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[Q] Galaxy S6 Full Disk Encryption

Hey,
I've just taken delivery of my spanking new S6 (my first steps into the world of Android, from a previous Apple filled life)
I'm keen on security and I know Apple fully encrypt their phones as standard. I know that Android and manufacturers are not turning it as from the get go as I heard they don't want to damage their benchmarks (correct me if I'm wrong on any of this) my question is, does it actually slow it down that I would notice a difference? I'm keen to do it! Also, if I did encrypt it and I for some insane reason decided to turn it off, can I roll i roll it back?
Go easy, I'm a noob!
DG

I encrypted my S6 several days ago.
Although I didn't do before and after benchmarks, my phone does not feel noticeably slower. I'd be surprised if there isn't an effect, it I can't tell.
The one exception is (re)boots. The first decryption adds approximately 30-60 seconds to boot time.
Finally, yes, you can decrypt the phone altogether if you need to for any reason.
Hope that helps!
DanGlee said:
Hey,
I've just taken delivery of my spanking new S6 (my first steps into the world of Android, from a previous Apple filled life)
I'm keen on security and I know Apple fully encrypt their phones as standard. I know that Android and manufacturers are not turning it as from the get go as I heard they don't want to damage their benchmarks (correct me if I'm wrong on any of this) my question is, does it actually slow it down that I would notice a difference? I'm keen to do it! Also, if I did encrypt it and I for some insane reason decided to turn it off, can I roll i roll it back?
Go easy, I'm a noob!
DG
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

johnpwu said:
I encrypted my S6 several days ago.
Although I didn't do before and after benchmarks, my phone does not feel noticeably slower. I'd be surprised if there isn't an effect, it I can't tell.
The one exception is (re)boots. The first decryption adds approximately 30-60 seconds to boot time.
Finally, yes, you can decrypt the phone altogether if you need to for any reason.
Hope that helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the reply. I'm not too fussed if its a little slower to boot, it rarely gets switched off.
I might go ahead and do it. Thanks.

DanGlee said:
Thank you for the reply. I'm not too fussed if its a little slower to boot, it rarely gets switched off.
I might go ahead and do it. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Full Disc Encryption absolutely slows down your device. Anything that needs to use storage will run significantly slower. You will likely notice that apps load slower. Once an app is loaded performance won't be any different though.
FDE makes reads and writes to the disc about 3-5x slower.
Also you cannot simply turn off encryption. You pretty much have to factory reset your phone to get rid of the encryption. So if you want to go back, you need to backup all your apps and data, factory reset the phone, then reload all your apps and data.

Erasmus354 said:
Full Disc Encryption absolutely slows down your device. Anything that needs to use storage will run significantly slower. You will likely notice that apps load slower. Once an app is loaded performance won't be any different though.
FDE makes reads and writes to the disc about 3-5x slower.
Also you cannot simply turn off encryption. You pretty much have to factory reset your phone to get rid of the encryption. Slo if you want to go back, you need to backup all your apps and data, factory reset the phone, then reload all your apps and data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My understanding is that this is not correct, though I am open to being wrong.
As for speeds, as I mentioned, I cannot comment on actual I/O speeds or benchmark results. I merely meant that subjectively, the phone remains blazing fast. I have no doubt synthetic benchmarks can detect what I cannot.

johnpwu said:
My understanding is that this is not correct, though I am open to being wrong.
As for speeds, as I mentioned, I cannot comment on actual I/O speeds or benchmark results. I merely meant that subjectively, the phone remains blazing fast. I have no doubt synthetic benchmarks can detect what I cannot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I had my moto x 2013, encryption would wipe the phone if you turned it off. I wonder if they included a way around that with this phone. That would be pretty impressive
Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk 2

johnpwu said:
My understanding is that this is not correct, though I am open to being wrong.
As for speeds, as I mentioned, I cannot comment on actual I/O speeds or benchmark results. I merely meant that subjectively, the phone remains blazing fast. I have no doubt synthetic benchmarks can detect what I cannot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you still use fingerprints to unlock your phone?

joro2077 said:
Can you still use fingerprints to unlock your phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Generally, yes.
If you do a soft reboot, you will be required to enter your backup password. From then on you can simply use he fingerprint until you boot again.

Got curious, did a little digging.
Here's AndroidAuthority's shot of an S6 benchmark (like I said, I didn't do any before encrypting, so I can't present my own)(first image)
I'm attaching a screenshot of the scores I just got, also using AnTuTu (second image)

Help an idiot, please

I was not thinking and I sold my phone on Ebay, whats worse is that it was bought by someone out of the country. I didn't think much about the consequences until the nagging question of why someone would buy a phone that will only work on a carrier here in the states, US Cellular. Now I am very concerned. The buyer has already paid for the phone and for shipping. My number one option could be to just cancel the sale and refund the buyers money and eat the shipping. I have began researching how to securely wipe an Android phone and the best answer I have found is to encrypt the phone before I do a factory reset. The problem is that I have already factory reset the phone. In fact, the phone was rooted and rommed and I Oddined the stock recovery back onto the phone. Here are details about the phone. It is a SM-N900R4 US Cellular Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Since I bought the phone new from the carrier I have installed and wiped numerous Roms. I'm not looking for anyone to stick there neck out there and give me guarantees, I just want to know if there is anything I can do to be reasonably sure that the phone is secure. What about apps like IShredder, are they worth the effort. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks

Update, its 5:00am, I encrypted the phone, installed ishredder, ran the app a couple of times. I rerooted the phone using cf autoroot, downloaded a simple data recovery app, and am finding old data Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

danp12 said:
I was not thinking and I sold my phone on Ebay, whats worse is that it was bought by someone out of the country. I didn't think much about the consequences until the nagging question of why someone would buy a phone that will only work on a carrier here in the states, US Cellular. Now I am very concerned. The buyer has already paid for the phone and for shipping. My number one option could be to just cancel the sale and refund the buyers money and eat the shipping. I have began researching how to securely wipe an Android phone and the best answer I have found is to encrypt the phone before I do a factory reset. The problem is that I have already factory reset the phone. In fact, the phone was rooted and rommed and I Oddined the stock recovery back onto the phone. Here are details about the phone. It is a SM-N900R4 US Cellular Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Since I bought the phone new from the carrier I have installed and wiped numerous Roms. I'm not looking for anyone to stick there neck out there and give me guarantees, I just want to know if there is anything I can do to be reasonably sure that the phone is secure. What about apps like IShredder, are they worth the effort. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think a factory reset is quite enough, you can wipe the internal storage as well. Just use Odin to flash a stock firmware and recovery and you should be good to go

If you are extra paranoid
Fill the memory with data.
Data and cache partitions are the most important.
Fill it with anything, delete it and fill it again. Seven times.
That will make it as hard as possible to recover any info.
But unless your a giant ass that has annoyed thousands around the world, put all your personal info on your phone. Advertise that fact.
Then be silly enough to advertise to all your enemy's that your selling your phone on eBay...
The standard wipe will likely be enough.

So I made the decision to refund the money and cancel the sale. I am shocked at how easy it is to find pictures, contacts, documents etc. after I encrypted the phone, deleted the data, used iShredder and wrote the drive at least 20 times at 3 cycles per time. I run a simple app called Disk Digger and I can still find data on the phone. Unreal. I think the iShredder app is simply not writing data in all of the areas of the phones memory. In fact, the more times I run iShredder and the more times I run disk digger, the more data I find This phone is connected to so much info like Paypal, Amazon, email, Bank Accounts etc. What a shame, my recommendation for anyone is the first thing you do when you pull your android phone out of the box is to Encrypt the drive, that way down the road when you delete the keys your data is safe. I have unloaded phones in the past but I never really thought much about it until I just really felt like the person buying it was buying it for nefarious purposes.

danp12 said:
So I made the decision to refund the money and cancel the sale. I am shocked at how easy it is to find pictures, contacts, documents etc. after I encrypted the phone, deleted the data, used iShredder and wrote the drive at least 20 times at 3 cycles per time. I run a simple app called Disk Digger and I can still find data on the phone. Unreal. I think the iShredder app is simply not writing data in all of the areas of the phones memory. In fact, the more times I run iShredder and the more times I run disk digger, the more data I find This phone is connected to so much info like Paypal, Amazon, email, Bank Accounts etc. What a shame, my recommendation for anyone is the first thing you do when you pull your android phone out of the box is to Encrypt the drive, that way down the road when you delete the keys your data is safe. I have unloaded phones in the past but I never really thought much about it until I just really felt like the person buying it was buying it for nefarious purposes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing from apps is stored on the internal sd card.
It's all stored on the data and cache partitions in the internal memory.
Partitions you can't touch without root.
There will always be data of some type left in the memory.
That's just how the memory works.
I have yet to find anything that will wipe the entire device properly automatically..
It has to be done manually.

Flashing marshmallow over kitkat?

Hello Everyone,
So I am lagging behind a little in the updates department. I am currently on kitkat 4.4.4 (towelrooted, TWRP recovery with system files modified). AFAIK, i can't use the OTA update I received months ago for 5.0. Is there anyway I can upgrade (without wiping any data), to 6.0? If not, what would be the best way to upgrade to 5.0 (not a clean install/wipe)? I know similar questions are asked regularly but I was not completely satisfied because I did not find any post by someone who was in the exact same situation. Would sideloading to 5.0 be any good?
Thank you

The experts will correct us both if I'm wrong, but all the advice I've read over the past couple of years is that a no-wipe flash is ok for a minor point upgrade, but Kitkat to Lollipop, and even more Kitkat to Marshmallow, is a must-wipe scenario. Why not bite the bullet, back up your essential stuff, and do a full-wipe upgrade to Marshmallow? Just asking...

dahawthorne said:
The experts will correct us both if I'm wrong, but all the advice I've read over the past couple of years is that a no-wipe flash is ok for a minor point upgrade, but Kitkat to Lollipop, and even more Kitkat to Marshmallow, is a must-wipe scenario. Why not bite the bullet, back up your essential stuff, and do a full-wipe upgrade to Marshmallow? Just asking...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I realize that seems to be by far the best thing to do. However, the main reason I am not that willing to wipe is that if anything gets messed up, I want to be able to restore exactly what I had. Now the problem is that the nandroid backup using TWRP says it will take 4 GB (with system, data and boot partition). I only have around 1 GB free on my phone. I did make an adb backup directly to my PC (which is about 10 GB) but I dont see the system and boot partitions there. So I guess I will just have to free up space, make a nandroid backup, wipe and then flash the 6.0 image. A bit off topic, but do you think its worth upgrading to marshmallow from Kitkat ( I have a very stable system at the moment and although I'd love to try out the new features, too many bugs is not what I want).

To be honest, every time I've upgraded I've struggled to see the benefits. I do it because I fancy myself as a propellorhead, always on the bleeding edge... Not always successful, a few headaches, but it keeps me amused.
The one reason that I wanted to upgrade to Marshmallow was the pair of killer features - Doze and permissions. Both of those seem successful - my N6 battery life (as a very light user) is excellent, and I think that it's better than it was with Lollipop, though that may be wishful thinking, since I don't have measurements to compare. I also have a spare N5 with Marshmallow, which I keep switched on with airplane mode enabled. I charged it yesterday, left it on a shelf, and today it shows 94% with approximately 35 days left - on previous occasions it went from "25 days left" to "17 days left" after 8 days on the shelf, so it definitely does seem to do what it says on the tin.
And I like the opportunity to stop apps getting stupid accesses for which I see no reason - and nothing has failed so far.
So for these two features I'd say it's worth it - to me.
In terms of backup... what about copying all your data (photos, movies, whatever) on to your PC and deleting it from the device to make room for a TWRP backup, which you can then also copy to your PC in case it all goes tits up? TWRP has a compression feature which literally halves the space required. Each time I take a TWRP backup I copy it to my laptop - at worst (unless I totally hard brick my N6) I can install stock & TWRP, copy the backup image on to the device, and recover back to where I was.
Just a suggestion...
---------- Post added at 06:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:56 PM ----------
One other thing that springs to mind (stop me if you've heard it... ). If you're rooted the N5 is OTG-capable. An OTG cable is a couple of pounds/dollars, and a USB stick is dirt cheap. TWRP is able to write to external storage, so you could easily take a complete TWRP backup to a 16GB stick. The option isn't totally obvious - there's a small grey bar across the top third of the screen which says "Internal storage", and if you press it it gives you the option to choose OTG.

dahawthorne said:
To be honest, every time I've upgraded I've struggled to see the benefits. I do it because I fancy myself as a propellorhead, always on the bleeding edge... Not always successful, a few headaches, but it keeps me amused.
The one reason that I wanted to upgrade to Marshmallow was the pair of killer features - Doze and permissions. Both of those seem successful - my N6 battery life (as a very light user) is excellent, and I think that it's better than it was with Lollipop, though that may be wishful thinking, since I don't have measurements to compare. I also have a spare N5 with Marshmallow, which I keep switched on with airplane mode enabled. I charged it yesterday, left it on a shelf, and today it shows 94% with approximately 35 days left - on previous occasions it went from "25 days left" to "17 days left" after 8 days on the shelf, so it definitely does seem to do what it says on the tin.
And I like the opportunity to stop apps getting stupid accesses for which I see no reason - and nothing has failed so far.
So for these two features I'd say it's worth it - to me.
In terms of backup... what about copying all your data (photos, movies, whatever) on to your PC and deleting it from the device to make room for a TWRP backup, which you can then also copy to your PC in case it all goes tits up? TWRP has a compression feature which literally halves the space required. Each time I take a TWRP backup I copy it to my laptop - at worst (unless I totally hard brick my N6) I can install stock & TWRP, copy the backup image on to the device, and recover back to where I was.
Just a suggestion...
---------- Post added at 06:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:56 PM ----------
One other thing that springs to mind (stop me if you've heard it... ). If you're rooted the N5 is OTG-capable. An OTG cable is a couple of pounds/dollars, and a USB stick is dirt cheap. TWRP is able to write to external storage, so you could easily take a complete TWRP backup to a 16GB stick. The option isn't totally obvious - there's a small grey bar across the top third of the screen which says "Internal storage", and if you press it it gives you the option to choose OTG.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a bunch for a very comprehensive reply. Battery is certainly the priority for me, so I will be going ahead with the update soon hopefully (also hoping I wouldn't need to use Greenify and Amplify on M). I will try to free up space and tick the compression option. Kudos :good:

having the same dilema... google make it so hard now to update, and putting root and custom recovery its counterproductive now that every month have a single update.... have to revert to "stock" so i can update... its just annoying

How to decrypt 3A?

I'm trying to decrypt my 3A to get a little better performance. I would like to know anyone can provide a step by step instruction.
I understand that all I need may just be flashing a zip with a modified file in TWRP then reset the phone. Unfortunately, I'm not savvy enough for preparing that.
Any one can assist?
Thank you.

Me too.

Isn't encryption on Pixels hardware accelerated and therefore has zero impact on performance? At least this is what I have read about the more expensive Pixel 3.
I personally prioritize security over a small performance impact. Encryption provides great benefits in the case of loosing or reselling the phone - your data is safe from unwanted access.
It would be nice if someone could post actual benchmarks before and after disabling encryption so that others can see if it is actually worth it.

There's zero benefit from permanently decrypting on pixels

en2tri said:
Isn't encryption on Pixels hardware accelerated and therefore has zero impact on performance? At least this is what I have read about the more expensive Pixel 3.
I personally prioritize security over a small performance impact. Encryption provides great benefits in the case of loosing or reselling the phone - your data is safe from unwanted access.
It would be nice if someone could post actual benchmarks before and after disabling encryption so that others can see if it is actually worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hardware accelerated means you still need resource to compute the encryption process. No matter how good it is, it will charge extra computation and battery anyway. The only way encryption may help would be not to leak phone information when you lose your phone. It will not happen if you care your phone enough.
If someone can provide the decryption method, I can run the benchmark to support what I say above for sure~

It will not happen if you care your phone enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really, this is your excuse?
And as far as the battery consumption goes, I think this will be a similar discussion as the dark gray vs. black OLED consumption, which saves you no more than a few seconds on a full charge.

ashatter said:
No matter how good it is, it will charge extra computation and battery anyway. ~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://store.google.com/product/pixel_3a_specs
https://www.blog.google/products/pixel/titan-m-makes-pixel-3-our-most-secure-phone-yet/
Everything is decrypted using the Titan M processor, not the SD670. So disabling encryption would not help increase performance. Battery doesn't take much of a hit either. Maybe a few minutes at best would be saved.

en2tri said:
Really, this is your excuse?
And as far as the battery consumption goes, I think this will be a similar discussion as the dark gray vs. black OLED consumption, which saves you no more than a few seconds on a full charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not an excuse. I only experience losing my phone for 1 time which was 14 years ago and the phone was found. Again, encrypting the phone takes extra step. Just not to do it if you could not bare the risk.
Personally, I would like to fight over the smallest trifles. It may just affect the performance and battery slightly and we can barely feel it, it is still hard for me to take it.

Uzephi said:
https://store.google.com/product/pixel_3a_specs
https://www.blog.google/products/pixel/titan-m-makes-pixel-3-our-most-secure-phone-yet/
Everything is decrypted using the Titan M processor, not the SD670. So disabling encryption would not help increase performance. Battery doesn't take much of a hit either. Maybe a few minutes at best would be saved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally, I would like to fight over the smallest trifles. It may just affect the performance and battery slightly and we can barely feel it, it is still hard for me to take it.
Since you're responding, I would like to thank all contributors like you who make our phones work better for us. We appreciate it.

en2tri said:
I personally prioritize security over a small performance impact. Encryption provides great benefits in the case of loosing or reselling the phone - your data is safe from unwanted access.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you unlock your phone? If so, your encryption is basically worthless.
Sure it might keep the casual user who finds a misplaced phone from getting information off of it. But anyone with even a slight interest in cracking the phone will be able to do it if it is unlocked. Please heed the boot warning on an unlocked phone states that an unlocked phone is insecure and that no sensitive information should be stored on it.

sic0048 said:
Do you unlock your phone? If so, your encryption is basically worthless.
Sure it might keep the casual user who finds a misplaced phone from getting information off of it. But anyone with even a slight interest in cracking the phone will be able to do it if it is unlocked. Please heed the boot warning on an unlocked phone states that an unlocked phone is insecure and that no sensitive information should be stored on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone locks after the screen turns off - either manually via power button or after 1 minute of idling. I can also lock / wipe it remotely, if needed.
I should also point out that wiping an un-encrypted device (either manual wipe or remote wipe) is totally ineffective and the "deleted" data can be very easily recovered.
In the end, it is your device with your data - do what you want with it. But disabling encryption offers zero performance improvement and negligible battery improvement.

ashatter said:
Hardware accelerated means you still need resource to compute the encryption process. No matter how good it is, it will charge extra computation and battery anyway. The only way encryption may help would be not to leak phone information when you lose your phone. It will not happen if you care your phone enough.
If someone can provide the decryption method, I can run the benchmark to support what I say above for sure~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the same as on any other phone unlock your bootloader install custom recovery format userdata and internal storage and flash a kernel that does not force encryption

billycar11 said:
the same as on any other phone unlock your bootloader install custom recovery format userdata and internal storage and flash a kernel that does not force encryption
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did that. It does not work. I did some research and it seems I have to edit a file to disable to force encryption.
see: https://forum.xda-developers.com/pixel-3-xl/how-to/decrypting-pixel-3-xl-t3867676

en2tri said:
My phone locks after the screen turns off - either manually via power button or after 1 minute of idling. I can also lock / wipe it remotely, if needed.
I should also point out that wiping an un-encrypted device (either manual wipe or remote wipe) is totally ineffective and the "deleted" data can be very easily recovered.
In the end, it is your device with your data - do what you want with it. But disabling encryption offers zero performance improvement and negligible battery improvement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, when I said "unlock your phone", I really meant bootloader unlock. I think you took it as a screen unlock. The way I wrote my comment, I totally understand the confusion.
If you bootloader unlock your phone (which many of us on this forum do to gain root), then the fact that your phone is encrypted is basically worthless. Now personally I would never worry about trying to permanently decrypt my phone even though I do bootloader unlock it, but I can understand why someone might want to.

Sorry, I misunderstood you before.
I am running an unmodified stock ROM and the bootloader was never unlocked.

Help with May Update

Hello all. I'm in need of help. I recently tried to update my phone to the May update. It says failed update. Error Code:410. I contacted Verizon Wireless 1st. They couldn't fix it. They connected me to Samsung and they told me it was a carrier issue. any ideas on how to fix it.

if you did a phone call when speaking to Samsung, one other way you can try to get help is reporting an issue on Samsung Members app. The app will pull device logs and determine if some function has failed. The key point is to report soon after seeing the issue, so try to reproduce the error and then submit the error using the app.

Really if your Note is running fast, stable and fulfilling it's mission I would leave it's firmware alone. General and security updates are overrated. An update can easily break it or leave you with a lot less then you had.
Android 11 is Android in a no way out high G flat spin; load it and cry a river of tears.
Even outdated Androids systems rarely get nailed by serious malware unless you do something stupid. My stock AT&T Note 10+ is still running Pie on a load that's a year old. Zero issues. I disabled updates almost a year and a half ago because I knew Q would screw it up.
Sometimes updates really screw up the phone locking it down to make future rooting or downgrading impossible.
In reality a rootkit would cause less trouble; it takes me about 2 hours to do a factory reset and bring the phone back to 99% full functionality as long as the SD card data is intact.
Retaining firmware you like to use is more important than any update unless it enhances your user experience. New OSs keep you off balance with a constant learning curve, forcing you to find new solutions and work arounds.
For what? I would waste far more time migrating to Q then a 2 hour reload would cost me. Worse I loss critical functionality.
At least wait a month or more to see if the update blew up other people's phone
Having no control over OTA downloads is dangerous and can lead to a bad flash or trashware you will hate. Fixing it is time consuming and in some cases impossible; disable auto updates.
Use your SD card as a data drive, only the OS, apps, and download folder goes on the internal memory. Keep everything you need for a reload including copies of your apps on the SD card as well your database of music, vids, pics etc.
Back the SD card up redundantly to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other. Done