Change Encryption to "new standard"

[KJJ]

Hi,
I had used LOS 15.1 since today. I did an encryption back then and as I learned here, TWRP is unable to decrypt the data partition for Android 8/9 encryption.
I upgraded to 17.1 today using this version of TWRP, on which it it possible to decrypt the data partition.

Now the following questions arise for me:

• Is it necessary to decrypt the data partition for the (daily) LOS updates?
• And what about Open GApps?
• Should I upgrade to the newest TWRP or can I use the custom version for future updates?
• Is there a possibility to “upgrade” the “encryption standard” to what is used on Android 10 and can TWRP then decrypt the data? (sorry for my lack of proper vocabulary )
• LOS offer their own Recovery image, but it is not supporting encryption if I understand correctly (My main problem is that I don’t have a spare SD card, and I cannot save the data on the phone outside the encrypted storage to be able to access it for flashing inside TWRP…)

Thank you very much for your help and have a nice day!
KJJ

[chrmhoffmann]

You do not need encryption support in the recovery to do installs or updates.

Chris

[AnotherElk]

@KJJ

I upgraded to 17.1 today using this version of TWRP, on which it it possible to decrypt the data partition.

“Possible” in the sense of “don’t count on it in practice” .

@KJJ

Is it necessary to decrypt the data partition for the (daily) LOS updates?

No. Encrypting “the phone” really only encrypts the data partition. Updates don’t affect the data partition.

@KJJ

And what about Open GApps?

Same.

@KJJ

Should I upgrade to the newest TWRP or can I use the custom version for future updates?

Shouldn’t matter.

@KJJ

Is there a possibility to “upgrade” the “encryption standard” to what is used on Android 10 and can TWRP then decrypt the data?

If anything, we could use a downgrade so that Android 9+ could handle an Android 7 encrypted data partition (Android 8 still could), then TWRP wouldn’t have a problem.

Any kind of solution is currently unlikely … the custom TWRP 3.2.3 was a good shot, I’ve seen it decrypting Android 8 encryption a few times myself, but never with a “real” installation with Apps and stuff, only in “lab conditions” with a freshly installed OS … and never Android 9.

[Singulus]

You are saying that official TWRP 3.3.1 can decrypt a LOS 17.1 encrypted /data?

[AnotherElk]

What are you referring to?
Nobody said that.

[darioce]

@KJJ

I upgraded to 17.1 today using this version of TWRP, on which it it possible to decrypt the data partition.

Did you actually manage to encrypt your phone using LOS 17.1?
Everytime I tried, the phone just (soft) reboots and does nothing (apparently)…

[Singulus]

@AnotherElk
That was what I read in the first post…

@KJJ

I upgraded to 17.1 today using this version of TWRP, on which it it possible to decrypt the data partition.

[AnotherElk]

@Singulus

That was what I read in the first post…

Please follow the “this version” link there … it doesn’t lead to official TWRP .

[KJJ]

@chrmhoffmann

You do not need encryption support in the recovery to do installs or updates.

Thank you very much AnotherElk & chrmhoffmann!

@AnotherElk

“Possible” in the sense of “don’t count on it in practice” .

Oh, it worked well for me. The decryption took a “long” time (approx. 10 minutes, I thought the app crashed - in the end it was successful) but I was able to navigate through the storage and install the LOS 17.1 update from the encrypted storage. In the future, I’ll consider that maybe I just got lucky.

@AnotherElk

No. Encrypting “the phone” really only encrypts the data partition. Updates don’t affect the data partition.

Ah, okay, that makes sense!

@AnotherElk

Any kind of solution is currently unlikely … the custom TWRP 3.2.3 was a good shot, I’ve seen it decrypting Android 8 encryption a few times myself, but never with a “real” installation with Apps and stuff, only in “lab conditions” with a freshly installed OS … and never Android 9.

Thanks again for your detailed answer! I think I will just leave it that way. My main concern is to be able to install updates, and thanks to the root access I can store the files necessary for the update in /cache, as lklaus mentioned here.

Have a nice day!