It's good to have an option like that, even being a default, but there definitively need a switch to disable that if it is your own will.
It's not even necessarily that good enough against cops, because in a lot of shitty countries, even some pretending to be democratics, not disclosing or at least inputting your password might be a crime severely punished.
If I'm not wrong, there was a guy that had to stay years in jail until he would comply with the judge order to unlock his device.
Interestingly, it could also be seen the other way around; it's a potential way for Google to force deployments of system updates (potentially at the request of law enforcement). With an automatic reboot, then the update can automatically be applied without user action.
This makes no sense, Android already will reboot itself after receiving an update and being inactive for a while (generally while charging it will install the update in its secondary partition, do some verification checks and reboot if there is no user interaction).
This sounds vendor-specific and not general for Android. I've never had that happen on any device but Windows and I would be very upset if it did happen.
This is default on iOS and on many Android versions.
It's often configurable, but e.g. carrier policy or local vendors can enforce it.
To have updates automatically install overnight is the maximally desirable scenario - waiting for user approval usually result in open vulnerabilities, and if you interact with a prompt you are by definition using your device and it is therefore a much worse time than while you're asleep.
On Android, my experience has been that new major versions are often unstable / involve some risk of bricking / include feature regressions (dumbing down of multi-task in Android 13 if I remember well). Waiting for a few month before installing a major update, while not optimal for security, is necessary to make sure that the most critical bugs are fixed beforehand.
Regarding applications, today there's so many applications being always updated all the time that there's no way it's good for the flash memory to constantly rewrite it every day. Plus this often leads to random application restarts while they are updated automatically. (and non-OSS applications updates can result in unwanted changes such as more ads, random changes in UI...).
It's still possible to disable automated updates on Android and I am glad that they allow it.
I haven't had that happen on iOS, but I have woken up in the night needing my flashlight just to find my phone applying a lengthy update. I have it set to download automatically and install manually now, I believe.
I haven't had any problems in at least 7+ years, but I work in coffee and I can remember at least two instances where an Apple update made half the staff late by turning off their alarms, myself included.
Long Press power while pressing volume down works on all Android devices I've used to date.
And that's ignoring the fact that disconnecting power, waiting a few days and then reconnecting it will inevitably let you cold boot it, too (which this would be an equivalent to - as far as I understood it)
> in a lot of shitty countries, even some pretending to be democratics, not disclosing or at least inputting your password might be a crime severely punished. If I'm not wrong, there was a guy that had to stay years in jail until he would comply with the judge order to unlock his device.
This sounds a lot like the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 in the United Kingdom, where several people have been prosecuted and imprisoned for failing to provide encryption keys.
Probably a good time as any to replace it with something purpose-built anyway. A Raspberry Pi with a directional microphone and a custom app feeding said microphone data to a service like AudD or ACRCloud could readily do the trick without any of Android's extra baggage - though I do wonder how effective those services would be at detecting songs amid a bunch of background noise like Bop Spotter does via Shazam.
Perhaps, but it's also inexpensive to (properly) use one or more 18650s with a Raspberry Pi if that's what one wants to do.
I think the main advantage to using phones for random stuff is availability: We here on HN probably have a decent selection of old phones to pick from, so it doesn't cost any money at all to give a new purpose to one.
Why so dismissive of how somebody wants to re-use an old phone that you would compare them to the absurd fictitious behavior in that comic? Would you rather they become e-waste? If it fits their needs then it fits their needs regardless of the use-case that was marketed.
It's a Google Play Services update, likely explicitly to be able to push it to all (Google-using) Android phones immediately, without waiting for OS updates. This will not be a "Guess I'll get it in a few years" update.
I generally like XKCD but dislike the message in this comic. If that's that guy's workflow, they don't have to actively support it, but he should be given the option to disable updates so he can continue to use his tools in the way he sees fit.
This is super annoying on newer iOS for device that I use purely for development. Before it was possible just keep iPhone unlocked indefenitely, but now it reboots and boom I have to use TouchID again.
This is again Apple being Apple making things harder without option to disable it even when development mode is on.
Problem is not user activity - it just needs PIN, TouchID or FaceID. Even if you logged to device via iPhone Mirroring it's still gonna reboot, get locked after 72 hours and for me personally it breaks iPhone Mirroring half of the time too.
One physical option to bypass it on iPhone SE is to actually physically activate PIN entry and then use Voice Control command to enter the pin since it works even before first unlock. Though this is basically compromises pin and device encryption. But it's cheap since there are plenty of $2 devices that can simulate touchscreen clicks.
I just want some easier option that works and not require agent 007 setup to just run a buld of my AI-generated crap via Xcode.
Hmm, yeah that seems wrong. I don't get reboots on devices I use frequently; I think it is only supposed to kick in when the device is not in use for a long time (it is meant to stop police who have a locked device they will try to brute force into).
Are you on latest iOS? Are you stilllocking / unlocking the phone once in 3 days at least?
7 days timeout on was introduced in iOS 18, but then decreased to 3 days. I dont use this device physically - it's just a phone that always connected to power and sit on top of mac mini for debugging and running some ios exclusive apps.
And I honestly dont do anything remotely interested to the police to worry about it. Yet it all just worked and now it doesnt.
My physical ios device test harness has no pin numbers/touch id activated for any of the connected phones. I noticed early on in testing that it would require physical access to reinput the pin code even when the device was already unlocked when I would restart an XCUI test.
If you're able to have fully unlocked devices at your test setup I'd suggest giving that a shot to see if it fixes your issue around device restart.
Unfortunately I use Advanced Data Protection on my Apple account so I kind a need that passcode. And moving to having completely different Apple account for development is PITA.
But I think connecting a device that can be used as authentication method without choosing a defense would negate the purpose of advanced data protection of your account and other devices.
Let's say I'm not super heavy Apple service user. For me Advanced Data Protection is defence against Apple itself and ability to keep little information I share via iCloud somewhat secret: mostly another backup of some photos and few other things.
It's not like I'm trying to defend against some state actors or whatver.
If I remember correctly, Apple actually picked up the feature after seeing it implemented in GrapheneOS. I think some people associated with Graphene were calling on Apple to add it for security reasons.
I can only second this. I have an old iPhone with a second sim-card, because I need it from time to time. And Apple introduced this auto-reboot a bit earlier, iirc last year. The problem is that after rebooting it also disconnects from wifi, so e.g. SMS/handoff synchronization stops working until you enter a passcode. This is very annoying because it was very convenient for me to receive calls/SMS to my main iPhone.
It’s a good and reasonable feature, especially if for some reason you are afraid of state or security agencies in a place where you live, or maybe during travel. It’s still questionable, because in some states you can indeed go to jail if you don’t unlock. Yet, I really want to be able to turn it off for use-cases like mine.
>It’s still questionable, because in some states you can indeed go to jail if you don’t unlock. Yet, I really want to be able to turn it off for use-cases like mine.
Even if the end result is the same, anything that forces authorities to use official power over informal power is a net win.
Apple doesn’t like supporting the use case of multiple phones for one person. They even encourage their employees to use their personal devices and accounts.
I don't get the difference. Today after 72 hours (3 days) my phone asks me for my password and won't accept biometrics. Also, this is a problem for all the people that use them as alarm clocks. I use Alarm Clock Xtreme for example.
(At least on iOS) shutting down the phone has something to do with wiping credentials/keys from RAM from where they can potentially be dumped. A just-booted phone is fully encrypted with no keys in memory.
> Also, this is a problem for all the people that use them as alarm clocks.
Yes. But quite honestly the right solution for that would be Apple providing an alarm clock API. The alarm clock application could call it with the next scheduled alarm’s time and the os would just wake up at that time and let the application do the sound / alarm thing.
For this use case there needs to be a reasonably quick way to erase/permanently lock a phone. Or maybe it needs to be something that is both 1. Less severe than that 2. Secure against personal inducements 3. More automatic.
So maybe something like a paired app with a friend/someone who is beyond the reach of the authorities, and if the phone isn't unlocked in a given definable period (or it can be triggered immediately), it then can't be unlocked without that person's active cooperation.
That's off the top of my head, so I'm sure there are optimizations.
A Veracrypt style hidden OS profile that is forensically invisible would be a better option - This would allow one to enter a password and give another "profile" or OS- that unlike current alternate profile stuff- would be solid against Cellebrite and GreyKey snooping into the device, and it'd be impossible to tell there was a hidden user/etc on it
This just gave me an idea: How about the phone accepting 2 password. One is the regular password and brings you into your regular account and then a dummy password that brings you into a dummy (but somewhat plausible, maybe user set up) account. That way you can still enter your normal account whenever you feel like it and if you are being pressured you just put in your "alternative password" and it just brings you to the dummy account.
But the problem is that when authority wants you to unlock your device, they kind of already know why, what they are expected to find but they would that as a more complete proof. But from external input they would expect some downloaded files or accounts (like social accounts you were connected with your phone a minute ago), some SMS they saw passing, some call logs, so connection to your known accounts...
>not disclosing or at least inputting your password might be a crime severely punished
And to your point, I believe it's now the case in the U.S. that you can be legally compelled to unlock a fingerprint lock, but not a pin for whatever reason.
Compiled unlock via biometrics is still somewhat contested. The general argument boils down to biometrics being something you can't really protect internally. A passcode that is only known inside of your gray matter can therefore can only be externalized via some sort of testimony. Being compelled to reveal a passcode violates your ride against compelled speech and self-inccrimination.
In US you are protected by 5th. But it seems like the question hasn't been addressed by the Supreme Court since currently the answer depends on your jurisdiction. Which inspired me to check: here in Pennsylvania, the court cannot compel you to unlock your device with the password.
There is always something that can be done. Like if phone is not actually powered on for x time set by the user it automatically factory resets all data. Or if phone is out of cell service for x time like as in a faraday bag in evidence then it resets itself. Or make it so that after a reboot it can only be opened if on a certain wifi hotspot or geolocation.
Ultimately I am not a security expert or know if any of those ideas would actually work but it seems like you could add a few steps making it harder. Maybe it can be locked out and you can set a specific apple store which would require your ID before they can send a release code allowing it to be unlocked.
All of that is probably way to complicated to be worth it for a typical user but I do think there can be a way if it was truly critical.
> because in a lot of shitty countries, even some pretending to be democratics, not disclosing or at least inputting your password might be a crime severely punished
What's your point? That because it isn't useful in every country, it's not worth making available to any countries?
It's not preventing you from providing your password.
You started by saying it's a good option to have, so I don't understand the point of your second paragraph.
Stories about airport security and officers demanding access your phone is one of the reasons I will never come to the US.
An (Italian) friend of mine was stuck in Newark for 8 hours after he refused access to his phone, dragged in some room and questioned for hours along his wife while split from him own kids, even though he later gave them the password (he initially said no because he thought it was out of the line, he had nothing to hide).
He left livid for Italy 16 hours later despite being free to go on with his vacation.
The Italians do the same thing. If your name matches some name or you’ve travelled to some naughty place, you’ll get picked for this sort of thing.
That said, the last time I went to Italy the customs guy looked annoyed at being awake. He asked my son’s age (he is huge but too young to use the electronic gate), then shrugged and stamped my passport with all of his strength.
I was thinking this would be the final death knell to using an (unrooted) Android phone as a cheap home server. But then again, not sure if that was even possible before with all the "battery protection" logic built into Android.
Mine randomly reboots semi-periodically already, even when it hasn't been shown as having downloaded an update.
That said, I think this is a fairly good idea, although with the encryption stuff they do, this will cause people who rarely use their phones to miss calls and alarms.
Because it's an effective tactic against exploits that can't survive a reboot, which is somewhat common from my understanding. The idea being that police can confiscate your phone and just keep it on and charged until they can buy or develop an exploit targeting your current device and software.
I was admittedly confused about this distinction at one point too. It's a trade-off (although few people effected by this own phones with truly free, user-respecting soft/hardware in the first place).
Huh, I have GrapheneOS and I never noticed it rebooting. (And when i manually reboot, the "BIOS" prevents it from booting without acknowledging that I'm aware it's a non-Google OS, so how does it work?)
The feature is not enabled by default. Also, the boot doesn't wait for you indefinitely - it just gives you a few seconds to glance the checksum and halt it, before it proceeds automatically.
You don't have to acknowledge anything. The boot screen shows a warning which you can interrupt. If you don't do anything it'll continue to load as normal.
As the GrapheneOS docs note, the feature is better implemented in init and not in system server or the app/services layer like Google has done here? Though, I am sure Google engs know a thing or two about working around limitations that GrapheneOS developers may have hit (in keeping the timer going even after a soft reboot, where it is just the system server, and the rest of the userspace that depends on it, that's restarted).
As the article alludes to, Apple recently shipped the same policy to iOS so this is likely just following the precedent from them. Android developers don't pay attention to community forks.
I’m not sure it was because they cared about security - looks more like accounting for 32-bit timestamp rollover would be very disruptive to the huge (legacy) code base and it was a quick fix to work around the problem :)
I'm pretty sure you're joking. Windows 95 crashed if you sneezed in its general direction, I'm pretty sure it would blue screen due to some edge case well before 49 days of runtime.
To this day, some programs malfunction after 2^31 milliseconds have passed since bootup, which is the halfway point. Milliseconds since bootup has just become negative, and has not rolled over yet. Just having a negative number of milliseconds is enough to mess with those programs.
Graphene's autoreboot has 12 different options (excluding disabling it) ranging from 72 hours down to 10 minutes and the timer is reset each time the device is unlocked. Tbh I think a 1 minute setting would actually be nice (for things like when you are going through customs, etc) but I get why they don't provide it.
The system only reboots once it has been locked for a particular duration. Setting it to 1 minute basically says: put the system into a more secure state (e.g. purge unencrypted memory) and ensure that it is ready to go when I next need it. That said, while it is not unrealistic it would be problematic since accidentally letting the phone lock (e.g. input timeout) would result in a time consuming reboot.
Its not an OS update, its a Google Play Services update .. so if they still apply you would get it
I found it strange that things like 'prettier settings screens' and 'improved connection with cars and watches' would be included in Google Play Services. Surely those things are part of the OS not part of a thing which helps you access the Play store?
I've been using a LineageOS (prev. Cyanogenmod) phone for years and have never installed any google stuff so I don't get these updates anyway.
Not bad. If I could make a feature request it would be something like, After 3 days of being idle:
- [ ] Reboot
- [ ] Power Off
- [X] WIPE triple opt-in
Maybe there is a custom phone OS for this that makes the phone act more ephemeral and network boot off my self hosted iPXE/immich server? A dumb smart phone so to speak. An ephemeral diskless phone.
Someone may want that behavior if they were intentionally injured and kept from their phone for 3 days. The perpetrators will eventually get past the hospital security. Contents should be backed up in a safe place either way, possibly in a place that someone that cares about them may access it.
A long long time ago, adding Gmail to your phone via the Exchange protocol over m.google.com gives Google the ability to wipe your phone remotely, including iPhones as well. No management profile needed.
1) There is no developer accessible API to allow app developers to create an app to allow me to script power options (example, as an end user I want to script a restart or shut down my phone nightly).
2) Asking Google Assistant will not restart or shut down the phone.
3) Apple and Android have made it harder to shut down the phone, requiring double key press kung fu to even bring up the power menu.
I found that this saves a lot of battery. My old Motorola G5G is now sitting idle, and I had to charge it every 4-5 days. I found that if the phone is restarted and NOT unlocked, it will stay charged for more than 10 days. My best guess is that a screen unlock is required to start many of the OS-level services, which takes up all the battery.
If this is true, then the new update will save a lot of battery for those phones that are sitting idle.
I have 3 phones, for various reasons. Not SIMs, but 3 devices. The usage is radically different between them. 2 of them are used daily but even there one routinely runs out of battery and other does not dip below 80%. The third one gets used when it gets used :)
> ...the new Play Services will limit that exposure to three days, even if it's plugged in.
This will be fun to track down after a long weekend in embedded devices once this android patch number is old enough to be baked into crappy payment terminals and mall kiosks.
Or if you're primarily reachable by an app that can't launch until AFU, the phone reboots silently and you don't realize it, and you're incommunicado.
Some time later, you need to do something on the phone, you unlock it, the app starts up, and a flood of messages pours in. Wow, some of those would've been really useful to receive in a timely fashion! Whoops!
This won't help those of us living in countries where "elected" officials elect themselves. We haven't had a single honest election in decades (and probably won't ever have one), so measures like this are better than nothing.
That plan, if implemented, may last as short as 1 election cycle. All political progress will inevitably be undone.
In contrast, technological change will forever alter the balance of power. What we should be asking is "Instead of patching society with political solutions, how about we solve fundamental problems permanently with technology?".
You don’t vote for the police or the three letter agencies and elected officials have little power over people with guns. Yes I know both on the the state level the police are suppose to be under the command of the civil government. But no elected official wants to get on the wrong side of the police unions.
Besides most people support the police no matter what. Police know not to abuse their powers against Whites.
Can I configure this? In some cases I'd want the auto-reboot to be more aggressive (for example: after 3 hours). In other cases I'd want to disable the auto-reboot entirely.
I'm surprised this is something taken seriously only now by stock android. Isn't it known universally that AFU devices are insecure? What's the point of adding strict password policies, biometrics etc, if data from a stolen phone can be (relatively) trivially be exfiltrated unencrypted?
Samsung's have had some feature that lets you set days of the week for the phone to restart (IME during early morning hours) automatically. It's not perfect but it's something. iOS seems to have some unclear logic to either restart or re-request password (not biometrics).
Because they protect against different actors. A stolen phone? The thief likely just wants to strip your phone down to parts and sell the parts if there is a passcode. If there isn't anything, perhaps the thief would wipe it and sell it whole as a second hand device.
Only law enforcement cares about the difference between the AFU state and BFU state.
« This actually caused some annoyance among law enforcement officials who believed they had suspects' phones stored in a readable state, only to find they were rebooting and becoming harder to access due to this feature. »
Wouldn't the phones run out of battery after a few days anyway?
Or do they keep them plugged in?
> This actually caused some annoyance among law enforcement officials who believed they had suspects' phones stored in a readable state, only to find they were rebooting and becoming harder to access due to this feature.
Lmao.
> The early sluggishness of Android system updates prompted Google to begin moving parts of the OS to Google Play Services. This collection of background services and libraries can be updated by Google automatically in the background as long as your phone is certified for Google services (which almost all are). That's why the inactivity reboot will just show up on your phone in the coming weeks with no notification. There are definitely reasons to be wary of the control Google has over Android with elements like Play Services, but it does pay off when the company can enhance everyone's security without delay.
Android ships a feature called bootchart which you can use to prove that most of the time your phone spends booting.. it is actually far from bottlenecked on storage or compute - bugs to be fixed; not worked around with even more complexity. Heck, some phones do not even stop playing their vendors fancy animated logo when they are finished before the animation is.
uhh, that's going to disrupt Briar Mailbox, which relies on an Android device to act as an always-on node. I really hope there is a way to toggle this.
I've mused about writing a distribution license where every type of notification and update can be disabled, and any modification must follow the same license.
STFU (BSD equivalent) and STFU-O (GPL equivalent)
No LGPL equivalent because I would want even software that uses STFU-* licensed code as a library to follow the STFU-* license.
Just have to explicitly define what counts as a notification lol
No notifications? Depends on what your definition of "asking it" is, but having to explicitly do an action to check for notifications and even phone calls seems counter-productive for a phone.
Why would I want my phone to auto reboot without my intervention? Never mind that it’ll never make three days on a single charge even if I don’t touch it.
It is not clear to me at all why the ‘benefits’ presented outweigh the negatives (which is _my_ device doing anything without me instructing it to). Even if you can turn it off, this is apparently enabled by default.
Law enforcement keeping hold of my phone for 3 days is simply not a realistic problem for me. Coming back to an annoyingly locked phone after forgetting it for a weekend very much is. The chances of law enforcement wanting anything with it are low enough that dealing with an extra unlock is more likely to be an impactful issue, even considering the potential impact that law enforcement or others stealing it could have.
> Coming back to an annoyingly locked phone after forgetting it for a weekend very much is.
It is?
I mean, my iPhone asks me for my passcode every 7 days anyways. And that's the only thing that happens on reboot anyways.
Also, you forget your phone for a weekend? How do you do anything during that weekend, like keep in touch with loved ones, get driving directions, pull up a boarding pass, check for delays, look up restaurants?
Easy, do what we did before mobile phones—civilization existed for thousands years and worked quite well without them (Rome built an empire sans mobile phones, so did the English). We even ran and coordinated the largest and most organized event in human history—WWII—without them!
Some of us have not yet succumbed to phone addiction (I often go for quite some days without using a phone and still have a normal life).
Hey, if you want to go back to life in Ancient Rome, with the disease and lack of medicine, the slavery, the dictatorship... I'm not going to stop you.
When you say civilization worked quite well for thousands of years, as an argument against mobile phones, I'm not sure you've quite thought your argument through... unless it's always been your dream to be a Russian serf, or an Egyptian slave?
> Also, you forget your phone for a weekend? How do you do anything during that weekend, like keep in touch with loved ones, get driving directions, pull up a boarding pass, check for delays, look up restaurants?
Lmao I regularly go several days without calling family and months between any of those others.
That "something" is at least the entire userspace, so any attempt at doing so ends up being UX-equivalent to a full restart - while having a decent chance of leaving unintended trace data lying around in memory.
A full restart guarantees that everything will be wiped.
It’s not about data being wiped. It’s that neither Android nor iOS has
fully encrypted storage after you reboot and enter your credentials - biometric or passcodes.
Restart - simple with known and predictable effects, data no longer accessible, all secrets flushed no matter where they were or cached.
Turn off disk encryption, suspend all running services, overwrite all secrets in the O/S wherever they are, and then restore all that on entering password. Probably can't do anything about secrets cached by actual apps.
Complex, hard to maintain and probably buggy.
What if just while that occurs I need to make or receive an emergency call?
Sometimes it feels like tech is going backwards. Rather than rebooting, just develop a proper method to unload/uncache, without making a device useless while that happens. Or use that multicore arch to swap the “dirty” instance with a clean one, in realtime.
It's not even necessarily that good enough against cops, because in a lot of shitty countries, even some pretending to be democratics, not disclosing or at least inputting your password might be a crime severely punished. If I'm not wrong, there was a guy that had to stay years in jail until he would comply with the judge order to unlock his device.
It's often configurable, but e.g. carrier policy or local vendors can enforce it.
To have updates automatically install overnight is the maximally desirable scenario - waiting for user approval usually result in open vulnerabilities, and if you interact with a prompt you are by definition using your device and it is therefore a much worse time than while you're asleep.
On Android, my experience has been that new major versions are often unstable / involve some risk of bricking / include feature regressions (dumbing down of multi-task in Android 13 if I remember well). Waiting for a few month before installing a major update, while not optimal for security, is necessary to make sure that the most critical bugs are fixed beforehand.
Regarding applications, today there's so many applications being always updated all the time that there's no way it's good for the flash memory to constantly rewrite it every day. Plus this often leads to random application restarts while they are updated automatically. (and non-OSS applications updates can result in unwanted changes such as more ads, random changes in UI...).
It's still possible to disable automated updates on Android and I am glad that they allow it.
And yes, this has actually happened to me at least twice.
They all even share a unified battery charging mechanism and integrated packaging for easy portability.
I'm not sure if the idea of these pocket supercomputers will ever catch on, but it sure seems like it'd be nice.
(And it has been problematic for me at times when this happened.)
And that's ignoring the fact that disconnecting power, waiting a few days and then reconnecting it will inevitably let you cold boot it, too (which this would be an equivalent to - as far as I understood it)
There could be secret pathways but I don’t know them.
This sounds a lot like the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 in the United Kingdom, where several people have been prosecuted and imprisoned for failing to provide encryption keys.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/man-in-jail-2-ye...
https://walzr.com/bop-spotter
I think the main advantage to using phones for random stuff is availability: We here on HN probably have a decent selection of old phones to pick from, so it doesn't cost any money at all to give a new purpose to one.
Don't think old Androids will get this update.
This is again Apple being Apple making things harder without option to disable it even when development mode is on.
Has anyone found a way to bypass it?
One physical option to bypass it on iPhone SE is to actually physically activate PIN entry and then use Voice Control command to enter the pin since it works even before first unlock. Though this is basically compromises pin and device encryption. But it's cheap since there are plenty of $2 devices that can simulate touchscreen clicks.
I just want some easier option that works and not require agent 007 setup to just run a buld of my AI-generated crap via Xcode.
7 days timeout on was introduced in iOS 18, but then decreased to 3 days. I dont use this device physically - it's just a phone that always connected to power and sit on top of mac mini for debugging and running some ios exclusive apps.
And I honestly dont do anything remotely interested to the police to worry about it. Yet it all just worked and now it doesnt.
If you're able to have fully unlocked devices at your test setup I'd suggest giving that a shot to see if it fixes your issue around device restart.
Don’t set it up with a passcode in the first place?
It's not like I'm trying to defend against some state actors or whatver.
For obvious reasons those ads are long gone...
It’s a good and reasonable feature, especially if for some reason you are afraid of state or security agencies in a place where you live, or maybe during travel. It’s still questionable, because in some states you can indeed go to jail if you don’t unlock. Yet, I really want to be able to turn it off for use-cases like mine.
Even if the end result is the same, anything that forces authorities to use official power over informal power is a net win.
I have to have 3 devices: mine, work and a shared one for travel that crosses customs boundaries. It’s a massive pain in the ass.
Yes. But quite honestly the right solution for that would be Apple providing an alarm clock API. The alarm clock application could call it with the next scheduled alarm’s time and the os would just wake up at that time and let the application do the sound / alarm thing.
So maybe something like a paired app with a friend/someone who is beyond the reach of the authorities, and if the phone isn't unlocked in a given definable period (or it can be triggered immediately), it then can't be unlocked without that person's active cooperation.
That's off the top of my head, so I'm sure there are optimizations.
Currently only available for Pixel phones, 6 and later. Offers many other security-related features.
But the problem is that when authority wants you to unlock your device, they kind of already know why, what they are expected to find but they would that as a more complete proof. But from external input they would expect some downloaded files or accounts (like social accounts you were connected with your phone a minute ago), some SMS they saw passing, some call logs, so connection to your known accounts...
And to your point, I believe it's now the case in the U.S. that you can be legally compelled to unlock a fingerprint lock, but not a pin for whatever reason.
You don’t have to do anything for someone to hold a phone to your fingertip, or a camera to your face.
What's your point? That because it isn't useful in every country, it's not worth making available to any countries?
It's not preventing you from providing your password.
You started by saying it's a good option to have, so I don't understand the point of your second paragraph.
An (Italian) friend of mine was stuck in Newark for 8 hours after he refused access to his phone, dragged in some room and questioned for hours along his wife while split from him own kids, even though he later gave them the password (he initially said no because he thought it was out of the line, he had nothing to hide).
He left livid for Italy 16 hours later despite being free to go on with his vacation.
Land of the free my ass.
That said, the last time I went to Italy the customs guy looked annoyed at being awake. He asked my son’s age (he is huge but too young to use the electronic gate), then shrugged and stamped my passport with all of his strength.
That said, I think this is a fairly good idea, although with the encryption stuff they do, this will cause people who rarely use their phones to miss calls and alarms.
I was admittedly confused about this distinction at one point too. It's a trade-off (although few people effected by this own phones with truly free, user-respecting soft/hardware in the first place).
As the GrapheneOS docs note, the feature is better implemented in init and not in system server or the app/services layer like Google has done here? Though, I am sure Google engs know a thing or two about working around limitations that GrapheneOS developers may have hit (in keeping the timer going even after a soft reboot, where it is just the system server, and the rest of the userspace that depends on it, that's restarted).
They went with 2^32-1 milliseconds or about 49.7 days.
We don't talk enough about Microsoft's strong legacy of security innovations, IMHO.
https://web.archive.org/web/20041207171440/http://support.mi...
https://web.archive.org/web/20130731171959/https://sites.goo...
The system only reboots once it has been locked for a particular duration. Setting it to 1 minute basically says: put the system into a more secure state (e.g. purge unencrypted memory) and ensure that it is ready to go when I next need it. That said, while it is not unrealistic it would be problematic since accidentally letting the phone lock (e.g. input timeout) would result in a time consuming reboot.
The minimum on GrapheneOS is 10 min and the maximum is 72 hours. It can also be disabled.
I found it strange that things like 'prettier settings screens' and 'improved connection with cars and watches' would be included in Google Play Services. Surely those things are part of the OS not part of a thing which helps you access the Play store?
I've been using a LineageOS (prev. Cyanogenmod) phone for years and have never installed any google stuff so I don't get these updates anyway.
1. It's deployed to all devices and not subject to manufacturer approval for updates
2. It's easier to update without requiring user interaction or approval
3. It's closed source unlike Android so changes can't be incorporated by competitors
---
### Google Play services v25.14 (2025-04-14)
#### Security & Privacy
• [Phone] Enables a future optional security feature, which will automatically restart your device if locked for 3 consecutive days.
Picked up a gl.inet x300b off ebay and never looked back.
- [ ] Reboot
- [ ] Power Off
- [X] WIPE triple opt-in
Maybe there is a custom phone OS for this that makes the phone act more ephemeral and network boot off my self hosted iPXE/immich server? A dumb smart phone so to speak. An ephemeral diskless phone.
Some people lose or get their phone broken and start from a blank one on a regular basis.
In my case the only things that matter to me are synchronised through syncthing and radicale (a carddav/caldav server).
1) There is no developer accessible API to allow app developers to create an app to allow me to script power options (example, as an end user I want to script a restart or shut down my phone nightly).
2) Asking Google Assistant will not restart or shut down the phone.
3) Apple and Android have made it harder to shut down the phone, requiring double key press kung fu to even bring up the power menu.
If this is true, then the new update will save a lot of battery for those phones that are sitting idle.
This will be fun to track down after a long weekend in embedded devices once this android patch number is old enough to be baked into crappy payment terminals and mall kiosks.
Probably overall a good thing though.
Some time later, you need to do something on the phone, you unlock it, the app starts up, and a flood of messages pours in. Wow, some of those would've been really useful to receive in a timely fashion! Whoops!
In contrast, technological change will forever alter the balance of power. What we should be asking is "Instead of patching society with political solutions, how about we solve fundamental problems permanently with technology?".
Besides most people support the police no matter what. Police know not to abuse their powers against Whites.
https://www.blackenterprise.com/white-protesters-form-human-...
Samsung's have had some feature that lets you set days of the week for the phone to restart (IME during early morning hours) automatically. It's not perfect but it's something. iOS seems to have some unclear logic to either restart or re-request password (not biometrics).
This should be standard
Only law enforcement cares about the difference between the AFU state and BFU state.
Wouldn't the phones run out of battery after a few days anyway? Or do they keep them plugged in?
Not sure I'm too happy about this...
Lmao.
> The early sluggishness of Android system updates prompted Google to begin moving parts of the OS to Google Play Services. This collection of background services and libraries can be updated by Google automatically in the background as long as your phone is certified for Google services (which almost all are). That's why the inactivity reboot will just show up on your phone in the coming weeks with no notification. There are definitely reasons to be wary of the control Google has over Android with elements like Play Services, but it does pay off when the company can enhance everyone's security without delay.
All the more reasons to move to AOSP forks.
Not falling for it anymore. Fuck Google and the rest of Big Tech.
> Security & Privacy
> [Phone] Enables a future optional security feature, which will automatically restart your device if locked for 3 consecutive days.
So it only "enables" a "future" "optional" feature.
https://briarproject.org/download-briar-mailbox/
It works there better anyway, because it's integrated with the OS, and not just one privileged service.
I don't know if it'll take a fancy buzzword or what. Unobtrusive software? Silent Software?
STFU (BSD equivalent) and STFU-O (GPL equivalent)
No LGPL equivalent because I would want even software that uses STFU-* licensed code as a library to follow the STFU-* license.
Just have to explicitly define what counts as a notification lol
Why would I want my phone to auto reboot without my intervention? Never mind that it’ll never make three days on a single charge even if I don’t touch it.
The BFU state is more secure than AFU.
Law enforcement keeping hold of my phone for 3 days is simply not a realistic problem for me. Coming back to an annoyingly locked phone after forgetting it for a weekend very much is. The chances of law enforcement wanting anything with it are low enough that dealing with an extra unlock is more likely to be an impactful issue, even considering the potential impact that law enforcement or others stealing it could have.
That's what cops and spooks would like to have you think.
It's not a problem, until it suddenly is.
It is?
I mean, my iPhone asks me for my passcode every 7 days anyways. And that's the only thing that happens on reboot anyways.
Also, you forget your phone for a weekend? How do you do anything during that weekend, like keep in touch with loved ones, get driving directions, pull up a boarding pass, check for delays, look up restaurants?
Easy, do what we did before mobile phones—civilization existed for thousands years and worked quite well without them (Rome built an empire sans mobile phones, so did the English). We even ran and coordinated the largest and most organized event in human history—WWII—without them!
Some of us have not yet succumbed to phone addiction (I often go for quite some days without using a phone and still have a normal life).
When you say civilization worked quite well for thousands of years, as an argument against mobile phones, I'm not sure you've quite thought your argument through... unless it's always been your dream to be a Russian serf, or an Egyptian slave?
Lmao I regularly go several days without calling family and months between any of those others.
Even if you somehow live in a jurisdiction with a perfect justice system, that doesn't mean everyone else is.
Whos justice system? Lots of countries represented on HN. Many with questionable systems.
Why not flush something properly in the RAM instead to wipe the "cached" secrets?
A full restart feels like an overkill.
A full restart guarantees that everything will be wiped.
Restart - simple with known and predictable effects, data no longer accessible, all secrets flushed no matter where they were or cached.
Turn off disk encryption, suspend all running services, overwrite all secrets in the O/S wherever they are, and then restore all that on entering password. Probably can't do anything about secrets cached by actual apps. Complex, hard to maintain and probably buggy.
https://blogs.dsu.edu/digforce/2023/08/23/bfu-and-afu-lock-s...
Sometimes it feels like tech is going backwards. Rather than rebooting, just develop a proper method to unload/uncache, without making a device useless while that happens. Or use that multicore arch to swap the “dirty” instance with a clean one, in realtime.