HThere are simple solutions that, once present, become essential, and in this case Samsung seems to have established a chair with this novelty. So much so that, and I think I speak for all users of smartphones from other brands, here we have an example that should be taken into account and applied by the rest of the manufacturers, since I am sure that the vast majority of users (if not the all of them, actually) would like to have something like that.
And it is that, What is Samsung Maintenance Mode? To explain it, the best thing is to put ourselves in a situation: a bad day (because the day something like this happens is bad, by definition) your smartphone falls to the ground and the screen breaks, or you discover that the speaker does not work, or the duration of the battery begins to be measured in minutes, instead of in hours… in short, you will already have an idea of what I mean, the day it is time to take it to a technical service to solve the problem.
Although official technical services can provide, at least in principle, more security, due to price and speed, on many occasions we resort to unofficial services. And be that as it may, in an official center located in a place with avant-garde design, or in a neighborhood technical service, humble but generally cheap and reliable, there is a moment that always generates a certain resentment: that of handing over our smartphone, unlocked, to a stranger. And I don’t doubt the absolute professionalism of 99% of professionals, but always, and in everything, there is a black sheep.
A somewhat drastic method is to back up the device and restore it to factory settings before handing it over, but there are quite a few cases where this may not be possibleand there are also quite a few users who wouldn’t know how to do it, so in the end, in many cases, everything we store on the device, remains for a few hours or days in the hands of a perfect stranger.
Well, the Maintenance Mode, whose global deployment has been announced today by Samsung, offers us a solution, since it offers a way in which all the main functions of the smartphone will be accessible, but not the user’s content, settings, etc.. In this way, when the user activates Maintenance Mode, he will access a new user account on the device, from which he can only exit when he wishes.
Thus, when the technician is left “alone” with the device, he will be able to access its configuration, make adjustments and checks, etc., but since the user’s data is linked exclusively to his account, access to them will not be possible. . To ensure the security of this function, the system is based on Samsung KNOXthe already veteran set of security technologies of the Korean brand.
The bad news is that the scope of maintenance mode is part of One UI 5, so its scope in terms of a variety of devices will be limited. However, Samsung points out that the deployment started today will continue throughout 2023and that availability will be expanded to more Galaxy devices.
