topic Re: Restore Encrypted Phone in XPERIA archive

Restore Encrypted Phone

Winks1 — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 09:16:45 GMT

Hi Sony,

I am required to encrypt my phone as a policy to access my exchange server.

The wrong password was entered 5 times while I was walking with the phone in my pocket today and the phone factory reset.

Do I really have to start over now? Is there no way to restore my data?

Backups to PC Companion stopped after my phone was encrypted.

The only thing I can see to do here is send all my apps to my phone, restore contacts call logs and anything else that was auto backed up. Add exchange account which will force encryption again.

What about photos and videos?

Re: Restore Encrypted Phone

Thommo — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 09:29:41 GMT

Unless these were backed up or saved to a cloud like Box or Google drive etc then sorry to say that there is no way to recover these

Re: Restore Encrypted Phone

Winks1 — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 09:44:32 GMT

Thanks for the reply Thommo.

It doesn't seem like this phone is intended for a corporate environment.

Re: Restore Encrypted Phone

Winks1 — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 04:17:41 GMT

6 hours later and my phone is almost back to how it was before it was wiped.

I have not enabled encryption this time. This takes another 2 hours to complete.

With no encryption I can’t connect to my corporate Exchange Server.

I now have to carry two phones. Shiny new Xperia Z3 compact for everything non-work related and an old iPhone 4s just to connect to my work Exchange server. I bought the compact so it would fit fine in my pocket. This doesn't work so well anymore now that I'm trying to fit two phones in!

Can anyone tell me if this backup of Encrypted phone issue is a problem with all Android devices or if this is specific to Sony?

It seems that the only way to get a compete backup of this phone when it is encrypted is to root the phone. Doesn't this void the warranty?

Re: Restore Encrypted Phone

Thommo — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 09:28:55 GMT

Are you not able to use a 3rd party app like K9 mail which doesn't require an encrypted phone

Re: Restore Encrypted Phone

Winks1 — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 09:57:55 GMT

Thanks for the tip!

I just tried the new Outlook app and it works great.

This is better than using the built in mail client because now I can silence my work emails at night and let my personal emails notify via the built in client

Re: Restore Encrypted Phone

Winks1 — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 22:23:30 GMT

OK, Microsoft has fixed their Outlook client to be compliant with Exchange security policies.

Outlook app now wants me to encrypt my phone so it's no solution to my problem.

I tried K9 and it doesn't work at all. It can't even connect to Exchange server.

I tried mailwise and it connects fine, but wants to enforce the exchange security policy too.

So far these are my only options:

1.) Root the phone so I can trick Exchange to think your phone is encrypted and bypass the Exchange security policy. (I think this voids warranty)

2.) Exchange by Touchdown works fine, but costs $20 bucks and doesn't have great reviews.

3.) Nine - Exchange Outlook Mail works fine, seems to have better reviews than Touchdown and is half the cost of Touchdown at $9 bucks.

Touchdown and Nine seem to encrypt the application only and requires me to enter a pin code each time I launch either app. I believe my Exchange team will have the ability to remotely wipe these apps only in this setup. Everything else on the phone remains the same.

I am on the free trial for Touchdown and Nine apps and will go with the one I like best after the trial is over.

A ton of effort put in here all because Sony's backup software does not work with their encryption enabled. This has been a terrible experience when moving from iPhone to Android / Sony. iPhone just works with no messing around!