[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Has anyone successfully recovered photos fro...
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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.
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(page generated 2022-12-25 23:00 UTC)