Unable to choose PIN for Encryption

[ladypheonix]

In order to get the 4.4.4 OTA update, I had to do a lot of work. That work included blasting my once great phone back to the dark ages. Booooooo. I require, at the very least, encryption of the internal volume. Today, I've finally started making my phone mine again. I went to encrypt, and as always, the warning screen you first see says you may use a password or a pin to unlock your volume, however, when you proceed to the next step, "PIn" is gray, like all the other options, which say they have been disabled by a device administrator. All options are available to me outside of this process so it's not some other app that's acting as an administrator making changes on me, it's solely the encryption.

Is this new? Just a 4.4.4 thing? Who in their right mind would require a 6 digit password with a number to unlock your phone a hundred times a day!? I can't see where I can separate the volume decrypt password from the screen lock, but if that's possible, I would take any and all advice to this end.

Thanks so much (in advance) for all your help!