What to Do if You See the Message “the Phone Is Encrypted”

With the constant evolution of technology, the security of devices has increased in such a way that it is almost impossible to consult the information of others. However, being part of a hyper-connected world also has its risks.

That is why we can always make use of the encryption of phone data to keep our private data and personal accounts safe, since on the network we can always find spy applications, hackers and viruses that can affect our privacy and play games. a dirty trick.

What is data encryption

pantalla encriptado de datos

To avoid these scares, mobile phones have an option that allows us to encrypt all our information and provide security against cyber terrorists. Data encryption consists of restricting access to our data as much as possible and making it very difficult to consult it. In fact, it is only possible to do it through a password. When it is established, the music, photos and applications of your mobile will be much more secure, although that does not mean that it is unbreakable, but it will be very difficult to access them.

This has nothing to do with the screen lock mode that we all establish when buying a mobile, since this only protects us from access to our phone. If at any given moment we lose it or it is stolen, it will be enough to guess the screen lock that we establish to be able to access the internal files of the phone. And even if the person who takes our device does not know the pattern, there are always more possibilities of unlocking it than if the encryption is not activated.

Why is the security encryption activated on the mobile

For this reason, encrypting or encrypting is a very good solution to have all the information stored on our mobile secured. This way we will avoid the theft of our data from spy applications, malware or hackers that are always on the lookout.

How to activate mobile data encryption

Depending on the Android version of our device, it can be done in two ways. The latest versions (from Android 6.0 onwards ) include serial encryption, so it will not be possible to do it manually. In this case, you can only encrypt the applications and files of your choice or, on the contrary, you can also fully encrypt the external memory card (if it has one). For the latter, you will have to go to Settings, click on Biometric and security data and look for the option to encrypt or decrypt SD card, where it will ask you for a password that it will ask you whenever you want to consult the data stored in it. Of course, keep in mind that the card can only be decrypted from the mobile that you did the action .

As for versions prior to Android Marshmallow, we can activate it in Settings, in the Lock Screen and Security section. Within this, we look for the option Other security settings. In system configuration, we look for security, and within this we will see the Encryption tab. Tap on encrypt device (twice) and your mobile will ask you for the password with which you will encrypt the data. It should be added that it can be done from both the phone and the SD card.

Encryption problems

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Encryption does not seem as simple and decisive as it seems, since it also has points against it. If you do not follow some previous steps and have several considerations in mind, the process could be very expensive.

Data loss

If for some reason you don’t remember the password you set for device encryption, you have a serious problem. At this point, the logical thing is to try different passwords that you have been able to use to unlock the phone, although you already know that if you exceed the limit of attempts, the mobile will automatically erase all the data and it will be impossible to access it, since it will have been automatically blocked for security reasons.

Fear not, because there is an option that can save you. The first thing you have to do is turn off the phone and, once this is done, boot it into the recovery mode (press and hold the power button, the power button and the volume down button). When the menu comes out, we will go down with the volume down button until the option “Wipe Data / Factory Reset”. When this process has finished, we return to the main menu and we will also click on “Wipe cache partition”. With this we will be able to unlock the phone, but the settings and data will have returned to their factory state.

Performance suffers

A mobile phone is not a computer, and much less does it have the same features to process an encryption so that it is not altered. That is why, when we encrypt data on our phone, performance will slow down considerably, since from that moment the terminal requires greater CPU consumption. This means that the reading and writing of the files decreases and affects other fields such as higher battery consumption. Here the opinion of each user comes into play and decide whether you prefer to increase security or keep the device’s features intact.

Mobile use

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In order to carry out the encryption, we must make sure that we have at least 80% battery in our device , although many experts say that the ideal is to have it at 100% . The process is usually long, and can take up to an hour and sometimes a little longer, depending on the amount of information on the phone. During data encryption, a lot of battery is consumed, since the CPU works at full capacity in search of all the files to later encrypt them. If during the course the mobile runs out of battery or turns off, the data will be partially or completely deleted, depending on the phase it is in.

Factory data reset is the only solution

If you decide to carry out data encryption, you should be very clear about it, since the only solution to undo the process is by restoring the factory data, as we have mentioned above. To do this, you must go to Settings, click on General Administration and look for the Reset section. Once inside, you will have to press the Restore factory settings option, and all the mobile data will be erased automatically. You can also do it with the recovery mode, although this option is more advisable to do as a last resort.