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[Q] Dropped my phone, how do I get the pictures?

Hello,
I managed to drop my phone and bust the screen soon after I bought it (luckily I have insurance). I hadn't had a chance to root it or anything, but I have some pictures on the phone I really want to get out of it. I thought the phone would have put them on the SD card but when I looked on the card, I don't see them, so I must assume they are stored on the phone itself. Since I can't do anything with the phone screen, is there any way to get the pictures off of it?
Thanks for any help!

spdivr said:
Hello,
I managed to drop my phone and bust the screen soon after I bought it (luckily I have insurance). I hadn't had a chance to root it or anything, but I have some pictures on the phone I really want to get out of it. I thought the phone would have put them on the SD card but when I looked on the card, I don't see them, so I must assume they are stored on the phone itself. Since I can't do anything with the phone screen, is there any way to get the pictures off of it?
Thanks for any help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If ADB works you can adb shell/adb pull the files.
Look up Droid Explorer - I believe this automatically installs adb for Windows users and has a nice frontend for file transfers. I've never messed with ADB in Windows as I'm a Linux user so I can't help you any more.

Entropy512 said:
If ADB works you can adb shell/adb pull the files.
Look up Droid Explorer - I believe this automatically installs adb for Windows users and has a nice frontend for file transfers. I've never messed with ADB in Windows as I'm a Linux user so I can't help you any more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That worked, thanks!
I had not rooted the phone, but luckily I had set the phone to USB debugging before I dropped it. So even though I couldn't see anything on the screen, I ran Super One Click and it rooted, then Droid Explorer found it and I was able to pull off my photos.

Possible to extract SMS messages from a RAZR maxx with a broken display?

My friend desparately needs to extract the SMS log from his razr maxx. Unfortunately, he dropped it and the display is completely broken. The phone is unrooted and USB debugging is not enabled. The phone seems to be functional other than the display - the softtouch buttons light up and when plugged in over USB, it is recognized. Is there any method by which I might extract the SMS data for him? Keep in mind that with a broken display, I can't enable debugging or install anything on the phone itself.
I suspect the answer is "no", but I figured I'd check before he has to go through the process of getting a court order to get the logs from verizon.

candre23 said:
My friend desparately needs to extract the SMS log from his razr maxx. Unfortunately, he dropped it and the display is completely broken. The phone is unrooted and USB debugging is not enabled. The phone seems to be functional other than the display - the softtouch buttons light up and when plugged in over USB, it is recognized. Is there any method by which I might extract the SMS data for him? Keep in mind that with a broken display, I can't enable debugging or install anything on the phone itself.
I suspect the answer is "no", but I figured I'd check before he has to go through the process of getting a court order to get the logs from verizon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately you need root to do anything that would help. But it appears that the LCD is broken, maybe you could get it replaced?
Sent from my MB508 using xda premium

I have the same problem, but my razr is rooted. Also my phone is locked with the pattern. Can I use the usb to control my phone with my laptop? The cracked screen wont let me enter my pattern. I just need to access the phone and backup the internal memory.
Thanks

ford freak said:
I have the same problem, but my razr is rooted. Also my phone is locked with the pattern. Can I use the usb to control my phone with my laptop? The cracked screen wont let me enter my pattern. I just need to access the phone and backup the internal memory.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If USB-Debugging is enabled on your phone, you might be able to connect from a computer via ADB.
If Debugging is disabled, I don't think you will be able to access the phone via the computer.
There is a lot of tutorials on how to install ADB on your computer if you haven't done yet. Try it to see if you get access.

I have adb installed and bugging is enabled. i can connect to the device, but when I try to do an adb backup it says to say yes to the prompt on the phone. Problem is that I cant use my phone cause of the screen. Is my only option to dock it with a keyboard and mouse? Is there a way to remove the lock pattern through adb??

Update... Here's what I did.
I ran adb pull /mnt/sdcard but that didnt pull my dcim folder. There were two dcim folders. One on the internal sd and one on the external sd.
What's the best way to pull everything off the phone??
When I try to back up it says this...
C:\users\admin>adb backup -all
Now unlock your device and confirm the backup operation.

How to get Pictures off Pixel 2 with cracked screen which is not working

So my Pixel 2 cracked and fell in the pool. The water got to the screen and it's not working. I seriously want to get the photos unto my PC. Any steps that could help?

Maybe you have automatic upload to Google Photos? Just log in to your account from PC
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

smorttey said:
So my Pixel 2 cracked and fell in the pool. The water got to the screen and it's not working. I seriously want to get the photos unto my PC. Any steps that could help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your PC still recognizes it when plugged in via USB....ADB pull may come in handy.

How can I do an ADB pull
Saw a couple of tutorials on YouTube but none seemed to work.

I don't have the Google Photos sync
Voloshvett said:
Maybe you have automatic upload to Google Photos? Just log in to your account from PC
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And so I am unable to use the sync feature

smorttey said:
Saw a couple of tutorials on YouTube but none seemed to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it responding to ADB at all? If you type "adb devices" does it respond with the serial number, for example? I assume you have used the FP scanner to unlock the screen (as a security measure it won't work unless you can unlock the screen). If it does respond, can you tell us what sequences of commands you have tried? "I watched a couple of YouTube videos" doesn't tell us what you actually did (and providing links to the videos still doesn't tell us what you actually did either, just what those videos said to do).
If it's not responding to ADB then that's the problem right there. Was USB debugging already enabled on the phone and have you used it with that computer before (and granted the computer permanent USB debugging permission)? Both of those are necessary (unless you have a custom recovery installed, in which case you may be able to use ADB in recovery mode and it might not ask for permission the way the phone will when running Android). If either of those has not been done then this will be tricky: you can control a phone with an unresponsive touchscreen over USB (using an OTG adapter and a mouse or keyboard), or a bluetooth keyboard or mouse (if you can get one paired), but if the display is out then you need to be able to mirror it to see what you are doing. The problem is that I don't think there's a mirroring method that works without interaction from you, which is no good if the display is dead (unless you have a displaylink setup already working, in which case there's a chance: see this discussion for information, I've never tried this myself). In the old days MHL used to allow you to mirror without requiring any interaction with the phone, but that's not supported any more, and the Pixel 2 doesn't even support USB-C to HDMI. I guess that in Google's world everyone will use Chromecast, and the utility of being able to mirror a phone with a defective display doesn't occur to them because in their world everyone has everything synced with Google Drive anyway...

Because you can't see the screen, you can't select file transfer from the USB options, thus you won't be able to use ADB that way. But, you can get into the bootloader using pwr+vol dwn. Once it vibrates, you're in. Type fastboot devices, just to be sure. Now, fastboot boot the TWRP.img. Type ADB devices, and you should see your sn and recovery. So long as you know the path to your photos, you can use ADB pull to retrieve them.

You can give Vysor a try. It lets you remotely control your entire phone via screen/input mirroring on your computer.
I'm not sure if you need to access the phone the first time to set it up, but try remotely installing the app from Google Play on your computer, installing their Chrome extension, connect phone via USB, and launch extension.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.vysor
I did this on a cracked screen Pixel 2, but I was able to see the screen slightly still.

Does Squeeze work? Maybe it is possible to sync your photos through assistant? I am not sure is it possible but at least you can Google it
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Voloshvett said:
Does Squeeze work? Maybe it is possible to sync your photos through assistant? I am not sure is it possible but at least you can Google it
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He said in an earlier post that he doesn't have sync turned on.
---------- Post added at 05:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:31 PM ----------
ViperPyro said:
You can give Vysor a try. It lets you remotely control your entire phone via screen/input mirroring on your computer.
I'm not sure if you need to access the phone the first time to set it up, but try remotely installing the app from Google Play on your computer, installing their Chrome extension, connect phone via USB, and launch extension.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.vysor
I did this on a cracked screen Pixel 2, but I was able to see the screen slightly still.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That won't work, because the default for USB is no data transfer. Device manager recognizes the device, but can't access it. That's why you can't see it in file explorer. The only hope here is the fastboot method I mentioned above.

I believe the method DuckRuckus outlined will likely be the only option. I ran into a similar issue a few weeks ago and was able to pull photos off a Nexus 6 with a non-functioning screen and USB debugging was not enabled.
If your phone is still functional (except screen), you should be able to fastboot TWRP and use command line to decrypt phone if needed (I can't post links yet, but google twrp commandline guide for info on how the decrypt command works). From there, it's just an ADB pull to get your files.

Unlock Screen through PC??

My wife dropped her Pixel 4a yesterday and completely broke the screen. You can't see anything except done bright green splotches and lines and it doesn't respond to touch. I bought her a new phone and synced her account, but because her Drive storage was full, the last months photos are not synced. I upgraded her to the 100gb plan and let the broken phone sit hoping it would automatically upload the missing photos but it did not.
So at this point my only options are to somehow connect it to my computer and get them, or replace the screen. I'd rather not pay $140 to replace the screen JUST to get a month's worth of photos.
My question is, can I connect the phone to the PC and remotely enter her PIN and then access the files?
I searched online but the two softwares I found say they will wipe data.

x_orange90_x said:
My wife dropped her Pixel 4a yesterday and completely broke the screen. You can't see anything except done bright green splotches and lines and it doesn't respond to touch. I bought her a new phone and synced her account, but because her Drive storage was full, the last months photos are not synced. I upgraded her to the 100gb plan and let the broken phone sit hoping it would automatically upload the missing photos but it did not.
So at this point my only options are to somehow connect it to my computer and get them, or replace the screen. I'd rather not pay $140 to replace the screen JUST to get a month's worth of photos.
My question is, can I connect the phone to the PC and remotely enter her PIN and then access the files?
I searched online but the two softwares I found say they will wipe data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You MIGHT be able to get the phone to show up on Windows by mirroring it (either over USB or over Wi-Fi).
My phone isn't broken, but I can easily mirror the phone and unlock the lock screen and view it and control it using free software on Windows.
You can also mount the entire phone onto Windows as a drive letter over Wi-Fi if you have a webdav server on it.
Here are some screenshots of what I do, and I have some tutorials here on how to set that up if you need them.

if you didn't enable usb debugging before the accident, nothing can be done now

Nfury00701 said:
if you didn't enable usb debugging before the accident, nothing can be done now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point!
I assumed the op had already enabled USB debugging.
In fact, most people I know (including me) enable Developer Options the instant we get a new phone, and then we enable Mock Location and USB Debugging the second instant, so every Android device I've ever touched has had those two options set as the first things done.
But the user we're both trying to help might not have done that.
If he has any server (FTP, WebDav, SMB, etc.) set up to run at boot time, then he still has a chance (as most people set up one of those also, as far as I know).
If not, this is a lesson to the rest of us to have a failsafe plan if the screen won't work (my personal favorites are Vysor & WebDav).

I'm pretty certain I didn't enable the USB Debugging. Maybe I'll order a cheap screen from eBay just to get it working. Obviously it would be very low quality compared to OEM, but it's a fraction of the price and should get the job done.
Thanks for the replies!
Edit:
Well scratch that idea. Can't get a screen for under $130 now. The repair shop quoted me $140 I think and it's an OEM replacement. Still though, not gonna do it, at least not right now.

x_orange90_x said:
I'm pretty certain I didn't enable the USB Debugging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Drat.
I am racking my brain trying to figure out a way you can access the phone from your PC (over Wi-Fi or over USB) without interacting with the screen, which I do all day, every day, but I'm already connected over a variety of servers that are either on the phone (e.g., WebDAV) or on Windows via adb (e.g., Vysor, Scrcpy).
I guess the lesson for anyone reading this is set up a wireless server now, as they're free, and they need ZERO software on Android.

x_orange90_x said:
I'm pretty certain I didn't enable the USB Debugging. Maybe I'll order a cheap screen from eBay just to get it working. Obviously it would be very low quality compared to OEM, but it's a fraction of the price and should get the job done.
Thanks for the replies!
Edit:
Well scratch that idea. Can't get a screen for under $130 now. The repair shop quoted me $140 I think and it's an OEM replacement. Still though, not gonna do it, at least not right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont know if this will work, and if you need the bootloader unlocked (for the TWRP stuff), but I would try the following.
Try to access the phone in recovery through adb. i think you would of had to have previously authorised adb from your PC to the device, for this to work.
NB: You can run TWRP, without flashing it.
Run adb through TWRP, and try accessing the photos/data. I would guess you wil need to unencrypt the phone first.
Run TWRP, unencrypt the phone and do a backup, and try viewing the contents through 7Zip on your PC

DiamondJohn said:
I dont know if this will work, and if you need the bootloader unlocked (for the TWRP stuff), but I would try the following.
Try to access the phone in recovery through adb. i think you would of had to have previously authorised adb from your PC to the device, for this to work.
NB: You can run TWRP, without flashing it.
Run adb through TWRP, and try accessing the photos/data. I would guess you wil need to unencrypt the phone first.
Run TWRP, unencrypt the phone and do a backup, and try viewing the contents through 7Zip on your PC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds plausible, but I'm no expert on this topic. Remote-running TWRP sounds very promising. I'm willing to give it a shot if you can instruct me or provide me instructions to do so.

x_orange90_x said:
Sounds plausible, but I'm no expert on this topic. Remote-running TWRP sounds very promising. I'm willing to give it a shot if you can instruct me or provide me instructions to do so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not what I would call "remote running". Its running it without flashing it.
The following is a log of my script. I copy the TWRP img file to g:\recovery and then run the following in a command prompt on windows.
Code:
>g:
>cd \recover
>PATH=%PATH%;"%SYSTEMROOT%\System32";"C:\Java\x86\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools";
>fastboot devices
08721KEC209540 fastboot
>fastboot boot sunfish_twrp201017-test5.img
Its probably an outdated TWRP, and I changed the return from fastboot devices for privacy

I defer to the extraordinary knowledge of DiamondJohn where all I want to add is that I searched EVERY similar thread on XDA and referenced over two hundred of them, sorted in LIFO order, over here:
What is the best XDA solution to control Android on the PC & recover data over Wi-Fi when the user suddenly has an unresponsive broken screen?
The OP "might" profit from reading some of them, particularly:
Tutorial : How to turn on USB debugging on device with broken screen, by MiroBiala, on Jun 28, 2017
[Tool][Windows] Control a device with a broken screen. Now with touchscreen support!!, by k.janku1 on Jun 17, 2014
[TOOL] ADB Data Recovery (recover data from a phone with broken screen), by FuzzyMeep Two, on Jun 26, 2013
Bear in mind that adb can remotely push buttons from the PC to Android over Wi-Fi if you happen to know the pixel location of those buttons on the Android device (but, of course, adb has to work first).
Good luck. You're in good hands with DiamondJohn (who knows far more than I ever will about this topic).

How do I enable adb debugging and otg with a black screen and no otg cable?

Hello, I just broke the screen of my OnePlus8t Verizon network unlocked phone. The computer I previously linked 8t with also has a broken screen. ... Rains it ..... My Phoe has some important information in docs and screenshots I need to get. I just turned off ADB debugging thinking "Oh I don't need that just yet" the very morning I broke the LCD. Good news, I can still answer it. I already have adb.exe except in ADB shell it shows as unauthorized. I need those files like yesterday. I have an otg/ADB flash drive, but I still can not connect to retrieve files. I can see my phone when I directly connect to comp without the flash drive, however, I can not access it. I have tried to put the phone into recovery, but I have no way to enter the pin as I have tried to guess where it is. How can I receive the data I need from my phone?
Thank You.
P.S. I have little knowledge and only learn what I need to know for whatever project, in other words, I can not code and I barely speak dos.

Is the touch screen still working then?
If it's showing "unauthorized" you can try to plug it into your desktop and then hit the "authorize" button on the popup that you can't see.
Here is where ok is on a different phone. It's somewhere near there on yours.

Renate said:
Is the touch screen still working then?
If it's showing "unauthorized" you can try to plug it into your desktop and then hit the "authorize" button on the popup that you can't see.
Here is where ok is on a different phone. It's somewhere near there on yours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried that. The finger print unlock screen only works ⅔ of the time. I have no way of knowing if it's unlocked. I keep my touch sounds silent. I keep trying to find where it might be. I have tried to slide as if answering a call. Is there a way to force the USB settings for media transfer? Maybe through Google? If any platform knows it's my phone is Google. I can go to the play store and push apps onto it. Unfortunately the two adb drivers I have installed on my Android didnt work.

Oh, actually, you've got it easier! The OnePlus 8t supports HDMI over USB Type C.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/does-one-plus-8t-have-video-out-through-usb-c.4465629/
Buy an adapter and hook up an HDMI monitor/TV.
Or just use a new monitor on the computer that is already authorized.

Is there any other way. Right now it is not with in the budget to afford any extras even with the price tag of $20. I am hoping there is a way within an adb shell to force turn on the adb debugging. I have developer options enabled. I would just rewrite the documents, except some of those items I need include the text messaging history. If I can't force the adb, can I remotely back up the phone? Is there a trustworthy app for that? I do have quick settings installed and if my memory is correct, I believe I have sideline installed even.