Why is my encryption taking so long?

[AC Question]

Encryption taking too long

I just purchased a cheap tablet (7" Dragon Touch Y88X) running Android 4.4 KitKat.

I was trying to set up a widget to sync with my university staff email account, whose security protocols require that the tablet is encrypted, and began the process, plugging the device in as prompted since it may take up to an hour (I believe this depends on the size of the storage to be encrypted?).

The trouble is, this was five hours ago, and it shows no sign of being anywhere near over. Every time I log in to the tablet, it shows a black screen with an image of the Android logo and nothing else.

In normal circumstances I'd be tempted to just turn it off (else unplug it and wait for the battery to drain), and see if a restart at least lets me regain any functionality to the device, and ask the university's IT support services about it tomorrow, but I'm worried stopping an encryption partway complete would completely break it and force me to have to factory reset it (which I don't know how to do, or even if I can do it or if I'd need to send it back...).

Any advice? Is there any reason it should be taking this long?

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Encryption taking too long

Welcome to Android Central! Uh-oh. You never know with these off-brand devices. Let it sit overnight doing what it's doing. If it's still stuck tomorrow morning, it's glitching. You'd have no other choice but to force a power down by pressing and holding Power for about 10-20 seconds, then powering back on again, and hope that it boots up.