Knox is a way for Samsung and carriers to check and see if you’ve modified the Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+, and this is how you can check if it’s tripped.
Samsung devices are highly regarded in the enterprise workplace because of how serious they take security. Some of their phones are the only Android devices that are certified to be used in government positions around the world. So this means they are constantly investing in improving the security of their smartphones and this has resulted in the Samsung Knox security platform. This does a lot to keep us safe, but it can also be a hindrance.
For average customers who just want to root and modify their phone, this means that Knox almost always gets tripped when you install a custom recovery and/or gain root access.
Usually, there is not a way to reset it either if Knox gets tripped (although some exploits for older Samsung phones have allowed this). Even returning the Galaxy S8 to stock Android and a stock recovery will not reset Knox if it has already been tripped.
This means your warranty is void (in most cases), so today I want to show you how to check if Knox has been tripped on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+.
Galaxy S8 Check Knox
- Power down the Galaxy S8 or S8+
- Boot the Galaxy S8 into Download Mode (also known as Odin Mode)
- Press the Volume Up button when you get to the blue screen
- Look for the Warranty Void line (1 means tripped, 0 means not tripped)
Explanation
There are a few reasons why you may feel the need to check if Knox has been tripped on the Galaxy S8. For example, if something has gone wrong with your device, you could save time and money by checking this ahead of time. Because if you send the device to Samsung to get it fixed under warranty and Knox has been tripped, then they will just send it back and say the warranty has been void. So this route will just waste time and possibly money if you paid to ship it.
Alternatively, if you just bought a used Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+ then the same thing could happen. Even if it’s completely working now, Samsung will refuse to fix or replace it in the future if the previous owner has tripped Knox. Some retailers and carriers do not care about Knox and they’ll replace or refund your purchase even if Knox has been tripped. This is something you shouldn’t expect though as they could have procedures in place to check this sort of thing.
So as you can see from the step by step guide above, the process is very easy. We just need to power off the Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+ so that we can boot it into Download Mode. If you’re not sure about how to get into Download Mode then click the link in Step 2 of the guide above. When you first boot into Download Mode you’ll be greeted with a blue screen and you just want to press the Volume Up button to get past this warning screen.
From here, you’ll see a lot of text and if you read through it you will eventually come across a line that says “Warranty Void:” and there will be a number after it. This is how we check the Galaxy S8 to see if Knox has been tripped. If the number here reads “1”, then that means Knox has been tripped. However, if this number reads “0” then that means Knox has not been tripped and that your warranty is still valid no matter who you send it to.
Once you are done checking, you can press and hold the Power, Bixby and Volume Down button for a few seconds to force the Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+ to reboot back into Android.
