Database Develop

[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.

Odd issues...

I purchased a Z4 from someone the other day and when I got it, it took a full charge, and I've been experiencing some things with it.
1. I had it in STAMINA mode, and it was eating battery. I turned off display effects and turned off the STAMINA mode, and it seems to be behaving better now, but it was shutting off at random when the phone got below 66-68% battery.
2. This screen comes up before the Softbank logo. I know why it's nagging about the sim / SD part (no tray inserted), but the external USB? And what's more odd is that I can give it a full charge and I also updated it using the Sony Companion software. I put it on a charger and let it update the apps and whatnot. It completed successfully. So this part is really, really odd .
I know, I know... people here on XDA HATE the Snapdragon 810 . So I'm probably going to get a lot of "810 sucks, return it, it's crap blah blah blah" posts, but I'd like to hear from someone who's a real tinkerer like me on this one. I feel like with some tweaks this phone could be quite nice as a light / moderate use phone, which is what I want to do with it anyway. Overall, there are some things going for it. Good camera, nice build quality...
I don't know - I'm on the fence here. I could easily swap out the battery in this thing (I have dissembled and repaired many iPads, so this thing is a pushover). I'm not abusive in my use of these devices (tossing them around, getting them wet, etc), and this thing doesn't feel fragile at ALL.
Should I press on and try to get this thing humming, or throw in the towel? What's more, if I flashed it with another ROM / OS, would that maybe have an impact?
I would love some input on this. Thank you guys for reading.
UPDATE 1: After turning off STAMINA and disabling the visual effect for the display, it's holding charge at 78% and not doing the rapid discharge thing again. I think that some of these face-saving "optimization" features are more harm than good, as any veteran developer like me can tell you, if you want to save resources, don't make the machine do anything. Seems counterintuitive in a way, but it's true. I've killed batteries on past phones because of "battery manager" apps. They never work as intended in my experience.
I'm pretty stoked right now about it holding steady on the charge. I'm still debating flashing it with Carbon or Lineage (I'm an old school CM fan). Some input / thoughts on ROMs would be nice to have. Thanks!

I am using this Z3+ Phone from 2+ years with Debloated Stock ROM and still enjoying the Camera Quality. My Suggestions are as follows:
These tips only for Stcok / Modded Stock ROM:
1. Try Greenify App from Play Store. If it not works,
2. Take Backup and do a factory reset. DO NOT Restore Titanium Backup, it is better to install apps from Super Backup or Playstore.
3. If you know how to unlock Bootloader, patched kernel flashing and rooting mobile, you can use the following mods from this forum: FSC & LXT Mods.
4. 4G / LTE will discharges battery very fast, GPS can be set to battery saving.
Useful Links:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z4/general/guide-safe-bootloader-unlock-restore-t3386915
https://forum.xda-developers.com/xp...-lxt-xperia-tweaks-legendary-battery-t3676719
https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z4/development/z3-z4-fsc-improve-performance-reduce-t3673753

Nice! Good info to look into. All feedback that is helpful is great. XDA rarely disappoints.

Something seems to detect water in the ports (impedance change, so sensors, etc.)
but if it only happens rarely or not anymore - it must have been a false positive ?

Yeah, not sure zacharias.maladroit... But it doesn't seem to affect charging or USB connection to a PC, because I've updated, then I repaired it, and it went through without issue both times.
My new thing now is getting the Bootloader to go from unlock allowed: No to Unlock allowed: yes.
I've been doing a bunch of reading from other threads, and the My Xperia option isn't available on this phone. The phone is from Softbank. So there must be some other app or something that has locked it. You know what I'm going to ask next - and hopefully there's some way to figure out how to get this thing to allow unlock. Then, logjam busted, and I can go full-bore getting into putting a ROM on this thing.
So far, I've gotten the battery to stay rock solid. It's been at 79% for a few hours if sitting there. The discharge rate is still a tad fast, but I can swap out the battery without issue if that gets to be annoying.
Thoughts? Again, thanks guys for the info given.

All Custom ROMs having average Camera. So, Z3+ Camera Lovers will stay on Stock to get most from the Camera. If your phone is not bundled with any Carrier, then you can reflash stock using Flashtool even it is still bootloader locked. If you are flashing Stock ROM it is always better to do it with Full Wipe.

Wait...
[email protected] said:
All Custom ROMs having average Camera. So, Z3+ Camera Lovers will stay on Stock to get most from the Camera. If your phone is not bundled with any Carrier, then you can reflash stock using Flashtool even it is still bootloader locked. If you are flashing Stock ROM it is always better to do it with Full Wipe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait... so I can use a stock ROM on this thing instead of the Softbank ROM? What ROMs do I have to choose from? Does anyone have places they can point me to to read more? That would be great...
I see this one...
https://tinyurl.com/yawamgqf
Anybody have any suggestions on one to flash?

Xperia Blog Link for downloading FTF Files directly. You can download any Region Specific, after flashing, it will automatically changes to your country (with SIM inserted only). The difference is only bloatware and regional settings like language and time.
http://www.xperiablog.net/category/xperia-z4/
You can try Xperia Firmware App to download latest, region wise Stock ROM, but you need to decrypt it using flashtool (just few clicks only), Flashtool creates FTF file to flash. Link for downloading Xperia Firmware:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/cr...perifirm-xperia-firmware-downloader-t2834142/
Link for Downloading Flashtool:
http://www.flashtool.net/downloads.php
Check youtube videos to learn how to use those tools

Question: Lightweight OS to bring my device back to life?

My device is laggy as hell and unusable. the battery dies fast and is overall just a terrible experience. I have been using an iphone 6s but I miss the big screen of the Nexus. I need an OS that is lightweight and fast that I can install. suggestions?

1) Get a new battery installed. They're not expensive and you can do it yourself (I didn't, I paid a company to do it. the $40 charge was worth it to make sure it was done right.)
2) Make sure TWRP recovery is up to date. 3.3.0.0. https://dl.twrp.me/shamu/
3) Wipe the phone entirely. Start from a fresh slate.
4) Install Nitrogen Oreo. I think Oreo is better baked than Pie for Shamu. Plus Oreo doesn't require decryption. And Oreo's WiFi calling and VoLTE calling works. You can find the last Oreo Nitrogen ROM here: https://androidfilehost.com/?w=files&flid=121669
Nitrogen-OS-O-shamu-20180807.zip
5) Install Popcorn Kernel. I prefer the Popcorn Kernel because it seems that this Kernel offers more customization options than the stock Nitrogen kernel. See this post: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=79370867&postcount=11248
Enjoy.
[NG]Owner

Like @NGOwner says, most Nexus 6s need a new battery. It can be difficult to find a good new one, because the original battery hasn't been produced for some years. But it is reasonably easy to replace - if you are moderately dexterous and watch a how-to video, you should succeed.
And wipe the phone - or better still, format data.
I don't think that the N6 roms differ much in speed. Choose the one that has the features you like. Maybe the only Oreo-rom still updated is LineageOS, but there are some good, updated Pie-roms as long as you don't need WiFi calling or VoLTE, e.g. LineageOS and Nitrogen.
Finally, look at the apps you install - heavy apps, or just too many apps can really slow the phone down.

How likely is it that we will see TWRP and/or LineageOS soon?

I have to ask this. I needed a new phone a month ago, and I chose to wait for this one instead of getting a Note 9, and now I still don't have a usable phone and have less than 20 days to return this one. When I did my research about my next phone I was told that Sony phones are developer-friendly and tend to have a clean Android experience, on top of that, this phone has a 3.5mm jack with a great DAC. Now I come to find out that not only does this phone come with bloatware/spyware, even though you can root it, in Android 10, OEMs have the system locked down as read-only, and while Magik can gimmick /system to remove apps, there is no way to delete apps installed in /oem.
Placing apps in a directory that is impossible to change is inexcusable, especially when they are:
1) A game no one wanted which will be irrelevant in 6 months
2) A FREE TRIAL APP
3) A social media application not everyone uses
It isn't by mistake that Sony did this, and it tells me that the pittance they get from Activision, Jay Z, and Microsoft matters more to them than I do as a customer. Some will say that it is possible to simply de-activate the apps, at least unlike Facebook, there are no background services still running and collecting your data, but I say that is irrelevant. I own my phone; I should be able to control what's on it.
I was still running Android 8 on my One Plus 3T that recently died, so I'm not familiar with how Android works today. We went from simple to hard, to harder. There is A/B, no more stock recovery, and apparently fastboot is dead and is replaced by a blank bootloader flash mode that only lets you know you are in it with a tiny blue LED? I don't know how viable TRWP and Linage are on a phone like this, which is why I am asking. There is only one thing I know for sure right now: I don't have much time to wait for custom ROMs built from the ground up to develop and mature.

You can disable verity and delete them. However, even if you could remove them, they'll just keep coming back with updates. Just disable them and move on with life.
LineageOS is pointless because you're going to lose the Sony camera. Why spend $1,200 if you're going to do that? At that point, just get a Pixel 4a for $350.
Some will say that it is possible to simply de-activate the apps, at least unlike Facebook, there are no background services still running and collecting your data, but I say that is irrelevant. I own my phone; I should be able to control what's on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You totally can. Again, this is about dm-verity, which most custom roms disable and spoof to appear enabled. However, if you're gonna do this on the official rom, it'll be your job to pretty much delete every single piece of bloatware every time you update your phone. It's much easier to simply disable the packages because the disable setting is retained through updates.
There is A/B, no more stock recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to pretty much every single device since Pixel 3. This is a Google thing, and has nothing to do with Sony.
apparently fastboot is dead and is replaced by a blank bootloader flash mode that only lets you know you are in it with a tiny blue LED?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, I'll give you this one. Sony did a piss-poor job here. It took me several hours to figure out that:
Vol. Up + Insert USB cable = blue led = fast boot, for which you need to manually install the Google fastboot driver.
Vol. Down + Insert USB cable = green led = download mode, for NewFlasher flashing.
The only indicator is the blue/green LED, which indicates the various modes.

For future reference, I flashed the RU region firmware and it only came with 1 bloatware: Yandex. Best thing about it is, you can uninstall Yandex. So basically I have the 1 II without bloatware! (Except Facebook, but I use it anyway)

YandereSan said:
You can disable verify and delete them. However, even if you could remove them, they'll just keep coming back with updates. Just disable them and move on with life.
LineageOS is pointless because you're going to lose the Sony camera. Why spend $1,200 if you're going to do that? At that point, just get a Pixel 4a for $350.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of, thanks for being cool with your response
Second, I bought this phone for a few reasons, and the camera isn't one of them. For any given phone I want:
1) For it to be unlockable so I can install whatever recovery/kernel/OS I want on it. There aren't many phones like that anymore, at least not in the US.
2) Hardware that will last me at least four years.
3) A 3.5mm headphone Jack with a good DAC.
4) A good, large, color-accurate display.
5) Fingerprint reader.
5) Expendable storage (or a LOT of onboard storage and OTG as a compromise).
I have been using the menu button on the left and back button on the right for eight years now, and I can't fix that on this phone
You totally can. Again, this is about dm-verity, which most custom roms disable and spoof to appear enabled. However, if you're gonna do this on the official rom, it'll be your job to pretty much delete every single piece of bloatware every time you update your phone. It's much easier to simply disable the packages because the disable setting is retained through updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, the only updates I care about are security updates. If we get lineage or some other mature ROM that can do most of what I want, I'll ditch stock., I only need stock for now. If I do end up updating stock and getting those apps back, I don't mind spending another 5 minutes removing them after the update. I don't like disabled apps for three reasons:
1) If it doesn't disable background services. If you just disable Facebook, Facebook's other services will still keep tracking you and selling your personal information.
2) They still appear in the app menus and stuff, which I hate. It pisses me off seeing COD and a TRIAL for something I'll never, ever, use.
3) I am 99.9% some vulnerability can't exploit them, but I can be 100% sure if they aren't there.
As for why this is all the way it is, I did learn after the fact that it is mostly Google's BS and not Sony. Still, it sucks. I hope I can maybe flash DM variety and disable it on stock.
If I can disable DM variety I'm keeping the phone. If I can't and it doesn't seem like we'll get TWRP and Lineage then I guess I'm getting an Exynos Note 9. I really don't want to though, but those OEM apps WILL haunt me every time I use my phone, touch my phone, think about my phone, or am otherwise reminded I own this phone. Maybe I'm crazy, but that's irrelevant, because that's how it is.

I tried to flash dm variety and disable verification, etc, and it didn't unlock the system, so until TRWP comes to Android 10, it looks like stock in the US is out.
iArvee said:
For future reference, I flashed the RU region firmware and it only came with 1 bloatware: Yandex. Best thing about it is, you can uninstall Yandex. So basically I have the 1 II without bloatware! (Except Facebook, but I use it anyway)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are a god. I looked at the Russian firmware and it doesn't look like it's been dirtied by crazy Putin. You can systemlessy remove all the apps you don't want. I got Magisk and Xposed working on it. I also have 4G on t-mobile, and it lists 5GNR as an option, which the US version did not. To note, I do not have VoLTE or Wifi Calling (not that I care).
I'm going to try and flash the HK dual sim variant just to see if I can unlock the mythical sex sim slot, and also if also fits the bill. I realized that to test dual sim you need a dual sim tray. There is no way to get the Q51 tray to work for this. It doesn't seem that people are selling replacement parts for this phone yet, so right now I can't buy a Q2 tray to test it. I'll circle back around to this in a few months when it becomes time to flip the phone for a Q2, just to see if maybe I don't have to do that.
Thanks everyone for the replies. We could maybe use this as a general TRWP/LineageOS update thread, though I suspect someone will make a new thread as those pass certain milestones.

Some hand holding with firmware upgrades, running LOS+microg

I have been running LineageOS+MicroG on my last 3 phones but am mostly a novice. LineageOS just packages things well enough that getting it installed is pretty easy. Most recently, I updated to 17.1 on my Payton device, and voila, I've got a problem where the phone reboots after powering on. Happens much faster with the radios on, much slower with safe mode and airplane mode on. So the obvious answer is usually "flash back to stock and try again". Here come my questions... Please keep in mind I also run Linux.
1. When people talk about going back to stock, doesn't this always entail losing your data? How do those of you who use your phone as a daily driver manage this? I've not heard great things about doing TWRP backups, and the amount of configuration I have to do at new-install time is crazy.
2. While running LineageOS or other such custom ROMs... How do you get "hardware updates": upgrades to things like modem/radio firmware that are outside the realm of the OS (if there is such a thing). I've had a few problems (including the current one) that I _suspect_ are related to running old "firmware" as I would normally call it. The solutions that I _think_ I've seen for this look like they are Windows-specific and also require going back to stock or losing your data. It's puzzling to me why updating hardware would require going back to stock, unless you need to let the stock OTA updates install in order to actually GET that firmware.

1) To my knowledge and at least for me, 'we' are using Android 9 firmware with Android 10 OS. I do not expect any further firmware updates.
2) I've been told that LOS is running slower on X4 compared to other ROMs such as Pixel Experience, but I can't speak for either as I use HAVOC. I can't speak for the rebooting issue though, I haven't looked at the X4 LOS thread much.
*3) LOS to my knowledge woln't work with MicroG because it doesn't allow for spoofing. HAVOC does, and personally I was using Android 9 w/ HAVOC and MicroG so I could use the GCam but due to personal reasons I had to install GPlay and so at the same time I also upgraded to Android 10. One point at least in my experience, the phone was getting more and more difficult to use over time but rebooting the phone fixed it completely. I almost never rebooted my phone back on 9 so it caught me off guard personally.
It sounds like you might be trying to go down a more privacy centered phone like I was until recently. Personally, I liked the Android 9 w/ HAVOC and MicroG. I can give you my list of apps I used but you probably know most of them (Simple Mobile Tools, OSMAND, K9, Fennec, NewPipe, VLC ect.) The launcher would get a little buggy (context menus would stop working after a while on app icons) and for some reason the audio would start for a split second, pause, for a sec, then continue. Other than that, it was great. I used that config setup for a year.
On a completely unrelated note, AT&T will most likely not work with the unlocked X4 after a couple of years, doesn't affect me but just a heads up.