Power off password

Skyway

Oggyo they'll just use brute force and a hard surface to turn it off out of spite . in some ways I can see this helping if there's an esim but with a physical Sim just remove the Sim .

Oggyo

Skyway
What I meant was that with or without the "power off password" option, in the described situation the victim will end up without a phone anyway.

raccoondad

Trevael Its not an implementable feature anyways, so GOS will probably not do it. It's just not possible on a pixel due to the force shutdown option (or removing the battery, either or). Not to mention its simply security theater, It just won't be implemented

Also yes users can very much remove the battery...

Trevael

raccoondad Remove the battery? How? Seems to me that requires special tools or you'd destroy the phone. If they go that far, it's likely already at a "stolen phone shop" and they probably destroyed or damaged the thing getting it apart.

Trevael

Oggyo I can then use the "Find my phone" feature to recover it.

Oggyo

Trevael
Most likely it will not be in working condition or not even recoverable from the discarded area.
Have you ever had or heard of a good experience re. "Find my phone" after being stolen? My friend's phone ended up on a highway after a similar case.

raccoondad

Trevael Ifixit: $24 for the clamp + $19 for an iOpener, $2 extra if you want a screen suction cup, its moderately hard but anyone with repair experience can do so.

Even if you broke the screen (the part you are taking off to get to the battery) you can buy a replacement for ~$100

Ifixit themselves says this only takes about 1-2 hours, and is only moderately difficult. (https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Google+Pixel+6a+Battery+Replacement/152516)

Please don't comment on things you don't know about, GOS themselves have already given good points about the battery and the main topic. GOS can't even implement this feature, since you can always force a shutdown by a press and hold. Not to mention just draining the battery.

Once the phone is shutdown, all you would need to do to make this issue mute is to enter fastboot, then recovery, then call a factory restart. Now the phone is brand new, there is no way around this

Trevael

Oggyo actually, yes I have. A friend and I were able to recover his wife's iPhone a few years ago, with that feature, from a small cellphone shop that had purchased it from a thief and had not gotten around to wiping it yet.

Trevael

raccoondad I think you and I have a huge disconnect here. I'm talking about two-bit, street thug phone thieves that hover around tables at restaurants, frequent bars, clubs and after-parties. These people are not sophisticated, they do not carry tools or Faraday bags, they swipe phones out of purses and pickpocket people. They "snatch and grab" and power off a phone so it can't be tracked and they sell it to a buyer later that night or the next day. Don't tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about, because I do! You are not being constructive with comments like that. If my phone gets into the hands of someone who is using tools, yes, I agree, its total loss at that point and I'm very grateful that its internal memory is encrypted. In any case, you've all made your point, there current;y can be no password protection for power-off, so I'm considering this thread to be done.

raccoondad

Trevael Adding a security feature to stop thieves from restarting the phone while not actually stopping them from resetting said phone (a force reset isn't hard and most ppl know how to do it) is the definition of security theater and is the exact reason GOS has told you they are not interested in such a feature....

If you are really worried about your phone being stolen, then use an application like 'Find my Device' by Nulide, what I use

boldsuck

Wouldn't the auto-reboot feature be hindered by 'Password to Power off'?
I don't think any GrapheneOS user would want to miss out on the auto-reboot function so that the phone is set to BFU.

'Password to Power off' wouldn't save many stolen devices either.
Thieves would simply destroy the cell phone completely and throw it away if they cannot turn the device off.
And next time they'll have a Faraday bag or just aluminum foil with them.

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