on a computer, deleted files can be still be recovered via tools like recuva or disk digger. Not unless you use a program to overwrite fee space a number of times. Is it the same with android devices?
i have another scenario though, i have a tablet that i plugged a micro sd card to to view files. I dont save those files to the tablet, just view them. Then just eject the card when done. If someone were to somehow gain possession of my tablet, can they find out what the file is and somehow get a copy of that file via the temporary folder or something?
I would appreciate it if experts can answer and give advice on my rather uncommon questions.
Thanks
t-rayms said:
on a computer, deleted files can be still be recovered via tools like recuva or disk digger. Not unless you use a program to overwrite fee space a number of times. Is it the same with android devices?
i have another scenario though, i have a tablet that i plugged a micro sd card to to view files. I dont save those files to the tablet, just view them. Then just eject the card when done. If someone were to somehow gain possession of my tablet, can they find out what the file is and somehow get a copy of that file via the temporary folder or something?
I would appreciate it if experts can answer and give advice on my rather uncommon questions.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Files deleted in android are not actually deleted, the space the file is in is marked as free space but the data remains there ignored by the system until that space is overwritten or is formatted.
When viewing files from sdcard, some data that was viewed is cached and can be found/recovered later possibly if cache is not cleared but the data recovered might not be enough to tell them anything.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
Related
Hi, I just deleted the camera folder in gallery (dcim folder on internal sd).
Does anyone know a working recovery app or pc tool that works on internal sd?
I tried several ones, but no luck.
Thanks in advance!
I'm not sure about apps, but some of the desktop software may help. There's a company called Active that has a couple options that may help, such as UNDELETE or File Recovery. The main problem is the fact that this is flash memory. If you've written to the card any since you deleted the folder you dramatically reduce your chances of being able to recover those files.
Also, it depends on how new the card is as the more data has been written and rewritten to it, the lower your chances of being able to recover. That goes for all re-writeable storage. Hopefully that helps ... good luck.
If you're unfortunate enough to not already updated to Jellybean, you can use USB Mass Storage mode and try using PhotoRec to recover files.
THIS is why we need USB mass storage mode... MTP just doesn't cut it.
There are a bunch of folders and files on my phone that may be leftovers from apps I once tried and uninstalled. They seem to just be taking up space in my sdcard folder. Most are empty folders. What are these and can I safely delete them? I need the sdcard space.
sdcard/.chartboost
sdcard/.CM_Cloud
sdcard/.mmsyscache
sdcard/.quickdial
sdcard/.SIc-yJMAhEcjs6wmSi9Uhdeyr_M=
sdcard/catlog
sdcard/Tencent
Any help appreciated
Sorry, too early in the morning... I initially read your question as being about external SD cards - duh...
Your best bet is to copy them all - to a hard drive or Dropbox/Google Drive/OneDrive - and delete them from your SD card. Then if something fails you can restore them one by one if an app fails until you find the one that it needs.
Since none of them are in /system/ it's probably not a big risk, but take a full TWRP backup before you do anything.
That's what I was planning to do but was trying to find out what they were about first. Guess I'll need to go that route.....
So, my brother backed up my Samsung Galaxy S4 on his laptop about 3 years ago. Can't remember the program used. He gave me the backup file yesterday.
(I screenshotted the file name and attached it here titled " FILE BACKUP TITLE.PNG")
I edited the file, to a .exe. (eg “Samsung SM-G350E_20191001_103009.bak” delete the bak and write exe after the dot and press enter.) That way I can access everything through winrar. However all of the files are encrypted! We have no idea what the password is, what shall I do! (Attached the password screen in winrar titled " RAR.PNG")
It has 1000's of photos from 2014-2017, I have no idea on what to do. I've checked out brute forcing, but I wasn't sure how to do it.
Thanks.
AkiraPerera04 said:
So, my brother backed up my Samsung Galaxy S4 on his laptop about 3 years ago. Can't remember the program used. He gave me the backup file yesterday.
(I screenshotted the file name and attached it here titled " FILE BACKUP TITLE.PNG")
I edited the file, to a .exe. (eg “Samsung SM-G350E_20191001_103009.bak” delete the bak and write exe after the dot and press enter.) That way I can access everything through winrar. However all of the files are encrypted! We have no idea what the password is, what shall I do! (Attached the password screen in winrar titled " RAR.PNG")
It has 1000's of photos from 2014-2017, I have no idea on what to do. I've checked out brute forcing, but I wasn't sure how to do it.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What method was used to create the backup? It may require using the same tool that created it to decrypt it, but, without the password, you're pretty much screwed.
Whatever he used, it isn't the best way of backing up android devices. Methods typically used to backup/manage PC's are not suggested for android. ADB and custom recovery are the recommended methods of backing up android, you take your chances with any other method, as you have discovered.
For future reference, backing up your internal storage such as photos, videos and personal files doesn't require any special tools or methods, all you have to do is connect to PC, open your phones internal storage on PC and then copy all the folders there and save them on your PC in whatever folder you choose, no encryption is necessary. Then, all you have to do to retrieve data from that backup is open the folder containing the backup and everything will be there for you to copy/paste/move/open/delete the same as you can with any other file on PC.
Transferring data from that backup folder to a new device is as simple as connecting the new device to PC, opening the backup folder then copying everything in the folder then opening the internal storage of the new device on PC and then pasting the contents of the backup into the internal storage of the new device. It is virtually no different than copying files from one USB drive to another USB drive, you are just going it with phones instead of USB drives.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
Droidriven said:
What method was used to create the backup? It may require using the same tool that created it to decrypt it, but, without the password, you're pretty much screwed.
Whatever he used, it isn't the best way of backing up android devices. Methods typically used to backup/manage PC's are not suggested for android. ADB and custom recovery are the recommended methods of backing up android, you take your chances with any other method, as you have discovered.
For future reference, backing up your internal storage such as photos, videos and personal files doesn't require any special tools or methods, all you have to do is connect to PC, open your phones internal storage on PC and then copy all the folders there and save them on your PC in whatever folder you choose, no encryption is necessary. Then, all you have to do to retrieve data from that backup is open the folder containing the backup and everything will be there for you to copy/paste/move/open/delete the same as you can with any other file on PC.
Transferring data from that backup folder to a new device is as simple as connecting the new device to PC, opening the backup folder then copying everything in the folder then opening the internal storage of the new device on PC and then pasting the contents of the backup into the internal storage of the new device. It is virtually no different than copying files from one USB drive to another USB drive, you are just going it with phones instead of USB drives.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your response, I thought nobody was going to reply.
We can't remember. All I remember is that my custom rom s4 (android 4) was hooked up to our mac laptop. Then we backed it up using some kind of backup program. Then it was updated to android 8.
Yeah I understand now, but at the time we were fairly new to the whole android scene. I have an s7 edge now, I just back everything up on google photos and the regular cloud service. What should I do? I really want those files back.
Thanks.
Mod edit: Duplicate thread closed
Hello Guys,
Yesterday my phone (Samsung S7) fell and the screen and touchscreen is not working since then. Not surprised given that it is shuttered XD.
Anyway, I had an sd card in the phone with all the photos saved on it, without cloud backups. Not remembering that the card was encrypted, I have simply connected the phone to my pc and copy pasted all photos to a pc folder. The sd card has then been inserted into a new Samsung A20e and fast formatted.
My problem is that now I have all the photos on my desktop which are encrypted and can't be opened. As soon as I realized this I have removed the sd card from the A20e to avoid overwriting data in case it can be recovered.
I would gladly appreciate if any of you could tell me if there is a way to recover this data.
I can access the USB debugging mode on the S7 and navigate its files.
My inexperienced ideas were:
1. Is it possible to recover the encryption key from the files in the phone and then use this do de-encrypt the photos on the pc?
2. If I insert the sd card back into the S7, format it, encrypt it (through a pc screen mirrowing tool), copy the photos form the pc into the card would the phone be able to read them? This could be possible if the phone uses always the same encryption key without changing it.
3. Is there any use in trying to use one of those data recovery tools on the sd card? The data I would get will still be encrypted.
Thanks to anyone who'd be willing to help.
upuupupupup
Galbanino0 said:
Hello Guys,
Yesterday my phone (Samsung S7) fell and the screen and touchscreen is not working since then. Not surprised given that it is shuttered XD.
Anyway, I had an sd card in the phone with all the photos saved on it, without cloud backups. Not remembering that the card was encrypted, I have simply connected the phone to my pc and copy pasted all photos to a pc folder. The sd card has then been inserted into a new Samsung A20e and fast formatted.
My problem is that now I have all the photos on my desktop which are encrypted and can't be opened. As soon as I realized this I have removed the sd card from the A20e to avoid overwriting data in case it can be recovered.
I would gladly appreciate if any of you could tell me if there is a way to recover this data.
I can access the USB debugging mode on the S7 and navigate its files.
My inexperienced ideas were:
1. Is it possible to recover the encryption key from the files in the phone and then use this do de-encrypt the photos on the pc?
2. If I insert the sd card back into the S7, format it, encrypt it (through a pc screen mirrowing tool), copy the photos form the pc into the card would the phone be able to read them? This could be possible if the phone uses always the same encryption key without changing it.
3. Is there any use in trying to use one of those data recovery tools on the sd card? The data I would get will still be encrypted.
Thanks to anyone who'd be willing to help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it has been formatted, it is gone. Recovering data that has been deleted is quite possible. Recovering data that has been formatted is not likely. And even if you did manage to recover any of the data, it would be very fragmented and incomplete, in other words, there wouldn't be enough left behind to recover anything that is a complete or useable file, all you would have are incomplete pieces of files.
However, it is possible to decrypt your encrypted backup but I don't know the best method to do so.
I only posted to give you an idea of what is possible and what isn't.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
Droidriven said:
If it has been formatted, it is gone. Recovering data that has been deleted is quite possible. Recovering data that has been formatted is not likely. And even if you did manage to recover any of the data, it would be very fragmented and incomplete, in other words, there wouldn't be enough left behind to recover anything that is a complete or useable file, all you would have are incomplete pieces of files.
However, it is possible to decrypt your encrypted backup but I don't know the best method to do so.
I only posted to give you an idea of what is possible and what isn't.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
At least if you say that is possible to decrypt the files there is some hope for them. Have you got any idea of where I could understand more on how to do it?
I have a Huawei P30 Lite New edition phone (Emui 12, Indeed I connect the phone to the machine, the internal storage appears well, I delete files. when I look at the remaining storage capacity it has been deleted, but as soon as I restart the phone the files that I thought I had deleted are there again.
What to do ?
Thanks
ththugues89 said:
I have a Huawei P30 Lite New edition phone (Emui 12, Indeed I connect the phone to the machine, the internal storage appears well, I delete files. when I look at the remaining storage capacity it has been deleted, but as soon as I restart the phone the files that I thought I had deleted are there again.
What to do ?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why cant you just delete the file in tour phone directly? regarding in your files its possibly that there is a conflict with your dm-verity of your phone
dm-verity helps prevent persistent rootkits that can hold onto root privileges and compromise devices. This feature helps Android users be sure when booting a device it is in the same state as when it was last used.
deleting or modifying the phones system without correct permission is bad specially when you use pc to delete or modify your phone there is possibility that you deleted the temp files only in your via pc and its not really deleted in the physical memory the pc thought that it deleted it the files but no, its not deleted or there is possibility that when you delete the files in your phone via pc the phone restored it back to original state because of the dm-verity the phone thinks that there is wrong in the filesystem or that you used unauthorized method to modify your phone thats why the phone reverts it to normal, unless you delete the files in your phone directly it will only revert back to normal again and again. BTW what files are you deleting??
Anonymous V said:
why cant you just delete the file in tour phone directly? regarding in your files its possibly that there is a conflict with your dm-verity of your phone
dm-verity helps prevent persistent rootkits that can hold onto root privileges and compromise devices. This feature helps Android users be sure when booting a device it is in the same state as when it was last used.
deleting or modifying the phones system without correct permission is bad specially when you use pc to delete or modify your phone there is possibility that you deleted the temp files only in your via pc and its not really deleted in the physical memory the pc thought that it deleted it the files but no, its not deleted or there is possibility that when you delete the files in your phone via pc the phone restored it back to original state because of the dm-verity the phone thinks that there is wrong in the filesystem or that you used unauthorized method to modify your phone thats why the phone reverts it to normal, unless you delete the files in your phone directly it will only revert back to normal again and again. BTW what files are you deleting??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your reply.
I cannot delete this from my phone because my phone starts in emergency backup mode (See attached photo), probably due to a lack of space problem because when I look in the PC my remaining storage is 300Mb (probably low so that the phone can start normally).
Indeed the folder that I want to delete is the download folder which weighs more than 60GB mainly videos and movies downloaded from the internet.
How to circumvent this reinitialization to the previous state?
Looking forward to reading you
THANKS
ththugues89 said:
Thank you for your reply.
I cannot delete this from my phone because my phone starts in emergency backup mode (See attached photo), probably due to a lack of space problem because when I look in the PC my remaining storage is 300Mb (probably low so that the phone can start normally).
Indeed the folder that I want to delete is the download folder which weighs more than 60GB mainly videos and movies downloaded from the internet.
How to circumvent this reinitialization to the previous state?
Looking forward to reading you
THANKS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmmm i see your phone thought that there is important files contained in your phone thats why it protected it (its only base what i read in the error in the picture) ,in the picture its said you can back your files in an external drive or sd card or something and reformat your phone thats a first option , second possible option is if your willing to lose your files and all then reformating your phone is the best way to fix it if it you can reformat anything using fastboot fastboot too if i were to choose i would choose option 1 but its up to you. btw to understand more about your problem may i know the full specs of your phone? but im guessing its huawie right? even so pls tell me the full specs