How to mount encrypted /data partition in recovery mode?

/e/OS Devices Fairphone
, ,
81

does moving can be done in the first instance ?

i think this can be deleted, because easily replaceable, but maybe not so big…to make the device bootable…

82

@Ecowano - too bad, current TWRP for the FP4 can’t mount the filesystem neither, I’d say you’re out of luck modifying your userdata partition and next up is resetting

83

I also ran into this problem on my FP4 (storage full) and had the same problems as @Ecowano:
I couldn’t mount even the encrypted data from recovery and neither could TWRP.

I did however manage to find a pretty wonky solution that allowed me to free space:

  • Installed TWRP to recovery
  • Booted TWRP
  • Opened an adb shell
  • Modified /etc/fstab to mount /system_root as writable (replace ro with rw)
  • Followed this guide to enable debugging (note that TWRP mounts the system partition to /system_root instead)
  • Booted into the system without unlocking it and tried adb shell, you should see a message about this
  • Unlocked the system and quickly checked allowing future access and accepted debugging access
  • After the system rebooted by itself to the lock screen again, ran adb shell to gain a shell
  • User data was still not mounted but I was able to use pm uninstall to remove a large app (inspired by this comment)

This may work without installing TWRP but I already had that installed to my recovery partition.

IMHO the fact that filling up userdata can so easily brick the system is pretty bad and not in line with /e/OS’ aim to be an OS for everyone.

84

Trying your solution I managed to replace ro by rw in fstab, but when I type adb shell pm list packages, I get
/system/bin/sh: pm: inaccessible or not found
I did not try the steps between because I already have TWRP installed, debug enabled, but maybe I miss something ?