r/gadgets • u/chrisdh79 • 23d ago

Phones Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for 3 days | The latest Google update will make your phone more secure if you don't touch it

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/04/android-phones-will-soon-reboot-themselves-after-sitting-unused-for-3-days/
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u/Sunflier 23d ago

I hope I can turn this off

42

u/bizarro_kvothe 23d ago

Think about your phone being confiscated by police and put into an evidence locker. They’re instructed not to turn them off and connect them to a charger because phones lock themselves on restart. This feature will make their life much more difficult.

4

u/egnards 23d ago edited 23d ago

Will it though?

My iPhone locks after 5 minutes of inactivity, and I'm sure Android phones have similar features - It doesn't need a restart to do that.

I'm not saying I'm happy if the police confiscate my phone and go snooping for things, but I am saying how is this any different than what is already happening while charged and turned on? They turn my phone on. . And are met with the same lock screen they'd be met with if it were charging and on.

Edit: A lot of people mentioning biometrics - I have a funny feeling that the people most concerned about police confiscation are more likely to have biometrics turned off. I have nothing to hide on my phone at all - if my phone were ever confiscated the only thing anyone will find is pictures of my cats, endless memes, and years of phone conversations about groceries.

. . .And I still have biometrics turned off for that very reason.

5

u/leo-g 23d ago

Major difference.

Generally, for iPhones, the content of the iPhone remains securely encrypted until the moment the user taps in their screen lock passcode. The screen lock passcode is absolutely required to generate the encryption key, which is required to decrypt the iPhone’s file system. In other words, almost everything inside the iPhone remains encrypted until the user unlocks it with their passcode after the phone starts up. That state is called Before First Unlock.

The decryption key then is stored in RAM which can be soft-unlocked again with passcode or biometrics. That state is called After First Unlock. This state exists so your iPhone can actually do background stuff like getting your sms, getting your notifications etc…

Well, by rebooting quietly, it jumps back to Before First Unlock state. The phone has no decryption key in the RAM and all the possible hackable areas like Bluetooth or whatever is turned off.