Hello.
I recently got a Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 (with Windows Mobile 6.1), and I set a password on it.
Sometimes when it would ask me for my password, the shift or fn keys wouldn't work, so I couldn't enter it. I would have to soft reset the device to be able to type in my password.
Frustrated, I decided to disable password protection entirely. I then found that after leaving the device alone for a period of time (while sleeping, for example), it would lock and ask me for a password - but since I no longer had one, I couldn't. I would have to soft reset the device to bypass the password screen.
I searched around, and found that this was a bug in Windows Mobile, and the only solution was to hard reset and never enable password protection. After a while of putting up with it, I flashed my device to use itje's Touch-IT v7, and I performed a hard reset. It was fine for a while, but now it's doing it again: it's asking me for a password when I leave it alone for a period of time, but I don't have one. I never set a password this time.
Is there any real solution to this? It's incredibly frustrating. Thank you in advance.
you mean the security password that is enforced when using exchange email? there is ap app that will enable you to turn it off, but you should read this thread (the app is listed here but you should take heed of the warning from deedee). I leave it up to you.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=358695
Try "hard reseting" it
I'm not using Exchange email, and the checkbox to disable password protection isn't greyed out (like it is in that thread). Thanks for the link anyway though, I'll have a look around the registry.
Anyone else know anything about this?
Edit: As I said in my original post, I already tried a hard reset when this problem originally appeared. I hadn't touched the password protection settings at all since my hard reset, but it's happening again.
Does nobody have a solution for this?
are you sure someone isn't messing with your phone and setting a password? I've been using windows mobile for 6 years and never had that problem.
And you said something about a bug.... can you link me to whatever you found?
Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.
I just tried searching for that again, but unfortunately I can't find it. It was a thread with somebody saying that they have no password set, yet the device asks for one so they can only bypass the screen by soft resetting - and that's the exact problem I'm having now. There was no solution posted so I didn't bookmark it or anything.
I am the only person that has had access to my phone, so nobody has messed with it. The password setting is definitely disabled, and the HKLM\Security\Policies\Policies\00001023 registry value is set to 1 (disabled). My phone doesn't ask me for a password when I first start it (so I can get past it each time via a soft reset), it just seems to happen after 10 hours or so - I'm not exactly sure what triggers it.
Edit: I'm not sure if this is what I read before, but it seems to describe the same thing.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=291567
nuclear said:
Thats the question: is it really time for WM6?
So far i believe that the device cannot digest what we have so far of WM6. Too many non-functional things or bugs if you would like to say =_=
Device auto-locks and asks for password and if you dont have a password you cannot get into the device other than by soft reset. Asks password even for activesync! PDAViet has problem with activesync in vista as it disconnects after 5 minutes. WiFi only turns on from Comm center. Hang up's on 25MB free RAM. A lot of memory leak! 10MB to run SPB Time -_-...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Edit 2: Here's another one... No real solution posted.
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsmobile/thread/88834ba5-b64a-45c3-8dc4-378ffc3a40d6
seckin38 said:
I have recently purchased HTC Touch with WM6. 2 days ago, it suddenly locked. I couldn't unlock because it asks for password. Because I didn't set a password, I couldn't unlock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is really wierd, i have been using wm since 5 was on the scene and ive never come across your issue. I appreciate that your not using exchange but did you try the zeynee unlock app? It might stop the lock screen, you never know. If it doesnt work then nothing lost huh??
I didn't try it, no. I was concerned about the posts saying the application used up too much battery power, and thought checking the registry would be good enough (since nothing should be changing the value). I'll install it now and see if the problem still occurs. I don't have much hope that this will help though.
Okay, it just happened again. The application didn't help.
Ok, worth a try...
Have yoyu considered flashing to a different rom to see if this works? Is there a new stock Rom available?
Ill have to look more into this, maybe msdn has something on it.
Well, I had this problem with both my original Vodafone ROM and the custom one I'm using now. I'm reluctant to flash it again due to the hassle of reinstalling everything again.
I think it may be related to notifications. It just happened again as I got a text message, and last time it happened just before I received a Skype call. When I'm away and come back to find it locked, there tends to be a new icon in the notification area. It definitely doesn't happen every time I get a notification though...
Hey guys
I flashed the factory images last night effectively wiping my Nexus 5 and starting from scratch. I did not restore apps and settings either. After I manually installed a bunch of my apps back and changed around a few settings, I decided to enable encryption. However, I don't think it enabled properly.
First, I had not set a PIN lock on my phone yet at the time.
When I decided to enable encryption and go through the process, it didn't ask me to enter a PIN.
It seemingly completed encrypting the phone. When I go back to the security menu, it says "Encrypted".
However, I am not prompted to enter a PIN upon booting the phone (not talking about the lock screen PIN).
So, it seems like it didn't work but I'm not sure. Has anyone else enabled encryption yet?
and yes, I saw the performance degradation that comes with enabling encryption but I'd rather have the security.
definitely sounds like there's an issue there. Do you have a custom recovery? If so, you could boot into that, pull some data and see if it opens. If it does, yeah its not encrypted.
Not worth mentioning degradation. All encryption always has and always will have performance degradation. It's par for the course
That sounds like a good idea. If it's not encrypted, then I guess the only method is to wipe and reinstall again.
mattkroeder said:
That sounds like a good idea. If it's not encrypted, then I guess the only method is to wipe and reinstall again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think so. You can't reverse the encryption flag without a wipe I dont think
mattkroeder said:
Hey guys
I flashed the factory images last night effectively wiping my Nexus 5 and starting from scratch. I did not restore apps and settings either. After I manually installed a bunch of my apps back and changed around a few settings, I decided to enable encryption. However, I don't think it enabled properly.
First, I had not set a PIN lock on my phone yet at the time.
When I decided to enable encryption and go through the process, it didn't ask me to enter a PIN.
It seemingly completed encrypting the phone. When I go back to the security menu, it says "Encrypted".
However, I am not prompted to enter a PIN upon booting the phone (not talking about the lock screen PIN).
So, it seems like it didn't work but I'm not sure. Has anyone else enabled encryption yet?
and yes, I saw the performance degradation that comes with enabling encryption but I'd rather have the security.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure, but i think it's designed to works just like that, the encryption key is not the PIN anymore but something (random?) that is stored somewhere on the phone.
that would protect the data in case someone tries to read it directly from the phone's memory, but useless if you don;t have a PIN/PASSWORD.
I avoided encryption before for exactly that reason (requiring a password to boot). If I lose the phone I want the person that found/stole it to be able to at least boot it. if the person is not a thief there's a contact number so they can call me to give it back. if he/she's a thief well, as long as it's on I can call it, track it, wipe it. even brick it.
by not being able to boot it, the chances of getting it back are 0 if the battery dies or is dead!
http://readwrite.com/2014/10/28/google-android-lollipop-encryption-issues
there isn't much info out there about it.
kenshin33 said:
Not sure, but i think it's designed to works just like that, the encryption key is not the PIN anymore but something (random?) that is stored somewhere on the phone.
that would protect the data in case someone tries to read it directly from the phone's memory, but useless if you don;t have a PIN/PASSWORD.
I avoided encryption before for exactly that reason (requiring a password to boot). If I lose the phone I want the person that found/stole it to be able to at least boot it. if the person is not a thief there's a contact number so they can call me to give it back. if he/she's a thief well, as long as it's on I can call it, track it, wipe it. even brick it.
by not being able to boot it, the chances of getting it back are 0 if the battery dies or is dead!
http://readwrite.com/2014/10/28/google-android-lollipop-encryption-issues
there isn't much info out there about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went ahead and wiped the phone again. I reinstalled lollipop and made sure to enable a lockscreen PIN before I enabled encryption. It seems to have encrypted properly. It prompts me for my PIN at boot up now.
You make a good point about encryption making it more difficult for someone to get a hold of me if I lose the phone though.
Same problem here, with Nexus 5 and Android v5
My work Exchange server enforces a security policy to the phone which forces you to enable encryption. So I went ahead and did that, and the email app is still saying that encryption needs to be enabled. When I reboot the phone I never get prompted for a PIN to decrypt the device, yet in the settings screen it says it is encrypted.
I'm going to have to re-flash. Is it possible the issue is caused by leaving the bootloader unlocked? or is this is a bug?
EDIT: Update. Reflashed, but first thing I did was relock the bootloader and enable a security screenlock PIN, *then* encrypted the phone. Now it's prompting me for a PIN on boot and looks like it's worked. Hope the Exchange email policy stays happy this time, as it worked before for about a day before it complained about the lack of encryption
this worked for me also
I did what was stated below and it worked....
1. reflashed,
2. locked bootloader
3. created lock pin
4. encrypted, THEN
5. added MDM control (MAAS360) and exchange email.
It seems to work OK now.
Thanks!
JoyrexJ9 said:
Same problem here, with Nexus 5 and Android v5
My work Exchange server enforces a security policy to the phone which forces you to enable encryption. So I went ahead and did that, and the email app is still saying that encryption needs to be enabled. When I reboot the phone I never get prompted for a PIN to decrypt the device, yet in the settings screen it says it is encrypted.
I'm going to have to re-flash. Is it possible the issue is caused by leaving the bootloader unlocked? or is this is a bug?
EDIT: Update. Reflashed, but first thing I did was relock the bootloader and enable a security screenlock PIN, *then* encrypted the phone. Now it's prompting me for a PIN on boot and looks like it's worked. Hope the Exchange email policy stays happy this time, as it worked before for about a day before it complained about the lack of encryption
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mattkroeder said:
Hey guys
I flashed the factory images last night effectively wiping my Nexus 5 and starting from scratch. I did not restore apps and settings either. After I manually installed a bunch of my apps back and changed around a few settings, I decided to enable encryption. However, I don't think it enabled properly.
First, I had not set a PIN lock on my phone yet at the time.
When I decided to enable encryption and go through the process, it didn't ask me to enter a PIN.
It seemingly completed encrypting the phone. When I go back to the security menu, it says "Encrypted".
However, I am not prompted to enter a PIN upon booting the phone (not talking about the lock screen PIN).
So, it seems like it didn't work but I'm not sure. Has anyone else enabled encryption yet?
and yes, I saw the performance degradation that comes with enabling encryption but I'd rather have the security.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you set up a screen lock pin the phone will ask you then if you would like the PIN to be enabled or not at boot.
kenshin33 said:
Not sure, but i think it's designed to works just like that, the encryption key is not the PIN anymore but something (random?) that is stored somewhere on the phone.
that would protect the data in case someone tries to read it directly from the phone's memory, but useless if you don;t have a PIN/PASSWORD.
I avoided encryption before for exactly that reason (requiring a password to boot). If I lose the phone I want the person that found/stole it to be able to at least boot it. if the person is not a thief there's a contact number so they can call me to give it back. if he/she's a thief well, as long as it's on I can call it, track it, wipe it. even brick it.
by not being able to boot it, the chances of getting it back are 0 if the battery dies or is dead!
http://readwrite.com/2014/10/28/google-android-lollipop-encryption-issues
there isn't much info out there about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for OT, but how can you remotely brick your phone? Just curious in case I ever need to. Don't live in the best of neighborhoods. I can remote wipe, track, take pics. The normal lost/stolen stuff, but I haven't heard of remotely bricking a phone ever.
Nexus 5 still looking to be encrypted
Only a temp fix---Both my Nexus 7, and Nexus 5 just started asked to be encrypted again....
This is still a problem with Lollipop
thegasmaster said:
I did what was stated below and it worked....
1. reflashed,
2. locked bootloader
3. created lock pin
4. encrypted, THEN
5. added MDM control (MAAS360) and exchange email.
It seems to work OK now.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wipe efs partition (I do have a backup on my computer) and the phone is no longer a phone.
Just to be clear, you can enable encryption on Android 5.0, and it will not force you to lock the phone. (Like the PIN screen and boot lock). When you buy a Nexus 6/9 the data partition is encrypted but there's no lock set. The following is from this article;
First, the encryption doesn't help much if you haven't set a passcode. Ludwig said studies have shown that roughly have of users don't set passcodes on their devices, largely because they find it inconvenient to keep entering them dozens of times a day. Lollipop will still encrypt your data, but it will also automatically decrypt it in normal use. So if you don't have a passcode, much of your information will be available to anyone who picks up your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if you've enabled encryption, and gone through the process, you're phone data partition is encrypted. It's just not locked down until you use some kind of phone lock too. BTW, the article goes on to describe the limited usefulness of having an encrypted data partition and no phone lock;
Lollipop's encryption still offers some limited protection even under those circumstances—for instance, by protecting stored data against anyone who tries to read it directly from the phone's memory. That could shield user passwords and other sensitive data from attackers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As to why Exchange policies don't see the phone as encrypted is probably due to another issue.
Setting PIN to be required at startup after encryption possible fix
I now have my Nexus 5 & 7 working with exchange on Lollipop using this-
1. Reflashed Lollipop
2. Let phone reinstall all my apps
3. Locked bootloader.
4. Set a screen lock PIN
5. Encrypt phone
6. Set screen lock PIN to be required on start up (this was missing before!)
7. Installed MDM control via Mass360-all policies look to be met, including encryption
8. Installed my exchange account via Gmail
//code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=79342
Updated thread with solution
---
* It used to be that when I did a reboot or shutdown and restart, I would have to enter a password before the system fully started.
* But now the phone boots into the phone without putting in my password. I can reboot the phone and it will boot all the way to the Lock screen, and I can unlock the lock screen with my fingerprint or my backup password.
* I am concerned that somehow my device is either no longer encrypted or that there is some setting which has stored the boot password.
--
Solution :
For those of you who find they have this problem and have not solved it, I found a solution that works, related to a bug (feature?) in Accessibility.
Apologies if this was suggested further in the thread, and that I'm replying to an old post. But I recently had this problem and figured out a solution.
- Accessibility was enabled and for some reason this cached the boot password. So- when I removed the app (rights) and turned off accessibility, and changed (reset/reentered) the password in security settings... On next boot the phone correctly asked me for password.
YMMV.
subs said:
I posted this elsewhere... But I'm having the same problem. Any thoughts? I can post more details, but don't want to repost this everywhere that I see people having the same unresolved problem.
---
* It used to be that when I did a reboot or shutdown and restart, I would have to enter a password before the system fully started.
* But now the phone boots into the phone without putting in my password. I can reboot the phone and it will boot all the way to the Lock screen, and I can unlock the lock screen with my fingerprint or my backup password.
* I am concerned that somehow my device is either no longer encrypted or that there is some setting which has stored the boot password.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, please try not to bump threads almost a year old. I realise that it might have taken you a while to actually reach this thread, but hear me out.
Opening a new thread is always better, since software versions, features and devices are most likely different, along with different device usage habits/users.
You say you're having "the same problem"... as.. who exactly? There's a bunch of different specific "issues" that relate to encryption. Be specific.
For instance, you mentioning fingerprint sensor leads me to presume that you are not using a Nexus 5.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
Hi,
Yesterday I set a fingerprint lock on my S7. It prompted me to enter a backup password and some other password, both with different requirements (one only had to be 4 letters, one was longer and had a number) and the longer one had to be confirmed whereas the shorter one did not. I set this up and tested it a few times, everything seemed to work great. Later I let my phone idle and it turned the screen off on its own for the first time, ever since then the phone has not been able to recognize my fingerprint. It doesn't even say "No match", it just acts like I'm not even putting a finger on it at all.
Tried over and over and eventually tried the backup password, which for some reason is the shorter one without a number. I put in what I am absolutely sure I put in, and it wouldn't take it. Tried a couple more times, even got so desperate as to emulate potential typing errors I might have made (since no confirmation for that password) and nothing worked.
Eventually I hit the timed lockout and I had to stop trying things then. So I went online and searched and discovered Google's Android Device Manager. I heard that if you lock the phone with it you can unlock it through the same manager and the phone will be unlocked. First thing that was odd was that ADM didn't give me an option to enter a password, just a contact message and phone number. I still put in a message and hit lock, and... nothing changed on ADM at all.
Now my phone shows the stupid message every time I wake it up and every few seconds on the lock screen (I can still attempt to unlock the phone with the password and use phone/camera though), but ADM doesn't even give an option to unlock, just change the locked message. I can't even get rid of the damn lock by changing it to blank. I heard Samsung offers a similar service but I never made a Samsung account and apparently one is required to use it.
Beyond that the only solution I've found is wiping the phone (which I can easily do, because there's an option in ADM for it which presumably works), which I really don't want to do since I have a lot of pictures and data on the phone that aren't backed up that I would absolutely hate to lose.
To make things worse it appears that this issue is specific to my phone/the S7/Samsung phones/something, as I have my old Nexus 4 listed in ADM as well and going through the options for it I see it has the ability to define a password, but no such thing for the S7. I really have no clue where to go from here, tons of googling hasn't found me any method I haven't already tried or can't do.
I'd be so grateful if someone here would at the very least find a way for me to recover data before wiping it to get rid of the lock.
TL;DR - Phone will not accept correct encrypt password. Need to dump data partition to computer and decrypt from there, or something like that.
So I have a Nokia 6.1 from 2018 that I used for just about a year. I upgraded to a nicer phone during summer 2019, at which point I transferred all the data I thought I needed, turned the power off, put the phone on a shelf and forgot about it for many months. I remember when I last powered it down, the battery was fully charged. Quite some time later I realized I needed to retrieve some important data written down in an old OneNote account that was synced with that phone and nothing else. Upon logging in, I discovered Microsoft had wiped the account clean due to an extended period of inactivity, meaning the only copy of that data now exists on that phone and nowhere else.
When I dug out the phone and tried to power it up, the battery was completely flat. I plugged it in and it booted up okay, but it would not accept the passphrase to unlock. I can only assume this is due to some sort of bug in Android (I believe it is running 9 Pie, but I don't remember for certain), as I know for a fact the password is correct. I've been putting off trying to unlock this thing for over a year now, but it needs to be done. I've noticed over my several attempts to enter the password that the phone has been behaving somewhat erratically. For example, it doesn't always respond to the power button right away. I'll try to press it again, and the screen will blink on and off several times. Also, when I first tried to unlock the phone, I could enter the passphrase as many times as I wanted, but now when I try, it locks me out for 30 seconds after each attempt, and also notifies me of the total number of failed attempts. When I reboot the phone, the failed attempt counter resets to zero.
Do I have any recourse here? Since I know the passphrase, is it possible to dump the encrypted data partition to my computer and decrypt it from there? The phone is not rooted, nor does it have any custom ROMs or anything like that. I appreciate any help anyone can give.
Quick addendum, I attempted to sideload the final OTA update sourced from the Nokia OTA Repository on Telegram onto the phone via recovery mode. It is running Android 10 now but still no luck unlocking. Interestingly, however, the failed attempt counter now appears to be working correctly, indicating I have entered the incorrect passphrase 31 times now. I'm not sure how many more times I can do that before it wipes everything.