what gets erased when one unlocks the bootloader. In particular:
1. Does the ROM get erased?
2. Do the apps get erased?
3. Does the backup of the stock ROM (needed for factor reset) get erased.
I understand that app data gets erased. If the ROM gets erased, the phone is going to be inoperable until I install another ROM. Eventually, I want to root, but I would like to have the option of continuing to run the stock Nougat.
Thanks,
Ndmand
The DATA partition gets erased... Basically it performs a factory reset on the phone as a security measure to make sure someone else isn't unlocking the device to install malware so it does a quick factory reset so any potential customer information is erased.
I believe an app is removed so OTA fails when they do a system check and that app comes up missing. That last part might be an old method since now they might just do a hash check.
1. No
2. If you got them from the Playstore, Yes
3.Phones don't have a stock backup. Unless you make it, but that required you to be unlocked in the first place.
Thanks Tachi,
This helps a lot and gives me a comfort level with unlocking. I was afraid I would lose the ROM and be forced to install a custom ROM, which I might do later anyway.
Thank You,
Ndmand
Technically, nothing gets erased when you unlock the bootloader; however, unlocking the bootloader changes the decryption key used to decrypt the /data partition. As a result, you have to factory reset the phone as /data becomes unreadable. The ROM itself is in the /system partition, which is not encrypted and remains readable.
MehStrongBadMeh said:
Technically, nothing gets erased when you unlock the bootloader; however, unlocking the bootloader changes the decryption key used to decrypt the /data partition. As a result, you have to factory reset the phone as /data becomes unreadable. The ROM itself is in the /system partition, which is not encrypted and remains readable.
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Thanks, that explains it even more. I guess that I should stop worrying now. :good:
Hello everyone sorry to bother. So I was flashing a custom rom for my op5t and followed the usual steps : wipe system data cache and flashed the rom+gapps+magisk. And when I tried to boot the device it got stuck at the oneplus logo it didn't even got into bootloop. So I decided to flash rom again and wiped the data again but there I saw all the files were encrypted. I don't know how did it happen I wasn't encrypted in the beginning and now I can't install anything, the phone does not have any OS so it can't boot up. I don't want to lose my data is there anything I can do without locking the bootloader?
No need to lock your bootloader, but I think your data is lost.
Format data, and flash system again.
Yup. Don't lock your bootloader or you really will be screwed. Your data is lost at this point. Live, learn and remember to back up you data.
crakerjac said:
Yup. Don't lock your bootloader or you really will be screwed. Your data is lost at this point. Live, learn and remember to back up you data.
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I did get a backup but since all the files are encrypted now i cannot access my backup folder or data also.
antarax23 said:
I did get a backup but since all the files are encrypted now i cannot access my backup folder or data also.
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Click to collapse
Not that it helps you now, but typically backup data does not mean to the device you are messing with. You want to backup data to another device (like your PC). What would help at this point, is knowing exactly what you flashed. (What were you on, and what did you flash)
It sounds like you flashed two ROMs with different types of encryption, and the reason you can no longer read your data. Sometimes, and I mean sometimes, if you are lucky, you can go back to the ROM that you originally on and your data would still be readable. I've been able to salvage data this way before, sometimes just with the correct TWRP on some devices.
OhioYJ said:
Not that it helps you now, but typically backup data does not mean to the device you are messing with. You want to backup data to another device (like your PC). What would help at this point, is knowing exactly what you flashed. (What were you on, and what did you flash)
It sounds like you flashed two ROMs with different types of encryption, and the reason you can no longer read your data. Sometimes, and I mean sometimes, if you are lucky, you can go back to the ROM that you originally on and your data would still be readable. I've been able to salvage data this way before, sometimes just with the correct TWRP on some devices.
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Click to collapse
I solved the problem but it cost me my data after all. I had access to TWRP and fastboot but it couldn't read any of the data neither transfer anything from pc so I wiped all the device via TWRP and mounted into my pc and could finally transferred necessary files to flash. After all I did not lock the bootloader but lose my data