A lot of Samsung Galaxy users were thrilled when earlier this year, the company announced the release of Samsung Pay, its mobile payment service to rival Google's Android Pay and Apple Pay. However, it has recently come to light that Samsung's solution will not let users add a card on encrypted devices.
The issue became known when mattspierce, an XDA online community member, brought the issue up with the community administrators and informed them that he couldn't add a card. The member detailed that he installed the Samsung Pay app, along with the necessary framework, on an encrypted Samsung Galaxy S6. However, he got a "Couldn't contact the server" error on his attempt to add a card. With some digging, mattspierce found out that other users were also experiencing the same problem.
In an email, Samsung confirmed that Samsung Pay does not support the addition of cards as long as the device has encryption enabled and that it first needs to be decrypted for the card to be added.
"If the device is encrypted, you cannot add card to the Samsung pay app," says Samsung. "You need to decrypt the phone to add card to the Samsung pay app."
The email comes with instructions on how to decrypt a device so that a card can be added.
First, go to the "Settings" and then scroll down to the Personal section.
Once on the Personal section, Tap the "Lock Screen and Security" option.
Navigate and select "'Other Security Settings." Note that the system may prompt for a password or pin code before populating the "Decrypt Option."
Tap the "Decrypt Option."
Add the card after the device is decrypted.
In the event that the decrypt option does not appear, Samsung instructs to factory reset the device. It is yet unclear whether the app was designed this way or if it is an unanticipated error.
