I encrypted my phone using cyanogen mod 10.2, got fed up with my 3g not working so decided to go back to stock. Now it says device storage encrypted. wtf?
Phew. Installed stock using odin and still got the device encryption problem. Enter pin which fails, phone reboots and sorts itself out.
The lesson here is don't use encryption if it cant be undone, which is the case in cyanogenmod 10.2.
First prob i noticed was i couldn't backup in cwm/philz; data partition would not mount. This was not a problem in cyanogenmod 10.1/ samsung stock.
Be warned; this scared me silly. No more messing with encryption for me.
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Just wanted to let some know what happened to me when I flashed vhgomez's rom, which is great btw. Best ICS ROM imo... But when I encrypted it, everything went to hell.
I had to encrypt it because I wanted to sync my work's exchange server to my phone. It worked, as it usually does, but then it asked me to enter a PIN, which is what the server asked it to do (for security reasons). After I did, the phone asked me to encrypt it, which I agreed, and it took around 30 mins. After that, my pics weren't there, no videos, nothing, my rom was buggy as hell and I decided to turn it off. It was then stuck in a bootloop. I booted into CWM and it kept giving me mounting errors.
I connected the phone to my PC and it gave me a formatting error, even Ubuntu wasn't recognizing it. So, I used this easy 'app' (thanks michaelpeerman) to return to stock, which erases everything...then used this 'app' (thanks shabbypenguin & ACS) to root it. So yea. Idk if this is a warning or a short story, but it's not a question :/
I made the mistake of encrypting my phone and am now paying the price. It is rooted and I had installed the Google Edition 4.4.2 ROM by Danvdh, Kryten2k35 & Ktoonsez. I'm using TWRP 2.7.0.1.
I first tried going into recovery and doing a factory reset and got the an "Unable to mount '/data'" error, followed by a big red FAIL. So I rebooted into the system and tried to do a factory reset from there. Went through all the steps, phone rebooted into recovery and I got the same error - unable to mount.
So I did a bit of searching on the forums here and someone had suggested using the format option in TWRP. So I did that and it seemed to work - did not get the dreaded unable to mount error. So I tried flashing the new rom (the updated version from a couple of weeks ago). Got a message indicating it was successful. Rebooted, and to my dismay, got the prompt for the encryption password. Saw the little line drawing Android, then... nothing - I found myself in brick land.
Managed to get back into TWRP and, based on another post I found, tried Advanced Wipe, selecting everything except Micro SDcard and USB-OTG. Tried installing the new ROM again, says successful, but nothing has changed - I still boot into blackness after inputting my encryption password.
Not sure what else to try. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
not_su said:
I made the mistake of encrypting my phone and am now paying the price. It is rooted and I had installed the Google Edition 4.4.2 ROM by Danvdh, Kryten2k35 & Ktoonsez. I'm using TWRP 2.7.0.1.
I first tried going into recovery and doing a factory reset and got the an "Unable to mount '/data'" error, followed by a big red FAIL. So I rebooted into the system and tried to do a factory reset from there. Went through all the steps, phone rebooted into recovery and I got the same error - unable to mount.
So I did a bit of searching on the forums here and someone had suggested using the format option in TWRP. So I did that and it seemed to work - did not get the dreaded unable to mount error. So I tried flashing the new rom (the updated version from a couple of weeks ago). Got a message indicating it was successful. Rebooted, and to my dismay, got the prompt for the encryption password. Saw the little line drawing Android, then... nothing - I found myself in brick land.
Managed to get back into TWRP and, based on another post I found, tried Advanced Wipe, selecting everything except Micro SDcard and USB-OTG. Tried installing the new ROM again, says successful, but nothing has changed - I still boot into blackness after inputting my encryption password.
Not sure what else to try. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
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Can you go into download mode, revert back to a stock rom (or flash a stock one or something) and turn encryption off? edit: on further research it looks like the only way to completely unencrypt is to reset your device. dunno if that's something you'd want to try, but considering you already wiped multiple times.. i'd say try it?
Also what carrier do you have? That's pretty important. AT&Ts i337 and Verizon's variant cannot flash AOSP roms (more specifically, kernels) due to the bootloader being locked. That might be the issue you're experiencing? I looked up the ROM and it's using ktoonsez kernel, so I imagine that'd be why. Someone just made a version that does not include the kernel and has multiple issues the ROM you're trying to use fixed here.
Rhymey said:
Can you go into download mode, revert back to a stock rom (or flash a stock one or something) and turn encryption off? edit: on further research it looks like the only way to completely unencrypt is to reset your device. dunno if that's something you'd want to try, but considering you already wiped multiple times.. i'd say try it?
Thanks - that's exactly what I've been trying to do. I haven't tried reflashing back to stock with Odin though. Hmmm...
Also what carrier do you have? That's pretty important. AT&Ts i337 and Verizon's variant cannot flash AOSP roms (more specifically, kernels) due to the bootloader being locked. That might be the issue you're experiencing? I looked up the ROM and it's using ktoonsez kernel, so I imagine that'd be why. Someone just made a version that does not include the kernel and has multiple issues the ROM you're trying to use fixed here.
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Bell, up here in the Great White North. I don't think locked bootloader is an issue - I was on the previous version of Danvdh's ROM, and everything was hunkydory. I just made the unfortunate decision to encrypt. Big mistake.
May try flashing back to stock. Nothing to lose, at this stage...
Thanks!
Hey just wanted to mention for the benefit of anyone else who got into this bind, flashing back to stock using Odin did the trick. Still wouldn't boot, but then I rebooted into stock recovery and did a factory reset, and finally was able to reboot back into stock. What a nightmare. Ugh. Thanks for the tip though - never occurred to me to try to go back to stock. Lesson learned though - no more encryption for me!
not_su said:
Hey just wanted to mention for the benefit of anyone else who got into this bind, flashing back to stock using Odin did the trick. Still wouldn't boot, but then I rebooted into stock recovery and did a factory reset, and finally was able to reboot back into stock. What a nightmare. Ugh. Thanks for the tip though - never occurred to me to try to go back to stock. Lesson learned though - no more encryption for me!
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Good to hear. Should be able to flash to the rom once again no problem now that it's unencrypted!
So I'm running Cyanogenmod 11 on my Sprint Galaxy S4. I decided to encrypt, but after I did I soft bricked my device. So I wiped data and restored a pre-encryption backup and it was fine. I later just wanted to try a stock ROM out of curiosity, but when I installed it and rebooted it went to the screen where it asks you to input your password to decrypt. No combination worked, I even tried null or 0000 incase it went to some weird default. So I went back to cyanogenmod and it worked fine, I even updated it fine, but I still can't get other ROMs to work. So here is the bottom line, Cyanogenmod works great, but any other ROM does the weird encrypt thing, when I wrote data on different Roms it doesn't decrypt, does anyone know what is causing this or know how to fix it?
Have you tried using oden to install the stock tar?
I have a problem and I hope somebody can help me. My phone can't boot into a TouchWiz ROM because it asks for an encryption pin or password, even though it is not encrypted.
Here is some history and more information:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 that had Cyanogenmod installed on it. Suddenly it was charging slow on my normally fast charger (even draining when the screen was on), so I was looking for a kernel with fastcharge enabled. I went through a few of them that worked and ended up with Mahdi ROM which I really liked until I read that the development stopped two weeks ago. I then decided to try out a TouchWiz rom but I tried three of them and all of them ask me for a password during the first boot. It's a TouchWiz screen that states something like: "Enter your pin or password to use the encrypted device memory".
I removed the external SD cart, did a full wipe in TWRP including internal storage and data partition format, but the problem persists. I can go back to Cyanogemod, Slimrom and Mahdi rom, but when I try Insane ROM or Wicked ROM I get the same password request popup. I through I would try ODIN to flash stock and see what happens, but the phone is not recognized by any computer I tried (MacBook Pro, DELL laptop or iMac). Since it has problems charging I think there is a problem with the USB port.
Anybody has a clue how I can disable this 'encrypted' bit / flag without using a USB connected computer? Because it is clear that the data on the phone is not encrypted. It is like something left over from a previous ROM.
I have been running CM (currently CM11) on my SGS4 since I bought it from Sprint in summer 2013. However, Sprint changed their international partners pretty seriously in the past 2 years, so I *really* need a PRL update for international travel. Normally the easiest way to do this is to reboot to stock or TriForce, run the "update PRL" and "update Profile" options from in TriForce, and go on with my life.
But I encrypt my phone. So I had to boot into TWRP, wipe and format *everything* and make sure the phone came up unencrypted in CM. All is OK.
So I reboot, flash TriForce 5.4 custom with stock (not KK) kernel. Flash works fine, I reboot... and am prompted to decrypt the device before I can do anything. None of the decryption passwords I've used in the past (I checked my password safe) are working. When I flash back to CM, it boots fine, and the settings says that the device is not encrypted.
I downloaded and tried TriForce 5.2 and 4.0, both are giving the same problem. I have used TriForce in the past on this phone, so it SHOULD be fine....?
Someone in #twrp said that the location of the encryption key changed from Android 4.4 to 5.0. So my only remaining thought now is that there was also a change from 4.3 to 4.4, and the encryption key for 4.3 didn't get removed in the wipe, and since the partition is NOT encrypted, the decryption, even if I have the right key, fails, so I can't get into the phone. Hope that makes sense.
Anyone have any guess better, or, if I'm right, know what I need to move/edit to fix this?
Followup: IRC #sgs4 suggested a full install of stock via odin, so I'll be trying that on Saturday, after I can get a new stock rom downloaded overnight. if there are thoughts before then, I'd love 'em.
docsmooth said:
Followup: IRC #sgs4 suggested a full install of stock via odin, so I'll be trying that on Saturday, after I can get a new stock rom downloaded overnight. if there are thoughts before then, I'd love 'em.
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Followup - this was never solved before I dropped the phone and shattered the screen (literally days after this post). So if someone runs into the same thing... good luck.
docsmooth said:
Followup - this was never solved before I dropped the phone and shattered the screen (literally days after this post). So if someone runs into the same thing... good luck.
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Thanks for the update, I was actually going to suggest stock ODIN instead of TriForce, but you are saying it did not work ? It's good to know for the future. I was initially going to encrypt my phone a long time ago, but I had concerns about decryption when switching ROMs.
My question is why the encryption was not removed after the format ? I've used TWRP to pretty much hose out everything inside the phone, so it's possible the encryption location is located somewhere else. I came across this article:
http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/21/technology/resell-android-phone/
So I guess even after a complete wipe everything ISN'T removed. Maybe your encryption was also stuck as well.................................... What new phone are you getting ?...................................
mikeprius said:
Thanks for the update, I was actually going to suggest stock ODIN instead of TriForce, but you are saying it did not work ? It's good to know for the future. I was initially going to encrypt my phone a long time ago, but I had concerns about decryption when switching ROMs.
My question is why the encryption was not removed after the format ? I've used TWRP to pretty much hose out everything inside the phone, so it's possible the encryption location is located somewhere else. I came across this article:
So I guess even after a complete wipe everything ISN'T removed. Maybe your encryption was also stuck as well.................................... What new phone are you getting ?...................................
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I was never able to get the stock odin download. The whole problem came up because I was going overseas... I got around it by just buying a local SIM rather than using the Sprint roaming (again, I was doing all this just to update the PRL. new GSM SIM = no PRL update needed). On the way home less than a week later, I cracked the screen so bad the LCD and backlight wouldn't even go on.
I replaced it with a Nexus 6. A bit big, but it doesn't suffer Samsung software awfulness, so I didn't have to flash it with CM to make it usable.