[Q] Is there a reason I wouldn't want to disable encryption? - Nexus 6 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So from what I've seen disabling the encryption speeds up the N6. Is it anything I would see in day to day usage or just something I can measure with system speed tests?
Is there any reason I would NOT want to disable it? I'm just a normally daily user who plays on Facebook, reads forums and texts.
Also do I have to wipe the phone again to turn the encryption off? Thanks!

kdoggy said:
So from what I've seen disabling the encryption speeds up the N6. Is it anything I would see in day to day usage or just something I can measure with system speed tests?
Is there any reason I would NOT want to disable it? I'm just a normally daily user who plays on Facebook, reads forums and texts.
Also do I have to wipe the phone again to turn the encryption off? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
again. this "speed" that you are talking about, is not your actual phone itself. your reading and writing to your storage is slowed down a little, your actual phone is just as fast being encrypted as not being encrypted. it just how fast it reads and writes to your storage, thats all.

simms22 said:
again. this "speed" that you are talking about, is not your actual phone itself. your reading and writing to your storage is slowed down a little, your actual phone is just as fast being encrypted as not being encrypted. it just how fast it reads and writes to your storage, thats all.
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Click to collapse
Yes I got that part and that is why I'm asking. I guess I should have said will it make things like playing games quicker due to loading speeds? Like standard SATA Vs. SSD etc on a computer.

I decrypted mine and it does save big files faster such as when I do a backup. It really depends on what you want out of your phone. I disabled mine because it kept causing TWRP to have issues when rebooting.

Related

Does Jellybean encryption slow down your device?

I should have done a bit more research before encrypting my phone + 16GB SDCard!
There has been many complaints on the web about their devices showing noticeable slow down after they've encrypted their device. On top of this, some paid apps stopped working. Even more, some phones needed 3+ days to encrypt!
The phone has been running the encryption set up for over 4 hours now. And I'm feeling real uneasy about this...
Has anyone noticed any sluggishness after encryption? Also, how long did it take you to encrypt your phone?
quicksilver1024 said:
I should have done a bit more research before encrypting my phone + 16GB SDCard!
There has been many complaints on the web about their devices showing noticeable slow down after they've encrypted their device. On top of this, some paid apps stopped working. Even more, some phones needed 3+ days to encrypt!
The phone has been running the encryption set up for over 4 hours now. And I'm feeling real uneasy about this...
Has anyone noticed any sluggishness after encryption? Also, how long did it take you to encrypt your phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So have you encrypted your phone? What are your thoughts and results? I'm very interested

5.0 encryption seems to affect I/O speed...

You can see it here, the difference is huge:
https://plus.google.com/+JeremyCamp1337/posts/iDyPjEuEf51
The question is, will it be possible to turn it off or anything? (I doubt F2FS will help a lot with that.)
only the nexus 6/9 that ship with lollipop have it turned on by default and can't be disabled. the older nexuses have encryption off by default, you have to go into settings and enable it to turn it on. after i got the lollipop ota on my nexus 10, the encryption was disabled. I gave encryption a try just to see how it performed. what it does is reboot after you turn it on and runs an encryption program. took about 15 minutes or so with a 32gb drive. then it reboots back into android. performance was noticeably slower. only way to reset back to no encryption is to factory reset the device.
reas0n said:
You can see it here, the difference is huge:
https://plus.google.com/+JeremyCamp1337/posts/iDyPjEuEf51
The question is, will it be possible to turn it off or anything? (I doubt F2FS will help a lot with that.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We don't need to turn it off. It's already off by default on the N5.
Sure it affects speed.. but I ran a 2012 N7 encrypted for ages (and that's already got speed problems) and it wasn't as bad as that benchmark implies... Few % difference, not so noticable. Is it actually testing real metrics like app startup speed or some kind of artificial read pattern?
DirkGently said:
We don't need to turn it off. It's already off by default on the N5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uff, it's good. I thought it gets enabled by itself without information...
Yes as mentioned, it will affect speed. When you enter the encryption password at boot, it doesn't decrypt all the files (that would take literally hours), It just allows you access to the files in their encrypted state. This means the files are decrypted "on the fly", or as you use them / move them / open them.
Encryption always has and always will have an overhead
Hm, I've got it enabled, feels good so far.
at leats its not forced on n5 no wonder why arstechnica have a sluggy and slow performance on n6 android L con n6 seems to be LAG and not lollipop hopefully google fix it by not forcing encryption or improving the algorithm
rootSU said:
Encryption always has and always will have an overhead
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. I don't know why this surprised anyone.
"Oh? Performing a mathematical operation against every bit of data before it is read or written affects performance? Really?!"
I'm just glad Lollipop didn't force it on with the N5.
Where exactly can you turn encryption on or off after installation of Android L? I can't seem to find it in settings...
U Can only turn it on, if u want to switch it off, a userdata wipe is the only way.
Cinner said:
Where exactly can you turn encryption on or off after installation of Android L? I can't seem to find it in settings...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
under settings go to security, then to encrypt phone. The only way to turn it off is to do a factory reset
rootSU said:
Encryption always has and always will have an overhead
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used to have full disk encryption on my OS HDD, and I am running it on my OS SSD. Performance impact was noticeable in the former case and not so much on the latter. But for N5, it made me wanted to smash the phone with a sledge hammer. Slowdown was just so painful for my setup/apps/personal use. My guess is that N5's CPU has no hardware support for encryption, and while a 300 MHz (maybe???) overhead for an Intel Core i7 is nothing, it's a huge chunk for current phones' CPU.
In short, as it currently is, I am happily running full disk encryption on all of my devices except the Kindle and N5.
There's nothing new under the sun...
BTW bbedward has modified boot.img to disable the forced encryption on N6: http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/development/disable-forced-encryption-gain-root-t2946715

Decrypting 5.1.1

Okay, so I'm new to the N6 but not XDA and device tweaking. I've been doing a lot of reading on the argument of performance increase on 5.1.1 unencrypted vs encrypted. Being as I have my device all set up as I like it I'd like some input from people experienced with the N6 on whether I would see a decent enough improvement to warrant unencrypting my device. Also, if the general census is pro unencrypting, is there a way to do a nandroid and then restore it after unencrypting so all I have to do is move my media folder files from my pc back to my device. Thanks in advance to anyone that helps me out with this query.
Neph
The slight benefit you probably wouldn't even notice is not worth the time and effort.
Nephilim said:
Okay, so I'm new to the N6 but not XDA and device tweaking. I've been doing a lot of reading on the argument of performance increase on 5.1.1 unencrypted vs encrypted. Being as I have my device all set up as I like it I'd like some input from people experienced with the N6 on whether I would see a decent enough improvement to warrant unencrypting my device. Also, if the general census is pro unencrypting, is there a way to do a nandroid and then restore it after unencrypting so all I have to do is move my media folder files from my pc back to my device. Thanks in advance to anyone that helps me out with this query.
Neph
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In order to decrypt, you must flash a kernel that doesn't force encrypt. Then you have to format data, resulting in a complete wipe of all data. The main, noticeable difference, is in download speed of large files. Otherwise, you won't see a difference. FWIW, I'm encrypted since launch.
Evolution_Tech said:
In order to decrypt, you must flash a kernel that doesn't force encrypt. Then you have to format data, resulting in a complete wipe of all data. The main, noticeable difference, is in download speed of large files. Otherwise, you won't see a difference. FWIW, I'm encrypted since launch.
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Click to collapse
Yea, I read up on the process, mainly I'm just looking for opinions on differences in performance. If I can get good enough results just tweaking my kernel like I have been then I don't really want to waste the little time I have outside of work having to wipe and setup my device all over again. On a side note, this thing hasn't had a bit of lag for me and has great battery with my current kernel settings using benzocore kernel.
Thanks for your input.
If it ain't broke don't fix it. I agree with the statement that you only really see it on large data transfers. And then it isn't that big a deal.
i havent decrypted. sure, read/write is a bit faster when decrypted. but i dont own a computer, and am not transferring much, ever. anyways, when it comes to performance, decryption has nothing to do with anything. my n6 is encrypted, and its one of the fastest n6 out there
Thanks guys, I assumed there wasn't much of a boost but I wanted to get some feedback from the forum. So far I've had nothing lag this thing, games, 4k video playback, excessive multitasking, nothing, not so much as a hiccup. I'm loving my N6.

Slow Nexus 6 after some time, is encryption the problem?

Hey guys,
My phone is running terribly slow lately, but I mean it seems like it is starting to crawl. My nexus 5 was very speedy, then when I got the nexus ^ I noticed that is was slower than the nexus 5 accessing menus and opening applications which I believe was due to encryption. I disabled encryption on my Nexus 6 and used for a while but then you lose over the air updates, so it turn a pain to update the phone afterwards. I ended up getting back to encrypted Android, got the marshmallow update, the phone since then start to get slower and slower, now sometime when you want to create a new note on evernote, the keyboard take ages to show.
Camera app it the worst, crashing constantly, barely usable to say the least . When it doesn;t crash it struggles like hell, freezes and then makes the phone unresponsive for a while.
Is this all due to encryption?
The whole reason I like nexus devices is to have vanilla android, no bull**** that makes the phone slow like on my previous samsung phones (note 1 and 2).
What are my options here? I'm thinking about a factory reset, but then again the pain of setting up all accounts, setting up apps, etc... I'm quite disappointed with the N6 at the moment, and would not even think about the N6P, anotehr device fully encrypted that is not that much different in the end considering I also paid full retail price on the N6 when it was released in the UK.
What do you guys think I could do?
Cheers!
Mephisto_POA said:
Hey guys,
My phone is running terribly slow lately, but I mean it seems like it is starting to crawl. My nexus 5 was very speedy, then when I got the nexus ^ I noticed that is was slower than the nexus 5 accessing menus and opening applications which I believe was due to encryption. I disabled encryption on my Nexus 6 and used for a while but then you lose over the air updates, so it turn a pain to update the phone afterwards. I ended up getting back to encrypted Android, got the marshmallow update, the phone since then start to get slower and slower, now sometime when you want to create a new note on evernote, the keyboard take ages to show.
Camera app it the worst, crashing constantly, barely usable to say the least . When it doesn;t crash it struggles like hell, freezes and then makes the phone unresponsive for a while.
Is this all due to encryption?
The whole reason I like nexus devices is to have vanilla android, no bull**** that makes the phone slow like on my previous samsung phones (note 1 and 2).
What are my options here? I'm thinking about a factory reset, but then again the pain of setting up all accounts, setting up apps, etc... I'm quite disappointed with the N6 at the moment, and would not even think about the N6P, anotehr device fully encrypted that is not that much different in the end considering I also paid full retail price on the N6 when it was released in the UK.
What do you guys think I could do?
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no. its either due to your nexus 6 having issues hardware-wise or due to a terrible set up. my n6 is still encrypted and is probably the fastest n6 out there. yes, you can try a factory reset. that might be of help to your device. and a factory reset isnt a pain. when i factory reset, i log in and google restores all my settings, my wallpaper, and my apps. no hastle at all.
simms22 said:
no. its either due to your nexus 6 having issues hardware-wise or due to a terrible set up. my n6 is still encrypted and is probably the fastest n6 out there. yes, you can try a factory reset. that might be of help to your device. and a factory reset isnt a pain. when i factory reset, i log in and google restores all my settings, my wallpaper, and my apps. no hastle at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I'm going to do that. The pain is 3rd party apps login info and accounts for example.
Mephisto_POA said:
Ok, I'm going to do that. The pain is 3rd party apps login info and accounts for example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ahh, lol. thats not a real pain to me, so i have to log in to that app one time..
It's definitely not due to encryption. I ran unencrypted for a while, then accidentally encrypted after flashing a new stock ROM (duh...) and stuck with it for a while, then went back to unencrypted, then after my wife had her unencrypted phone stolen with all her stuff unprotected I decided that encryption is probably a safer more secure option, so I deliberately pressed the "Encrypt" button again.
I therefore have a pretty clear experience of the N6 in both states. There is no difference. Benchmarks may pick up milliseconds here and there, and say that unencrypted is 10% faster than encrypted, but in normal usage...? No difference at all, battery or performance.
I'm not trying to necro-post this, but I still have, and painfully had, the same issue with the Camera nowadays.
It was heavy and painful duiring my two weeks leave in July: I can't take photos, and when I took some of them in HDR+, while it was processing them, the phone was hanging, camera app crashing, phone unresponsive, photos lost due to camera app crashing or android crash and reboot, and when it wasn't Android, the phone was stuck and unresponsive and I just had to force shut it down.
Now, I hope these things will go away with Nougat, but the fear is still there and I always thought it was because of the Encryption.
Curious if anyone has figured this out yet. I have tried stock 6 and 7, Cyanogenmod 13 and 14 and turned encryption on and off. The phone always works well after a restart but starts lagging after a few weeks. Up and down scrolling, camera, app opening and closing etc. Restarting the phone seems to fix it for a few hours but it always comes back.
This is supposed to be a top of the line device. The hardware spec is still relevant today, why does it run like a dog after a while? I was thinking memory leak but there always seems to be enough left.

[Q] About the encryption, performance and future updates.

Hi All,
Finally got my hands on a new nexus 6 for a bargain price. I've been reading and searching alot in this subforum in order to answer alot of questions i had.
My 6 is upgraded to last ota available with the last security patches, but the phone is encrypted.
Now the question is, is either me that is over-sensible to slowdowns and juddering due to encryption, or the people doens't really notice it that much? It bugs me out.
Granted my 6 is not rooted and unfortunately due to the need of having a working phone in an hour i didn't even explored the possibility of disabling force encrypt, but afaik this would lead me to:
- Do a full wipe to keep encryption off and thus loose all my stuff
- Reinstall everything from scratch
Is that right?
Also if i got right, doing so leads to:
- Impossibility to install OTAS because doing so will re-encrypt my phone and i will need to start from scratch again
- Impossibility to upgrade to Nougat when released, granted it will be encrypted from the start
Is that right?
Also if those saying that encryption performance is almost the same of having none, why i'm having such lags, juddering, pauses between apps, low battery performance and excessive warm when used for long?
Is my phone faulty/my android version or that is what happens when you run an encrypted phone with alot of apps (more than 50 due to work)?
Thanks for those who will take a minute to answer my questions.
Have a good day y'all.
https://www.androidpit.com/how-to-disable-encryption-on-the-nexus-6
NLBeev said:
https://www.androidpit.com/how-to-disable-encryption-on-the-nexus-6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, actually i have all the stuff to disable the encryption. My point in question is, restoring a backup made in TWRP makes it encrypted again?
Because i want to avoid to reinstall everything, set my apps back from zero and so on.
Also that doesn't quite answer to the question about security patches and OTA's. Do the phone reencrypts itselfs and gets wiped if i force install an OTA or security patch?
Each time i need to do the whole process from scratch?
To change kernel, system and data partitions you need root access. When rooted OTA update will fail.
That's why many N6 users have a custom rom and Twrp-recovery installed.
To avoid hassle and reinstall data and apps.
I am using this rom: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=59561445/
The dev updates the rom mostly before the official OTA .
About encryption: in daily use not noticeable.
Only backup is faster; twice.
Battery. The amoled display is consuming a lot of battery power. To avoid this I am using apps withdark themes and a black background.
So no Gmail but Aquamail.
NLBeev said:
To change kernel, system and data partitions you need root access. When rooted OTA update will fail.
That's why many N6 users have a custom rom and Twrp-recovery installed.
To avoid hassle and reinstall data and apps.
I am using this rom: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=59561445/
The dev updates the rom mostly before the official OTA .
About encryption: in daily use not noticeable.
Only backup is faster; twice.
Battery. The amoled display is consuming a lot of battery power. To avoid this I am using apps withdark themes and a black background.
So no Gmail but Aquamail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your insight. So i'm better off to a custom rom, updated with encryption off and call it a day?
I don't want to stick to CM or other roms, i would like to stick to official-based ones, to keep the sake of google pureness.
Thanks again.
In a short time the new version Android Nougat will be available for the N6.
I think it's useful to wait. Don't make changes before you updated to Nougat.
NLBeev said:
In a short time the new version Android Nougat will be available for the N6.
I think it's useful to wait. Don't make changes before you updated to Nougat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah thats my point, the problem is that i can't bear anymore the sluggish performance and the lag, sometimes it slows down to crawl, and based on some benches i did its because the disk access is so high that even alot of cpu power is used. The phone becomes hot when managing 6 mailboxes, 4 social profiles and pages and tons of other activites.
It destroys my battery life and also the performance takes a huge hit.
I guess ill be patient and wait for Nougat to come in a form of custom rom.
Decrypt will not give you a noticeable Bett. performance.
Try the app Advanced Task Manager. To kill background activities.
NLBeev said:
Decrypt will not give you a noticeable Bett. performance.
Try the app Advanced Task Manager. To kill background activities.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well then definitely something is wrong with my phone. It really (sometimes) slows down to something unbearable. I think i'll wait, if things gets complicated, i will do a wipe.
I never experienced such low performance not even on dual core phones. I had to reboot at least once yesterday to get things decent enough.
KingpinZero said:
I never experienced such low performance not even on dual core phones. I had to reboot at least once yesterday to get things decent enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When a reboot solves the performance issue than try the app Quit Reboot (PhongIT). It has several options for rebooting. .
Another performance issue can be caused by the Google Play Services (searches continuously for updates), or apps working in background. Check the battery use in Settings - Apps - <app name>.
Disable the Google Plays Services temporarely to see possible differences.
When the battery is becoming warm/hot. Could be a bad radio connection. Switch to 2G.
Switch off wifi and bluetooth when you don't need it.
Delete apps you hardly use or disable them in Settings.
NLBeev said:
When a reboot solves the performance issue than try the app Quit Reboot (PhongIT). It has several options for rebooting. .
Another performance issue can be caused by the Google Play Services (searches continuously for updates), or apps working in background. Check the battery use in Settings - Apps - <app name>.
Disable the Google Plays Services temporarely to see possible differences.
When the battery is becoming warm/hot. Could be a bad radio connection. Switch to 2G.
Switch off wifi and bluetooth when you don't need it.
Delete apps you hardly use or disable them in Settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you, will take care of the things listed.
there are so many great custom roms to try, some cm based, some not, and most if not ALL of them do not have any of the issues you are complaining about.
its a Nexus; root it, and start trying the dozens of custom roms out there..
dont bother decrypting; its a hassle with zero real world benefiits, aside from back up speed, which is meaningless imo
and, all the custom roms pretty much update constantly, so rarely are you more than a few days/week behind any google updates when you use a good rom; the dev's make sure they update/add any real improvements/features really fast.

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