Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for 3 days
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/04/android-phones-will-soon-reboot-themselves-after-sitting-unused-for-3-days/Open linkView original on communick.news168
Comments53https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/04/android-phones-will-soon-reboot-themselves-after-sitting-unused-for-3-days/Open linkView original on communick.news
I love it.
I would not be surprised if google is complicit in this
Yes, this was the whole goal. Apple is also doing this already because of this
That's good, if I don't unlock my phone for 3 days, either the phone is lost or I'm dead.
Good security feature but only for the phone in your pocket. The old one used as a camera, homeassistant screen, sms to email forwarder, ssh server, will stop being useful.
I hope there will be a way to turn that off, but I'm afraid there won't.
On the 9to5Google article it says
Website: Skynet is dooming the world tomorrow!
Website: Update: You can just tell it not to doom the world if you don't want it. Nothing more to see here. Move on.
Typical.
People were using old hardware instead of buying new.
Can't have that.
That's why GrapheneOS had this feature for a long time, but with the ability to disable it. It also allows you to set the time period after which the reboot is initiated yourself. You can go as low as 10 minutes, or as high as 72 hours.
The old one isn't getting any updates and won't see this change.
The shiny one you have will be old in a few years
You dont install updates on your servers?
I had this problem when Apple introduced this feature a year or so ago. I wish Apple had a way to disable it, but such is apple. Now I unlock a phone that lives on my dresser every few days.
I like it but, why so long? If I haven't unlocked my phone in 24 hours I'm either dead or hospitalized, 3 days seems super extreme.
Especially since so many phones won't make it 72 hours without a charge, even if sitting unused.
If the screen is off, idk wtd background apps you're running that would drain so much..
3 days seems like a good "default" but I agree I'd definitely like the option to make it shorter.
3 days in my opinion is too long imo for a default, if the entire point of it is to increase the security, the default gives 3 days worth of time for an entity to obtain a way to access it via some form of exploit or other means. That's far long enough for most shipping options to send the device elsewhere that may have the appropriate tech to do so.
A 24h limit would significantly decrease the margin for exploitation. I agree the setting should have multiple time intervals though, I just think 3 days is way too long for the purpose of the setting. It seems like a "we wanna do something that sounds good, but won't rock the boat for the powers that be"
Because I want my alarm clock to actually work.
or maybe, I have replaced it with a newer phone, and repurposed it as some sort of lightweight server or something. So it doesn't get unlocked anymore, ever
If that's the case hopefully there will be a setting to disable the feature as a whole as every 3 days would be annoying for a server,
There is, someone else commented with the actual quote
honestly I reckon 12 hours would be good enough I only really sleep 6-7 hours and I'll check my phone within half hour at most of waking up usually straight away and I need to watch something relaxing before sleeping so it'll have been used just before I slept so I think 12 hours would be fine and on the super rare maybe I'm awake a super long time for reasons and sleep 12 hours ok the consequence is I have to unlock my phone with a pin instead of my finger and do it twice cause sim lock not that big a deal hell I think 10 hours would be too extreme and would trigger a bit even for me but I reckon it wouldn't that often
You want to do this even with custom roms.
Having your phone automatically go into the BFU state ensures that there's only a small window for a thief to extract data from your phone.
If you ever think your phone is about to be stolen or seized you want to power it off for this exact reason.
They're saying custom ROMs like Grapheneos have had this for a long time already.
I read it as "This is a silly Android thing that I don't have to deal with because I use custom roms".
I use Graphene and use this feature, but I can understand why it would seem silly to some people and I can think of use cases where you wouldn't want it to happen (like using your phone as a security device with Haven (https://github.com/guardianproject/haven)) installed.
Most Android users don't understand the BFU/AFU states and the security implications, it is good that default android is including a sane security default that'll be pushed out to the standard Android users.
Lineage as well, mine reboots at 4am every day
It is not enough to lock the phone.
An advanced attacker that has access to forensic imaging tools can pull data off of your phone as long as it has been unlocked the first time after boot.
There are some models and some OSs (like Graphene on the newest Pixels) that are safe, for the time being, in AFU mode. You still want to power the phone off if you have the chance.
In your friend's situation, his phone can be powered, isolated from RF to prevent remote wiping and kept in a lock state in order to preserve the keys in memory until an exploit is found for that model. If the OS automatically reboots after 3 days, it prevents this kind of attack.
It makes sense for a number of reasons. You could be being detained or your device could be sitting in lost and found.
Stock LineageOS doesn't seem to have that feature
...
They say their device restarts at 4 am but they don't seem to show how to set it up. On my Note 10 I don't seem to have this feature with stock LineageOS, maybe they're running a modified version of it, like Resurrection Remix
If only my phone battery lasts that long. LOL
Settings - Apps - App management - Google Play Services - Disable - Disable App
Pixels can be configured to limit charging to 80% these days.
I've started using it and the difference between using 80% and 100% on a daily basis is negligible, I rarely if ever let my device go below about 35% anyway. So this change is basically free battery life for the device
Samsung have a setting to set the charger to only charge to a certain amount over night
So if you plug it in at 1800 at 0230 or whatever it won't be charging until just it calculates that it will be full charged when you wake up
Those who forego freedoms for security end up with neither.
Oh yea, the freedom of
checks notes
not rebooting my phone.
Give em an inch…
Please explain to me how this could be the first step towards something sinister. I absolutely don't see it.
Day 1: Phone reboots automatically.
Day 4: Obama trans bathroom sex.
Day 10: Mandatory Gay Islam.
I wish
It is my phone.
I don’t want my kids playing with it.
I don’t want the government snooping on it.
I don’t want the CEO of Apple or google making any changes to my property without my consent.
Yet my kids play on my phone despite my objections.
The government snoops
And Tim Cook and google want to remind us it is THEIR PHONE
Sounds like you're just salty you're incapable of raising your children
You sound like my wife. Thanks
He disappoints his wife too!
Please answer my question.
/s?
freedom lol
If they’re free to crash our economy
Can I be free to crash MY PHONE?