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Broken screen, need to retrieve files off phone! help please

My screen first cracked and then the LCD completely went now... I have files I need to retrieve off the phone. It is rooted and running some ICS build... I believe the phone is in USB debugging mode, the screen still 'works' I can unlock the phone but nothing is displayed on the screen. Possibly someone could help me out with the adb process for pulling the contents off the /sd
Any help will be GREATLY appreciated, thank you for your time.

ur usb mass storage should still work. can u just plug ur phone to a usb port and get things off the phone ?

As previously stated. I believe the phone was in USB debugging mode. And now the screen is completely black... impossible to navigate to where i need to be.

You'll need adb setup on your computer, and you'll need to cd your way into the folder with adb.exe. Forgive me for hotlinking, but this will make it easier: Download this file, courtesy of NexusSHacks.com (I believe it is Zedomax around here). I would advise to unzip the contents in this file to your C:\Nexus directory, so that adb.exe is at C:\Nexus\adb.exe.
Now, plug in your phone. Open your start menu and search for "cmd" and open up Command Prompt. This is the basic Windows CLI (Command Line Interface).
First, you'll need to open the directory of the Nexus folder you created earlier. To do this, type in the command prompt:
Code:
cd C:\Nexus
Now, you want to make sure adb sees your phone:
Code:
adb devices
The adb service should start and if it sees your phone it will pop up a serial number. If there is no serial number, you can't use adb while inside android and you'll need to tick the option or find an alternative way. Assuming it finds your device, you are good to go.
In order to copy the /sdcard folder of your Nexus S, you will use the pull command. We will throw all of the files into C:\Nexus\sdcard, for reference. So in the command prompt, type:
Code:
adb pull /sdcard .\sdcard
It looks a little confusing but don't stress. Just make sure you type it in exactly (dot, correct slash, etc). This will take a little while since it might transfer up to ~15GB worth. You'll see a new line with "C:\Nexus>" with a flashing cursor when it is done. Then you can view all the contents of your sdcard at C:\Nexus\sdcard and do with them as you please.
Also note, for this you'll need up to ~15GB of free space on your C:\ partition, make sure you have this before you start. Good luck

old post I know, but I just dropped my Samsung Captivate (rooted with debugging on) and internal screen cracked (gorilla glass is perfectly fine!), so I am in the same boat. After DAYS... actually DAYS of trying everything from every forum I FOUND A FIX!!!
Now admittedly, I am unsure which of these two (or both) fixed the issue, but here is what I did:
via Google Play's online "shop", I installed "Auto Mount Your SD Card" by JRTStudio (admittingly, unsure if this did anything as I cannot verify if it installed or anything via the phone)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...wsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5qcnRzdHVkaW8uYXV0b21vdW50Il0.
then I DL'ed MoboRobo and after a few frustrated phone reboots, usb cable connections and much cursing IT CONNECTED!
http://www.moborobo.com/
I am currently DLing all my files from my broken phone!
I had to pass this along as I said... NOBODY seems to know about this as it has taken me DAYS to do this! Not even ATT (Current carrier) nor Spring (whom I am switching to in a month or so) could help me!

You save my life with that "moborobo". Thank you very much.

Glad I could help!!!

Thanks went to both of u, quit important piece of knowledge.
One question; r u downloading "moborobo" on ur Android, on your pc or on both of them?

just on PC, not needed on the phone unless you want to go via WiFi

Harbb said:
If there is no serial number, you can't use adb while inside android and you'll need to tick the option or find an alternative way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean by this?
My adb service doesn't detect my phone, I used Droidzone's tutorial. I believe usb debugging needs to be on for adb to work, which in my case is useless cause my screen is broken so can't turn on usb debugging.
This is what happens:
---------------------------
C:\>adb devices
List of devices attached
C:\>
---------------------------
---------- Post added at 11:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:23 PM ----------
^when I say broken, I mean the whole screen is distorted, I cannot see anything

droidoidoid said:
What do you mean by this?
My adb service doesn't detect my phone, I used Droidzone's tutorial. I believe usb debugging needs to be on for adb to work, which in my case is useless cause my screen is broken so can't turn on usb debugging.
This is what happens:
---------------------------
C:\>adb devices
List of devices attached
C:\>
---------------------------
---------- Post added at 11:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:23 PM ----------
^when I say broken, I mean the whole screen is distorted, I cannot see anything
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reboot to recovery. Bam, working ADB. You can navigate there pretty easily. Pull battery, then re-insert. VOL + & PWR, two click on VOL -, PWR button once. You're in recovery now.

QtADB also can be used is this case
http://qtadb.wordpress.com/download/

paskalion said:
QtADB also can be used is this case
http://qtadb.wordpress.com/download/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No go on this either.
Downloaded QtADB, ran the .exe
Pointed to the folder with the aapt and adb binaries, program opened up
Phone's connected and on (I can hear texts coming through), hit refresh a few times, still not detecting

polobunny said:
Reboot to recovery. Bam, working ADB. You can navigate there pretty easily. Pull battery, then re-insert. VOL + & PWR, two click on VOL -, PWR button once. You're in recovery now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a little tough. I'm using a Galaxy S so I'm following instructions for that, but it's hard to know if I'm in recovery mode or not. Since adb doesn't detect the device, it's hard to know whether the phone went into recovery mode, or whether adb is setup correctly. It would be handy for a voice sample to play "recovery mode" once the phone boots into it.

droidoidoid said:
That's a little tough. I'm using a Galaxy S so I'm following instructions for that, but it's hard to know if I'm in recovery mode or not. Since adb doesn't detect the device, it's hard to know whether the phone went into recovery mode, or whether adb is setup correctly. It would be handy for a voice sample to play "recovery mode" once the phone boots into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're in the wrong forum, then.
And whether or not adb is installed properly, you would know in your device manager under Windows. Appears as a device.

polobunny said:
You're in the wrong forum, then.
And whether or not adb is installed properly, you would know in your device manager under Windows. Appears as a device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok... Galaxy S i9000 stuff goes in the Galaxy S i9000 forum.... that's probably why my other post got deleted! :laugh:
As for adb... it appears as a process in task manager, so it's running - I know that much. It's not appearing as a device in device manager (why would it if it's a process? or are you referring to my phone appearing as a device?)
Only areas I can think of that aren't correct are the environment variable and the way I'm doing recovery mode. Since I can't see the screen, I don't know which one is causing the issue! :crying:

Samsung broken??
Contact this guy in Paris , he's very good and friendly!! he repairs my blue Galaxy S3 in front of me
Tel: 0950 850 500 Direct Technique
repare-galaxy com
don't hesitate to call them because i know their skills and it's very good!!
tell them that u call from Mike ciao guys!!

Problem!
Harbb said:
Code:
adb pull /sdcard .\sdcard
It looks a little confusing but don't stress. Just make sure you type it in exactly (dot, correct slash, etc). This will take a little while since it might transfer up to ~15GB worth. You'll see a new line with "C:\Nexus>" with a flashing cursor when it is done. Then you can view all the contents of your sdcard at C:\Nexus\sdcard and do with them as you please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, I got to this problem and I got stuck. I also have a Nexus S with a cracked screen. When I put in the final phrase into the command window it just told me that 0 filles were pulled! Why didnt it pull my files?
What I am trying to do is get all of my pictures and others off the phone.
Please help!

SkullMblem said:
Hey, I got to this problem and I got stuck. I also have a Nexus S with a cracked screen. When I put in the final phrase into the command window it just told me that 0 filles were pulled! Why didnt it pull my files?
What I am trying to do is get all of my pictures and others off the phone.
Please help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This happened to me as well. You have to make sure that your phone has its sdcard folder mounted. Type "adb shell" to get access to the phones command terminal. Then type in "mount /sdcard" I think, or maybe it was "mount sdcard". Either way will probably work so long as you are in the root directory of the phone. You can navigate around in the phone just like a normal linux terminal. "ls" shows list of files and folders in the current directory, "cd foldername" moves into a folder, "cd ../" moves back, "cd /" goes to root directory, etc. Anyhow, once you have mounted the sdcard, you can type exit to leave the shell terminal, and then issue the command "adb pull /sdcard .\sdcard" to get the files. I had a custom rom image in the root of my sdcard so the move took quite a while ~15 minutes. On success of the pull command you should see a bunch of statuses like:
pull: sdcard/data/somefile -> .\sdcard/data/somefile
pull: sdcard/DCIM/somefile -> .\sdcard/DCIM/somefile
.
.
.
XXXX files pulled. 0 files skipped
(Some more transmission stats)
Hope it works out for who ever reads this.
Side note:
On my phone the screen was smashed. I replaced it and it still would not turn on, but it was still running. I had a rooted phone with CM10 rom on it. ADB debugging was one (if its off your pretty much screwed). I started up the phone, and plugged in the usb cable. I tried to use both adb and fastboot from windows terminal. "fastboot devices" would echo back nothing, and "adb devices" would echo back my phone's device number but state it was offline. So to get it online I did the following:
1.) pull batttery.
2.) boot into bootloader (hold power and volume up) the phone shouldn't vibrate if it does you have just normally powered it on. It took me quite a few times to get this to go into the bootloader. To make sure you get in the bootloader type "fastboot devices". If nothing comes up you not there.
3.) once verified you are in the bootloader you need to go into recover mode. Press volume down twice and then hit power (this would normally move the cursor on your phone down to recovery and select it if you could see whats happening on the screen).
4.) wait a bit for it to load into recovery, try typing "adb devices". You should eventually see you device show up as online. At this point you may enter the shell as above, mount the sdcard, exit the shell and pull your files.
Windows instuctions:
Prerequisites are installing adb.exe and fastboot.exe via installing the Android SDK on your computer. They will show up in the platform-tools folder of the install location. Add that folder to your environmental path variable so you can run the ADB and fastboot commands from any folder. Install the ADB driver for your phone (allows you to issue adb commands to your phone when USB is plugged in) by plugging in your phone and going to device manager, find your phone which should show up as a exclamation point, right click update driver, click "browse...", then "let me pick...", click top entry something like "show all", and then let the list populate. On the left look for "samsung" and then select the first one that is something like "samsung adb driver interface". And you should be good to go.
Sorry for the long winded post, I just like to try and explain as much as possible.

Successfully Recoverd data
Well My Samsung S2's Screen broke down few days ago.. Now i have retrieved the data by following the 2nd method in the following article..! I Hope this works for you aswell...
I can not Post the link here.. PM me if you want the link...!

Regaining access to a password locked tablet.

I've no idea if this works for all Android tablets/phones but it sounds like it should.
It might also be common knowledge to most on here but I couldn't find it earlier.
This is a story that happened to a work college of mine and three of us have just spent half the morning trying to sort it out. It starts with a cheap £50 tablet from Amazon, the LelikTec A13 Touch Screen AllWinner, which my college's son bought for his daughters. Being kids they did what kids do and mucked around with all the settings which resulted in them locking themselves out of the tablet (by setting up a pattern lock and then forgetting it).
Unfortunately, the tablet was locked with the WiFi turned OFF, so an attempt to use the useful Google recovery system was unsuccessful (tip for Google there, make the password recovery system so you can enable and setup a WiFi link). Never mind, you can perform a factory reset on Android devices by booting into recovery mode by pressing the up volume and power buttons at the same time. Well for some unexplained reason this didn't work, it simply resulted in the distressing image of a dead Android on the screen.
So the next thing to do is attempt to use the Android Debug Bridge via USB. Now between us we knew this is what we needed to do, but no one knew exactly how, so here is a beginners, step-by-step guide.
Download the ADB SDK from this website.
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
(If you have a 64 bit system then the top download button is all you need. If you have a 32 bit system then at the bottom of the webpage is "Download for other platforms" link and you can download the relevant software from here)
Install the ADB SDK so that it is on the c:\ drive (so that to navigate through it looks like c:\android-sdk\.....etc)
You now need to install the correct USB Drivers. If you navigate through to C:\android-sdk then you will see SDK Manager.exe.
Run up the SDK manager
Scroll through to Extras\Google USB Driver and check the box
Select Install packages. This will now have installed the usb drivers so that the development kit can talk to the tablet. (These drivers worked fine on a 64 bit machine but did not work on my 32 bit XP machine. I downloaded the drivers from here:-
http://www.kmods.net/android/misc_g59-usb_drivers_windows_7__vista__xp__32bit_p18.html
and they worked fine on the XP machine)
Close the SDK Manager
Now plug in the tablet to your PC using the USB cable supplied with the tablet.
Check the "DEVICE MANAGER" and you should see "ANDROID PHONE\Android ADB Interface"
(If you still have an unknown device then right click it navigate to "Update Driver" and then point it at the drivers USB drivers folder you may have downloaded earlier and update it)
This next step will make life a lot easier to unlock your tablet but take care in doing it.
a) Right Click "MY COMPUTER" and select properties\Advanced\Environment Variables
b) Scroll down until you see "Path" and select edit.
c) Add the following two lines to the end of the text making sure that you use ;(semicolon) between them.
e.g.C:\Program Files\WinNT\Bin\;c:\android-sdk\sdk\platform-tools\;c:\android-sdk\sdk\tools\
Now you all you have to do is follow the instructions on this website
http://www.addictivetips.com/androi...e-pattern-unlock-on-android-via-adb-commands/
As a brief summary:-
Goto ,<START> <RUN> and type in cmd
Cut this text:-
adb shell
cd /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases
sqlite3 settings.db
update system set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock';
update system set value=0 where name='lockscreen.lockedoutpermanently';
.quit
and paste it into the cmd window.(You have to right click to paste into the CMD window)
If you now reboot your tablet you will find it unlocked. Re-connect it to the internet, type in your Gmail account details and away you go.
There may be other, easier ways of doing this, but this is what we did and this is what worked for us.
Apologies if this is in the wrong part of the forum, please feel free to move if so.

[TOOL] ADB Data Recovery (recover data from a phone with broken screen)

**UPDATE**
NEW VERSION
THIS RELIES ON ADB COMMANDS, SO IF YOU DO NOT HAVE USB DEBUGGING TURNED ON, OR A CUSTOM RECOVERY TO BOOT TO, THEN IT WILL NOT BE AS SIMPLE AS JUST RUNING THE PROGRAM.
Another user was having issues because he had an emulator installed, so I updated the file to give you the choice between an emulator, or device. I intend to update further to allow you to check for and select an individual device, that will come soon..
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recently my Galaxy s2's screen smashed, and, after replacing it with a GS4, i realized that many of my pictures were stuck on the internal sd card of the GS2. Being unable to turn on mass storage mode, I made a very simple tool that makes using adb pull a simple, painless process, even for the most computer illiterate of android users. Hope this helps if anyone needs it.
For anyone having issues...
If you had not previously activated USB Debugging, there are several steps you need to follow in order to enable ADB
SCREEN WORKING TOUCH BROKEN NO CUSTOM RECOVERY​first, if you can see your screen, and have access to an otg cable, plug a mouse in to the otg cable, and the otg cable into the phone. Use the mouse to enable USB debugging, or to transfer files.
HOW TO ENABLE USB DEBUGGING
SCREEN WORKING TOUCH BROKEN WITH CUSTOM RECOVERY​boot to your custom recovery ADB commands will work here. (usually hold vol- + pwr)
HOW TO BOOT TO RECOVERY
Once in custom recovery, connect the device to the PC.
open CMD and enter the following commands;
cd c:\android (this is your ADB path, c:\android is default)
adb devices
The result should be something like
List of devices attached
051a4dd5 recovery
^^this number will be different for you
if you get a result on ADB devices, then you can use the program
SCREEN BROKEN TOUCH BROKEN WITH CUSTOM RECOVERY​boot to your custom recovery ADB commands will work here. (usually hold vol- + pwr)
HOW TO BOOT TO RECOVERY
Once in custom recovery, connect the device to the PC.
open CMD and enter the following commands;
cd c:\android (this is your ADB path, c:\android is default)
adb devices
The result should be something like
List of devices attached
051a4dd5 recovery
^^this number will be different for you
if you get a result on ADB devices, then you can use the program
SCREEN BROKEN TOUCH BROKEN NO CUSTOM RECOVERY​now things get complicated...
*The following is paraphrased from this site
1. download the custom recovery image for your device. Copy the recovery image to a convenient location on your computer, preferably with a short path. We will be placing it on the C Drive directly (not in any folder) and using that in the next steps.
Note: The recovery image should have .img extension. If it is in a zip file, extract the .img file from it.
I recommend clockwork mod non touch from this page
2. Power your device off and reboot your device to FASTBOOT or DOWNLOAD MODE depending on which type of device you have.
(most devices are fastboot, SAMSUNG typically uses DOWNLOAD MODE)
how to boot to fastboot or download mode
[FASTBOOT]​3. Connect your device to your computer via USB and wait till you see the PC recognize the device
to check if your device is in fastboot and connected use CMD and enter the following commands;
cd c:\android (this is your ADB path, c:\android is default)
fastboot devices
you will see a list of connected devices. if not, something went wrong.
4. Launch Command Prompt and type the following commands;
cd c:\android (this is your ADB path, c:\android is default)
fastboot flash recovery c:\recovery.img
5. Wait for the process to finish.
6. Turn device off then boot to your custom recovery ADB commands will work here. (usually hold vol- + pwr)
HOW TO BOOT TO RECOVERY
Once in custom recovery, connect the device to the PC.
open CMD and enter the following commands;
cd c:\android (this is your ADB path, c:\android is default)
adb devices
The result should be something like
List of devices attached
051a4dd5 recovery
^^this number will be different for you
if you get a result on ADB devices, then you can use the program
[RECOVERY MODE (SAMSUNG)]​USE THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THIS PAGE
Once in custom recovery, connect the device to the PC.
open CMD and enter the following commands;
cd c:\android (this is your ADB path, c:\android is default)
adb devices
The result should be something like
List of devices attached
051a4dd5 recovery
^^this number will be different for you
if you get a result on ADB devices, then you can use the program
HOPEFULLY THIS HELPS. REMEMBER TO CHECK THE FORUM PAGE FOR YOUR DEVICE IF YOU RUN INTO ISSUES. THIS ISN'T ANYTHING THE MEMBERS OF XDA HAVEN'T DONE THOUSANDS OF TIMES OVER.
Don't forget to hit "Thanks"

i'll bump this thread for those who didn't see this amazing tool, this tool is really useful, thank you very much

Hi,
Sturggling to find the .adb file as my phone shows up as a "Portable Device" any ideas?
Cheers

Thank you!
I joined just to say thank you to FuzzyMeep Two. Thanks for an awesome tool! It worked better than advertised!
:good:
Thanks again!
-th3r3isnospoon

Question
Hi! Can I use that to restore data not from sdcard but from internal memory of the device? I was storing photos on device memory on my Asus TF300T and now its bricked. I need to restore these photos, my girlfriend has something like 1000 of them from her trip to Caracas. Its very important for her. I already managed to connect the device through fastboot and I launched anb in cmd. What should I do next? Please help me guys

koperkowy said:
Hi! Can I use that to restore data not from sdcard but from internal memory of the device? I was storing photos on device memory on my Asus TF300T and now its bricked. I need to restore these photos, my girlfriend has something like 1000 of them from her trip to Caracas. Its very important for her. I already managed to connect the device through fastboot and I launched anb in cmd. What should I do next? Please help me guys
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, when it references SD Card it means the internal "SD" storage built in to the phone, not the removable one. It should work as long as ADB can connect.
Sorry for taking so long to reply, i really hope you got your pictures back.

FuzzyMeep Two said:
Recently my Galaxy s2's screen smashed, and, after replacing it with a GS4, i realized that many of my pictures were stuck on the internal sd card of the GS2. Being unable to turn on mass storage mode, I made a very simple tool that makes using adb pull a simple, painless process, even for the most computer illiterate of android users. Hope this helps if anyone needs it.
P.S. I apologize if i have posted this in the wrong place, if so please let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really great stuff - so simple but so effective. Cheers and thanks.

Error msg
zobes said:
Really great stuff - so simple but so effective. Cheers and thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When i run that tool, i get the error mesg: more than one device and emulator,
I dont want to uninstall the emulator coz it was a headache getting it running
How i procede to select the device to be used

alisdairjk said:
When i run that tool, i get the error mesg: more than one device and emulator,
I dont want to uninstall the emulator coz it was a headache getting it running
How i procede to select the device to be used
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NEW VERSION
Try this, i haven't gotten to test it, so please let me know if it worked for you, I added the option of selecting an emulator or USB device, because of your post. Hopefully it helps.

When I try to run this I also get an error message saying that the adb.exe file cannot be found.
Please can anyone help?

Joeb29 said:
When I try to run this I also get an error message saying that the adb.exe file cannot be found.
Please can anyone help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you also installed ADB, as well as this software?
I'm also having an issue - I have installed java, java SDK and ADB, so I can now run the data recovery tool. But when I do I'm getting "error:device not found" - am I missing drivers or something? I couldn't get all the way on the ADB configuration, because part of it required me to do something on the device... anyway, looks like the computer isn't recognising the the phone at the moment.
Any help very gratefully received (phone is Samsung Galaxy S2).

joffmeister said:
Have you also installed ADB, as well as this software?
I'm also having an issue - I have installed java, java SDK and ADB, so I can now run the data recovery tool. But when I do I'm getting "error:device not found" - am I missing drivers or something? I couldn't get all the way on the ADB configuration, because part of it required me to do something on the device... anyway, looks like the computer isn't recognising the the phone at the moment.
Any help very gratefully received (phone is Samsung Galaxy S2).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same situation right now. Managed to make your program work then I get the "error:device not found". My phone does show up in the computer folder(albeit not in mass storage mode), but isn't that what this program was made to work around?
My phone is a LG Optimus G with a smashed glass... The LCD still displays fine, but I'm stuck at my swipe lock because the digitizer is dead.
Thank you for your help and your wonderful program.

Thanks for this app. My girlfriend broke her screen and digitizer on her Galaxy S4. She never turned USB Debugging mode and has a lock on her screen. When using your app I get the same error when I use adb by itself which is "error: closed". ADB detects my phone but any command I use in ADB or with your app I get that same error.
Do you know how to fix this? Thanks in advance.

Thanks a lot man.
dude this tool is just amazing and does exactly what it promised. I was spending sleepless nights thinking about how to recover my data from my broken galaxy nexus and now that I have it I can rest easy. Seriously can't thank you enough for this. Just joined xda to thank you buddy.:laugh::fingers-crossed:

Getting an error "The system cannot find the path specified."
I start the recovery tool, set eh adb path successfully, and then I get this error. If I try running the recovery to pull the DCIM library I get this:
"error: device not found"
What can I do?
Thanks!
Either way this is an amazing tool, seeing how it helped some people already. :good:

Hi, Seem to have the same problem as many others, Device not found. I cant change to MTP mode on my LG G2.
I hope someone can find a solution to this problem.
Program seems amazing doh.

Hello,
This is really a great tool ! I was wondering if you could add the possibility to recover the external sd card aswell.

Device not found
Tried to recover a Samsung Galaxy S3 mini with a broken screen
I installed adb and RecoverData, run it and then get a "device not found error"
What can I do?

Amazing app. thank you so much :good:

FuzzyMeep Two said:
**UPDATE**
NEW VERSION
Another user was having issues because he had an emulator installed, so I updated the file to give you the choice between an emulator, or device. I intend to update further to allow you to check for and select an individual device, that will come soon..
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recently my Galaxy s2's screen smashed, and, after replacing it with a GS4, i realized that many of my pictures were stuck on the internal sd card of the GS2. Being unable to turn on mass storage mode, I made a very simple tool that makes using adb pull a simple, painless process, even for the most computer illiterate of android users. Hope this helps if anyone needs it.
Don't forget to hit "Thanks"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, Thank you very musch, It's so usefull for me.. :angel:

Root installation and drivers issue

I installed the custom ADB drivers from this site, I then booted my Shield and am stuck on the command prompt screen as it says
<waiting for devices> when I try to install the thor.img
The Shield is unlocked and the usb debugging option is on.
Cannot work out what the issue is.
looking under device manager it shows up under Android Device as Nvidia Shield ADB but it also shows up under portable devices as SHIELD.
Whilst in boot mode the device only shows up in portable devices with a exclamation mark next to the device.
*UPDATE*
Ok so I uninstalled my drivers to start again, plugged in the shield and it reinstalled my drivers and now under Android Devices it shows NVIDIA SHIELD ADB
Result!
Now I opened the dab cmd prompt
typed in
adb reboot fastboot
and it booted my shield! jolly good
But then I typed in
fastboot boot thor-insecure-boot.img
I then had
<waiting for device>
show up in the command window.
This is where it stayed.
On the screen of my shield I have options:
continue
restart bootloader
recovery mode
poweroff
I uninstalled the portable device driver because I think it may have been causing confusion.
I then typed adb devices into CMD and a list of devices showed the serial number of the nvidia Shield.
I then typed in adb reboot bootloader in and it booted.
I then tried adb devices again and nothing showed up.
When I go into bootloader The Android Device: Nvidia Shield ADB driver disappears in manager once I go into bootloader mode. Is this normal?
Hmmmmmmm
definetly something to do with the drivers.
I'm on windows 7 64bit by the way.
Going back into device manager I noticed that there is another device under Other devices, upon looking at it it is Fastboot and has an exclamation mark in a yellow triangle next to it (Minimal dab and fast boot is open though).
Such a bummer as I'm so close yet so far

pictures
These are the pictures of the command promt when it is in boot mode, unboot mode and the devices installed.
When I go into boot mode on the shield the device called Nvidia Shield ADB dissappears from the computer manager window and the fastboot device has a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark next to it.
Very odd.

Yellow triangle means driver or device error (either one). The rest you have reached the limits of my knowledge.

appreciate the help
appreciate the help from everyone so far. I got through the bootloader stuff easily enough and now the shield is unlocked. This next bit is just knocked me for six as I have followed the instructions step by step and even taught myself some new stuff but this is not going according to plan.
So far:
I downloaded Andriod SDK
Ran SDK
clicked install and it installed lots of stuff including Android SDK tools, SDK platform tools and SDK Platform & ARM EABIv7a a system image in the Android 4.3 section.
I downloaded minimal adb and fastboot v1.1.3
I downloaded Superuser
I downloaded thor-insecure-boot.img
I downloaded the Universal_Naked_Driver_0.73 package
I then installed the Universal Naked Driver package which shows up on computer manager Devices under Android Devices as NVIDIA SHIELD ADB
I then dragged the thor and superuser files into the minimal adb and fastboot folder
I then plugged in my Shiled via USB 2.0
I started up the adb and fastboot CMD window
I first typed in adb devices and the shield showed up.
I then Typed in adb reboot bootloader
The shield went into boot mode.
I then retyped adb devices into the CMD window
The shield did not show up.
I the typed in fastboot boot thor-insecure-boot.img
The CMD window then said <waiting for Devices>
The shield screen showed that the device is unlocked and gave me 5 options:
Continue
Restart Bootloader
Recovery Mode
Reboot
Poweroff.
And then nothing.
This is the point I am at in terms of rooting.
The Device shows up in the Computer/manage window when plugged in but when I execute the adb reboot bootloader command it dissapears.
There is a Device in the Other Devices section of the Computer/manage window called Fastboot. This has a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in it.
The CMD window can communicate with the Shield as it can make it go into boot mode but that's it.
Appreciate any help that can be given. Apologies for the length of post but it's only fair you know what I have done so far. Knowledge is power etc
I'm on windows 7 64bit os.

Latest pictures of the system
Ok so these are the latest picture of the system as it is now.
Currently there are two drivers showing for the Shield. One under Android Devices as Nvidia Shield ADB
The other is under Portable Devices as SHIELD. (picture 4 from the left)
When in boot mode the Android Device dissappears (picture 2 from the left)
There is a picture of the minimal adb and fastboot folder where I put the Superuser.apk file, the Su file and the Thor file - picture 3 (Is that all correct?)
There is also a picture of the command window when the shield is in boot mode. I type in adb devices and nothing shows up (picture 1)

Android SDK pics
And here is the SDK app running...

When your shield is waiting for fastboot commands it should show up as fastboot in device manager.
I had a terrible time with drivers too. My advice is to uninstall as many shield drivers as you can and then try to manually update the drivers making sure to get the fastboot driver installed. When you select have disk for the drivers the correct one will say Shield Fastboot

time to go fishing!
Ok I will try to uninstall drivers but not sure how to do it due to not exactly knowing which ones there are and where they are kept. Will take a look around. Thanks for the help though will try and find the fastboot drivers

gogul1 said:
Ok I will try to uninstall drivers but not sure how to do it due to not exactly knowing which ones there are and where they are kept. Will take a look around. Thanks for the help though will try and find the fastboot drivers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I did it I plugged in my Shield and went into the device manager and uninstalled everything Shield related. I think it showed up in two places. Then I unplugged the Shield and when I plugged it back in I went back to the device manager and found the Shield again since Windows will auto install some sort of driver when you plug the shield in. I think this is when either there will be a yellow exclamation point next to one of them or windows will actually allow you to update the driver without giving you the stupid "driver is up to date" message.
That's when I right clicked on it and selected to update driver. At that point I made sure to use the "Have Disk" option and browsed to the universal driver folder. Once the universal driver list populated I was able to find the Shield fastboot driver in that list. I think my original problems started when I installed the Shield ADB driver which isn't needed and once that driver is installed the fastboot driver seems impossible to install because stupid windows keeps telling you the driver is up to date. By booting your Shield up using the home and back keys you are manually placing it in fastboot mode so you never need to use adb commands.
It is hard to remember but I do remember uninstalling everything I could and when I did finally update a driver I used the one with the word fastboot in it.
---------- Post added at 12:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:21 PM ----------
gogul1 said:
These are the pictures of the command promt when it is in boot mode, unboot mode and the devices installed.
When I go into boot mode on the shield the device called Nvidia Shield ADB dissappears from the computer manager window and the fastboot device has a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark next to it.
Very odd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you get to this point again select to update that driver for the exclamation point and go to have disk and find the fastboot driver which you somehow get to by using the "have disk" option and browsing the universal drivers folder when you update the driver. Don't install the other drivers in the list, just the fastboot driver.

don't get the have disk option
uninstalled everything again. Next will be finding the Have disk option.

ah ha
I kinda see, when I go into Update driver Do I go into "let me pick from a list of device drivers?"
I click on that option and it gives me a list of devices but not sure what to choose. There was an android device option so chose that. I then went into the folder and clicked the "Have disk" option. I then navigated to the universal folder but there was nothing like bootloader or boot device in the folder.
I go into computer, right click, choose manage.
Go down to devices.
See OTHER DEVICES
In that folder is the SHIELD device with the yellow triangle next to it.
Right click it, choose update driver.
I choose let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.
It opens the window - select your device type from the list below
I choose show all devices
It opens the window - select the device driver you want to install for this hardware
I click the HAVE DISK button
I chose Install from disk option
I clicked the browse button
I navigated to the Universal naked driver folder and clicked open.
List of items in the folder are:
amd64 - folder
i368 - folder
android_apxusb.inf
android_winusb.inf
and that's it. So I chose android_apxusb.inf
right clicked on it to install.
window asking if I wanted to cancel or install anyway popped up.
chose install anyway.
Driver installed but still the same as before.
sigh

hmmmm
ok so this time I installed the ADB driver.
I then deleted the Portable Devices Driver named SHIELD.
I then booted my shield up again.
This time the Android Device Nividia Shield ADB turned into Fastboot and had the yellow triangle on it.
I then clicked on that chose to update drivers.
I then chose the Have Disk option. Chose the android_apxusb.inf file and clicked ok. There was the a long list of devices including asus eepad etc and I scrolled down to Nvidia Shield Fastboot.
I highlighted it clicked ok, it warned me that it didn't know if the driver was reliable, I clicked ok to install it anyway and the driver then went back up into the Android Devices folder in the device manager and was named Nvidia Shield fast boot.
So I opened up minimal adb & fastboot, then typed in adb reboot boot loader. The Shield booted, I then typed in adb devices but nothing showed up.
I then tried to do command the thor.img anyway, it say:
downloading boot.img
OKAY (0.810s)
booting...
OKAY (0.020s)
finished. total time 0.830s
The shield the rebooted and came back on as normal.
I then cut a paste the command lines:
adb shell
mount -o rw,remount -t ext4 /dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/APP /system
exit
but when it came to the mount command it said:
mount: operation not permitted.
hmmmm something is not right but cannot put my finger on it....:roll eyes:
When I went back into the Device Manager I saw that under Android Devices there are now two drivers
Nvidia Shield ADB
Nvidia Shield Fastboot
Not easy this stuff eh?

20 times
I have uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers 20 times now. Always the same result.
I am going to start this all over again.
Don't think I will get any luck.
I uninstalled drivers, plugged in the shield, the updated the drivers via the have disk method. The booted shield.
Then changed fastboot driver to updated driver again.
The results of the whole thing can be seen here

Please help
Right I uninstalled all drivers again.
When I restart and plug the shield back in it automatically installs two drivers.
One is in the Other devices folder named SHIELD and has a yellow exclamation mark next to it.
The other is in Portable Devices and looks to install ok.
What am I meant to do with these?
I try to update the Portable device driver but it doesn't allow me to update it.
I update the other one as nvidia shield fastboot but the when I actually boot the Shiled up it moves from the Android devices folder to the other devices folder and calls itself Fastboot (it has a yellow triangle next to it.
So I then update that one to Nvidia shield fastboot and everything goes ok installng the thor.img.
The the shield roboots and reinstalls the same driver... Now I have two Nvidia Shield Fastboot drivers in my Android folder.
Really Really could do with some help people please please please

Ok, if you have the fastboot driver installed which you should if device manager says fastboot without any yellow exclamation. Windows device manager needs to say fastboot while your shield is connected in fastboot mode (hold home and back while powering the shield up) Download these two files that I link below (or go directly to Gnurou's site and get them if you feel more comfortable https://github.com/linux-shield/shield-root) and put them in the same directory that your fastboot android package is in.. They are the two files needed from gnurou's site for rooting. One is a text file and one is some sort of .gz file (don't unzip this .gz file.
http://db.tt/oPHjgctM
http://db.tt/S0p9KMPi
If your shield is not yet unlocked do this:
1. Switch your SHIELD off (long press the NVIDIA logo button and select Power off).
2. Power your SHIELD on while maintaining the back and home buttons pressed (these are the two buttons that lie under the big NVIDIA-logo button, on its left and right). Release them once you see the bootloader screen.
3. Connect your SHIELD to your computer using a USB cable.
4. open a command window from your fastboot folder and type this (I am assuming you have the android fastboot all set up properly):
fastboot devices
4a. That should list a big long number. If it does that means your fastboot is working.
5. On your computer, enter the following command:
fastboot oem unlock
6. This will display the unlock menu. Read the disclaimer and think one last time about what you are doing. This is your last chance to stop.
7. Use the back and home buttons to select your option. If you decide to continue, select Unlock and press the NVIDIA-logo button to validate. Your personal data will be erased and your device marked as warranty-void permanently.
Regardless of your choice, you will be back to the bootloader screen. Using the same buttons, navigate to Poweroff and select this to power your SHIELD off.
Rooting (Shield should be unlocked at this point)
1. turn your shield off.
2. turn your shield on while holding the home and back buttons until you are in the bootloader.
3. plug the shield into the computer
4. open a command window from your fastboot folder and type this (I am assuming you have the android fastboot all set up properly):
fastboot devices
4a. That should list a big long number. If it does that means your fastboot is working.
Now type this:
fastboot boot zImage_dtb ramfs.img.gz
You should see the shield do it's thing with the penguins and then you're rooted.
This is how I rooted mine. It's way easier than doing that manual method. I copied some of the instructions directly from Gnurou's git site but the formatting is a little different. It all boils down to getting those drivers installed properly and you will know those damn things are installed properly when you have your Shield plugged into your computer while in fastboot mode (you held home and back before turning the shield on) and you can type fastboot devices and it lists a long number. I think people are shying away from this method because github can be confusing as far as how to download files and people seem to be confused about what all the other files are for on Gnurou's site when really you only need the two I linked.
Keep at it man. I know you'll get it.

Thanks
I was given a package of developer tegra nvidia drivers adk drivers to install.
Now I can boot my shield
When I type in fastboot devices my shield shows up as a long number
but when I type in fastboot boot zimage_dtb-ramfs.img.gz
I replies
cannot load zImage_dtb': No error
I put the files in the Minimal ADB and Fastboot folder.
Odd.
The drivers I have installed now are in this picture it works up until the point I need to execute the root
View attachment 2209196
This was my original issue in video form so you can see my problem.
http://youtu.be/amk7fkKJtSc

I was going to try and help here but after seeing how many different threads gogul1 has spread his issues though, I don't fell like spending 2 days trying to figure out what order his posts are in from thread to thread.

Top cmds that you need to know

There are servel cmds which we can use
But I post only top 10 cmds to help that ones who need
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If I make a mistake so please reply with your suggestions
And if you want a cmd in the list .submit your reply with cmd and features ( full detail as you know.).
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For a lot of us, the fact that we can plug our Android phone or tablet into our computer and interact with it is a big plus. Besides the times when we've broken something and need to fix it, there are plenty of reasons why an advanced Android user would want to talk to his or her device. To do that, you need to have a few tools and know a few commands. That's what we're going to talk about today. Granted, this won't be the end-all be-all discussion of adb commands, but there are 10 basic commands everyone should know if they plan to get down and dirty with the command line.
The tools are easy. If you're a Mac or Linux user, you'll want to install the SDK as explained at the Android developers site. It's not hard, and you don't have the whole driver mess that Windows users do. Follow the directions and get things set up while I talk to the Windows using folks for a minute.
If you're using Windows, things are easier and harder at the same time. The tools themselves are the easy part. Download this file. Open the zip file and you'll see a folder named android-tools. Drag that folder somewhere easy to get to. Next, visit the manufacturers page for your device and install the adb and fastboot drivers for Windows. You'll need this so that your computer can talk to your Android device. If you hit a snag, visit the forums and somebody is bound to be able to help you through it.
Now that we're all on the same page, enable USB debugging on your device (see your devices manual if you need help finding it, and remember it was hidden in Android 4.2), and plug it in to your computer. Now skip past the break and let's begin!
1. The adb devices command
The adb devices command is the most important one of the bunch, as it's what is used to make sure your computer and Android device are communicating. That's why we're covering it first.
If you're a pro at the operating system on your computer, you'll want to add the directory with the Android tools to your path. If you're not, no worries. Just start up your terminal or command console and point it at the folder with the tools in it. This will be the file you downloaded earlier if you use Windows, or the platform-tools folder in the fully installed Android SDK. Windows users have another easy shortcut here, and can simply Shift + right click on the folder itself to open a console in the right spot. Mac and Linux users need to navigate there once the terminal is open, or install an extension for your file manager to do the same right click magic that's in Windows by default.
Once you're sure that you are in the right folder, type "adb devices" (without the quotes) at the command prompt. If you get a serial number, you're good to go! If you don't, make sure you're in the right folder and that you have the device driver installed correctly if you're using Windows. And be sure you have USB debugging turned on!
Now that we have everything set up, let's look at a few more commands.
2. The adb push command
If you want to move a file onto your Android device programmatically, you want to use the adb push command. You'll need to know a few parameters, namely the full path of the file you're pushing, and the full path to where you want to put it. Let's practice by placing a short video (in my case it's a poorly done cover of the Rick James tune Superfreak) into the Movies folder on your device storage.
I copied the superfreak.mp4 file into the android-tools folder so I didn't need to type out a long path to my desktop. I suggest you do the same. I jumped back to the command line and typed "adb push superfreak.mp4 /sdcard/Movies/" and the file copied itself to my Nexus 4, right in the Movies folder. If I hadn't dropped the file into my tools folder, I would have had to specify the full path to it -- something like C:\Users\Jerry\Desktop\superfreak.mp4. Either way works, but it's always easier to just drop the file into your tools folder and save the typing.
3. The adb pull command
If adb push sends files to your Android device, it stands to reason the adb pull command gets them out. That's exactly what it does, and it works the same way as the adb push command did. You need to know both the path of the file you want to pull off, as well as the path you want it placed into. You can leave the destination path blank and it will drop the file into your tools folder to make things easy.
In this example, I did it the hard way so you can see what it looks like. The path of the file on the device is "/sdcard/Movies/superfreak.mp4" and I put it on my Windows 8 desktop at "C:\Users\Jerry\Desktop". Again, the easy way it to just let it drop into your tools folder by not giving a destination, which would have been "adb pull /sdcard/Movies/superfreak.mp4". Remember your forwards slash for the Android side, and you'll have no problems here.
5. The adb reboot-bootloader and adb reboot recovery commands
Not only can you reboot your device, you can specify that it reboots to the bootloader. This is awfully handy, as sometimes those button combos are touchy, and if you have a lot of devices you can never remember them all. Some devices (the LG Optimus Black comes to mind) don't even a way to boot to the bootloader without this command. And once again, being able to use this command in a script is priceless. Doing it is easy, just type "adb reboot-bootloader" and hit the enter key.
Most devices can also boot to the recovery directly with the "adb reboot recovery" (note there is no hyphen in this one) and some can't. It won't hurt anything to try, and if yours can't nothing will happen.
6. The fastboot devices command
When you're working in the bootloader, adb no longer works. You're not yet booted into Android, and the debugging tools aren't active to communicate with. We use the fastboot command in it's place.
Fastboot is probably the most powerful tool available, and many devices don't have it enabled. If you're does, you need to be sure things are communicating. That's where the fastboot devices command comes into play. At the prompt, just type in "fastboot devices" and you should see a serial number, just like the adb devices command we looked at earlier.
If things aren't working and you are using Windows, you likely have a driver issue. Hit those forums for the answer.
7. The fastboot oem unlock command
The holy grail of Android commands, fastboot oem unlock does one thing, and one thing only -- unlocks your Nexus device (or an HTC device using their official tool). If you're using a phone from a different manufacturer, you have a different method of unlocking things -- maybe with ODIN or .sbf files -- and this won't apply to you. We're including it because even if you don't need it, it's an important part of Android's openness. Google doesn't care what we do with phones or tablets that we've bought, and include this easy way to crack them open. That's something you usually don't see from any tech company, and a big part of the reason why many of us choose Android.
Using it is easy enough. Once you've used fastboot devices to make sure everything is communicating, just type "fastboot oem unlock" at the prompt and hit enter. Look at your device, read carefully, and choose wisely.
Protip: Using "fastboot oem unlock" will erase everything on your device
8. The adb shell command
The adb shell command confuses a lot of folks. There are two ways to use it, one where you send a command to the device to run in its own command line shell, and one where you actually enter the device's command shell from your terminal. In the image above, I'm inside the device shell, listing the flies and folders on the device. Getting there is easy enough, just type "adb shell" and enter. Once inside, you can escalate yourself to root if you need to. I'll warn you, unless you're familiar with an ash or bash shell, you need to be careful here -- especially if you're root. Things can turn south quickly if you're not careful. If you're not familiar, ash and bash are command shells that a lot of folks use on their Linux or Mac computers. It's nothing like DOS.
The other method of using the adb shell command is in conjunction with one of those Ash commands your Android device can run. You'll often use it for more advanced tasks like changing permissions of files or folders, or running a script. Using it is easy -- "adb shell <command>". An example would be changing permissions on a file like so: "adb shell chmod 666 /data/somefile". As mentioned, be very careful running direct commands using these methods.
9. The adb install command
While adb push can copy files to our Android devices, adb install can actually install .apk files. Using it is similar to use the push command, because we need to provide the path to the file we're installing. That means it's always easier to just drop the app you're installing into your tools folder. Once you've got that path, you tell your device to sideload it like this: "adb install TheAppName.apk".
If you're updating an app, you use the -r switch: "adb install -r TheAppName.apk". There is also a -s switch which tries to install on the SD card if your ROM supports it, and the -l switch will forward lock the app (install it to /data/app-private). there are also some very advanced encryption switches, but those are best left for another article.
And finally, you can uninstall apps by their package name with "adb uninstall TheAppName.apk". Uninstall has a switch, too. The -k switch will uninstall the app but leave all the app data and cache in place.
10. The adb logcat command
The adb logcat command is one of the most useful commands for some folks, but just prints a bunch of gibberish unless you understand what you're seeing. It returns the events written to the various logs in the running Android system, providing invaluable information for app developers and system debuggers. Most of us will only run this one when asked by one of those developers, but it's very important that we know how to use it correctly.
To see the log output on your computer screen, just type "adb logcat" and hit enter. Things can scroll by pretty fast, and chances are you won't find what you're looking for. There are two ways to handle this one -- filters, or text output.
You also have to specify the cmds properly.
Hope it help you .
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