Unexpected boot screen on T-Mobile variant

[flick0416]

One thing I've noticed since I've had my G5 is that when I turn it off and back on, I am prompted to enter a pin in an odd screen. At first, even though it was different from what I'd seen previously on my G4 and other Android phones, I just chalked it up to being the way the G5 works. But, after seeing a few videos of other G5's booting up on YouTube, I'm thinking something's up here. Here's the screen in question:



After inputting my phone's pin there, I see the green Android robot briefly, then the standard home screen loads. My question is, is this expected behavior, or is it as odd as it seems to me? I would not expect to see that screen at all when the phone is booting up - I would expect it to go from the LG logo, to the T-Mobile logo, to a loaded home screen. For reference, I am on T-Mobile in the US.

 

[Mike Dee]

One thing I've noticed since I've had my G5 is that when I turn it off and back on, I am prompted to enter a pin in an odd screen. At first, even though it was different from what I'd seen previously on my G4 and other Android phones, I just chalked it up to being the way the G5 works. But, after seeing a few videos of other G5's booting up on YouTube, I'm thinking something's up here. Here's the screen in question:

View attachment 227417

After inputting my phone's pin there, I see the green Android robot briefly, then the standard home screen loads. My question is, is this expected behavior, or is it as odd as it seems to me? I would not expect to see that screen at all when the phone is booting up - I would expect it to go from the LG logo, to the T-Mobile logo, to a loaded home screen. For reference, I am on T-Mobile in the US.

I have never seen that....I'm on Verizon

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[thisisjason]

I'm guessing that your phone has full disk decryption active, so you have to enter your password to decrypt before it will boot into Android.

 

[gendo667]

Yeah, I've never seen this either. I'm also on T-Mobile.

 

[flick0416]

I'm guessing that your phone has full disk decryption active, so you have to enter your password to decrypt before it will boot into Android.

Interesting. I didn't knowingly set anything for this, but I just noticed under Settings > General > Fingerprints & Security, there is an option for "Encrypt phone" and it is set to "Encrypted". But the option is greyed out and I can't change it. Can you guys confirm if this is the same on your phones?

 

[gendo667]

Yeah, I got this too. Never set it up. I kinda hate that I'm gonna have to decrypt my SD card. I didn't sign up for that.

 

[flick0416]

Yeah, I got this too. Never set it up. I kinda hate that I'm gonna have to decrypt my SD card. I didn't sign up for that.

Interesting. Well, at least that tells me that particular option isn't what's requiring the login when booting up.

thisisjason, do you have any idea where I would find the decryption settings you reference?

 

[gendo667]

Interesting. Well, at least that tells me that particular option isn't what's requiring the login when booting up.

thisisjason, do you have any idea where I would find the decryption settings you reference?

Where did you find your phone's pin, if you never set up encryption? It's one of those things I really don't know much about, other than the basics.

 

[flick0416]

Where did you find your phone's pin, if you never set up encryption? It's one of those things I really don't know much about, other than the basics.

Under Settings > Display > Lock Screen > Select screen lock, I've chosen the option for PIN unlock. As far as I understand, you have to choose one of the options there in order to use the fingerprint sensor as well. Anyway, the first time I saw that boot screen, I just tried the PIN I had set for the PIN unlock and that worked.

I'll try disabling the PIN unlock and see if it makes any difference with that boot screen.

 

[thisisjason]

Interesting. Well, at least that tells me that particular option isn't what's requiring the login when booting up.

thisisjason, do you have any idea where I would find the decryption settings you reference?

Sorry, my wording was a little off, I was just talking about the need to enter your password on boot to access the encrypted system, I'm not sure about how to actually turn off the encryption permanently for the G5. I don't actually own the G5, but generally you have to do a full factory reset to remove encryption on Android phones, so you might check the reset settings.

It's also possible that T-Mobile has it set up where you can't turn off encryption

 

[gendo667]

Under Settings > Display > Lock Screen > Select screen lock, I've chosen the option for PIN unlock. As far as I understand, you have to choose one of the options there in order to use the fingerprint sensor as well. Anyway, the first time I saw that boot screen, I just tried the PIN I had set for the PIN unlock and that worked.

I'll try disabling the PIN unlock and see if it makes any difference with that boot screen.

Gotcha. I wasn't sure if they were two different things. I've been using the standard swipe to unlock for so long now. I might get off this thread before I ask to many questions.

 

[flick0416]

So, turns out I'm just an ID10T. When I disabled the PIN unlock, the phone booted without requiring PIN entry.

When I went to re-enable the PIN unlock option, I saw these options:



I had previously selected "Require PIN to power on phone", but must not have understood what that would mean. By choosing "No PIN", I am not required to enter the PIN when booting up the phone. Thanks for the assistance all.

Edit: Turns out a word that rhymes with schmidiot is a censored word.

 

[gendo667]

So, turns out I'm just an ID10T. When I disabled the PIN unlock, the phone booted without requiring PIN entry.

When I went to re-enable the PIN unlock option, I saw these options:

View attachment 227439

I had previously selected "Require PIN to power on phone", but must not have understood what that would mean. By choosing "No PIN", I am not required to enter the PIN when booting up the phone. Thanks for the assistance all.

Edit: Turns out a word that rhymes with schmidiot is a censored word.

We got there. That's all that matters. I'm dumb when it comes to security myself. I know how bad that's, this day in age.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

The AC staff with the G5 sees the same screen when a PIN is required at boot to decrypt the storage. You're good.

You can't turn encryption off for the phone without changing the boot image, because you need to change a booting parameter and use a kernel with forced encryption disabled.

You might be able to turn off the require a PIN to decrypt option in settings under security > lock screen > PIN

EDIT: And I had this page open while I was finding out what you're seeing, and now I see that you figured it out

 

[gendo667]

The AC staff with the G5 sees the same screen when a PIN is required at boot to decrypt the storage. You're good.

You can't turn encryption off for the phone without changing the boot image, because you need to change a booting parameter and use a kernel with forced encryption disabled.

You might be able to turn off the require a PIN to decrypt option in settings under security > lock screen > PIN

EDIT: And I had this page open while I was finding out what you're seeing, and now I see that you figured it out

I never know when you guys are creepin. I was thinking, Jerry would jump in and fix this in a pinch.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

I never know when you guys are creepin. I was thinking, Jerry would jump on and fix this in a pinch.

Y'all are my extended family in here. We're always looking for ways we can help out.

 

[vansmack]

It wasn't specifically said, so I'll just encourage folks to use this extra level of security, especially if you use Fingerprint Scanner as your main security Parameter.

Jerry wrote a great article as to one reason why, but there are many others:

Your privacy, your fingerprints and the fifth amendment | Android Central

 

[CSOReaper]

I remember when setting my G5 up from T Mobile , this option popped up. Unseen to remember it stating encryption as well.

I thought it was a great idea, so I took it.

T Mobile doesn't do many things right in my opinion, but this is one of them for sure from a security perspective.