I can't believe what I've seen!
A few days ago I encrypted my galaxy s3 running the old 4.1.2 with this guide to avoid having to enter an alphanumeric password each time I unlock the screen. Yesterday I installed an app called "Locker" that is supposed to reboot and wipe the device after a specified number of wrong lockscreen pin attemps.
When I woke up this morning I had a nandroid on the microsd (online nandroid backup app) performed overnight plus the internal storage backed up too and I decided to try that app. After 10 wrong attemps it actually rebooted to recovery but didn't wipe anything, probably cause I'm running a custom recovery (TWRP). No bad, after reboot you are prompted to enter the alphanumeric cryptopassword (different from the lockscrenn pin) so that method would be safe, I think. After entering the cryptopassword it forced reboot again, again stating I entered 10 wrong pin previously. At this point I was stuck so I tried restoring the nandroid, rebooted but guess what?? My cryptopassword was not recognized!!! I tried another time wiping everything, included internal storage, no good. I tried restoring a previous unencrypted image, incredibly it still asks me the cryptopassword and still doesn't recognize it!!
I was stuck and didn't know what to do, I said I'll try flashing a stock rom with odin, I started downloading it but I reflashed stock recovery back for another try. Wipe data/factory reset, then reflashed TWRP restored the overnight nandroid back again and guess what???
MY DEVICE ISN'T ENCRYPTED ANYMORE!!! It only asks the lockscreen pin, but if I go to settings => Security it shows itself as unencrypted!!
Such an incredible bug, yes, you'll lose your internal storage in the process and you need a nandroid to restore the /data partition. I can't believe it!!
Probably I understand what happened. The online nandroid backup is performed after the cryptokey has been entered, so it saves the data partition unencrypted.
The proof would be making a nandroid from recovery and seeing if this trick works the same
FDE on Android 4.x is already known as vulnerably and can be decrypt by various tools (not telling the name here - and don't ask me for it). Just saying, so no matter if you use it or not if an attacker have physical access to your device it's very easy to get your stuff and the fact you use a custom recovery makes it very easy (not that a stock recovery is not affected but needs some more steps to get the tools working..).
CHEF-KOCH said:
FDE on Android 4.x is already known as vulnerably and can be decrypt by various tools (not telling the name here - and don't ask me for it). Just saying, so no matter if you use it or not if an attacker have physical access to your device it's very easy to get your stuff and the fact you use a custom recovery makes it very easy (not that a stock recovery is not affected but needs some more steps to get the tools working..).
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With other experiences I had with PCs, if you clone a bitlocker encrypted partition online, the resulting copy will be unencrypted, if you clone it booting from a live cd the resulting copy will be encrypted as well.
What I did was backing up my phone online, so the backup was of an unencrypted system. I'm sure if I restore a nandroid made in recovery environment, it will restore an encrypted system as well
I think the only way to get around it is brute forcing it, a 128 bit key is safe as long as you don't choose a short password
I wanted to do a factory reset (i.e. remove everything from /data except /data/media/0), but ended up formatting the partition, partly because the Materialised Theme rearranges the buttons, partly because I am a bit dumb seemingly...
After I realized what I just did, I immediately piped the whole partition onto my PC using dd and netcat. I hoped to be able to recover my photos and the /data TWRP backup I did before using photorec, but it couldn't find a single file :crying:
So does TWRP reset every bit of the partition to zero when formatting it?
Or could there be another explanation on why photorec doesn't find anything? Could there be any chance that I'll see my data again?
It's flash memory, tricks that would work on a physical hard disk WILL NOT recover any data. I am sorry but it is not possible, by ANY means, to recover your data.
It sucks I know but please take this as a learning experience on the value of off-device backups. You can upload twrp backups to Google drive directly from the phone for easy secure storage and recovery.
Also Google will sync and backup your photos if you enable it, for the future.
This is the second time that I have tried to restore a backup from TWRP only to find myself stuck in the bootloader with the "AuthFailed" yellow banner on the bottom. What am I doing wrong? When I created the backup, I had selected every checkbox that I could to back up everything and that is what I restored, but that obviously didn't work. Which are the correct checkmarks to check to get the system to backup/restore correctly without tripping this authentification bootloop?
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
JGoldz75 said:
This is the second time that I have tried to restore a backup from TWRP only to find myself stuck in the bootloader with the "AuthFailed" yellow banner on the bottom. What am I doing wrong? When I created the backup, I had selected every checkbox that I could to back up everything and that is what I restored, but that obviously didn't work. Which are the correct checkmarks to check to get the system to backup/restore correctly without tripping this authentification bootloop?
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
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When I make my backups I leave the three things that are automatically checked off boot, system and data. I haven't had any problem restoring backups. Hope this helps
Another backup-restore question. All my other phones had sd cards so my backups and titanium backups we're all stored there.
If I wipe and flash a new rom won't I wipe the backup when reformatting? Where should I store the backup?
SS823 said:
Another backup-restore question. All my other phones had sd cards so my backups and titanium backups we're all stored there.
If I wipe and flash a new rom won't I wipe the backup when reformatting? Where should I store the backup?
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The phone has a partition that acts like an SD card and won't be wiped unless you perform a full data erase.
PuffDaddy_d said:
The phone has a partition that acts like an SD card and won't be wiped unless you perform a full data erase.
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What if I need to do a full system wipe? I've been backing up and then transferring the folder to Google drive and then uploading the backup when needed. Seems like extra work, I miss the convenience of sd cards, is there a way to partition just backups?
SS823 said:
What if I need to do a full system wipe? I've been backing up and then transferring the folder to Google drive and then uploading the backup when needed. Seems like extra work, I miss the convenience of sd cards, is there a way to partition just backups?
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You can backup to a computer. If that isn't feasible or you just don't want to do that, you can use a USB flash drive. Plug the drive into the USB B-USB C adapter that came with the phone and then plug it into your phone. I use a USB flash drive for Titanium Backup backups. TWRP backups too. Works great.
The yellow authfailed at bootloader error. I had to deal with that the other day where even an install of the factory image couldn't fix. I had to use dueces script to get my phone working again. I'm not sure what it does that Google's flash_all.bat doesn't.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/pixel-2/development/tool-deuces-bootloop-recovery-flashing-t3725778
do i have to unencrypt my device in order to restore/backup and maybe even flash from on it? I've seen in twrp it tells me backups and restores may not work fully due to being encrypted
No, I guess.
The only partition encrypted is your internal storage and twrp can't take a backup of that.
So, you can try by yourself, just remember to take your cautious.
in old devices I always made a backup of this partitions:
Boot
System
Data
Vendor
And restored without problems, just make a factory reset before and maybe flash magisk after restoration
Hello,
I just updated the rom Evolution X 11 on my Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro after using an older version for about half a year.
Now my phone does not boot anymore, its stuck in recovery (TWRP). Also all data seems to be encrypted and TWRP is not asking for a password.
Is there a way to get my phone to boot again or at least backup my data before I do a full wipe?
You should always do a full twrp backup before messing with roms.
The best solution would be to backup the "Data" and "Internal Storage" partitions. Data contains all apps, their appdata and settings, while internal storage contains all of your own files (photos, videos etc.). After you back these up, wipe your phone (system, data, cache, dalvik) and flash the version of evolution x you were using previously. Now restore data and internal storage and your device should be back to normal.
If you get a bootloop while booting after restoring data and internal storage, then wipe the device again and this time flash evolution x, but only restore internal storage. This way, it should boot and you will be able to recover your files, though your apps will be gone.
If you only restore internal storage then it will no doubt boot up and you will have access to your files, but since you'll have already backed up the important stuff (data + internal storage), you might as well try restoring data as well, as there is no harm, and if the phone boots correctly after restoring both partitions, your phone will be as it was before your updated your rom.
This happened a while back to me with my J5, the issue was that I made a full TWRP backup, then began to test other roms. After I was done, I tried to restore my backup, but it would constantly fail. I sat down for a while, confused and sad about how my TWRP backup had failed me. I tried every solution I could think of, eventually this solution I've mentioned in the above paragraph came to my mind. Thank god for putting it into my mind, otherwise I would've lost a lot of stuff (mainly whatsapp chats which werent backed up, and a lot of apps which I took the time to pain-stakingly configure in the best way for my device).
Anyways, enough of my story, hope this helps you out! If it does, message back here and let us know, and also mark my post as the solution if it was able to help you, so that anyone else who stumbles upon this thread can be saved too!
Cheers!
PhotonIce said:
You should always do a full twrp backup before messing with roms.
The best solution would be to backup the "Data" and "Internal Storage" partitions. Data contains all apps, their appdata and settings, while internal storage contains all of your own files (photos, videos etc.). After you back these up, wipe your phone (system, data, cache, dalvik) and flash the version of evolution x you were using previously. Now restore data and internal storage and your device should be back to normal.
If you get a bootloop while booting after restoring data and internal storage, then wipe the device again and this time flash evolution x, but only restore internal storage. This way, it should boot and you will be able to recover your files, though your apps will be gone.
If you only restore internal storage then it will no doubt boot up and you will have access to your files, but since you'll have already backed up the important stuff (data + internal storage), you might as well try restoring data as well, as there is no harm, and if the phone boots correctly after restoring both partitions, your phone will be as it was before your updated your rom.
This happened a while back to me with my J5, the issue was that I made a full TWRP backup, then began to test other roms. After I was done, I tried to restore my backup, but it would constantly fail. I sat down for a while, confused and sad about how my TWRP backup had failed me. I tried every solution I could think of, eventually this solution I've mentioned in the above paragraph came to my mind. Thank god for putting it into my mind, otherwise I would've lost a lot of stuff (mainly whatsapp chats which werent backed up, and a lot of apps which I took the time to pain-stakingly configure in the best way for my device).
Anyways, enough of my story, hope this helps you out! If it does, message back here and let us know, and also mark my post as the solution if it was able to help you, so that anyone else who stumbles upon this thread can be saved too!
Cheers!
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Thank you for your help but backing up the data and internal storage doesnt seem possible right now because all the data is encrypted in TWRP...
If you can't backup anything, then wipe system, cache and dalvik, and flash the version of evolutionx you were previously using. Then boot, it should be fine. If it wont boot (give it some time, it will take the time of a fresh install), then this time wipe system+data+cache+dalvik, then flash whichever rom you like and you'll be able to access the files.
You can also try using platform tools and fastboot or adb ( i dont remember exactly which one) to copy the filess from your phone onto your pc.
Sorry if this doesn't apply to your situation, I've never used a phone which has been encrypted, as such I have no experience with them.
PhotonIce said:
If you can't backup anything, then wipe system, cache and dalvik, and flash the version of evolutionx you were previously using. Then boot, it should be fine. If it wont boot (give it some time, it will take the time of a fresh install), then this time wipe system+data+cache+dalvik, then flash whichever rom you like and you'll be able to access the files.
You can also try using platform tools and fastboot or adb ( i dont remember exactly which one) to copy the filess from your phone onto your pc.
Sorry if this doesn't apply to your situation, I've never used a phone which has been encrypted, as such I have no experience with them.
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That sounds like a good idea. I found the old version on my PC.
Now I just need a way to install it... because twrp cant read the file. I tried with adb sideload but that results in an error for some reason. Flashing Magisk for example with adb sideload is possible.
Edit: Got it to work by using a tool called "Large Address Aware". Now waiting for the results...
PhotonIce said:
If you can't backup anything, then wipe system, cache and dalvik, and flash the version of evolutionx you were previously using. Then boot, it should be fine. If it wont boot (give it some time, it will take the time of a fresh install), then this time wipe system+data+cache+dalvik, then flash whichever rom you like and you'll be able to access the files.
You can also try using platform tools and fastboot or adb ( i dont remember exactly which one) to copy the filess from your phone onto your pc.
Sorry if this doesn't apply to your situation, I've never used a phone which has been encrypted, as such I have no experience with them.
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This did not help unfortunately... Im still in the same recovery-bootloop and my data is still encrypted.
It's probably still bootlooping as the data partition got modified when you flashed the newer version of evolutionx, and now it will not work with the old one. You can try wiping system+data+cach+dalvik and then flashing any rom of your choice. This will give you access to your internal storage (photos, media etc), but it will remove your apps and their settings. Whatsapp images are stored in the internal storage so you won't need to worry about those.
Again, this is risky, as it may not work (I don't know much about encryption), or you might still not be able to access your files after flashing the new rom. Proceed at your own risk.
PhotonIce said:
It's probably still bootlooping as the data partition got modified when you flashed the newer version of evolutionx, and now it will not work with the old one. You can try wiping system+data+cach+dalvik and then flashing any rom of your choice. This will give you access to your internal storage (photos, media etc), but it will remove your apps and their settings. Whatsapp images are stored in the internal storage so you won't need to worry about those.
Again, this is risky, as it may not work (I don't know much about encryption), or you might still not be able to access your files after flashing the new rom. Proceed at your own risk.
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Thank you for still helping me out but I already did a full reset yesterday. I did not lose much except for the time setting it all up again.
I still dont really get the point of encrypting all your data if you cant decrypt it even if you know the password...