Data Recovery from encrypted SD card after Factory Reset without decrypting ! - General Questions and Answers

I own a Samsung ON 7 phone and I was using a class 10 Sandisk memory card which was encrypted by the device in the lock screen and security menu and with no other third party software. Now I have done factory reset on my phone and accidentally forgot to decrypt the SD card, now SD card is detectable and all the files are there and visible as well. but i can't open any file. What to do, please help ! :crying:

Are you sure you have permissions set correctly? Can you just plug your phone into a computer with a USB cable and move the files over that way?
Also, those Sandisk SD cards are crap. I had a few of those cards and every 6 months they would fail and go read-only I/O error, never with more than 25% of the space used. Your card could just be being a Sandisk.
DIsclaimer: I don't actually know what Android uses for encryption, I assumed LUKS or something similar. It's possible that Android has the dumbest encryption scheme ever and lets you see the filenames in an encrypted volume, but that seems really unlikely.

I was in a similar situation recently and was looking for advice on the forum. I connected my SD card to a PC and restored the files using the Uneraser program. I think that this option can help many.

Related

Obnoxious Problem with SDXC Card - Card on Computer Works Fine, Phone Wants to Format

Card is a Sandisk 128GB Ultra MicroSDXC A1 card.
Card is formatted exFAT.
Card can be mounted, opened, and read/write with no problems via my laptop when plugged directly (SD slot).
Android (LG G5, LineageOS 15.1) says card is corrupt, is trying to make me format. Card initially set up as "Portable Storage".
Took FOREVER to move music onto this card, as artists had to be moved one at a time or transfers would fail, so I'm trying to avoid formatting.
I've tried rebooting the phone, repairing the file system using TWRP Wipe command (fails with error code 1), and mounting with a clean eject via Windows 10 on my laptop using the SD card slot. Nothing has made an impact, stupid phone still won't allow me to use the card.
If anyone has any ideas why this is happening, or how I could potentially fix this without having to wipe the card, I would appreciate it. This thing has been a PITA since I got it, I thought it would be awesome having such expandable storage on my phone (I'm a weirdo who doesn't use streaming services) but I've had nothing but problems so far. I have to be careful with how I transfer files onto the card or the transfer will take an (appropriately) long time, act like it works, but then the file just won't be there. Now I've finally gotten the card loaded up, and after a routine phone reboot a few days ago, the Android OS is trying to say it's corrupt; This is also making me worry that this will continue being an issue in the future.
Running "chkdsk E: /r" on my laptop is revealing a couple minor corruptions inside the directory, and volume bitmap. It's hanging on verification/completing now.
Is it possible that I have a bad SD card? This thing has seriously done nothing but suck since I've been trying to use it.
Edit: Unless someone tells me otherwise, I'm pretty sure this is a bogus/defective SD card. I simply cannot believe that flash memory would perform this badly. I'm going to return this card (bit of a PITA since I ordered it online) and buy another one locally.

Question How to disable encryption/decrypt the external SD Card on Android 10

Hi, I have an Android 10 phone (Nokia 2.2, using Android One) and I realize there is apparently no option to disable the encryption of the SD Card.
In the options menu, under Encryption & credentials, there is an "Encrypt phone" section that just says "Encrypted", with no option to disable it.
This is very unconvenient since I need to be able to put the SD Card on my laptop to copy files more reliably (through the USB cable sometimes for no reason the transfer crashes, removing the files from the phone before copying them to the laptop, causing unrecoverable data loss).
But until the SD Card is encrypted, it is of course unreadable from the laptop.
Maybe Nokia's officially published source code for some phones (although not the 2.2), can be used to decrypt the SD card? If so, how?

[Help] android 10 sd card photo recovery

I have a nokia 3.2 with android 10, one day the lcd suddenly has dead pixels. I took out the sd card and did a device reset(like the old days). Then I sent the device for repair.
A few days later I got the device back, but then I realized that the sd card cannot be recognized by the device or PC. I have learned that it may be encrypted. Is there anyway that I can get my photos back?
The picture in the attachment shows the image created from the sd card open in 7z. the "android_meta.img" contains no data inside.
Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
Look inside here:
How to decrypt Adopted Storage?
Using the SD card as Adopted Storage encrypts it. How can it be decrypted?
android.stackexchange.com
jwoegerbauer said:
Look inside here:
How to decrypt Adopted Storage?
Using the SD card as Adopted Storage encrypts it. How can it be decrypted?
android.stackexchange.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info. I am afraid I don't have the key anymore. Brute force maybe the only solution.
In case of unreadable SD card (not an encription problem) a distinction must be made between corrupted File System and physical failure. In the first case the raw data are still accessible and a recovery SW tool is able to restore the files, maybe assigning them arbitrary names such as "file0001". In the event of a physical failure, the SD internal memory chip may still contain data, but the electrical signals between the SD connector and the memory are damaged; in this case the data is irrecoverable. Fortunately, I found a German site https://recoverfab.com which, in practice, uses a Laser to open the SD, then connects the memory chip to an external circuit and retrieves the stored data. Of course, the operation has its cost, but if the data is really important it can prove to be a salvation.

Main storage not available on Motorola G7 power

Hi!
I have Motorola G7 power xt-1955-4.
And I also got a 512gb Kingston hama sdcard.
The card was formatted as internal storage.
The problem is that today I saw that I can't access the files on my phone. This happened after I moved several files from phone to my computer, to free up some space.
Now, when I open File manager it shows "main storage not available".
I reinserted my SD card a couple of times, but I keep having a notification saying "checking sdcard... Reviewing current content".
When I go to Settings - Storage it says only "sdcard checking..".
When I press on "Checking sd card" notification only it gives me the option to Forget.
How can I access my SD card without formatting it?
Thank you.
You said you moved some files from the card to your PC? How did you do this? If you removed the card from the phone and put it in your PC, then what you effectively did was slice off part of your phone's storage, messed with the files, and put it back in. You cut off a piece of brain, rooted around in it, and tried to reattach it.
Internal storage means the card is not removable, and the storage space will be filled with files essential to the phone. Chances are to get the card to work again it needs to be reformatted.
dannyetlv said:
Hi!
I have Motorola G7 power xt-1955-4.
And I also got a 512gb Kingston hama sdcard.
The card was formatted as internal storage.
The problem is that today I saw that I can't access the files on my phone. This happened after I moved several files from phone to my computer, to free up some space.
Now, when I open File manager it shows "main storage not available".
I reinserted my SD card a couple of times, but I keep having a notification saying "checking sdcard... Reviewing current content".
When I go to Settings - Storage it says only "sdcard checking..".
When I press on "Checking sd card" notification only it gives me the option to Forget.
How can I access my SD card without formatting it?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I'm a bit late. I had this same issue recently. Until now, I have had a problem with any program recognizing the drive without offering to format it first. I can't do that because I am stupid and had important files on there I need. I just located DiskGenius and I am running it now.
Not sure this will repair the issue, but it recognized the sd card which I had set as the primary storage not knowing something like this could happen. It is running a search now for bad sectors. When it finds them, it will provide a repair, but the sectors will be deleted. I am hoping it won't be the sectors that contain my files that I need to recover. But it's a step in the right direction.
I now know not to set an sd card as main storage for Android, because it encrypts the files, and it tied the SD card to the system. I can't even install apps right now because the main storage is non existent.
I just had to throw out a 62g card due to corruption. I do t know how it happened but I eventually had to factory reset/wipe phone. I put the card in a laptop to reformat it. Wouldn't work. I'm getting a new card, but I will not make it phone storage. Bummed me out.

Cannot upgrade my SD card to a higher capacity

I have an interesting phenomenon. I want to upgrage an extFAT 256 Gb SD card to an extFAT 1 Tb SD card. The source and the destination cards are not encrypted. I copied all unhidden files from the old one to the new one via a USB reader. I can see everything on my 1 Tb card. When I insert the new card to the phone, some folders like download, music or video are empty. I remove the card from my phone and put it to the same USB reader. These directories contain no files. It looks like you cannot simply copy files. Of course, I can copy them connecting my phone via USB; however, it will take a day to transfer 65 Gb of data. Disk imaging is very slow too. I'm on UI 4.0 Stock, Note 20 Ultra.
Format and load card in the phone.
You need a V30 rated card for best speed.
Thanks! No, it does't work. I've done it the same way: format on the phone / use very fast card. Copy to the phone speed is 700 Kps, via USB reader - 7.5 Mps. I'm afraid it has something to do with the card ID xxxx-xxxx. Volume ID changer doesn't work with new SD cards.
All I do is get a Sandisk extreme, format in phone and it's good to go.
I'm running two N10+'s, one running P the other Q. Using a 512 gb card.
In phone transfer speeds are about .5 [email protected] Average about 1.
Try going from internal memory to card. Should be about [email protected]
Check the PC, use the SmartSwitch driver.
Access SD card drive in the phone using Windows Disk Management, scan for new devices, load/download from that window.
Check Event Viewer for error messages.
Try clearing the system cache.
The story is even worse. I have a 512 Gb os Internal Storage version . I copied my SD card to it, put a new SD card and copy all my files from external to SD. The copy process was fast I was able to see my files on the new SD card. As soon as I deleted a copy from the Interatal Storage, my files were automatically erased from the SD card.
robotov said:
The story is even worse. I have a 512 Gb os Internal Storage version . I copied my SD card to it, put a new SD card and copy all my files from external to SD. The copy process was fast I was able to see my files on the new SD card. As soon as I deleted a copy from the Interatal Storage, my files were automatically erased from the SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I trust you have redundant copies saved on hdds...
How fast? The card's top speed is around [email protected] Sounds like it was just deleting the files, not writing them to the card.
Try in safe mode.
Run a Check Disk on the PC. Do a low level format and always format in the phone before use. A 3rd party app maybe more helpful for low level formatting.
More ideas.
*always keep the possibility of a virus or rootkit in mind when you observe unexplained behavior with an Android. These are very rare unless you do something stupid... as we all have.
If one disk or more are suspected of being compromised keep them 100% isolated from the backups!!! As they should be anyway.
It's also possible a hidden user setting was altered. Poorly written 3rd apps can do this, unistalling may not fix it or could even trigger it.
Factory reset to clear the user data and reset everything to default. If you did any major firmware upgrades and you didn't factory reset... it's time to.
I don't advocate factory resetting normally at all but for the above issues sometimes it's the best option for a stock Android.
If you can find the app that alter the hidden user setting you may be able to repair it sometimes by reinstalling the app and toggling the setting in it that triggered the issue than unistalling it again, if it's an option. I've done this before, in fact it was on the current load I'm using which will be 2 yo in June. I prefer to find the issue rather than nuke whenever possible... to prevent reoccurrence.
Thank you! I've found the problem. I had to disable zip compressed folders functionality on my PC using a registry fix. Obvously, the phone doesn't support this feature.
robotov said:
Thank you! I've found the problem. I had to disable zip compressed folders functionality on my PC using a registry fix. Obvously, the phone doesn't support this feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yay! Nothing like success!
Congratulations on your 1.5tb dual drive handheld PC
♤excellent♤
Lol, you had me worried as I'm thinking of up sizing to a 1tb card on my N10+
Never encrpt, compressed or clone data drives especially media files as bad things tend to happen. Those silly little null marks matter

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