I 'hard reset' my device and backed up everything to my sd card using htc backup. however, now my device won't read my encrypted files. is there anyway to fix this? also, all of my downloaded applications have not loaded back onto my device. help!
a hard reset clears the phone, so basically it takes it back to the state it was when it came out of the box.
regarding encrypted files, you will have a problem with those, since after hard resetting, the encryption keys were lost.
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A few little things were acting up on my phone, so I decided to reflash and start anew. The only big hiccup is that my phone was encrypted.
Through TWRP, I have performed a Factory Reset, which was unsuccessful. I then went through Format Data to remove the encryption:
Format Data will wipe all of your apps, backups, pictures, videos, media, and removes encryption on internal storage. This cannot be undone. Press back to cancel. Type yes to continue.
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This unfortunately did not do a thing, even after rebooting recovery before I flashed the rom. I am prompted for my encryption password during pre-boot. I've tried various backups that I still have (including the original from when I got my device); sometimes the password is accepted, other times I am prompted to continuously try again. When the password is accepted, I am stuck with a blank screen; after a few seconds, my phone vibrates once, then after a few seconds more, it vibrates multiple times, like when an app crashes. These restores do apply; the boot animations and Samsung logo change based on which backup I tried.
As long as I can get to a state where I can flash new roms and boot without the encryption prompt, I don't mind having to root again, losing internal data (which should've happened above), or having to reconfigure everything (that's half the fun).
adb and TWRP are still functional. I'm downloading the stock recovery and factory images to give them a try as well, though the download is crawling and it will be some time before I can test it.
Has anyone else successfully solved this?
Edit: Solved.Flashed all factory images, performed a factory reset, re-rooted, set up TWRP again, and got back to a current rom. For anyone else who runs into this in the future, I had to use the stock recovery, not CWM or TWRP, to successfully wipe my device.
I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 i9505 (unlocked version). It was using the stock v4.4.2 but it was rooted and the bootloader was unlocked, I also had a different Recovery installed (Can't remember which one but it wasn't Clockwork). I am no longer using the phone so it doesn't contain any data that I need. I was preparing the phone to sell it so I decided to encrypt the storage as I read that that doing this would remove any possibility of old data being taken off.
During encryption setup, I had to enter a PIN before I could have it encrypted so I entered one. Once it finished encrypting (took quite a while), it rebooted and asked me for the PIN to decrypt the device, I entered the PIN. It seemed like it accepted this but then it rebooted. It kept doing this so I thought no big deal as it probably already achieved what I wanted. So I did a factory reset via the Recovery. However, the encrypted partition still persisted after the factory reset.
So then I decided to use Odin (v3.09) along with the latest stock ROM (v4.4.2 I9505XXUGNG8) to write over the whole phone thinking this would reset it. But the encrypted partition still persists and it keeps rebooting after I enter my PIN.
How can I completely factory reset the phone including removing the encrypted storage? I don't need any data on the phone, just need to reset it completely back to factory.
TIA
Probably flash a custom recovery and then:
In TWRP, under "Wipe" menu, there is "Format Data" function, which will effectively remove the encryption from the device
(alongside with all the data of course).
ps the information you had about encrypting your device is wrong. Basically when you delete a file from you phone, there is no way currently possible to get it back. That is caused by TRIM. Not even professional companies can restore it as of yet. So once you delete it, it's really gone.
Lennyz1988 said:
Probably flash a custom recovery and then:
In TWRP, under "Wipe" menu, there is "Format Data" function, which will effectively remove the encryption from the device
(alongside with all the data of course).
ps the information you had about encrypting your device is wrong. Basically when you delete a file from you phone, there is no way currently possible to get it back. That is caused by TRIM. Not even professional companies can restore it as of yet. So once you delete it, it's really gone.
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Click to collapse
Ok, I'll give that a go.
This is a similar article to what I read about needing to encrypt the device to truly remove your personal data: http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/fea...elete-all-data-from-your-android-phone-603731
What about files that haven't been explicitly deleted? Say for example if I left all the files undeleted but I just did a factory reset, will those files be recoverable? That's what I want to protect against.
Techno79 said:
Ok, I'll give that a go.
This is a similar article to what I read about needing to encrypt the device to truly remove your personal data: http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/fea...elete-all-data-from-your-android-phone-603731
What about files that haven't been explicitly deleted? Say for example if I left all the files undeleted but I just did a factory reset, will those files be recoverable? That's what I want to protect against.
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That articel is mistaken. As of Android 4.3, files that are deleted can't be recovered. A factory reset should be enough. It will also wipe your internal storage.
Thank you. Phone is all sorted now and back to a factory reset
Been working on this for a while now, but can't figure out how to get around it.
The phone is currently runing a custom 8.1.1 ROM and I have TWRP 3.2.0.0 installed.
I've done full wipes and factory resets, but the phone never seems to fully reset. I am fine with losing everything on the phone. I just want it 100% clean so I can sell it, which of course includes getting rid of the password on TWRP so the next user can mess around in there.
I have access to TWRP, the password is mine. But I can't seem to remove it, and every time I wipe and reset the phone it still asks me for my old device password with the owner message present as well.
I have also tried to format data, but it is unable to mount the data partition it seems, which I am guessing is due to encryption.
What's my fastest way to a reset and clean phone? I'm getting desperate here since I'm running out of time.
Edit: Through no change in process of my own, it suddenly completely reset. Now I'm more curious as to why.. Can anyone explain so I can avoid this issue in the future?
for me, the only way is to flash the full factory image from the Google site
First clear data and than flash software
My phone was behaving weirdly after may security update. So I decided to factory reset it hoping it would solve the problem. I had no idea my internal storage would be wiped out as well. As some of the files were important is there any way I can recover those files. After erasing there was a screen "encrypting data".
Any kind of help would be appreciated.
I'm afraid that your files are definitely lost and there is no way how to recover them. You would have to somehow get raw data of internal SD and previous encryption key to be able to "undelete" at least some data.
saurav_xdadev said:
My phone was behaving weirdly after may security update. So I decided to factory reset it hoping it would solve the problem. I had no idea my internal storage would be wiped out as well. As some of the files were important is there any way I can recover those files. After erasing there was a screen "encrypting data".
Any kind of help would be appreciated.
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Even if you had a backup of previous encryption key the partition have been reformated
I'm sorry but no you can't
Hey there. While I was installing a Custom ROM, I did something incredibly stupid by factory resetting my phone whilst it was encrypted, thus effectively erasing the encryption keys. I am unable to access my data from things such as TWRP because no password is accepted.
Is there a way to re-encrypt my device with new encryption keys? I understand that I will not be recovering the keys I wiped so I figured if I started with an entirely new encryption, I would be able to create working keys again.
I am completely fine with losing personal data on this device.
Thank you.
JC_6a63 said:
Hey there. While I was installing a Custom ROM, I did something incredibly stupid by factory resetting my phone whilst it was encrypted, thus effectively erasing the encryption keys. I am unable to access my data from things such as TWRP because no password is accepted.
Is there a way to re-encrypt my device with new encryption keys? I understand that I will not be recovering the keys I wiped so I figured if I started with an entirely new encryption, I would be able to create working keys again.
I am completely fine with losing personal data on this device.
Thank you.
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Click to collapse
Pretty much anytime you find yourself in a pinch like this, the MSM Download Tool here on XDA is the best way to go. Have you tried that?
You can also try an OTG with pen drive. It's not encrypted so TWRP can read and flash files from it. Then clean flash a ROM.
Thank you both for your help. I will try these out later.
JC_6a63 said:
Hey there. While I was installing a Custom ROM, I did something incredibly stupid by factory resetting my phone whilst it was encrypted, thus effectively erasing the encryption keys. I am unable to access my data from things such as TWRP because no password is accepted.
Is there a way to re-encrypt my device with new encryption keys? I understand that I will not be recovering the keys I wiped so I figured if I started with an entirely new encryption, I would be able to create working keys again.
I am completely fine with losing personal data on this device.
Thank you.
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Click to collapse
Try simply to format data
Can I resurrect this thread, because I just did the same, stupid thing?
After a long time on the OB releases, when jumping to tresk I had forgotten the proper procedure so, of course, I ended up not able to access the FS from TWRP. I can see everything fine after I've booted, of course.
@VampireHeart I *had* formatted Data (actually, System, Data, Cache) before flashing so I'm not sure this will help?
@devilrulz4ever the OTG is a nice idea, but what is the proper 'clean' process? I must be getting old...
Thanks!
krakout said:
Can I resurrect this thread, because I just did the same, stupid thing?
After a long time on the OB releases, when jumping to tresk I had forgotten the proper procedure so, of course, I ended up not able to access the FS from TWRP. I can see everything fine after I've booted, of course.
@VampireHeart I *had* formatted Data (actually, System, Data, Cache) before flashing so I'm not sure this will help?
@devilrulz4ever the OTG is a nice idea, but what is the proper 'clean' process? I must be getting old...
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Format data isn't wipe data, you find it at bottom of the screen into clean section, when you tap on that you may enter yes and confirm to make it, are two different thing.