- No. OrangeFox (or any other recovery) cannot encrypt anything. Encryption is done by your ROM.
- So, if you ever see anybody claiming that OrangeFox encrypted their phone, please tell them that this is absolutely impossible - because only a ROM can encrypt a phone.
- Good! This is a very good security measure, and you
should keep your phone encrypted.
- Note that, on some devices, MIUI can be
very unhappy with unencrypted devices. You have been warned!
- If for some reason you don't want your phone encrypted, then, before flashing the ROM, format your data partition (to get the phone decrypted), reboot OrangeFox immediately, go to the "OTA & ROM" settings, tick the "Disable Forced-Encryption" box, and then flash the ROM. In most cases, this should prevent the ROM from encrypting your device when it boots up for the first time.
- On some devices (eg
Lavender), the "Disable Forced-Encryption" box is unticked automatically every time you boot OrangeFox. This is a deliberate development decision, which requires you to tick it manually every time you enter OrangeFox. If the developer has made this decision for your device, then you should understand that it is considered a very bad idea to tick that box at all - because some things will not work properly or at all (eg, security settings in the ROM) if the device is not encrypted.
- On native Android 10 devices (ie, devices that shipped with Android 10), you
must NOT try this approach. It will probably end in a bootloop.
- If you do anything to make your device remain uncrypted, then know that
you are on your own. Do not come and ask any questions about whatever you experience.
¶ I am using OrangeFox, and now when I set a password or PIN in my ROM, they are rejected as being wrong
- You will get this behaviour if you are using Lavender, and your device is not encrypted. This is the result of bugs in Lavender, which means that, if the device is not encrypted, then passwords/PIN/fingerprint will not work. The only solution at the moment is to encrypt your device.
- This is not an OrangeFox issue (so, please do not ask OrangeFox developers any questions about it).
- It is also not a ROM issue. It is a Xiaomi bug in Lavender.
¶ I am using OrangeFox, and now my fingerprint is not working/I can't find fingerprint settings
Same answer as above.
¶ I am using OrangeFox, and I am being asked for a password (or PIN). But I have not set a password (or PIN)
- If your device has FBE encryption and you have set up a password/PIN in the ROM (or if it has FDE encryption, and you enabled Secure Startup in the ROM) then you will be asked for a password (or PIN, or whatever) - just supply the ROM's lockscreen password/PIN.
- If you did none of the above, then this is usually a sign of broken encryption (you may have flashed a ROM which has different encryption protocols from the ROM that you had before, or you may have flashed a firmware zip which uses an incompatible keymaster module - or whatever other reason).
- If this is the case, then you will need to format your data partition (which will also wipe all the contents of your internal storage). If you have no backups, then that would be most unfortunate.
- If you experience a situation where you have set a pattern/PIN, but the recovery asks for a password (or vice versa, etc), then you must ask your ROM devs to fix their ROM by applying this patch.
- This is not a recovery issue, so please do not ask us to "fix" it.
- Alternatively, you can always open a terminal in the recovery (or via
adb shell) and run this command - twrp decrypt password.
¶ On Android 11 (or MIUI 12.5, or whatever) my file names are all gibberish
- Android 11 decryption is supported with respect to custom ROMs.
- However, there are issues with MIUI ROMs based on Android 11, and with ROMs that use the new keymaster 4.1. With such ROMs, decryption may not work at all in recovery mode - but in some cases, decryption may work if you "hotboot" the recovery image (eg, "fastboot boot recovery.img").
- This is not an OrangeFox problem, so do not ask us to "fix" the problem.
Encryption issues may be caused by several factors. Many encryption problems can only be solved by formatting (not just wiping) the data partition.
Here is an inexhaustive list of possible causes;
- You replaced a ROM with a different ROM (or a different version of the same ROM) that uses a different encryption protocol (solution = format your data partition)
- You flashed a firmware zip, either directly, or via flashing a MIUI ROM, and the firmware version is incompatible with your device's current encryption (solution = format your data partition and/or flash a firmware zip that is compatible with your encryption)
- Your device's current encryption protocol is unsupported (solution = format your data partition, and keep your device unencrypted)
- Any number of other possible causes (solution = format your data partition)