I encrypted my Fairphone, and it took about 20 minutes to do which was relatively quick by the general guidance on the net.
However I encountered a problem. When I first encrypted my phone, I could no longer access my mobile networks. For some reason it would not connect to either of my SIM cards. In the end I had to wipe my phone and start again. I then encrypted my phone straight away before putting any data or apps on it. It has since been working perfectly.
Therefore if anyone thinks of encrypting their phone, my advice would be to backup before you do so just in case anything goes wrong and you end up doing a hard reset.
I must say, Iāve not noticed any performance difference between my FP without encryption and with encryption - so if that concern was putting you off encrypting your phone before I donāt think itās a problem (at least it hasnāt been for me!!)
I also encrypted my Fairphone and didnāt notice any performance issue.
However I would like to add that the current setup for encryption is very inconvenient to use since it requires that the unlock screen and the boot screen use the same pin or password. As you have to unlock the phone several times a day you would typically choose a rather short pin/password for this purpose but then the encryption of your device is only protected by this very weak password. To solve this problem I used the app Cryptfs Password available from F-Droid which allows you to set the encryption password independently from the lockscreen password. For me this worked without any problems but the advice from the previous post to make a backup before playing with encryption settings is surely a good one.
I also encrypted my Fairphone and didnāt notice any performance issue.
However I would like to add that the current setup for encryption is
very inconvenient to use since it requires that the unlock screen and
the boot screen use the same pin or password.
But isntāt that the case in others/all Androids as well? (I am not an
expert)
As you have to unlock
the phone several times a day you would typically choose a rather
short pin/password for this purpose but then the encryption of your
device is only protected by this very weak password. To solve this
problem I used the app Cryptfs Password available from F-Droid which
allows you to set the encryption password independently from the
lockscreen password.
But you have to root the device beforehand. Ok, well I might do that
soon.
I have encrypted my phone plus data, but now I seem to have an annoying problem:
When my phone is switched off during the night, my alarm clock doesnāt work anymore! I would expect the phone to come to life when itās time for the alarm clock to ring, but since the encryption nothing happens! This is really annoying, because now for the first time I overslept during my nightshift! Luckily, one of the older children that live in the childrenās home where I work got up in time and woke me up, otherwise all the children of my group would have overslept, too and would have been late for school todayā¦
Later, I tried it again, I activated my alarm clock, switched the phone off and waited, but nothing happened!
I hope there is a possibility to fix this!
I guess that the number of āNoā answers wonāt reflect usersā attitude, since those who (like me) donāt care about encryption probably wonāt bother to read the thread.
Itās great that the option is available (even if it seems a bit tricky to set it up and it appears to have some unforeseen consequences) but for my part I donāt feel the need - I donāt save any sensitive or personal data on my phone.
@carpe_diem80 - Iāve not had any problems like this, but then I donāt switch my phone off ever. Iāll have a go and see if this is repeatable for me too
I have encrypted my Fairphone. I am very happy we have this possibility because some manufacturers seem to remove that option from Android.
There are some minor annoying problems though and i think the most obvious one is that you will have to enter your device password twice each time your powered your phone of and want to power it on again. I am pretty sure when Android L is released, Google will have found a solution for this.
Also, the Fairphone Support Article oversimplifies a bit: The encryption makes your device somehow more secure against specific attack vectors, but when its powered on, the data is decrypted. So everybody trying to hack a phone powered on, will have the same access as on a unecrypted device. This is not specific to Fairphone or Android, it is the same with Mac OS (FileVault), Windows (BitLocker) and Linux (dm-crypt) device encryption.
Other then that, i have no problems with encryption and did not notice slower operation. I will have a look at the alarm problem @carpe_diem80 mentioned above tomorrow morning and report back here.
Actually voting āYesā, Iāve now returned to a non-encrypted system, because of the drawbacks. Combined, they weigh more than the gained security I would get on my privately used phone.
The problem Iāve experienced right after encryption, was the incorrect handling of the SIM cards (detection problem, could not be activated or deactived in the settings), similar to the one described by @Chris_R.
Furthermore, Iām unsatisfied with the linkage of the encryption password to the screen lock password. This is IMO a security whole. Even if I change the encryption password separately afterwards, it will be changed back to the screen lockās one, if latter is changed again. See also Changing Androidās disk encryption password on Android Explorations. By the way, the other screen lock options besides PIN and Password are not available anymore.
And because Iām switching off my phone quite often and also want to use the alarm clock, the missing wake-up functionality as described by @carpe_diem80 was the last straw that made me going through the backup-and-phone-reset procedure (fortunately the FP was not yet fully set up after my first three weeks with it).
Letās see, how the system encryption develops during the next updates. Until then, I can live without it.
I voted for the third option because I think that if someone really wants to enter my phone it can be done anyways. Besides there is no confidential information on it, so I did not bother to learn about encryption.
If I do so, the phone switches on but stops at the point where I have to enter the decrypting code without the alarm clock ringingā¦
Oh dear, does this mean, that I have to go back to default settings? I have a backup, but had I known what consequences the encryption brings, I would not have done itā¦ For me it doesnāt make sense to keep my phone switched on forever, what do I need it for when Iām asleep?
Additionally, I wonder about people like @Stefan: Is your e-mail password not confidential? Donāt you use other services on your mobile as well which demand passwords or codes?
Fair enough, your device is encrypted when turned on. But if I lost my device, which e.g. would turn off at some point because the battery runs out, Iād feel a lot more comfortable knowing there is an additional layer of encryption.
Someone with access to my various e-mail accounts would be a major cause of sleepless nights, actually.
I do guess that really paranoid people wouldnāt use any mobile phone in the post Snowden age, and I know encryption is just another complication for the average user. But for me, the only drawback with it is that I canāt use the alarm clock.
@carpe_diem80 Sorry, i confirm that timed power on is not working with encryption. This is certainly not Fairphones fault, its cause lies deep in the Android internals.
@anon90052001 Maybe you should update the Fairphone documentation with a warning explaining the consequences of using encryption?
@humorkritik The worst which can happen is that someone uses my email account for spam mailing. I do not care too much for internet services (eg. My calendar can only be synced when in my home network.) I seldomly use Facebook through my Firefox browser and donāt save my password there.
Of course I donāt use online banking on my phone. So if someone steals my phone, no confidential information would get lost.
But maybe I am seeing this too naively and you can point out something I am missing.
i have just tried to crypt the phone too.
Same problem: both SIM card are simply ignored from the phone (no PIN required, SIM icon with red cross).
I did not have any external app installed on the phone before (only update to Cherry 1.6 was done).
I ran the encryption without SIM and SD card installed. And everything was working nicely before encryption for one month.
Otherwise no performance issue noticeable.
Encryption took about 30 min (or less)
The fact that the encryption password and the unlock screen password is really annoying and unsecure since you retype your password it very often.
@fnx - thatās exactly what I didā¦ however, I have since found that the problem reoccurs. I donāt reboot my phone often so I donāt find it too much of a problem, but to work around the SIM card issue I activate āairplane modeā and then de-active it. It seems to kick the SIMs into action for me.
Same behaviour.
Activation and cancellation of airplane mode works to wake-up the SIMs and need to be done after each reboot. System parameters > Wireless & Network > Plus (/More) > Airplane Mode [CheckBox]`
