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I wouldn't recommend this. You want your device to look innocuous and normal. Nobody carries around an unused phone, so having one would be a red flag. Your pho

I wouldn't recommend this. You want your device to look innocuous and normal. Nobody carries around an unused phone, so having one would be a red flag. Your phone will be examined for hidden partitions, and you'll be detained for further scrutiny.

NoGravitas 9y ago
It might make sense to have two images that you can switch between with TWRP or similar. One that is whatever you normally use, and one that is aggressively normal - factory reset, then add a secondary Google account, social media apps (with secondary accounts, maybe, depending), and casual games.
Terretta 9y ago
In iCloud ecosystem, create a family, with a child account AppleID. Do a full backup. Wipe the phone, log in with child account. You can now redownload a few key apps needed for the trip, as well as some normal apps: weather, TripIt/Uber/CityMapper, games, etc. Because it’s a family account, all the re-downloads are free. Share essential data (that you don’t mind being taken) from your own account to this account the way you would to another family member. Use the iCloud “Family” calendar for your trip planning (useful anyway to share travel plans with partner etc), or subscribe this account to e.g. your TripIt/TripCase calendar. Invite this child account as a family member for your smart home etc., using child (parental controlled) config where available so it’s not an admin. Use secure Shared Notes from Apple Notes or Evernote to bridge travel lists. Subscribe to a shared iCloud Photos album so you can seamlessly post photos taken with this account back to your primary account (and that album will only contain photos you intend to be visible on this persona). Load in your business’s main contact info, your personal contact card with your business email and number, and then contacts for airlines, car rentals, hotels, and customer support numbers you use. If traveling with a partner, load their contact in as well, also using work info. Include a contact record for the ‘emergency contact’ you already disclosed on other forms (airline, customs). If the device is lost, searched, etc., revoke this child from everything you’d shared to it from. If you need access to more while traveling, look into 1Password’s travel mode, and share a travel-safe vault from yourself to yourself: https://blog.agilebits.com/2017/05/18/introducing-travel-mode-protect-your-data-when-crossing-borders/ https://blog.agilebits.com/2017/05/18/introducing-travel-mod... When you are set up as you like, backup to iCloud. In the future, you can restore from this backup. Caveat: On the parent ID, avoid applications that mark their data to exclude from iCloud backups unless they sync themselves to the cloud and auto-restore the data when restoring that Apple ID to a new device. For such apps, you will have to manually recreate their data, or use legacy iTunes wired backup and restore which defeats the purpose if you wish to restore at your trip destination. A common example might be Google Authenticator. Pro-Tip: Restoring very large numbers of apps, as well as iCloud data such as files and photos, can take a very long time OTA. On a home Mac, set up iCloud Content Caching with a sufficient size to cache all apps, documents, and photo data, to radically improve restore times: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/about-content-caching-mchleaf1e61d https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/about-content... This will speed up app restore for the child account as well, though that shouldn’t be an issue as you’ll maintain a very small number of apps. The device will be useful from home to destination, and info (notes, photos, etc.) on the go can be shared back to the parent. Depending on length of trip, you can restore to your primary ID at destination and then flip again for the trip home. The device will be normal.
cr0sh 9y ago
If it's been factory reset and wiped, there's not going to be much that they can do about it. They could detain you - but for what reason? Because you have a blank phone? What if you don't have any social media presence? What if you simply don't remember your passwords (because they are stored on your browser at home, or you have some kind of device like a yubikey, and that's at home too)? So they detain you, because...why? "Innocuous and normal"? So anyone who decides to forgo any electronic devices while traveling and doesn't have a social media presence (or maybe even an internet presence!) is considered "suspect"? The more I hear and read about stuff like this, the more I just want to log off, move to the middle of nowhere, and switch back to coding on my old 8-bit microcomputer from the 1980s - this world and my country has gone insane.

NoGravitas 9y ago

It might make sense to have two images that you can switch between with TWRP or similar. One that is whatever you normally use, and one that is aggressively normal - factory reset, then add a secondary Google account, social media apps (with secondary accounts, maybe, depending), and casual games.

Terretta 9y ago

In iCloud ecosystem, create a family, with a child account AppleID. Do a full backup. Wipe the phone, log in with child account. You can now redownload a few key apps needed for the trip, as well as some normal apps: weather, TripIt/Uber/CityMapper, games, etc. Because it’s a family account, all the re-downloads are free. Share essential data (that you don’t mind being taken) from your own account to this account the way you would to another family member. Use the iCloud “Family” calendar for your trip planning (useful anyway to share travel plans with partner etc), or subscribe this account to e.g. your TripIt/TripCase calendar. Invite this child account as a family member for your smart home etc., using child (parental controlled) config where available so it’s not an admin. Use secure Shared Notes from Apple Notes or Evernote to bridge travel lists. Subscribe to a shared iCloud Photos album so you can seamlessly post photos taken with this account back to your primary account (and that album will only contain photos you intend to be visible on this persona). Load in your business’s main contact info, your personal contact card with your business email and number, and then contacts for airlines, car rentals, hotels, and customer support numbers you use. If traveling with a partner, load their contact in as well, also using work info. Include a contact record for the ‘emergency contact’ you already disclosed on other forms (airline, customs). If the device is lost, searched, etc., revoke this child from everything you’d shared to it from. If you need access to more while traveling, look into 1Password’s travel mode, and share a travel-safe vault from yourself to yourself: https://blog.agilebits.com/2017/05/18/introducing-travel-mode-protect-your-data-when-crossing-borders/ https://blog.agilebits.com/2017/05/18/introducing-travel-mod... When you are set up as you like, backup to iCloud. In the future, you can restore from this backup. Caveat: On the parent ID, avoid applications that mark their data to exclude from iCloud backups unless they sync themselves to the cloud and auto-restore the data when restoring that Apple ID to a new device. For such apps, you will have to manually recreate their data, or use legacy iTunes wired backup and restore which defeats the purpose if you wish to restore at your trip destination. A common example might be Google Authenticator. Pro-Tip: Restoring very large numbers of apps, as well as iCloud data such as files and photos, can take a very long time OTA. On a home Mac, set up iCloud Content Caching with a sufficient size to cache all apps, documents, and photo data, to radically improve restore times: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/about-content-caching-mchleaf1e61d https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/about-content... This will speed up app restore for the child account as well, though that shouldn’t be an issue as you’ll maintain a very small number of apps. The device will be useful from home to destination, and info (notes, photos, etc.) on the go can be shared back to the parent. Depending on length of trip, you can restore to your primary ID at destination and then flip again for the trip home. The device will be normal.

cr0sh 9y ago

If it's been factory reset and wiped, there's not going to be much that they can do about it. They could detain you - but for what reason? Because you have a blank phone? What if you don't have any social media presence? What if you simply don't remember your passwords (because they are stored on your browser at home, or you have some kind of device like a yubikey, and that's at home too)? So they detain you, because...why? "Innocuous and normal"? So anyone who decides to forgo any electronic devices while traveling and doesn't have a social media presence (or maybe even an internet presence!) is considered "suspect"? The more I hear and read about stuff like this, the more I just want to log off, move to the middle of nowhere, and switch back to coding on my old 8-bit microcomputer from the 1980s - this world and my country has gone insane.