Decrypt before unlocking and rooting?

[Bobman]

I am currently stock and I have enabled the encryption feature on both the internal storage and the SD card. Will this negatively affect the bootloader unlocking and ROM flashing processes? Not sure at what level the encryption takes place. My guess would be that flashing a custom recovery and in turn ROM would negate the encryption, but not sure. And if that were the case, could I still leave the SD card encrypted, or will I lose part of the encryption key and not be able to access that data on the card after flashing a new ROM?

Does anyone have any experience with this? To be safe, I could always decrypt both internal and SD card, I would just prefer not to do this if it wasn't necessary.

Thanks.

 

[Paul627g]

Normal rule of thumb, the SD CARD isn't affected in any of the rooting/unlocking process. That should be fine.

However I'm not too sure about what effects it could have on the internal storage. Again rooting/unlocking is at the /system/ level of the device filesystem but does span outward into other parts so I'm not sure if it interferes with the internal storage.. My gut tells me no, but I'm not positive here.

Update: I do know though if your going to be flashing a custom ROM going from Android 4.1.x to Android 4.2.x , they recommend a full wipe of the device & backup of your information because 4.2.x introduces a new aligned filesystem. So that is something to consider.

 

[Bobman]

Ok, thanks for the info. I'll take that into consideration.

 

[Bobman]

Normal rule of thumb, the SD CARD isn't affected in any of the rooting/unlocking process. That should be fine.

However I'm not too sure about what effects it could have on the internal storage. Again rooting/unlocking is at the /system/ level of the device filesystem but does span outward into other parts so I'm not sure if it interferes with the internal storage.. My gut tells me no, but I'm not positive here.

Update: I do know though if your going to be flashing a custom ROM going from Android 4.1.x to Android 4.2.x , they recommend a full wipe of the device & backup of your information because 4.2.x introduces a new aligned filesystem. So that is something to consider.

Oh, but to clarify, I know that the SD card won't be wiped or anything in the process, but will I still be able to decrypt it and access it? I guess I could always leave it encrypted but back it up to my computer first.

 

[MrSmith317]

Oh, but to clarify, I know that the SD card won't be wiped or anything in the process, but will I still be able to decrypt it and access it? I guess I could always leave it encrypted but back it up to my computer first.

I believe...again, my belief is that the encryption only touches user data so internal and external SD cards. It doesn't do system data. If this is the case then you will not have a problem unlocking/rooting. If I'm wrong...you probably still won't have a problem.

 

[Bobman]

I believe...again, my belief is that the encryption only touches user data so internal and external SD cards. It doesn't do system data. If this is the case then you will not have a problem unlocking/rooting. If I'm wrong...you probably still won't have a problem.

Yeah, I guess it isn't a big deal either way. Thanks.