SD Card encryption on build 15007

[slyronit]

Well, the latest build seems to support SD card encryption, which I have obviously enabled. Looking at the text, however, it looks like it is tied to the mobile device, will not work with Windows on PC or other phones (Like bitlocker).

I am travelling and don't have an SD card reader, can anyone confirm if

1. An encrypted SD card can be read on a Windows PC using a card reader?
2. The SD card remains readable after you factory reset your phone and sign in with the same credentials later?

Either ways, I will test this when I am back home in a few days.

 

[wgrs]

1. no
2. no

Useless and not recommended in my view.

 

[slyronit]

1. no
2. no

Useless and not recommended in my view.

Thanks for replying.

In my view, not completely useless. If you lose your phone, people cannot get your documents/photos anymore, which is a huge plus in my book.

On the other hand, I am always doing factory resets etc and this will now necessitate copying 20-30 Gbs of music/photos every time I restore or reset.

They should enabled proper Bitlocker encryption with a password, so that the card is readable on all Windows devices like usual, or tie the bitlocker encryption to your MS account.

A step in the right direction, I believe.

 

[slyronit]

Lol, completely forgot that my SP3 has a microSD card reader.

Turns out, it is actually bitlocker, but unlockable only using a key saved on a USB drive. I guess in the phone, the key is saved in internal memory and lost on factory resetting the phone.

The next step would be adding support for bitlocker password protected cards on the phone.

Can anyone on this pop their Bitlocker password protected microSD card in the phone and see if the phone is able to unlock the drive?

 

[920Walker]

Instead of copying GB of files before doing a hard reset, wouldn't just toggling SD card encryption off beforehand alleviate the dilemma?

 

[VetDuarte]

Instead of copying GB of files before doing a hard reset, wouldn't just toggling SD card encryption off beforehand alleviate the dilemma?

THIS!
At least, that's how it works with Samsung's card encryption.
That's a HUGE plus for the platform.
I was robbed a couple of months ago (another S7, which I haven't took the time to cryptograph the card), and since then using a phone which just COULDN'T protect the card's files was such a turn down.
I'll update my 640XL as soon as I get home and, maybe, take it for a spin.

 

[wgrs]

Let me clarify: if being robbed is your worry, SD card encryption is a solution of course.

But for many this is their prime camera, and unless you do permanent cloud backups, you will lose all your photos if there is some accident with your phone. And a (forced) hard reset is one of those accidents.

So this is not a good solution. Better would be a password encrypted SD card which you can read at your PC.

 

[Joe920]

BitLocker has an option to save the key to OneDrive. This is obviously not as safe, but would be acceptable for me. It's unlikely that a thief will also have access to your MS account, assuming your phone is password protected. Does it maybe already offer saving the key to OneDrive?

 

[mtf1380]

tap in

 

[kinaton]

Once encrypted,*don't restart your phone as it won't see the card upon start up.

No way to recover from this catastrophic bug.

View attachment 133262
Lol, completely forgot that my SP3 has a microSD card reader.

Turns out, it is actually bitlocker, but unlockable only using a key saved on a USB drive. I guess in the phone, the key is saved in internal memory and lost on factory resetting the phone.

The next step would be adding support for bitlocker password protected cards on the phone.

Can anyone on this pop their Bitlocker password protected microSD card in the phone and see if the phone is able to unlock the drive?

 

[wgrs]

Just don't store your private séx movies on SD card. :excited:

Other documents keep inside the phone or better on OneDrive. Your selfies "mom and me" aren't that interesting for a potential thief.

 

[slyronit]

BitLocker has an option to save the key to OneDrive. This is obviously not as safe, but would be acceptable for me. It's unlikely that a thief will also have access to your MS account, assuming your phone is password protected. Does it maybe already offer saving the key to OneDrive?

No the phone doesn't. There's only an "On-Off" toggle switch, even the name "Bitlocker" doesn't appear anywhere.

 

[slyronit]

Once encrypted,*don't restart your phone as it won't see the card upon start up.

No way to recover from this catastrophic bug.

I don't have this problem. Have restarted my phone numerous times since then, everything is working fine.

 

[slyronit]

Just don't store your private séx movies on SD card. :excited:

Other documents keep inside the phone or better on OneDrive. Your selfies "mom and me" aren't that interesting for a potential thief.

Most of my confidential documents are on OneDrive. That being said, my personal Photos/videos (not sex) are still personal. Even though no one would want to see them, I would still not like them to be in a position that people can, if they wanted to.