My Gnex was stolen a few months before I got my N4, and although I tried to track it the thief was "clever" and simply turned the phone off. I think he then took the SIM out before turning it back on, so that even when powered up it never connected to the network and he had time to wipe/sell/use my device. The biggest lesson I learned was to lock my phone, and so my N4 has a PIN code. However, I was thinking that a thief could still do the same thing if this one is ever misplaced and I would be screwed. Is there a way to prevent someone from shutting down the phone without unlocking the device? At least this way you would be able to track it or install tracking software until the battery dies.
webmaster said:
My Gnex was stolen a few months before I got my N4, and although I tried to track it the thief was "clever" and simply turned the phone off. I think he then took the SIM out before turning it back on, so that even when powered up it never connected to the network and he had time to wipe/sell/use my device. The biggest lesson I learned was to lock my phone, and so my N4 has a PIN code. However, I was thinking that a thief could still do the same thing if this one is ever misplaced and I would be screwed. Is there a way to prevent someone from shutting down the phone without unlocking the device? At least this way you would be able to track it or install tracking software until the battery dies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have Avast! installed on mine and when I changed out the Sim at the store the other day, the phone freaked out and sent me text messages (to my backup phone number) of the location and the new phone number. I'm about 90 percent sure that some of the other settings in the app lock the ability to wipe the phone... but I'm new to this Android thing and I could be wrong (workaround via fastboot?).
Anyway, if this is the case, Avast should calm your fears... plus its free.
What if the other person simply turns the phone off?
theres nothing you can do after they turn it off they will just restore the device, even if your carrier blocks your imei number, they can just use the phone in another country ,you can only protect your information on the device
If you have a rooted device you can install Cerberus as a system app, so it will survive to wipe. But disable power off is impossible.
I realize it is impossible to disable power off (for good reason!), however there should be a way to disable it when the phone is locked. In fact, I cant think of a single reason the phone SHOULD allow you to power it down while it is locked.
webmaster said:
I realize it is impossible to disable power off (for good reason!), however there should be a way to disable it when the phone is locked. In fact, I cant think of a single reason the phone SHOULD allow you to power it down while it is locked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A single reason?
You turn your phone screen on. It randomly locks up and not responding.
Oh no what do I do now?! I can't pull my battery!!!!!!
Long press hold for 10 seconds. Phone turns off.
Long press is encoded within the phone and can't be disabled, it's down to the bootloaderish level.
Related
I know the thread title says enough but I'm going to elaborate on what I am looking for.
I am looking for a looking for a lock program with password protection similar to the one that comes on our Wizards, but without the timed lock. I want it to only lock my device when it is turned back on from sleep mode and no other time. Basically I only want to have to type a password in when the screen is turned back on and not again until I turn the screen back on again.
Does anyone know of a program with this kind of functionality? I really need this because unfortunately, I still live with my parent and my Mom likes to go through my phone and look at all my personal data like call logs and SMS. It's become a nuisance and I really want to do something about it.
Thanks in advance guys.
Dan.
What's wrong with the time out one? I think if you were to do a 0 seconds of the built in password thingy, you can have it ask for a password every time you switch it on.
The built in one will only ask you password if your phone is not used for a certain period of time. the time out function is basically from the backlight and battery time out, nothing to do with the passwor.d
hanmin said:
What's wrong with the time out one? I think if you were to do a 0 seconds of the built in password thingy, you can have it ask for a password every time you switch it on.
The built in one will only ask you password if your phone is not used for a certain period of time. the time out function is basically from the backlight and battery time out, nothing to do with the passwor.d
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the problem with the built in lock function is that it will lock the phone after so many seconds even if the backlight is still on and it gets annoying when I'm doing something but get sidetracked for a few seconds and then come back and have to type in the code to unlock it again, even though it never left my hand in the first place. I'll play with it a bit and see what can be done with it but from what I have seen so far, I don't really like it.
I'm pretty sure it is based on you switching off (suspend) the phone or the phone switch (suspend) off itself, because the option is "0 minutes". It can't have the phone locked after it us unused for 0 minutes.
hanmin said:
I'm pretty sure it is based on you switching off (suspend) the phone or the phone switch (suspend) off itself, because the option is "0 minutes". It can't have the phone locked after it us unused for 0 minutes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heh... It worked. Thanks. If I set the backlight and power options to never turn off display then it will never lock the device but once I press the power button to turn off the screen then it automatically locks the device so that you have to type in the password before you can resume playing around with the phone.
Thanks again. I had never tried that option before.
Dan.
I noticed that when I boot up my mini and I don't insert my code, I can still use my phone. As in browsing through my emails, sms, foto's, files, etc.
The code's only function seems to be making the connection with a network.
Is this a flaw on htc's side or is something not right with my phone?
PIN protects only your phone line.
You could enable the device lock, I believe setting a time out of 0 minutes forces you to input your chosen password when you turn the phone on. This means you'll then have two passwords/PINs to enter each time you soft reset (assuming you keep your SIM's PIN enabled), but if you're concerned about privacy, it is an idea. You may also want to consider encrypting your microSD card.
Excuse me butting in to a non-familiar sub-forum, I was attempting to find the wiki page for this device, attempting to help someone buy their first smartphone.
yeah i tried that, but then it asks you for a code everytime you unlock our device as well and that becomes a pain very quickly
It's not that this bothers me that much, I just think it's strange the phone's protection is this weak
If it didn't ask you to enter the PIN when you unlock your device or use ActiveSync/Windows Mobile Device Centre, then your data would be at risk if the phone was stolen whilst it was turned on. I see where you're coming from (I've stopped using device lock for this very reason), however all the HTC devices I've owned have behaved this way, possible it is a Windows Mobile behaviour?
SilentlyScreaming said:
If it didn't ask you to enter the PIN when you unlock your device or use ActiveSync/Windows Mobile Device Centre, then your data would be at risk if the phone was stolen whilst it was turned on. I see where you're coming from (I've stopped using device lock for this very reason), however all the HTC devices I've owned have behaved this way, possible it is a Windows Mobile behaviour?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not a WinMo problem. This is specifically an HTC problem.
The WinMo locking feature is supposed to be able to set time criteria. For example, set it to 4 hours. When you boot up your phone, it goes to ask the password once. Then it won't be asking it anymore until you reboot your phone again, or until you didn't move your phone for straight 4 hours. You can set different number of hours for this effect.
All my other WinMo phones from 5.0 to 6.x does this thing perfectly. Only my first HTC unit, this HD mini, won't allow this simple feature to work correctly as intended. HTC somehow tweaked this basic WinMo feature, and broke it. So now, if you enable the lock feature, it ask for password each time you come out of standby, no matter what situation, no matter how long or short your phone was on standby. Very annoying. Making it useless.
bart3385 said:
Not a WinMo problem. This is specifically an HTC problem.
The WinMo locking feature is supposed to be able to set time criteria. For example, set it to 4 hours. When you boot up your phone, it goes to ask the password once. Then it won't be asking it anymore until you reboot your phone again, or until you didn't move your phone for straight 4 hours. You can set different number of hours for this effect.
All my other WinMo phones from 5.0 to 6.x does this thing perfectly. Only my first HTC unit, this HD mini, won't allow this simple feature to work correctly as intended. HTC somehow tweaked this basic WinMo feature, and broke it. So now, if you enable the lock feature, it ask for password each time you come out of standby, no matter what situation, no matter how long or short your phone was on standby. Very annoying. Making it useless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah sometimes you wonder how did they screw it up so much ?
I really think its better to build a Rom from scratch, I also miss the normal functioning windows start menu. They crippled so much... its almost pathetic...
HTC screwed up many of those simple and beautiful stock WinMo apps, features, and configurations. Not just this one.
I don't really get why they did this. Maybe to discourage you from using stock WinMo apps? Or maybe they're just plain dumb dumb and dumber?
Ah, now I understand the problem. Have you tried other locked apps? CHT's version / S2U2 etc. ?
I don't know exactly what you mean by using other apps, but if your question is if I can use apps or shells without entering my PIN my answer is yes.
If you were aiming at the unlock code popping up everytime I put my phone on standby, it's a hardware button so apps don't affect it I guess
MobileMini said:
Yeah sometimes you wonder how did they screw it up so much ?
I really think its better to build a Rom from scratch, I also miss the normal functioning windows start menu. They crippled so much... its almost pathetic...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can still use the normal windows start menu, just disable sense in the settings
it makes your phone a hell of a lot faster and although it's not that spectacular to look at, it's much more functional than sense
i've been using spb mobile shell since a few weeks after i bought my mini and it's made my phone a lot nicer to use.
This issue has been addressed and no actual cause has been determined.
My pin lock pad which I usually use is replaced by a keyboard for no reason and my pin doesn't work anymore.
it keeps asking me for a password and after every 5 attempts I get a 30 seconds countdown.
To add insult to injury trying to restart the computer boots me into download mode.
It's very frustrating to say the least. Fortunately I have a twrp backup that I can restore but it's such a waste of time.
Has anyone else had this happen to them?
mrnovanova said:
This issue has been addressed and no actual cause has been determined.
My pin lock pad which I usually use is replaced by a keyboard for no reason and my pin doesn't work anymore.
it keeps asking me for a password and after every 5 attempts I get a 30 seconds countdown.
To add insult to injury trying to restart the computer boots me into download mode.
It's very frustrating to say the least. Fortunately I have a twrp backup that I can restore but it's such a waste of time.
Has anyone else had this happen to them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not happening to me. but anyone who knows how to deal with this. So, just in case happened to us, we know what to do.
hemander said:
Not happening to me. but anyone who knows how to deal with this. So, just in case happened to us, we know what to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Useless posts just to raise your post count are all over this forum, seriously if you cant offer anything remotely helpful why post at all? Also put your tongue back in!
OP can you extrapolate how to arrive at the issue and also please state device model, device status etc?
Are you using an application to set/unset your PIN?
I had this happening to me repeatedly, however it was accepting my PIN as the password so was more just annoying that anything else.
After some experimenting I found that it was Secure Settings (setting the PIN) that seemed to be the cause - somehow it was setting the PIN correctly the first time it ran and then subsequently it would switch to password.
I ditched it and instead setup my set/unset PIN via Pebble Locker (also using Wifi and other bluetooth devices to set/unset PIN).
After using it for a few days successfully, it locked once setting a password instead of PIN, and this time my usual PIN failed to unlock it. Luckily it was about 11pm and I knew that it would automatically unlock at about 7am the next day when the wifi was automatically switched back on - so I didn't need to reset or anything (although I got the impression at the time that you could unlock it via going to your google account somehow - but I can't recall the details and may have this entirely wrong).
I setup a Tasker profile so that I'd have a backdoor to disable the PIN by plugging it into power and checking if I'm at home at the time. Not the most secure solution, but hardly wide open either.
I'm having the same issue and it also appears to be a quirk with Secure Settings. Actually locked me out of my phone yesterday, had to return home where I had task to unlock phone in order to get back in.
NinjaBuzz said:
I'm having the same issue and it also appears to be a quirk with Secure Settings. Actually locked me out of my phone yesterday, had to return home where I had task to unlock phone in order to get back in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had this exact issue with Secure Settings
I bought two Galaxy S7 Edge phones recently and have noticed this issue on both phones now. Both are also updated to the latest firmware. Both of us have fingerprints set up and a pattern backup. So far, the issue has occurred to us both twice. I happen to always use my fingerprint to unlock and she always uses pattern out of habit from a past phone. She brought it to me a couple of days ago and said her phone says to wait 60 minutes and try again. I asked how many times she entered it wrong, because of course I thought she entered it wrong. She said she didn't enter it incorrectly. I asked if she tried to reboot, of course not. Anyways, I held on to it and after 60 minutes I entered the pattern to unlock her phone and sure enough it wouldn't work. I rebooted, and tried again and it worked. OK...Weird.
The very next day, it happened on my phone. I always use my fingerprint though so it told me no match found. Say what? Tried again. Same thing. OK, swipe and tried my pattern. It says its incorrect and to try again in 30 seconds. 30 seconds later, I tried again and it locked me out for 60 seconds. This time I rebooted, and after it was done and 60 seconds had passed my pattern was working again.
I don't get why it randomly seems to not recognize that we are putting in the correct pattern or fingerprint. I am however happy that a reboot seems to resolve the issue. Is no one else experiencing this?
Mine doesn't lock instead!
So I tried couple of things. Rebooted, re-initialized Finger Prints and even pattern. Now matter what I do, it won't lock the phone. It will just unlock without asking for passcode, pattern, password or fingerprint. Only option I can think of is to restore the phone and try setting up lock option but that's pain in the a**!! I tried third party apps as to lock screen but none of them have the fingerprint unlock option! And some have ads and weird setup which worked... Gettting frustrating. Perhaps I should try restoring phone if there's no other option left
shunail said:
So I tried couple of things. Rebooted, re-initialized Finger Prints and even pattern. Now matter what I do, it won't lock the phone. It will just unlock without asking for passcode, pattern, password or fingerprint. Only option I can think of is to restore the phone and try setting up lock option but that's pain in the a**!! I tried third party apps as to lock screen but none of them have the fingerprint unlock option! And some have ads and weird setup which worked... Gettting frustrating. Perhaps I should try restoring phone if there's no other option left
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Entirely different. I'm not sure this is actually an issue as much as it is probably settings. Go to settings, Lock screen and security, Secure lock settings. Check how long Lock automatically is set for (mine is for 5 seconds after the screen turns off automatically and that is set for 2 minutes.). Then turn on lock instantly with power key. Go to smart lock and see if that's being used. IF it is it would keep your phone unlocked when its connected via Bluetooth to a device you told it to trust, or when you are at a trusted place via google maps (such as home or work), or it could simply know your voice, or lastly if it senses that it is on your body (I don't get this one. Seems very insecure, like anyone could pick it up and it would just unlock.). Good luck!
Viper41086 said:
Entirely different. I'm not sure this is actually an issue as much as it is probably settings. Go to settings, Lock screen and security, Secure lock settings. Check how long Lock automatically is set for (mine is for 5 seconds after the screen turns off automatically and that is set for 2 minutes.). Then turn on lock instantly with power key. Go to smart lock and see if that's being used. IF it is it would keep your phone unlocked when its connected via Bluetooth to a device you told it to trust, or when you are at a trusted place via google maps (such as home or work), or it could simply know your voice, or lastly if it senses that it is on your body (I don't get this one. Seems very insecure, like anyone could pick it up and it would just unlock.). Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgot to mention, have done all of that. First I had it set Lock Automatically to immediately and tried 5 seconds, 15 seconds to all the 30 minutes, still won't lock (over night till I wok up in the morning)
Smart Lock:
Trusted Device are my car and my watch, but even with bluetooth disabled (just to give it a shot) it still doesn't lock.
Trusted Place: my home, but even with Location Service (GPS) turned off, still won't lock
On body Detection = Off
Trusted Voice = Off
Tried updating phone perhaps something may fix it, nothing.
Tried Security Policy updates and that says ... updated to latest version...
Been using Android since good old HTC Evo days and had no issue with my (last) Note 4 locking with fingerprint!! I love this phone really expect for this issue. Oh yes and another issue, gestures won't work also!!! Tried hand gestures for screenshot, nothing. Smart Stay doesn't work also!!!
Is something wrong with this phone perhaps??
shunail said:
Forgot to mention, have done all of that. First I had it set Lock Automatically to immediately and tried 5 seconds, 15 seconds to all the 30 minutes, still won't lock (over night till I wok up in the morning)
Smart Lock:
Trusted Device are my car and my watch, but even with bluetooth disabled (just to give it a shot) it still doesn't lock.
Trusted Place: my home, but even with Location Service (GPS) turned off, still won't lock
On body Detection = Off
Trusted Voice = Off
Tried updating phone perhaps something may fix it, nothing.
Tried Security Policy updates and that says ... updated to latest version...
Been using Android since good old HTC Evo days and had no issue with my (last) Note 4 locking with fingerprint!! I love this phone really expect for this issue. Oh yes and another issue, gestures won't work also!!! Tried hand gestures for screenshot, nothing. Smart Stay doesn't work also!!!
Is something wrong with this phone perhaps??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm.. Have you tried turning off Smart lock all together? Otherwise, all I can think is to factory reset settings before you factory reset the phone.
Factory Settings Reset did it
Factory Settings Reset did it however gestures and smart stay are still issues!! Then I courage myself to do Factory Phone Reset and dang the issue with the gestures persists!!
Bump.
No one else is having this issue? I just happened to be the only one with two new phones that do it?
This literally just happened to me! I was walking to a friend's house and was using the phone just fine - was using Facebook Messenger and Spotify. All of a sudden, I try to unlock it (I have a pattern to draw, not a code) and it doesn't work. I have no idea what's going on but I don't want to factory reset and lose all my contacts and pictures. I only have four tries left to unlock it before it automatically resets itself. I've tried using the Android Device Manager to set a temporary password but since there's already a pattern to draw it won't bypass the lock screen for some reason. I never thought to check the security settings on my phone (why would I if I had a lock screen on it?) so I can't use the Samsung equivalent either. I'm extremely frustrated - been looking for help for about an hour and I'm finding absolutely nothing. It's clearly been a problem before and yet there's no solutions or explanations as to why it's happening??
While I am still having this issue sparsely, I can get around it simply by rebooting. It's just annoying to have to do so.
It's anew feature of S7 called SMART LOCK, meaning your phone knows if you're in a safe place such as your Home, your Car or if you paired a smart watch with your phone and added it as trusted device, as long as you're connected to your watch, the phone knows you're in a safe place so you dont need to enter password to your phone. Or if youre in your car or at Home, then you wont need to enter password to open your phone. But if you want to remove this feature and want to swipe or enter your pin no matter where you are then do this..go to:
SETTING>LOCK SCREEN & SECURITY>SECURE LOCK SETTING>SMART LOCK. Here you'll see "Trusted Places" and "Trusted Device" Just edit or press and hold whatever is in there, e.i your watch, your home address etc...then remove and you should be good to go.
Have you tried turning off Smart lock all together? Otherwise, all I can think is to factory reset settings before you factory reset the phone.
Hey there,
my Lenovo P2 recently got stolen and now that I've ordered a used S8 I am looking into ways to protect against theft. And frankly I don't see a good way.
The most obvious thing a thief will do is to shut down the phone and throw away the sim card, so I looked for ways to defend against that. You can't deactivate the force shutdown by holding the power button for 10 sec, which sucks, but the Cerberus app can do a pretend shutdown, which is at least something.
But what about removing the sim card? Without sim card there is no internet connection and therefore no tracking app will work. And once there is no tracking the thief has all the time in the world to find a way to reset your phone and bypass SFR. Well, nothing you can do about that.
But can you defend against a factory reset? Make Cerberus a system app and it works even after a reset! Sounds great, I thought! BUT, in order to do just that you have to root your phone, meaning unlocking the bootloader, meaning the thief can just flash your entire phone through the bootloader. He might not, but he can. Making all the work in rooting and preparing pretty useless if it's not even secure.
So I'm asking, is there any way to secure against theft? I have the idea of making the phone ring when it looses connection to my bluetooth headphones, but that can backfire so easily...
I'm open for any ideas. Hope there is something out there I've missed.
same question!!
1. You have to input pattern/password if you would like to power off the device locked.
2. As far from what I've seen with my friend's S7 Edge, you will need to sign in with your google account if you forced factory reset it in recovery not sure about odin flashing.
3. I'm not sure about this but as long as Location is turned on it can still be tracked even without an internet connection. Again, I'm not sure but I think iPhones have this feature so maybe it can be done on Android too.
Hope the little infos help. Cheers
I've had the Cerberus app since my Nexus 5 days and it's pretty useful.
Regarding shutting down my s8 by holding the power button, Cerberus just does the fake shutdown screen off thing. Also there's an option in Cerberus to disable the power menu when on the lockscreen, which I have enabled. I think the only way to actually shut down my s8 from the lockscreen is for the battery to die on it's own
As for the data and sim card, the app recognizes the original sim card. So if someone puts in a different sim card, the app sends a notification to your email or spouses phone. I think it sends location data too but I'm not sure. And data is accessed thru any sim card. My phone WiFi is set to on all the time anyways so Cerberus will look for any open network and communicate thru that. However, the pull down menu is still accessible in the lockscreen. But on the s8, there's a setting to lock the pulldown menu buttons so u wanna make sure that's turned on.
And for defending against hard resets, like i mentioned earlier the phones power menu is blocked, so they won't be able to start the process until the battery dies by itself
Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk
cdigga101 said:
I've had the Cerberus app since my Nexus 5 days and it's pretty useful.
Regarding shutting down my s8 by holding the power button, Cerberus just does the fake shutdown screen off thing. Also there's an option in Cerberus to disable the power menu when on the lockscreen, which I have enabled. I think the only way to actually shut down my s8 from the lockscreen is for the battery to die on it's own
As for the data and sim card, the app recognizes the original sim card. So if someone puts in a different sim card, the app sends a notification to your email or spouses phone. I think it sends location data too but I'm not sure. And data is accessed thru any sim card. My phone WiFi is set to on all the time anyways so Cerberus will look for any open network and communicate thru that. However, the pull down menu is still accessible in the lockscreen. But on the s8, there's a setting to lock the pulldown menu buttons so u wanna make sure that's turned on.
And for defending against hard resets, like i mentioned earlier the phones power menu is blocked, so they won't be able to start the process until the battery dies by itself
Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MoveJoe said:
Hey there,
my Lenovo P2 recently got stolen and now that I've ordered a used S8 I am looking into ways to protect against theft. And frankly I don't see a good way.
The most obvious thing a thief will do is to shut down the phone and throw away the sim card, so I looked for ways to defend against that. You can't deactivate the force shutdown by holding the power button for 10 sec, which sucks, but the Cerberus app can do a pretend shutdown, which is at least something.
But what about removing the sim card? Without sim card there is no internet connection and therefore no tracking app will work. And once there is no tracking the thief has all the time in the world to find a way to reset your phone and bypass SFR. Well, nothing you can do about that.
But can you defend against a factory reset? Make Cerberus a system app and it works even after a reset! Sounds great, I thought! BUT, in order to do just that you have to root your phone, meaning unlocking the bootloader, meaning the thief can just flash your entire phone through the bootloader. He might not, but he can. Making all the work in rooting and preparing pretty useless if it's not even secure.
So I'm asking, is there any way to secure against theft? I have the idea of making the phone ring when it looses connection to my bluetooth headphones, but that can backfire so easily...
I'm open for any ideas. Hope there is something out there I've missed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aemyiam said:
same question!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
between cerebrus stock security factory reset protection and such you can locate and such but best wepon is imei
Write it down if all else fails report the imei to your carrier and have it blacklisted also....
I also use my gear s2 watch as the have a find phone/watch setup too.In the end A thief will do what it takes and can bypass most if not all security implemented by google or others best you can do is take all the precautions and be ready to pounce if its gone....
I've been using Cerberus for a couple of years now.
Had it installed on my S6 when it was "stolen" of my desk at the office one evening when we were working late.
I tracked the culprit in real time as he and his wife were driving on the highway 80km away.
While they were driving I took snapshots and listened to their conversations.
Luckily (for him) it was all just a mistake, he had a S6 too and merely took mine by mistake.
He gave it back the next day.
Still, IMHO, Cerberus is well worth the cost.
Protect against Flash
Since you have been using it by sometime do you have any protection agains flashing a new ROM ? Did you make a new partition or something ? Is there a tutorial ?
Thank you !
Henniesnijman said:
I've been using Cerberus for a couple of years now.
Had it installed on my S6 when it was "stolen" of my desk at the office one evening when we were working late.
I tracked the culprit in real time as he and his wife were driving on the highway 80km away.
While they were driving I took snapshots and listened to their conversations.
Luckily (for him) it was all just a mistake, he had a S6 too and merely took mine by mistake.
He gave it back the next day.
Still, IMHO, Cerberus is well worth the cost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only protection is the fake shutdown.
Thief thinks he shut down the phone meanwhile it's recording video.
Installing is straight forward. No partitioning required.