Develop Bugs

Worth decrypt a Oneplus 3 ?

Hell guys. I switched from OOS 3.4.2 to CM13 last week. The Phone ist still encrypted. Now my question.
Is it worth to decrypt the phone via TWRP or ADB command ? I mean, i disabled PIN at boot. So i think im able to flash updated CM13 zip's and TWRP updates. I hope i'm right but i think it's possible.
What do you guys think ? Is my phone much faster after decrypting ?

Nvm. I decrypted it with TWRP and installed all new. Now it's not encrypted with CM13.

Well i did some research and i don't believe decrypting would be much of a boost in performance. What are your findings right now? noticed any boost in performance? and what exactly did you do in TWRP to decrypt it?

what re the benefits of decrypt. I believe im still encrypted as I have never wiped my data...

i think its a bit faster now. but its not really noticeable

Probably the only reason you would unencrypt is to install MultiROM I guess.

rirozizo said:
Probably the only reason you would unencrypt is to install MultiROM I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah I mean I haven't found the need to decrypt and don't see a need neither. I don't even know how to use multiroom. I rather just back up two roms and restore between the two I feel like multi rom is a bit too complex to set up two roms. my understanding is that everything has to be flashed in a certain way or it wont work.

egren58 said:
yeah I mean I haven't found the need to decrypt and don't see a need neither. I don't even know how to use multiroom. I rather just back up two roms and restore between the two I feel like multi rom is a bit too complex to set up two roms. my understanding is that everything has to be flashed in a certain way or it wont work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's really not that hard.. you will get used to it after your first time using it. And its so much worth it instead of doing the backup-restore method :good:

Misanful said:
It's really not that hard.. you will get used to it after your first time using it. And its so much worth it instead of doing the backup-restore method :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I might give it a try if I decrypt my device. Also just the thought of being able to switch to OOS for the camera in a snap is not suvh a bad idea..

i'm running sultan's CM and still have encryption on - OTA updates via CM still work fine, it just requests I enter the same password/PIN I do every time the device boots (As well as whenever I go into recovery).
it's annoying during flashing and updating but I'm glad to see it work since if someone stole my device they woudln't get any of my data nor would they be able to flash anything malicious onto my device without my knowing, and i don't notice any lag in day to day use.

Google-free ROM with working phone encryption wanted

Hi,
I have a LG G4 and use the stock ROM but want to get rid of google's observation and bloatware. I am looking for a custom ROM that focuses on privacy and runs stable on the LG G4.
It must
- be usable without Google
- provide a working full-phone encryption + SD card encryption like the stock ROM does
- provide fast updates (my stock rom has security level january 17 which is ridiculous)
I already tried LineageOS with the newest version and it worked well with one exception: I could not encrypt my phone. I tried it several times but I either got into a boot loop or Lineage OS booted but all my preferences and apps were lost (like I did a factory reset, but I didn't). When I then started TWRP recovery it asked me for my password and declined it altough it was 100% correct. The only possibility was to wipe all data and install LineageOS again. Very strange: I could also "encrypt" my phone without providing a PIN, password or something else. I would expect an error message to be displayed but there was none.
I also tried Ressurection Remix but the encryption failed as well (boot loop after encryption finished).
Could it be that TWRP causes these problems? Has anyone successfully intalled a custom ROM and encrypted the LG G4? Maybe another ROM? I am very open for new suggestions
For now I had to reinstall the stock ROM because that's the only way I can encrypt my phone...
Regards
maasG4

Does nobody care for encryption?
1984 is real, how can somebody just don't care?

How can encryption protect your privacy?
But you can use stock rom too.
Just reset phone, set it up without google account (you have to delete the accout before resetting fyi)
root it, use afwall and jdisable the common lg and google stuff.
Use floss open source apps from froid.
Thats it.
If you want to use stuff like network location without gapps the you have to use LOS. If you want more google stuff without google you have to use crdroid rom.
But I already tried and its a pain on the ass.

Lol yes encryption is something where many people say it's completely useless! I love those discussions where people say why do you care about encryption? Well it's their fault not mine I encrypt everything and always that's why I build TWRP with decryption support because no one else cares.
I use RR marshmallow plus FDE but I am about to switch to LOS 13 because of the security patches inside
Iirc (it's more than 1 year ago) it was a little bit tricky to set up because as you already noted nobody cares about encryption! everything like rooting or custom ROMs have all one thing in mind disable encryption and that's what's happening when you install root or when you use a custom ROM normally.
If you can wait until I have switched to LOS I could tell you more but I have no time frame for this so if you don't want to wait you should investigate the fstab file and if you're using Super su the installer scripts as well
.
Sent from my LG-H815 using XDA Labs

maasG4 said:
Hi,
I have a LG G4 and use the stock ROM but want to get rid of google's observation and bloatware. I am looking for a custom ROM that focuses on privacy and runs stable on the LG G4.
It must
- be usable without Google
- provide a working full-phone encryption + SD card encryption like the stock ROM does
- provide fast updates (my stock rom has security level january 17 which is ridiculous)
I already tried LineageOS with the newest version and it worked well with one exception: I could not encrypt my phone. I tried it several times but I either got into a boot loop or Lineage OS booted but all my preferences and apps were lost (like I did a factory reset, but I didn't). When I then started TWRP recovery it asked me for my password and declined it altough it was 100% correct. The only possibility was to wipe all data and install LineageOS again. Very strange: I could also "encrypt" my phone without providing a PIN, password or something else. I would expect an error message to be displayed but there was none.
I also tried Ressurection Remix but the encryption failed as well (boot loop after encryption finished).
Could it be that TWRP causes these problems? Has anyone successfully intalled a custom ROM and encrypted the LG G4? Maybe another ROM? I am very open for new suggestions
For now I had to reinstall the stock ROM because that's the only way I can encrypt my phone...
Regards
maasG4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only one name in cellular phone is black phone 2 it uses military type encryption and if you lose it you can call up and make it explode........ Lol

Updates Mid 2018
Hi,
as I had no success last year when I wrote this post, I lost it out of sight. Now I would like to give it another try.
Unfortunately I cannot find any custom ROM with a current version that also supports LG G4. LineageOS supports a lot of phones but no G4, the same for RR OS.
Is there another alternative that officially supports LG G4 and also works with encryption?
If not, I think it is time to move from my loved G4 to another phone. I do not feel comfortable with a phone that got no updates for almost two years. This time, I would directly focus on finding a phone that gets regular updates (like the new Nokias, as far as I know) or has good support for custom ROMs (like Nexus/Pixel). Are there any suggestions for a phone that is comparable to my G4 (I especially love the camera) but supports current custom ROMs or has regular updates from the manufacturer?
Looking forward to any recommendations!
steadfasterX said:
If you can wait until I have switched to LOS I could tell you more but I have no time frame for this so if you don't want to wait you should investigate the fstab file and if you're using Super su the installer scripts as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you already tried it?
Thanks!

maasG4 said:
Hi,
as I had no success last year when I wrote this post, I lost it out of sight. Now I would like to give it another try.
Unfortunately I cannot find any custom ROM with a current version that also supports LG G4. LineageOS supports a lot of phones but no G4, the same for RR OS.
Is there another alternative that officially supports LG G4 and also works with encryption?
If not, I think it is time to move from my loved G4 to another phone. I do not feel comfortable with a phone that got no updates for almost two years. This time, I would directly focus on finding a phone that gets regular updates (like the new Nokias, as far as I know) or has good support for custom ROMs (like Nexus/Pixel). Are there any suggestions for a phone that is comparable to my G4 (I especially love the camera) but supports current custom ROMs or has regular updates from the manufacturer?
Looking forward to any recommendations!
Have you already tried it?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Officially - cypher os supports your G4
Unofficially (but maintained by myself, @steadfasterX and @kessaras) you can choose from LineageOS, AICP, Cypher (newer versions with more patches - @kessaras is also the official Cypher maintainer so no difference there) and RR
Anything Oreo supports encryption - anything nougat doesn't
However, Oreo has a bug with BT calling - Calling through a BT headset doesn't work

Installing TWRP With a Locked Bootloader on a Used Xiaomi Max

After spending almost half a day trying to get my new Xiaomi Max into a usable state, I thought I'd share my findings for anyone else stuck in the same situation.
I recently bought a used Xiaomi Max from Taobao, the Chinese equivalent of Amazon. Things were going well until MiOS decided to update itself, and the phone rebooted only to say that this phone had been associated with a previous Xiaomi account and prompted me for the password. Of course, I had no idea what the previous password was, and the phone was stuck on setup until the correct password was entered just like when you setup a Google phone in China.
Since most Google servers are blocked by the Great Firewall of China, Google services will just keep saying "No Internet detected" and won't let you use the phone until some nice person decides to send you the address to a foreign proxy server that hasn't been blocked yet since VPNs don't work until *after* you can install them on the phone. Xiaomi phones apparently have the same thing, except that you have to track down whoever previously used this phone to register a Xiaomi account.
I tried a hard reset with the same result. Flashed a new Xiaomi ROM with the same result. Xiaomi locks the bootloader Apple-style to prevent anyone from using stolen phones. It also does a great job of preventing anyone from selling their phone or giving it to a friend. The locked bootloader prevented me from using fastboot to erase anything or install anything. Google provided a plethora of answers, all of which did absolutely nothing. Apparently, Xiaomi has fixed all of the security holes which were previously used to fix this problem. Good for them; bad for us.
Finally, I noticed that the Chinese and International MiOS had different recovery systems. Since this was being changed by the MiFlash program, it could only mean that somehow, MiFlash was capable of flashing system partitions even with a locked bootloader.
I downloaded TWRP, renamed it to recovery.img in the MiOS ROM, changed the MD5 checksum in the XML file, and gave the phone one more flash. The next time that it rebooted into recovery mode, I was staring at the TWRP logo instead of the Xiaomi recovery screen. From here, I could format /data to F2FS to gain the full 32GiB of space that the phone came with, install LineageOS, install Psiphon for a VPN, and then finally use TWRP to install OpenGApps. Voila! I had a fully usable phone without having to contact Xiaomi to unlock the bootloader, installing any strange Chinese software, or selling my firstborn child to Qualcomm.
I'd like to say that this method could probably be used on other Xiaomi phones as well, but considering that I have no other Xiaomi phones to test, I'll have to leave that task to the brave souls here in the forums. In any case, I hope that this will be of help to at least one other person and save them a couple of hours of trial and error as I have endured.

oh,please tell me which xml you modified with md5?

Hey there,
Sorry for the delay. I live in China currently, and it takes a VPN to get XDA to load correctly.
I can't remember the name of the XML file off the top of my head, but it was in the root directory of the ROM and contained all of the filenames as well as their MD5 values. All you have to do is to replace recovery.img's MD5 with TWRP's MD5 and you should be able to flash without any problems. Just make sure that you boot directly to recovery, otherwise the normal OS can detect that recovery has changed and flash the original recovery.

Please help me, I brought a Xiomi Max 2, from a second hand, when i started the phone it askes from its previously mi account, but the guy that sold me it, doent answer my e-mails anymore, what could i do?

The previous owner activated device protection, so you're locked out of the phone until he releases it. You'll have to install a custom ROM instead of MiUI to be able to use the phone.
If you made a credit card to purchase the phone, make sure that you submit a request to get your money back. There are too many scammers who steal and resell phones around here.

Just tried with mi6 glob 7.12,
and twrp 3.2.1 and changed md5sum.xml
but showing "the system has been destroyed"

Tried doing this one on Redmi Note 4/4X (Snapdragon). Flashed MIUI 10.2.3 Global Stable with TWRP 3.3.1-0. Replaced the stock recovery.img with the TWRP one and then replaced md5 in the md5sum. Power Button+Volume Up only shows a blank screen after Mi logo shows up. Tried to go on with the initial setup then boot into recovery via adb but only sent me back to stock recovery

Encrypted M9, Lineage updates

I had issues in the past with encrypting my M8, was using clockworkmod and Cyanogen, and could not process updates without fully wiping.
Ultimately I accepted this because I cannot live with having the phone not encrypted.
I now have a new M9, Running TWRP and Lineage 14.
All is working beautifully, no complaints, however I would like to encrypt the phone so I started doing research if this new setup would have issues.
Seems there is mixed advice on different device models having various issues with encrypted images and TWRP not being able to properly update automatically or manually.
Anyone have an M9, encrypted, TWRP and the latest Lineage.
If so known working versions of TWRP to use or avoid? Any required firmware levels, OS build dates, etc?
Just looking for yes, I am doing it and it works on x+y+x configuration, or No, this is going to end in misery.
Not instructions per se unless there are some specific points that lead to a definitive success / failure.
any advice appreciated.

Hi, I have super inactive on the forum for a very long and I signed in for the first time in a few years to answer this.
I also ran into an issue with encryption and lineage os. I found an answer online that I can confirm worked for me.
I am running the latest nightly (Nov 7) and have no issues with installing updates through the settings menu. I am not sure which time version of twrp I am on at the moment and I can't check right now.
I also have a himaul. As Markus said, the last CM13 was able to encrypt properly. That gives us a time-consuming workaround:
Do a fresh install of cm-13.0-20161218-NIGHTLY-himaul. (I got it from https://archive.org/download/cmarchive_nighlies )
Set a PIN and encrypt the phone normally through settings. (I did not try a password or pattern.)
twrp should be able to decrypt properly. Perform the default (i.e., rm -rf, non-formatting) wipe.
adb sideload lineage-14.1-20170516-nightly-himaul-signed
LOS will boot to the standard decryption prompt and should succeed with the PIN from step 2.
LOS will not have a screen lock enabled. I set the same PIN from step 2 and was able to decrypt with it on the next boot. I changed my PIN to another value and was able to decrypt with the new PIN on the next boot.
If you do not set a PIN in step 2, you will still get a PIN prompt in step 5, but there will be no correct answer and you'll have to start over.
This procedure gave me a himaul running the latest LOS nightly that believes it is properly encrypted. I uploaded a logcat from the CM13 encryption run that succeeded as encryption.cm13.log
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Source https://jira.lineageos.org/plugins/servlet/mobile#issue/BUGBASH-457 (click to view older comments)
I was able to change the decryption pin (using "cryptfs" from the play store) to a password required upon boot and and I was able to set a pattern lock to unlock the screen.
Edit: To clarify, I ran into a boot loop issue upon trying to encrypt the phone with lineage installed. I can use the automatic updating without issues(so far)

Thank you very much for the input!
I am on the newest twrp-3.1.1-0-hima, and the latest nightly lineage (11/7) as well.
No play store, no google app anything, just a basic subset of productivity tools, and blazing fast performance.
Trying to decide if I want to chance this, this weekend, I will report back for posterity success/fail or at least if I chicken out.
This M9 is running amazingly smooth as is, I hate to toast it, but that's how we learn and the price we pay for not being charged by ATT to be their product
Thanks again for the input, and still would love to hear other's success/fail stories if theyhave them.

Well, to anyone that wants to go there, I can tell you that if you just tell the phone to encrypt, it will not complain, however when it is complete, you will never see the OS again....
Had to reload from scratch, and restore everything I backed up before hand. I did not have time to go back and try alternative ways or methods, maybe next weekend...

The solution I linked worked for me personally, its unfortunate that you couldn't get it to work. Did you do the correct type of wiping ? There is one that deletes the files but leave encryption in tact while the other type is formatting which removes encryption. Also did you give your phone some time to rebuild the dalvik/art cache after installing lineage os?

XT1710-01 Root Guide?

New to the Moto Z2 play, moved to this from a Z2 force on Verizon after the shattershield started peeling. Anyway, there seems to be a lot of conflicting information here, and i'm struggling to actually nail down the process for root. My bootloader is already unlocked, however between several different versions of TWRP, Retus based phones vs Albus, ability to unroot and update if the system is modified, rooting with or without disabling encryption, countless different variants with different procedures, etc. i'm a little overwhelmed. Can anyone point me in the right direction of rooting my device (hopefully) WITHOUT losing all my data?

StATicxTW0T said:
New to the Moto Z2 play, moved to this from a Z2 force on Verizon after the shattershield started peeling. Anyway, there seems to be a lot of conflicting information here, and i'm struggling to actually nail down the process for root. My bootloader is already unlocked, however between several different versions of TWRP, Retus based phones vs Albus, ability to unroot and update if the system is modified, rooting with or without disabling encryption, countless different variants with different procedures, etc. i'm a little overwhelmed. Can anyone point me in the right direction of rooting my device (hopefully) WITHOUT losing all my data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm about to buy the unlocked Moto Z2 Play from the Moto site (64GB variant... not sure of the model number) but have you checked out these threads?...
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=75098899&postcount=40
https://forum.xda-developers.com/z2-play/how-to/guide-resource-help-thread-t3627615/page3

allstar21369 said:
I'm about to buy the unlocked Moto Z2 Play from the Moto site (64GB variant... not sure of the model number) but have you checked out these threads?...
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=75098899&postcount=40
https://forum.xda-developers.com/z2-play/how-to/guide-resource-help-thread-t3627615/page3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did but they involve disabling encryption, which means having to wipe data everytime an update rolls around.
For those that see this in the future, I followed this guide, but used Magisk 13.3 and have working root, without having to wipe my data (bootloader already unlocked) https://gist.github.com/eexit/e6d5fc0984e1c7f25376d3dafa819792

StATicxTW0T said:
I did but they involve disabling encryption, which means having to wipe data everytime an update rolls around.
For those that see this in the future, I followed this guide, but used Magisk 13.3 and have working root, without having to wipe my data (bootloader already unlocked) https://gist.github.com/eexit/e6d5fc0984e1c7f25376d3dafa819792
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a rooted XT1710-01, also. If you are going to install Xposed and Gravity Box, I recommend not updating Magisk, above v14. After v15 and now v16, I have had issues with Automate It app and Tasker rules not working, until I uninstalled Xposed.
Downgrading Magisk versions requires flashing your stock ROM and basically starting over.
Motorola has not posted firmware for this model.

StATicxTW0T said:
I did but they involve disabling encryption, which means having to wipe data everytime an update rolls around.
For those that see this in the future, I followed this guide, but used Magisk 13.3 and have working root, without having to wipe my data (bootloader already unlocked) https://gist.github.com/eexit/e6d5fc0984e1c7f25376d3dafa819792
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So glad to see someone have it working and with a clear guide. I'm going to buy the phone this week.

StATicxTW0T said:
I did but they involve disabling encryption, which means having to wipe data everytime an update rolls around.
For those that see this in the future, I followed this guide, but used Magisk 13.3 and have working root, without having to wipe my data (bootloader already unlocked) https://gist.github.com/eexit/e6d5fc0984e1c7f25376d3dafa819792
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just wanted to let everyone know that the guide posted in that post worked for me perfectly. I had an XT1710-01 that I had unlocked the bootloader before but stopped there. Then I finally wanted to root it, and ran into everything the OP ran into - just so many different guides and versions of TWRP/Magisk not working with the Z2 Play, it was hard to nail down the exact versions of everything I needed and make sure I didn't flash an incompatible version or something. I found that same guide a few days ago as well but never did it until today, and can confirm it works. I already had my bootloader unlocked and just did the rooting portion and all my data was saved (but I wasn't too worried about my data honestly, it's all backed up anyway).
And a special thanks to OP for coming back and posting his solution. Nothing is more frustrating than searching for a problem online, finding a hit on your exact problem in a thread that was posted years ago, and then no solution is ever posted in that thread. So good job. :good:

Johmama said:
I just wanted to let everyone know that the guide posted in that post worked for me perfectly. I had an XT1710-01 that I had unlocked the bootloader before but stopped there. Then I finally wanted to root it, and ran into everything the OP ran into - just so many different guides and versions of TWRP/Magisk not working with the Z2 Play, it was hard to nail down the exact versions of everything I needed and make sure I didn't flash an incompatible version or something. I found that same guide a few days ago as well but never did it until today, and can confirm it works. I already had my bootloader unlocked and just did the rooting portion and all my data was saved (but I wasn't too worried about my data honestly, it's all backed up anyway).
And a special thanks to OP for coming back and posting his solution. Nothing is more frustrating than searching for a problem online, finding a hit on your exact problem in a thread that was posted years ago, and then no solution is ever posted in that thread. So good job. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just received my Z2 Play, unlocked the bootloader, and am about to flash the custom TWRP (albus_twrp.img) posted in the guide linked above... but the guide never says to "flash" TWRP, it just says to "boot" with TWRP and also "Enter your FBE password: it must work! (turn off screen and turn it back on if not responsive)"...
I'm not 100% sure what to do here. Should I boot TWRP first, do a full backup and then flash TWRP? I don't want to wipe it.
And what is this FBE (File-Based Encryption) password? I've never set one and don't want everything encrypted.

allstar21369 said:
I just received my Z2 Play, unlocked the bootloader, and am about to flash the custom TWRP (albus_twrp.img) posted in the guide linked above... but the guide never says to "flash" TWRP, it just says to "boot" with TWRP and also "Enter your FBE password: it must work! (turn off screen and turn it back on if not responsive)"...
I'm not 100% sure what to do here. Should I boot TWRP first, do a full backup and then flash TWRP? I don't want to wipe it.
And what is this FBE (File-Based Encryption) password? I've never set one and don't want everything encrypted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't flash TWRP on my phone. I think I tried it once and it failed for some reason, so I just followed the guide of booting into TWRP, backing up my phone, and pulling the backup. Should be okay for what I need, in case of a failure I will have a backup somewhere and can recover the device. But yes, I'd at least boot into TWRP, then backup your device like in that guide so you have a backup. Flashing it is up to you, I've always flashed a custom recovery but on this phone I'm keeping the original recovery so I can get an OTA. On my Nexus devices I don't care about OTA because I just flash ROMs all the time so it's no big deal.
The FBE password as far as I can tell is the 4 or 5 digit PIN number you are asked to input upon a fresh wipe of your device to set as a password. I have my phone set up to use my fingerprint to unlock the phone, and if that fails it will ask for my PIN, which is the same as the FBE of mine. I used that same number in TWRP when it asks for a password to unencrypt the data and it worked. As far as turning off encryption, I'm not sure if there's a way to do that. There could be, but to turn it off, it wipes your data as a security measure.

Johmama said:
so I just followed the guide of booting into TWRP, backing up my phone, and pulling the backup. Should be okay for what I need, in case of a failure I will have a backup somewhere and can recover the device. But yes, I'd at least boot into TWRP, then backup your device like in that guide so you have a backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I can't backup my ROM most likely because I don't have an FBE password. When I go to backup my ROM in TWRP it fails.
Johmama said:
The FBE password as far as I can tell is the 4 or 5 digit PIN number you are asked to input upon a fresh wipe of your device to set as a password. I have my phone set up to use my fingerprint to unlock the phone, and if that fails it will ask for my PIN, which is the same as the FBE of mine. I used that same number in TWRP when it asks for a password to unencrypt the data and it worked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried entering my unlock code and the pin I created but neither worked for my FBE password. I don't ever remember being asked to enter a password when setting up my device. I suppose this means I'll have to wipe data and then setup an FBE password.

allstar21369 said:
I tried entering my unlock code and the pin I created but neither worked for my FBE password. I don't ever remember being asked to enter a password when setting up my device. I suppose this means I'll have to wipe data and then setup an FBE password.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it helps at all, the first time I tried it also didn't work for me and I did end up wiping my phone for other reasons before I came back and tried that guide again and it worked. I thought I set up the PIN they're talking about the first time around but I did have troubles in TWRP before the first wipe of my data. I would just boot up the phone regularly, plug it in to your computer, and try to grab any files you need and wipe it. I know that isn't the answer you're looking for, but it's all I can give I guess. Once you reset, hopefully they'll prompt you to make a PIN during the setup process and that should be the FBE password. Then follow the guide. I hope you get it man.
Oh, and to a note to you and everyone reading this, I booted to TWRP 3.2.1-0-albus and Magisk-v14.0. Dunno if it's just rumors or not but I heard the newer versions of Magisk might not work with the Z2 Play past version 14. Dunno if that's true but v14.0 worked for me.

Johmama said:
If it helps at all, the first time I tried it also didn't work for me and I did end up wiping my phone for other reasons before I came back and tried that guide again and it worked. I thought I set up the PIN they're talking about the first time around but I did have troubles in TWRP before the first wipe of my data. I would just boot up the phone regularly, plug it in to your computer, and try to grab any files you need and wipe it. I know that isn't the answer you're looking for, but it's all I can give I guess. Once you reset, hopefully they'll prompt you to make a PIN during the setup process and that should be the FBE password. Then follow the guide. I hope you get it man.
Oh, and to a note to you and everyone reading this, I booted to TWRP 3.2.1-0-albus and Magisk-v14.0. Dunno if it's just rumors or not but I heard the newer versions of Magisk might not work with the Z2 Play past version 14. Dunno if that's true but v14.0 worked for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay. I just wiped and re-set up everything and still no FBE password was asked for OR works when I go into TWRP. I'm using TWRP 3.1.1-0... I suppose I'll try it all again using TWRP 3.2.1-0-albus after deleting data.
*Edit: I did exactly what I just said I was doing booted TWRP 3.2.1-0-albus instead of 3.1.1-0 and when I it booted up and asked me for a decryption password I entered the pin I set up previously and it has been stuck at the "Mount, Trying Decryption" screen for a long time... but it's not frozen. It says "Updating partition details... ...done
Unable to mount storage
Full SELinux support is present.
Data successfully decrypted, new block device: '/dev
/block/dm-0'
Updating partition details...
...done"
And the progress bar/thing at the bottom is still animated like it's working... no forward or back buttons or anything and turning off/on the screen hasn't done anything... not really sure what to do here... I don't want to unplug it and brick my phone or force it off...
*Edit 2:
I now have it all sorted out.
TWRP never finished trying to decrypt data so I long pressed the power button and eventually went here -> https://forum.xda-developers.com/z2-play/development/twrp-moto-z2-play-t3729531 , downloaded "twrp_albus_3.1.2_r18_64.img" and in adb used the command:
fastboot boot twrp_albus_3.1.2_r18_64.img
This TWRP looks a bit different than all of the others but it let me boot up and use my recently created PIN code to actually decrypt my data and make a full backup. After that I just installed Magisk (the latest one, 16.4) as indicated in this guide -> https://gist.github.com/eexit/e6d5fc0984e1c7f25376d3dafa819792 and everything is fine. I never even flashed TWRP, just booted it.

Just curious what you guys have done about getting OTA updates since you've rooted and installed Magisk.
Have @allstar21369 or @pizza_pablo had the chance to figure out the update process?
I'm currently trying to navigate the Magisk uninstall --> OTA update process and could use some insight if either of you guys have any to share.

joefuf said:
Just curious what you guys have done about getting OTA updates since you've rooted and installed Magisk.
Have @allstar21369 or @pizza_pablo had the chance to figure out the update process?
I'm currently trying to navigate the Magisk uninstall --> OTA update process and could use some insight if either of you guys have any to share.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't want updates, especially the oreo "upgrade".

pizza_pablo said:
I didn't want updates, especially the oreo "upgrade".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, didn't even think about just sticking on what works... Did Oreo give people some issues?
Since this was Day 1 with the new phone, I was just trying to get up to speed and probably sit on one version until I had compatibility issues with something, but everything just works.

joefuf said:
Hmm, didn't even think about just sticking on what works... Did Oreo give people some issues?
Since this was Day 1 with the new phone, I was just trying to get up to speed and probably sit on one version until I had compatibility issues with something, but everything just works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oreo hasn't come to the phone, when I decided I didn't want it, mostly because of the white background in the Quick Settings and I didn't want any of the other "improvements".
With this setup, I accept the risks of not having the security updates.

Double - double \_0_/

pizza_pablo said:
Oreo hasn't come to the phone, when I decided I didn't want it, mostly because of the white background in the Quick Settings and I didn't want any of the other "improvements".
With this setup, I accept the risks of not having the security updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel exactly the same way. No benefits for me. I don't want the bright white interface and I would never use the "Picture in Picture" (or floating video) feature (and if I did want that there are a couple apps for Nougat that do it).
But If I do decide I want it and give upgrading a shot I'll definitely post it here.

pizza_pablo said:
Oreo hasn't come to the phone, when I decided I didn't want it, mostly because of the white background in the Quick Settings and I didn't want any of the other "improvements".
With this setup, I accept the risks of not having the security updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, very understandable. It really is superfluous to the general experience.
allstar21369 said:
I feel exactly the same way. No benefits for me. I don't want the bright white interface and I would never use the "Picture in Picture" (or floating video) feature (and if I did want that there are a couple apps for Nougat that do it).
But If I do decide I want it and give upgrading a shot I'll definitely post it here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you sir! Keep me posted. I'm posting everywhere right now to learn the new methods so I know if there ever comes a time. This is my first phone since my Motorola Droid 4. Back then it was one click root, install and run Safestrap apk to get custom recovery, boot into custom recovery and flash zips to your heart's content. I'm sure this will be as "simple" once I learn, but it's pretty daunting in prospect.