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[Q] Can anything be used to retrieve files from a Nexus S with USB debugging off?

Yesterday, I dropped my Nexus S on paving and cracked the screen, so I can no longer unlock the phone or interact with it.
There are a few files that I'd like to retrieve from it if I can. It's running stock ICS 4.0.4, unrooted.
I've got as far as installing the SDK and using adb to connect to my old Nexus One (which I've gone back to for now), but of course on the Nexus S I don't have USB debugging switched on or any apps installed to automatically switch on USB mode (even if the phone wasn't screen locked with a pattern).
Somebody suggested there might be a way to get round this (e.g. using fastboot, which I have never used), and if so, that somebody here would know how. If so, please be gentle with me - today's the first time I've even installed the SDK, and although I have a computing degree (nearly 30 years old) and am capable of following instructions, I know nothing about using the SDK tools and my command line / unix knowledge is sketchy and rusty to say the least!
Thanks in advance
Julie

Anybody?

[Q] How to connect over ADB when "USB Debugging" is diabled

OK, so here's the issue. I have an HTC Desire C. It's my girlfriends so I don't know the OS version. I replaced the Touch Digitizer because it was shattered (it did respond to touches though). Now that its replaced it seems to respond to touches but not correctly. I can't get it to swipe the lock screen out of the way. It's as if it is not calibrated correctly. So I'm stuck on the lock screen.
I want to run ADB so I can figure out if its registering touch events correctly, and also try and send them over ADB. But, being my girlfriends phone, she never enabled "USB Debugging". When I hook the phone to the computer, I don't see it showing up as a unknown device in windows Device manager (VISTA). I know it works, cause I tried it with my Nexus S and that shows up. I know the steps are first find it in device manager then manually select the driver as the ADB interface, I've had this working on my Nexus S. But the issue is that it doesn't show up at all in Device manager, and I assume its because USB debugging is off. I tried turning off USB debugging on my Nexus S, hooked it to my computer, and it doesn't show up either. So it seems like that is the issue.
I tried to boot into recovery (power button + volume down), then went into fastboot, connected the phone to the comp again, but it still does not show up.
Below are some of the other things I have tried, but they still brought me no luck:
I have tried installing HTC sync so I get the HTC drivers on my computer, but it doesn't even show up in HTC's software (In fact, it does not show up as a storage device either, I assume cause you have to accept the notification on the phone, but I can't use the phones UI at all). I tried moving the HTC drivers into c:\windows\system32 and it still does not show up. I then tried rebooting the phone and my computer. Still does not show up. It seems like windows isn't even reading the phone as a USB device. Tried swapping USB cables (both work with my nexus s), and still nothing. Is there something I am missing?
Any help would be much appreciated, this is driving me crazy.
Also, after replacing the digitizer, if I first boot into the phone and then hit the power button, I don't get the content window that allows you to choose "reboot", "shutdown", etc. The only thing I can do is hold it for 15 seconds and the thing turns off. I'm hoping this is because I never passed the lock screen for the first time. I'm hoping this is not an indicator that I screwed something up when I opened the phone. I've had my Nexus S open plenty of times.

Another guy had same issue. here
Try that.
life!

Yea let us know if it works

Lifehacker7 said:
Another guy had same issue. here
Try that.
life!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't get the phone to show up when I type "fastboot devices" or "adb devices". I have tried this from the lock screen, from the bootloader, from the bootloader and in fastboot mode. That is my critical problem now. Cable is actual data cable, and I'm using USB port on back of a desktop computer. Is there anything else that could be causing the phone to not be recognized?

Stock TF700 boot loop, can't turn off device.

Back in June, I turned on my TF700 with the dock attached, it started as usual.. I turned on my wifi, opened up my browser to look up plane tickets, then it restarted. I didn't think much of it, and when it loaded up again, I tried to look up tickets again, and it did the same thing. I gave up, closed it and zipped it up in my sleeve. It was a few hours before I got home, and when I took it out of the sleeve, it was quite warm! It was constantly rebooting and there was no way to turn if off. I left it out of the sleeve and let the battery die. I didn't use my tablet for a few days, and when I went to turn it on again, the same thing happened, and has been happening ever since. I have tried to start the tablet while connected to the dock, the wall charger, without the dock, with wifi on, with wifi off, etc. The tablet gets to the lock screen, I unlock it, and I only have about 10 seconds before it freezes and restarts. I am unable to turn off the device, because when I choose "shut down" from the menu, it shows that it's in the process of slowing down, but then the spinning wheel freezes and it vibrates and restarts before it can fully shut itself off. Since I can boot into android, I thought it was something that the tablet is trying to run upon startup that was causing problems. I was able to quickly get to settings and apps, to uninstall several apps, but nothing has helped. I used to have a task manager widget on the home screen, and uninstalled that too.
After doing research into the problem, I found that most people who have boot loop issues or constant restarting, are rooted and are experiencing difficulties with a new ROM. I am 100% stock. I have held down power and volume down. It gives me RCK, Android and Wipe. I have tried cold booting into android, but the same restart loop after 10 seconds occurs. I thought it might have been a bad firmware update that went through unbeknownst to me. So I downloaded the firmware file from ASUS, renamed and flashed it sucessfully. However, no change in the reboot problem. I am running the following version: US-epad-10.6.1.14.8-20130514. I know there's a new version out, but wasn't sure if I should try to flash that yet.
I am willing to try absolutely anything to fix the problem, with the EXCEPTION of wiping data. I know that would be the easy way to go, but I have photos and videos from my best friend's engagement and they are the only copies. If I am able to get my tablet to be stable enough to copy those off, I would then be willing to wipe and have a fresh start. I have tried connecting my tablet to my computer, and it is recognized. After it boots up and I unlock it, then the tablet begins to mount (I'm on windows 8). However, I still only have 10 seconds or so before the tablet restarts, and that's not enough time to even view the folders from the tablet.
It's been 3 months since this started, and I have done lots of research and tried lots of things, but nothing has helped yet. Since I haven't delved too deeply into the dev side of android (I've only rooted my S3) there is lots of android speak that I don't understand fully, or have experience with, like ADB. If someone is willing to offer suggestions on what to try, I am very good at following directions! Thank you for any help or leads you can offer.

Wow - you're in a difficult situation...
You being on stock I can only imagine the bootloop is caused by something you installed.
So if you can access settings and are able to uninstall apps, just keep doing it until you are back to the original stock setup.
Are you sure the files you are trying to save are still on the SD card? Don't know how you flashed 10.6.1.14.8, but flashing a complete firmware package ususally erases /data - although your persisiting bootloop indicates it didn't...... if the bootloop is caused by an app. And I can't imagine what else would cause it.
You could try to do a factory reset in Backup&Restore but you will loose the contents of your /data partition...
You can flash the 10.6.1.14.10 firmware file, but most likely you will also loose your data.
The only way I can think of to replace your bootloader and firmware without data loss is if you try to find a copy of the 10.6.1.14.10 dlpkgfile. That is the OTA update file Asus pushes out to users. It's a patch file, meaning it only replaces/updates new files and leaves everything else alone.
If you find the dlpkgfile on some forum you would have to place it into your /cache directory and reboot - and I don't know if you can copy it to your tablet before it bootloops again.
Unfortunately the reason for your bootloop is probably an app on the same partiton with the data you don't want to loose. Unless you manage to uninstall the culprit I don't see much hope....
Good luck!
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 4

Try getting adb access, this should allow us to diagnose the problem you are experiencing.
Tablet side: go to settings, developer options (if it is not visible, tap the build number 7 times), enable USB debugging
Computer side: no idea, they say Windows 8 is a bit tricky to get the drivers installed correctly.
When you have adb running, do "adb pull /proc/last_kmsg" and post the downloaded file - it should contain valuable info about your reboots.

_that6042401 said:
Try getting adb access, this should allow us to diagnose the problem you are experiencing.
Tablet side: go to settings, developer options (if it is not visible, tap the build number 7 times), enable USB debugging
Computer side: no idea, they say Windows 8 is a bit tricky to get the drivers installed correctly.
When you have adb running, do "adb pull /proc/last_kmsg" and post the downloaded file - it should contain valuable info about your reboots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He's bootlooping..... How does he go into settings and turn on USB debugging?
I think the best option maybe to flash a stock Asus ROM from their site but that will wipe all data including those photos......

zanadoo22 said:
Back in June, I turned on my TF700 with the dock attached, it started as usual.. I turned on my wifi, opened up my browser to look up plane tickets, then it restarted. I didn't think much of it, and when it loaded up again, I tried to look up tickets again, and it did the same thing. I gave up, closed it and zipped it up in my sleeve. It was a few hours before I got home, and when I took it out of the sleeve, it was quite warm! It was constantly rebooting and there was no way to turn if off. I left it out of the sleeve and let the battery die. I didn't use my tablet for a few days, and when I went to turn it on again, the same thing happened, and has been happening ever since. I have tried to start the tablet while connected to the dock, the wall charger, without the dock, with wifi on, with wifi off, etc. The tablet gets to the lock screen, I unlock it, and I only have about 10 seconds before it freezes and restarts. I am unable to turn off the device, because when I choose "shut down" from the menu, it shows that it's in the process of slowing down, but then the spinning wheel freezes and it vibrates and restarts before it can fully shut itself off. Since I can boot into android, I thought it was something that the tablet is trying to run upon startup that was causing problems. I was able to quickly get to settings and apps, to uninstall several apps, but nothing has helped. I used to have a task manager widget on the home screen, and uninstalled that too.
After doing research into the problem, I found that most people who have boot loop issues or constant restarting, are rooted and are experiencing difficulties with a new ROM. I am 100% stock. I have held down power and volume down. It gives me RCK, Android and Wipe. I have tried cold booting into android, but the same restart loop after 10 seconds occurs. I thought it might have been a bad firmware update that went through unbeknownst to me. So I downloaded the firmware file from ASUS, renamed and flashed it sucessfully. However, no change in the reboot problem. I am running the following version: US-epad-10.6.1.14.8-20130514. I know there's a new version out, but wasn't sure if I should try to flash that yet.
I am willing to try absolutely anything to fix the problem, with the EXCEPTION of wiping data. I know that would be the easy way to go, but I have photos and videos from my best friend's engagement and they are the only copies. If I am able to get my tablet to be stable enough to copy those off, I would then be willing to wipe and have a fresh start. I have tried connecting my tablet to my computer, and it is recognized. After it boots up and I unlock it, then the tablet begins to mount (I'm on windows 8). However, I still only have 10 seconds or so before the tablet restarts, and that's not enough time to even view the folders from the tablet.
It's been 3 months since this started, and I have done lots of research and tried lots of things, but nothing has helped yet. Since I haven't delved too deeply into the dev side of android (I've only rooted my S3) there is lots of android speak that I don't understand fully, or have experience with, like ADB. If someone is willing to offer suggestions on what to try, I am very good at following directions! Thank you for any help or leads you can offer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not use this method but you could try.
You need a boot OS tool on your external sd and run it from your external sd so you can access to your internal sd to copy files from there. You can search on the internet and you should find more information on how to use them depending on what boot os you are using.. Good luck.

zanadoo22 said:
and I only have about 10 seconds before it freezes and restarts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sbdags said:
He's bootlooping..... How does he go into settings and turn on USB debugging?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Preferably FAST.
---------- Post added at 07:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:51 PM ----------
LetMeKnow said:
You need a boot OS tool on your external sd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is a boot OS tool?

_that said:
Try getting adb access, this should allow us to diagnose the problem you are experiencing.
Tablet side: go to settings, developer options (if it is not visible, tap the build number 7 times), enable USB debugging
Computer side: no idea, they say Windows 8 is a bit tricky to get the drivers installed correctly.
When you have adb running, do "adb pull /proc/last_kmsg" and post the downloaded file - it should contain valuable info about your reboots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was actually able to get usb debugging turned on. It took me quite a few tries, but I did it!
I've never used adb, but here's what I've done so far.. I downloaded the Android SDK and ASUS Pad PC Suite (which contains Asus Sync).
I was able to use the command prompt to navigate to the platform-tools folder and open adb, however when I type in adb devices, it doesn't recognize my device. What steps to do I take from here to be able to use adb to see my device, so I can pull the file to diagnose what's going on? How do I know if I have the right drivers installed so my computer can see my tablet? All I did was install the asus suite. Do I need to do anything further on that end?

zanadoo22 said:
I was actually able to get usb debugging turned on. It took me quite a few tries, but I did it!
I've never used adb, but here's what I've done so far.. I downloaded the Android SDK and ASUS Pad PC Suite (which contains Asus Sync).
I was able to use the command prompt to navigate to the platform-tools folder and open adb, however when I type in adb devices, it doesn't recognize my device. What steps to do I take from here to be able to use adb to see my device, so I can pull the file to diagnose what's going on? How do I know if I have the right drivers installed so my computer can see my tablet? All I did was install the asus suite. Do I need to do anything further on that end?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What Windows version do you have on your PC?
You can check your drivers in Device Manager. Open it, look for your tablet under Portable Devices and check if the driver has a yellow exclamation mark next to it. You should be able to update/install/uninstall the driver from here.
Try to find out if there is a setting in your Windows version to only allow Microsoft signed drivers and disable it.
Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

Broken AMOLED, digitizer good. Is data recovery a possibility?

Dropped my op6 flat on its face the other day:crying::crying::crying:
Anyways.. I'm trying to get the data off of it before i attempt the feat of replacing the screen. Like the title says, the digitizer is good, l can unlock it by remembering the screen lock, but I fumbled all yesterday trying to cast my screen. I had slivers of screen I could see there, just couldn't get it to send. No usb debugging and I obviously didn't turn usb mode to file share. Please help if you can, thanks.

If you have TWRP installed, reboot to recovery and just connect your phone to your PC via USB - MTP should be active by default. Inputting the decryption code if you can't see much of what you're doing can be a problem, though.
If you don't have TWRP installed however, you can try using scrcpy (just search for it on Google and you should find its GitHub repo with instructions). It uses adb to run, meaning it requires usb debugging to be on, but the good thing is, as long as your phone is unlocked (not on lockscreen), you should receive a prompt asking to enable debugging just by running the scrcpy executable. Since said prompt is always in the center of the screen (screenshot attached), and you only need to click 2 separate things on there (always allow checkbox & the allow button) to get things going, you should be set fairly quickly. Hope this helps!

Thanks for your reply, this did work and it was very simple.

sublim3style3 said:
Thanks for your reply, this did work and it was very simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great! Glad it worked for you

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).