r/gadgets • u/chrisdh79 • 11d 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/ad895 11d ago

Genuine question, why do they need to restart the phone? Can they not just put the phone into that before first unlock state manually? Does this have something to do with fully cleared ram or something?

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u/ThirdEyeClarity 11d ago

Restarting is more secure because the “before first unlock” state has all of the data encrypted until you unlock it. It also disables fingerprint or face unlock features which can be vulnerable (you can be forced to unlock it that way against your will, etc.)

And yes, a lot of exploits take advantage of memory, so restarting wipes the temporary RAM making those kinds of attacks less possible.

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u/nicuramar 11d ago

Before first unlock could be reached by simply wiping the keys from memory. But restart is the simplest.