Enable advanced passwords and encryption on yourLumia 920.

[jackbrennan]

I took the service down due to an unforeseen problem regarding a hard reset if your forget your password.


As a few of you know The Lumia 920 has inbuilt security features which are not commonly available to the general consumer crowd (Unless something has changed in the last few weeks). These security functions include full device encryption and support for extended and complex lock screen passwords.

Unfortunately to enable the policies that give access to these features the phone has to be connected to a Microsoft Exchange service which has these policies in place.

After quite a bit of research I concluded that an Exchange server was the only way to enable these features on my phone. To that end, I created my own Exchange server to enable these features on my phone.

I have had the chance to test my implementation and I have achieved my goal. Encrypt my Lumia 920 and enable advanced passwords while still retaining the changes after removing the Exchange account from the phone.

Project has been closed.

 

[SwimSwim]

Sounds awesome! As I'm paranoid about such matters, I've been wanting to make a longer phone password with numbers, letters, everything. Sadly, WP8 by default maxes out at 16 characters. This is a great public service you're offering up, I'm interested.

 

[jackbrennan]

Sounds awesome! As I'm paranoid about such matters, I've been wanting to make a longer phone password with numbers, letters, everything. Sadly, WP8 by default maxes out at 16 characters. This is a great public service you're offering up, I'm interested.

Awesome.

I've sent you a PM with instructions. Let me know how you go!

 

[jackbrennan]

I've received two positive replies that confirm that the service is working. I've now opened it up to the public. A link to instructions on how to proceed has been added to the original post. You can also find information on the server status (Online/Offline) there as well.

Thanks.

 

[Sachinmeet]

Hey, thnx worked on my Lumia 820

 

[jackbrennan]

Good to hear!

 

[Azzid]

Worked great, thanks!

 

[polomint]

This has worked perfectly, thank you.

 

[Rob van Uden]

Is it possible to stay with the PIN code instead of the advanced password?

 

[jackbrennan]

Yes it's possible. I'll have to create a new user with a different security profile though. I can do it when I get home from work..

*Mobile post

 

[polomint]

I've just found a problem, not a problem with this but probably summat I've done....

My gf was listening to music this morning, phone locked itself, pressed the unlock button and got this.... Soft/Hard reset will not work. reflash needed I suppose...

Be warned....

 

[amitnahar]

Off Topic - Is it possible by any means to password protect the messages and phone book ?
On Topic - Can any one tell me the benefit of doing this encryption thing ?

 

[polomint]

hmm

 

[polomint]

grrrrr

 

[polomint]

reflash needed me thinks...

 

[rexii23]

I signed up with an O365 account just for this purpose. Costs only AUD7.90/month. Well worth it considering that I get all the benefit of O365 as well

 

[jackbrennan]

I had that happen on my phone once as well, however i put it down to me being to fast during testing and forgetting the password i used. I don't know why it shows all those numbers instead of minutes, but i just put it down to a bad software function or something like that.

I had to do a hard reset to fix it as i got up to a 20 minute wait and couldn't be bothered to try any more.

Anyhow I've only experienced it once, but good to get feedback.

As stated in red at the top of the blog post this is done entirely at your own risk even though i do my best to make sure everything is in order. Its all done in my own spare time so i just offer it as an 'as is' service for the willing.

If more people encounter the same issue ill close it down until i find a solution.

The other option is to just allow device encryption and remove the ability for advanced passwords seeing as that seems to be the culprit.

*Mobile post

 

[jackbrennan]

reflash needed me thinks...

Interesting that you say that. That might be a real problem. I imagine this is normal behavior to stop people from stealing the device.

Im going to take the server down as soon as i get home, because we cant be forcing people to flash their devices if a hard reset via the buttons isn't working.

As far as in concerned that a major problem.

*Mobile post

Edit:
1. I can confirm that a hard reset works through the menu system Settings > About > Reset Phone
2. It doesn't work by using the buttons (Camera + Volume Down + Power).
3. I presume that a remote wipe from your Windows Phone account would work though, so you should be able to do that instead of re flashing your device.

Edit 2: I've taken the service down and I'm just going to use it personally. I appreciate the people who gave it a go and had some faith .

 

[polomint]

I wouldn't worry about it, everyone knows that it's at their own risk,

Gonna hard reset it if possible or re-flash,

 

[jackbrennan]

I wouldn't worry about it, everyone knows that it's at their own risk,

Gonna hard reset it if possible or re-flash,

Try to reset it through your windows account. Let me know if you get everything back to normal again. If you do then I'll consider opening it up again. For now i'll leave it down, but everything is still in place to be activated again. A single click and everything is back up and running.

Shame about your problem .