[Q] Which partition does Android encrypt? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Android 4.x offers encryption of the system or data.
I just wonder, what partition does Android encrypt after all?
Is it just /data or /system? Or some other?
Thanks.

Related

Alternative to formatting data partition when installing new ROM?

I'm thinking of installing a new ROM on my phone, and I reckoned that instead of formatting the data partition, what if I just wrote a script to erase only the parts of the data partition that have been put there by the system components of the old ROM? Would that work?
If not, why?

F2fs on data & cache

Hi, after have done all the procedures for unencrypt phone and root, I've found to be in this situation:
- data partition: F2FS
- cache partition: EXT4
I don't know if data partition was EXT4 or F2FS on stock, but probably it has been converted to F2FS by TWRP when I formatted it to unencrypt the phone (after kernel patch applied...).
My questions are:
1) is this your situation?
2) Is it safe on stock kernel/ROM to convert to F2FS the cache partition too?
3) In case what is the safest mode to do it without data losses?
@erfanoabdi?
enetec said:
Hi, after have done all the procedures for unencrypt phone and root, I've found to be in this situation:
- data partition: F2FS
- cache partition: EXT4
I don't know if data partition was EXT4 or F2FS on stock, but probably it has been converted to F2FS by TWRP when I formatted it to unencrypt the phone (after kernel patch applied...).
My questions are:
1) is this your situation?
2) Is it safe on stock kernel/ROM to convert to F2FS the cache partition too?
3) In case what is the safest mode to do it without data losses?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi again
Actually disabling force encryption won't change file systems
Disabling Force encryption is changing "forceencrypt" to "encryptable" in qcom.fstab file at boot partition
So Motorola Official devices have same file system as you said you have in your phone:
- data partition: F2FS
- cache partition: EXT4
And about wiping data partition after disabling,
We have to wipe it because this partition is encrypted by default and we just changed "forceencrypt" to "encryptable" so if we want to read and write access on TWRP or ... For root, Xposed and any related zip flashing we have to wipe data to make it unencrypted to do all of them
Why you want to change Cache partition file system ??
If you change it Cache partition won't detect any more, don't play with file system this may brick your device
All (already) clear what I've removed...
erfanoabdi said:
So Motorola Official devices have same file system as you said you have in your phone:
- data partition: F2FS
- cache partition: EXT4
...
Why you want to change Cache partition file system ??
If you change it Cache partition won't detect any more, don't play with file system this may brick your device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because F2FS is reported to be faster. Are you sure that a ROM capable of using it on /data can't use it on /cache?
enetec said:
All (already) clear what I've removed...
Because F2FS is reported to be faster. Are you sure that a ROM capable of using it on /data can't use it on /cache?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh ok it's faster but not too much
If you want to use it on Cache partition
I think you have to compile and build new rom
Or maybe with editing qcom.fstab it's gonna be alright
I've never did it before sorry I don't know very much
erfanoabdi said:
Oh ok it's faster but not too much
If you want to use it on Cache partition
I think you have to compile and build new rom
Or maybe with editing qcom.fstab it's gonna be alright
I've never did it before sorry I don't know very much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Than anyway! :fingers-crossed:

How to secure wipe /data and /data/media

So the last ROM I had on my Moto G5S plus required me to disable dm-verity and force-encryption. Now I want to sell the phone and would like to secure erase all data on it.
But I do not know how partitioning on Android works. Right now I am on Stock ROM which has encryption enabled. If I fill up the entire storage with junk data, will it overwrite every bit of the internal storage?

Delete android recovery system and use the space otherwise?

Hello,
Would it theoretically possible to delete the recovery system of android and use the space for example for data?
I mean, if you have SPflashtool, you would not need the android recovery, becuase you can flash the phone over pc,
if something is broken on the firmware, so why not deleting it, and use the space the recovery takes normally for other purposes?
Is the recovery system only needed for recovery, or has it other functions too (Booting the normal system for example)?
@Rufus0700
Partitions aren't resizeable on Andoid A-only devices, hence by deleting the mentioned /recovery partition one doesn't gain storage space that can get added/merged to another partition, for example /data partition.
jwoegerbauer said:
@Rufus0700
Partitions aren't resizeable on Andoid A-only devices, hence by deleting the mentioned /recovery partition one doesn't gain storage space that can get added/merged to another partition, for example /data partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But I think it would be possible to edit the partition table BEFORE flashing the ROM on the phone?

Question Is it possible to change the file system to ext4 with MIUI 12.5.5?

Hey,
basically the title. I have rooted my Redmi Note 10 as i am doing some analysis using autopsy. Surprisingly, i was unable to analyse the userdata partition as autopsy does not support f2fs. I was not expecting a f2fs data partition as the system partition is also formatted as ext4. Without switching to a custom ROM, is it possible to force MIUI 12.5.5 to use ext4 by re-formatting and re-flashing the device?
in my humble opinion you shouldn't mess with partitions
Well, that does not solve my problem^^ I tried to change the partition using TWRP. However, whenever i flash the MIUI ROM, the process formats the userdata partition back to f2fs. Even TWRP will reformat the userdata partition to f2fs when i format the data. Where is defined to which format TWRP formats the partitions? Has anyone an idea on how to solve this issue?

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