[Q] How to enable Fingerprint Scanner with full device encryption??

androidpleb · Apr 12, 2014

Hi,

I bought the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the fingerprint reader works reasonably well (as in it works, nothing in comparison to apple though, so don't buy it for the fingerprint reader

) for unlocking the screen...

However its a work requirement that my phone has full device encryption, as phones are regularly stolen where I travel.... it seems when I enable encryption I lose the ability to use the fingerprint reader to unlock the phone

.... I bought this hoping that I could avoid having to type in my complex password just to unlock the screen, as I got so tired of doing that with my S2

Is there any mods to enable finger print reader screen unlock + full device encryption at boot time for the Galaxy S5 yet? ... I saw some references to pattern unlock / pin with device encryption... but I would think the fingerprint reader is different...

Thanks!

tkchumly · Apr 16, 2014

S5 Full disk encryption with fingerprint unlock

I also have this question. I believe on the Nexus 5 it at leasts lets you use face unlock with full device encryption. And I read on one article that you should be able to do this but i do not think the author actually tried this. I will say from my own personal experience that you can infact decrypt the device after encrypting it without doing a complete wipe of the device and you can restore the use of fingerprints to unlock your phone. It seems like for security minded people this would be a great feature but if it is unable to be used with full device encryption it seems a little pointless to me. Being forced to use a PIN or password to use encryption is a big pain point for android users who want some type of security.

androidpleb · Apr 17, 2014

Yes I can't believe that no one has really complained about this yet - but I guess encryption isn't' that important to people as I imagined

fighter_foo · Apr 17, 2014

androidpleb said:
Yes I can't believe that no one has really complained about this yet - but I guess encryption isn't' that important to people as I imagined

I am having the same pain, as I use my S5 for BYOD.

It makes no sense when you can use fingerprint to make payments with paypal but not unlocking the phone when it is encrypted.

Hope Samsung can enable this feature in next update.

sorphin · Apr 17, 2014

I'd like this too.. as well as, the iPhone has a cydia app (that a friend of mine showed me), that you can basically disable the power button from turning off the phone while it is fingerprint locked. That would definately be nice to have on the S5 (since it's done through an app). That would have stopped the person who stole my wife's S4 from turning it off when it was blasting the locator ring at them!

deduction · May 19, 2014

sorphin said:
I'd like this too.. as well as, the iPhone has a cydia app (that a friend of mine showed me), that you can basically disable the power button from turning off the phone while it is fingerprint locked. That would definately be nice to have on the S5 (since it's done through an app). That would have stopped the person who stole my wife's S4 from turning it off when it was blasting the locator ring at them!

I can't believe that the fingerprint sensor can't be used if encryption is enabled whatsoever. I could understand the iPhone model, requiring a pin before a fingerprint can be used, but by disabling fingerprint lockscreen, boot unlock, and SD unlock, the fingerprint sensor is now wholly useless for convenience.

It's too trivial to extract data from an unencrypted Android. By not supporting encryption with a measure of covenieve, I don't see the point in including a fingerprint sensor whatsoever given the current software limitations.

Please, someone, figure out what sqlite/settings need to be changed so we can make decent use of our phones fingerprint sensor.

fabiokino · Jul 4, 2014

After some experiments, i found out a procedure to enable FDE and fingerprint lockscreen. Root is required (or at least I guess, I didn't try with a non-rooted system...).
These are the steps:
1) set up fingerprint lockscreen
2) with a root explorer, go to /data/system folder, and backup locksettings.db, locksettings.db-shm and locksettings.db-wal to sd card
3) set up password lockscreen
4) encrypt the device
5) when encryption is done, restore the backed-up files to /data/system: you should have fingerprint lockscreen again (no reboot needed, just turn the screen off, and magically the password should be vanished

)

CAVEAT 1: with my system configuration, I wasn't able to encrypt the device directly: the encryption procedure started, but after reboot nothing happened, the device just booted normally. I don't know the exact reason, in some forums they suppose that it happens on kitkat when the device is rooted. I was able to bypass the problem only adding these steps to the procedure:
...
3b) with TWRP, backup the /system partition, and restore the stock non-rooted /system
4) encrypt the device
4b) restore the original rooted /system partition
...
I don't know if steps 3b) and 4b) are always necessary, let me know...
If you need these steps, don't worry if before restoring your custom /system partition the encryption password isn't recognized, just restore the partition and all will work fine
CAVEAT 2: once encrypted, I didn't find a way to unencrypt the device, because the unencrypt ion procedure starts, but after reboot the device is still encrypted, similar to what described in caveat 1. I tried to replace the /system partition with the stock one, but the encryption password was no longer recognized.
CAVEAT 3: the current TWRP (2.7.1) isn't able to mount S5 encrypted data partition, and restoring an image made with online nandroid backup doesn't seem to work either. So, if you want to make an image of your phone (and I suggest to do it

), do it before encryption

Pierreseoul · Aug 24, 2014

Boot Loop

fabiokino said:
After some experiments, i found out a procedure to enable FDE and fingerprint lockscreen. Root is required (or at least I guess, I didn't try with a non-rooted system...).
These are the steps:
1) set up fingerprint lockscreen
2) with a root explorer, go to /data/system folder, and backup locksettings.db, locksettings.db-shm and locksettings.db-wal to sd card
3) set up password lockscreen
4) encrypt the device
5) when encryption is done, restore the backed-up files to /data/system: you should have fingerprint lockscreen again (no reboot needed, just turn the screen off, and magically the password should be vanished )

CAVEAT 1: with my system configuration, I wasn't able to encrypt the device directly: the encryption procedure started, but after reboot nothing happened, the device just booted normally. I don't know the exact reason, in some forums they suppose that it happens on kitkat when the device is rooted. I was able to bypass the problem only adding these steps to the procedure:
...
3b) with TWRP, backup the /system partition, and restore the stock non-rooted /system
4) encrypt the device
4b) restore the original rooted /system partition
...
I don't know if steps 3b) and 4b) are always necessary, let me know...
If you need these steps, don't worry if before restoring your custom /system partition the encryption password isn't recognized, just restore the partition and all will work fine
CAVEAT 2: once encrypted, I didn't find a way to unencrypt the device, because the unencrypt ion procedure starts, but after reboot the device is still encrypted, similar to what described in caveat 1. I tried to replace the /system partition with the stock one, but the encryption password was no longer recognized.
CAVEAT 3: the current TWRP (2.7.1) isn't able to mount S5 encrypted data partition, and restoring an image made with online nandroid backup doesn't seem to work either. So, if you want to make an image of your phone (and I suggest to do it ), do it before encryption

I get samsung boot loop using the above instructions

sakour · Sep 10, 2014

Pierreseoul said:
I get samsung boot loop using the above instructions

Hi guys! Did someone try this solution? I unfortunately have the same issue and unlock my device each time make me crazy!
Thanks in advance.

gonkatin · Oct 5, 2014

Same problem

I purchased a Galaxy S5 and I have the same problem, unfortunately I cannot root my phone due to security policies in my company. :crying:

I hope Samsung will solve the issue. :fingers-crossed:

Have anyone contacted to Samsung Support Center?

aikidork · Oct 31, 2014

Pierreseoul said:
I get samsung boot loop using the above instructions

What is the consequence of boot loop if you are using stock boot loader? Odin mode required to recover? Something less drastic? What device model are you using?

I found a possible solution that involves deactivating SuperSU and running encryption from there. Still investigating. I am thinking that the solution from @fabiokino will work in this case too.

Jaanto · Nov 25, 2014

I'm curious about this aswell.

healpowah · Dec 18, 2014

Doesn't anyone know a working solution?...
It is really frustrating the very least. I can't believe there isn't a way (or if there is, a guide) to do this (with or without root access).
I have also heard it is doable on the Note 4. See this post for example http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=57103664&postcount=7.

healpowah · Jan 3, 2015

I just flashed the stock Lollipop ROM and guess what: It works!!
Samsung finally did it.

No tweaking needed and it also works without root access.

GermanDoerksen · Feb 25, 2015

How?

healpowah said:
I just flashed the stock Lollipop ROM and guess what: It works!!
Samsung finally did it. No tweaking needed and it also works without root access.

Can you explain how please? I'm on stock lollipop as well and cannot use fingerprint scanner with FDE. Wondering if there's a process to it?

Thanks!

Joker87 · Feb 25, 2015

healpowah said:
I just flashed the stock Lollipop ROM and guess what: It works!!
Samsung finally did it. No tweaking needed and it also works without root access.

Nice to see this, hope it will work on my Galaxy tab S too

Did you see this?

https://www.jethrocarr.com/2013/12/29/encrypting-disk-on-android-4/

Joker87 · Feb 25, 2015

GermanDoerksen said:
Can you explain how please? I'm on stock lollipop as well and cannot use fingerprint scanner with FDE. Wondering if there's a process to it?

Thanks!

Unluckily the trick showed in the previous link only encrytps the main device and not the micro SD

GermanDoerksen · Feb 25, 2015

Joker87 said:
Unluckily the trick showed in the previous link only encrytps the main device and not the micro SD

Well for me that really wouldn't be a problem. I don't have an SD card so I'm okay with just FDE. Thing is I really really don't want to root my phone... No particular reason other than every older android device I've done it on always ends up slow and buggy after a few months use until I reflash with stock ROM. I would like my phone to stay buttery smooth for once..

Joker87 · Feb 25, 2015

GermanDoerksen said:
Well for me that really wouldn't be a problem. I don't have an SD card so I'm okay with just FDE. Thing is I really really don't want to root my phone... No particular reason other than every older android device I've done it on always ends up slow and buggy after a few months use until I reflash with stock ROM. I would like my phone to stay buttery smooth for once..

You could root then unroot it after you have encrypted it

GermanDoerksen · Feb 25, 2015

Joker87 said:
You could root then unroot it after you have encrypted it

you're right... plus it's not really the "rooting" process that makes it slow, it's installing another ROM. Having a rooted phone doesn't necessarily have any performance impact... just opens up a few things for me. Interesting. Thanks! Unfortunately I've already encrypted so now I have to find that thread about how to decrypt lol.

Thanks!

[Q] How to enable Fingerprint Scanner with full device encryption??

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