The most annoying part to me is that it doesn’t finish booting until I unlock it with my PIN. You restart it, leave it on a table, and several minutes later, you want to use it, but not only is your fingerprint rejected and you need to use your PIN, but once you do it there’s still a loading step. Extra insulting.
The pin part is for security, your device is encrypted on first boot until you put in your pin. If someone attempts to get in your phone even via connecting your phone to a PC they can’t because your phone is encrypted.
Just going to preface this by saying I’m not a security expert.
Phones have 2 encryptions states BFU (Before First Unlock) and AFU (After First Unlock). Self-explantory I think; when you login to your phone after putting in your password the first time, your phone will go into AFU state.
In BFU, almost everything is encrypted. In AFU if you dump the same data you will basically get a lot more information because some of the data is now decrypted. That’s basically why you can access notifications, change settings around from your lock screen when your phone has been unlocked once but not the first time after reboot.
As for why PIN – I’m not American but apparently in US you can be compelled by law to unlock your phone via fingerprint but law enforcement cannot force you to enter a PIN. More contributing factors: theoretically you can spoof biometrics more easily (I mean, people leave fingerprints everywhere), and one last thing is as a convenience factor it will help you to not forget your PIN (also why your phone will ask to re-enter your PIN every now and then)
I’ve got a Pixel 8a with Graphene. After the unskippable warning that the device is running a different OS, the actual boot-up is pretty quick.
The compiling of apps after big updates can take a while, but that happens in the background in userspace, after which you’re prompted to restart all affected apps.
I upgraded my six year old iPhone to the newest one, and I don’t download very many apps… 10 seconds is the max it takes to restart! It’s insane. It used to take about a minute.
I was wrong! I just timed it and it was 17 seconds from pressing the button and being able to use my phone. I feel like that’s still very fast, though!
Ten seconds? Holy crap that’s fast. Mine takes minutes.
Cryptography and on-device app recompilation are the culprits here.
Takes time to decrypt the boot sequence code and data.
Android? How many apps do you have installed?
Androids compilation thing on startup is annoying as hell on low end phones. On high end phones it’s much less of a problem.
Bit less than a hundred. I have a Samsung S22+.
The most annoying part to me is that it doesn’t finish booting until I unlock it with my PIN. You restart it, leave it on a table, and several minutes later, you want to use it, but not only is your fingerprint rejected and you need to use your PIN, but once you do it there’s still a loading step. Extra insulting.
The pin part is for security, your device is encrypted on first boot until you put in your pin. If someone attempts to get in your phone even via connecting your phone to a PC they can’t because your phone is encrypted.
Shouldn’t it be encrypted anytime it’s locked? Also, why the PIN and not my finger?
Just going to preface this by saying I’m not a security expert.
Phones have 2 encryptions states BFU (Before First Unlock) and AFU (After First Unlock). Self-explantory I think; when you login to your phone after putting in your password the first time, your phone will go into AFU state.
In BFU, almost everything is encrypted. In AFU if you dump the same data you will basically get a lot more information because some of the data is now decrypted. That’s basically why you can access notifications, change settings around from your lock screen when your phone has been unlocked once but not the first time after reboot.
As for why PIN – I’m not American but apparently in US you can be compelled by law to unlock your phone via fingerprint but law enforcement cannot force you to enter a PIN. More contributing factors: theoretically you can spoof biometrics more easily (I mean, people leave fingerprints everywhere), and one last thing is as a convenience factor it will help you to not forget your PIN (also why your phone will ask to re-enter your PIN every now and then)
Thanks. That’s very informative. All stuff I’d never thought about.
I have mine restart overnight, the alarm still works luckily
Unhinged behavior
We have an S22+ and I’m sure it restarts in around 30 seconds
I’ve got a Pixel 8a with Graphene. After the unskippable warning that the device is running a different OS, the actual boot-up is pretty quick.
The compiling of apps after big updates can take a while, but that happens in the background in userspace, after which you’re prompted to restart all affected apps.
Click the power button twice to skip the warning.
I … I did not know that. Thanks.
The compilation step should only be happening on reboot after updates. Of course, that may be the only time you reboot your device.
I used to have an s9 that would take a few minutes to turn on. I was shocked at how slow that was when I upgraded.
I upgraded my six year old iPhone to the newest one, and I don’t download very many apps… 10 seconds is the max it takes to restart! It’s insane. It used to take about a minute.
Edit: I was wrong! 17 seconds.
Dang that’s quick
I was wrong! I just timed it and it was 17 seconds from pressing the button and being able to use my phone. I feel like that’s still very fast, though!
Can’t remember the last time it took my phone more than a minute to start. I would say typical for me is closer to about 20 seconds.
What brand is that?
An iPhone 12, which I think is 5 years old at this point.