[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Has anyone successfully recovered photos fro... ___________________________________________________________________ Ask HN: Has anyone successfully recovered photos from a broken Android phone? The topic of data recovery from broken phones seems to be a prime target from SEO optimised blogspam so I'm posting here in hopes that someone had a similar issue in the past and may be able to help me out. I am tasked with restoring some photos from a Huawei P30 that has a broken screen/touchpad. The photos were stored on the device directly, unfortunately not on an SD card or on a cloud provider. The phone does still turn on (it vibrates when plugged into a power outlet and shows up on Windows). However, it's only showing an installer for HiSuite (which did not help), not the file system. USB debugging is enabled. Things I tried so far and didn't work: - shining a flashlight at the screen to see if only the backlight is broken (it seems the whole screen is done for) - eyeballing it and trying to blindly enter the passcode - connecting phone to external monitor and keyboard via USB-C -> HDMI (monitor stays black) Is there anything that may still have a chance of working short of replacing the screen to unlock the phone? Thanks and happy holidays. Author : mahathu Score : 20 points Date : 2022-12-25 21:21 UTC (1 hours ago) | giancarlostoro wrote: | I almost want to suggest to find the cheapest version of the same | phone or finding the cheapest screen for it somewhere. Then | replacing the screen just long enough to get the files out. This | is also a valuable lesson on why you backup things. | alanbernstein wrote: | This is what I did the last time a phone died. Got the screen | replaced, which was $120, but worth it to recover my 2FA setup. | Then I switched to a better 2FA app. That was the only | important thing on the phone with no backup. It lasted another | six months before the new screen died. I could probably replace | it again, so I could recover a few config files, but it's not | worth the cost. | zdware wrote: | You mentioned USB debugging is enabled, any luck connecting up | via ADB and poking around? If `adb shell` and trying to look at | the filesystem doesn't work, maybe try this out to unlock the | phone https://github.com/oberien/adb-remote-control | david_allison wrote: | Unlocking the phone will resolve the issue (once you have ADB | access, you're golden). A USB keyboard + numpad can enter a PIN, | the issue is finding the key combination to press 'enter'. | | * See if you can turn on talkback (typically pressing both volume | buttons for 3 seconds, 2 times). This should provide you with | enough information about what's happening on the screen to unlock | it. | | * Once you have the phone unlocked, connect to a bluetooth | keyboard. This will free up the USB port for ADB | | * You need to accept a confirmation dialog to pair via ADB | | EDIT: `adb shell` may be able to input keypresses with an | unverified device. My normal device isn't recognised at all over | USB currently so I can't test. | izacus wrote: | Phone storage on Android has been encrypted for years, so | recovering it without unlocking the phone isn't really possible. | Since you said USB-C to HDMI adapter doesn't work, you'll need to | fix the screen to decrypt the storage and make a backup. | silisili wrote: | This(fortunately) is the correct answer. Unless of course the | phone was setup without any security. Is that still allowed in | Android? | AussieWog93 wrote: | This is a fair point. | | Poking around, it seems there are both CLI and GUI solutions to | get around this, though: | https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29072501/how-to-unlock-a... | greatjack613 wrote: | If adb is enabled on the phone you can try using WebADB - | https://webadb.com to pull data from the phone. It includes a | file browser that allows you to see and pull files from the phone | as well as a web based version of scrcpy. | codingrightnow wrote: | Have you tried hooking it up to a dock and plugging in a monitor | cable and keyboard/mouse? | AussieWog93 wrote: | If USB Debugging is enabled, you should be fine. | | The first thing you'll need is Google's platform tools, as well | as a compatible ADB driver for your device if you're on Windows. | | Then, you can use `adb pull` to copy data from the phone's | filesystem to Windows. | | Edit: another commenter rightly pointed out that this might not | work when your phone is locked. | | A quick search found some really interesting tools in this thread | here (srcpy especially seems amazing!): | https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29072501/how-to-unlock-a... | francisduvivier wrote: | +1 for scrcpy https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy | glitchc wrote: | Seconded, adb tools is the best way to recover files in this | scenario. No need to replace the screen as others have | suggested. | throwaway554785 wrote: | I recovered my partner's photos and notes from her Samsung phone | when she dropped it and the screen broke. | | Spoilers: I had to replace the screen. | | I had already flashed Lineage OS on it, but this was not helpful. | | I first tried to mount the userdata via ADB shell (via LineageOS | Recovery or another recovery), but was unable to. AIUI, the | recoveries don't have support for Samsung encryption. | | Second attempt was to try to boot to GUI, then control the GUI | over ADB using scrcpy. This required USB debugging enabled, but I | was unable to enable this. | | Final attempt was to buy a replacement screen, and follow a | YouTube video to replace it. | | This was new to me, but it worked. I needed a kit of mobile phone | repair prying tools ($15), the screen ($100) and patience. | | I've since enabled backups on my partner's phone. :) | maremmano wrote: | You should try something like this: | | https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B08C741R65/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_... | | Not all USB-C -> HDMI connectors work properly. This works with | Huawei P20 Pro | | I suggest this before going with the USB debugging way (using the | android console and tools) | mustafabisic1 wrote: | Far from my expertise, but I had some luck with recovering some | old photos from an Android which was factory reseted. | | Used a common software. | | Hopefully someone with more knowledge will pick it up and help | you. | gricardo99 wrote: | somewhat related, anyone have advice for data recovery from old | external USB drives? | | I have a couple western digital USB drives, about 10 years old. | they show up as a drive when plugged into a Mac or windows laptop | but they disconnect when trying to navigate the folders or | open/copy files. | Larrikin wrote: | It won't help if your screen is totally dead but I got a hairline | fracture in an old Sony phone that made the touch part stop | working. When I took it in to the shop I learned if you plug in a | corded mouse to the charging port of an Android phone, a mouse | will show on screen. | | Everything on my phone was already backed up but it did let me | wipe the phone completely. Nice feature that I'm sure most people | never even think to use. | lordnacho wrote: | The screen might not be expensive. I got quoted about 30 quid | once for an old Honor View 10, which I was surprised about. | stefanos82 wrote: | I personally use my USB cable, the same that charges my phone and | plug it on my desktop computer (Linux) and access my Internal | storage directly from there; that's really it! | izacus wrote: | That requires authorization for computer to access data. | johnchristopher wrote: | While we are on the subject: | | Is it easy/recommended to look into creating backup with borg ? | Can I regularly backup up an android phone like I do with my | laptop ? | jcynix wrote: | I do backups with Termux (a Debian Linux inside an app) f-droid | version nowadays) and rsync everything over ssh onto a desktop | machine. | | Works like a charm for most data, but a caveat: you should | prefer apps which store their data in the public storage parts | of Android. Pictures, photos (DCIM) and music mostly live | there. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-12-25 23:00 UTC)