Windows 10: Device Encryption - Turn On or Off for Windows 10 Mobile Phone

How to: Device Encryption - Turn On or Off for Windows 10 Mobile Phone

How to Turn On or Off Device Encryption for your Windows 10 Mobile Phone


Information Device encryption helps protect your files and folder on your Windows 10 Mobile phone from unauthorized access in case your phone is lost or stolen.

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off device encryption for your Windows 10 Mobile phone.





Here's How:

1. Open Settings, and tap on System. (see screenshot below)



2. Tap on Device encryption. (see screenshot below)



3. Do step 4 (on) or step 5 (off) below for what you would like to do.


4. To Turn On Device Encryption for your Windows 10 Mobile Phone
A) Turn on device encryption. (see screenshot below)



B) If you haven't already, you will now be taken to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)


Note Adding a PIN is not required to turn on device encryption, but it is recommended to add a PIN to make your phone more secure.






5. To Turn Off Device Encryption for your Windows 10 Mobile Phone
A) Turn off device encryption, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)





6. If you like, tap on the Start button at the bottom of your phone to go back to your Start screen. (see screenshot below)






That's it,
Shawn

:)

 

Update build 448 install fails

Rommei

Your reply seams to pointed towards device encryption being the sole cause of this update issue, however we also have this issue and all our devices are not encrypted.

 

Update build 448 install fails

Hi Chiriqui,

Let's get this resolved by turning off the Device encryption. To turn it off, just go to
Settings> Update and security> Device encryption, then toggle off. After turning off the Device encryption please perform a soft reset, and try again updating the phone software. To soft reset the phone, just press and hold the power and volume
down buttons at the same time until the phone restarts. We recommend a WiFi connection when updating the phone software.

Let us know the results.

Regards.

 

I found this older article below that may help better explain device encryption.

Device Encryption

 

No, I think this changed with Windows Phone 8. I've read a few accounts that say that Windows Phone 8 devices are required to have TPM chip.

Windows Phone 8 has | Network World

 

Good. I haven't seen anything yet that resembles BitLocker on my Lumia 1520 phone with device encryption turned on.

 

I am also interested in hearing more details from Microsoft, so I'm not sure whether I'll be able to provide you with any more info than you already know, however a couple of months ago I posted a link to a Channel 9 video from the Ignite 2015 conference, where one of their architects said that it's going to be possible for users to enable Bitlocker device encryption on Windows 10 Mobile. I do not know what encryption Microsoft are using in the above tutorial, so can only go off what Brink says, but you can find the Channel 9 video in the below post:

Users Will Be Able To Enable Bitlocker on Windows 10 Phone Devices

The same video also touches on TPM at around 10:00 in, where he mentions "... every Windows Phone has a TPM, every mobile device, even a Stream 7 like this from HP, has a TPM". I'm not sure about Windows 10 Mobile, but at this link it briefly mentions how TPM is implemented on Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 8 phones. Again it's aimed towards IT professionals, as consumers weren't able to enable Bitlocker on their Windows 8 phones.

 

I have a Lumia 640 XL, with now Windows 10 Mobile / Phone installed via Insider.

I see the option to enable encryption and followed the steps above.

However, *nothing appears to happen*.

The checked items is On for encryption, but when I look at Settings - System - Storage, it does NOT say that the system is encrypted.

Also, there is no progress dialog regarding the encryption process. The On/Off toggle for encryption can be changed at will.

Does encryption even work at all on Windows 10 Mobile / Phone?

Note: I also connected the phone to an ActiveSync Office365 policy that "requires" encryption. The only thing that happens is that the toggle is now set to On, but again, no progress dialog, no indication in the Storage settings that encryption is enabled or anything.

Does encryption even work for the SDCARD?

At this point, I cannot use this device if it is not possible to verify encryption works.

 

Hello xinlifoss, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

When you turn on device encryption, are you able to add a PIN link in step 4?

Microsoft has just released a new Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 10586.36 that you might try.

Announcing Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 10586.36 - Windows 10 Forums

 

thanks for the tip. yes, the phone did ask if I wanted to set a pin. I tried my tests with the pin set and without a pin set. no difference.

it took a while, but I finally got this new update installed.

alas, same pathology:

• with a local Device Encryption toggled On, no dialog, no change in Storage status
• with an activesync policy from Google Sync (Google for Work), the Requires Encryption policy is ignored by the device, so the toggle remains Off, yet the device seems to be reporting back to the server that encryption is activated because the data is syncing with the servers
• with a native Office Enterprise that has a Requires Encryption policy, the settings toggle is moved to On and greyed out so the user cannot disable, the data is syncing immediately, yet the Storage settings do not indicate that the device is encrypted.

last thing. with windows 8.1r2, the Office Enterprise did seem to set the encryption correctly.

still puzzled.

 

I'm not sure how to go about testing it, but if it shows device encryption as turned on, it should be.

 

exactly. I really want to believe it is activated; however, since the phone does nothing (no pause, no dialog, no delay when switching off/on/off/on) I just cannot believe it is actually active. desktop/tablet win10 bitlocker, ios, and android all show some kind of indication that encryption is in progress and active.

 

I submitted feedback via the app to Microsoft about this.

After 12 hours with the Device Encryption toggle enabled, the Storage settings do not show any indication that the device is actually encrypted.

Also, disabling the toggle after waiting also seems to have no effect.

Finally, Exchange server does not report the device status. Upon initial sync with a new device, it immediately permits download of corporate data. This means that either the device could possibly be encrypting only new corporate data as it arrives, encryption is remarkably fast, or it does not actually encrypt.

So, I will just wait for the next few builds to see if anything changes. Love the phone. Win10Mobile is super nice. But security and stability are paramount.