recovery from android broken screen

[maurizio78]

Hello,

I just broke my phone's screen,
and I am trying to recover documents and media from the device,
by connecting it to my laptop with Debian Buster.
It's a rooted android 9,
but I am unable to unlock it, due to the broken screen, and I can't see anything going on on it.

I have been googling, and found some apps that may help on this, like EaseUs, MOBILedit, FonePaw,
but they don't seem to have any Debian or Linux version.

I tried to connect the device by MTP, using JMTPFS,
but the device is not recognised:

Code: Select all

maurizio@Buster:~$ jmtpfs
No mtp devices found.

Any suggestions?

[sickpig]

but I am unable to unlock it

if you can't unlock it then trying to connect is futile. If you have removable storage then you can try to remove it and use another device to access it.

[sgosnell]

Backups. Backups are even more important for phones than for PCs, because they're much more likely to be broken or stolen. With no ability to unlock the phone, there is little or no ability to get data off it. You may be able to have the screen replaced and get the data off. If it's important and you have no backups, that's probably the best way to go. There are screen repair kits available, or many places that repair/replace screens. Only you can decide if the cost is worth it to you.

[Soapm]

Backups. Backups are even more important for phones than for PCs, because they're much more likely to be broken or stolen. With no ability to unlock the phone, there is little or no ability to get data off it. You may be able to have the screen replaced and get the data off. If it's important and you have no backups, that's probably the best way to go. There are screen repair kits available, or many places that repair/replace screens. Only you can decide if the cost is worth it to you.

OT... It would be nice if the software makers would make it easier to store all needed information on the SD card but Android has made it next to impossible in the name of security. It would also be nice if Google automatically backed up everything to include settings like iOS. Users are loosing a lot of necessary and important stuff in the name of their security.

[sgosnell]

That is easy if you have the right phone. My Pixel doesn't take an SD card, but it backs up everything, including settings, to my Google Drive account. Some manufacturers seem to disable this, or not enable it, but most have a method of making backups. It's not really that hard. It might be for some brands, I've certainly not used all of them, but the capability is in Android.

[dilberts_left_nut]

I thought that was called ransomware. ...

[sickpig]

Android has made it next to impossible in the name of security.

Android debug bridge - adb provides native ability to backup everything on your Android without the need of any third party bs apps. And its platform agnostic. Try that with ios walled garden of crap.

[Soapm]

Android has made it next to impossible in the name of security.

Android debug bridge - adb provides native ability to backup everything on your Android without the need of any third party bs apps. And its platform agnostic. Try that with ios walled garden of crap.

You don't need that with iOS, it automatically backs everything up. You just sign in your apple account on your new device and all your settings and everything will be there after a short period. I'm not endorsing apple since all I have is an old ipad mini, but you can't knock that feature. AND, it's one setting to turn off.

[sickpig]

You just sign in your apple account on your new device and all your settings and everything will be there after a short period.

Accessible only from Apple ecosystem via Apple devices. So everything will be there but not accessible from everywhere. Which begs the question what's its use then? Unless you have a mesh of over priced closed ecosystem devices.
Try syncing icloud with Debian You will need to use ifuse to mount your ios device which will limit the device access only a particular folder of a particular app, so pretty much useless. And native ios apps like photos and the like are still not accessible.

[Soapm]

And native ios apps like photos and the like are still not accessible.

Like I said, I have only an old ipad mini but you can run google drive on iOS which can sync your photo's.

But my point is, for the average Joe, android is making it hard to keep your stuff backed up "AUTOMATICALLY..."

[sickpig]

But my point is, for the average Joe, android is making it hard to keep your stuff backed up "AUTOMATICALLY..."

Not really, the google account backup api is provided to all device vendors. I have used all the leading providers' Android devices and haven't come across a single one which does not provide the option to back your data up to google. Have you come across any particular brand? Could be a fringe case then but most of them do support it.

[Soapm]

But my point is, for the average Joe, android is making it hard to keep your stuff backed up "AUTOMATICALLY..."

Not really, the google account backup api is provided to all device vendors. I have used all the leading providers' Android devices and haven't come across a single one which does not provide the option to back your data up to google. Have you come across any particular brand? Could be a fringe case then but most of them do support it.

Have you counted on it? Android has your data all over the device so the backup isn't reliable unless you make a concerted effort to keep things where they will be backedup. Again, iOS just does it. No settings, no effort, it just does it settings and all to include wallpaper and WiFi connections...

[sickpig]

Have you counted on it?

While setting up my device after a reset I was given a choice to pull down the backup from my linked google account and everything was downloaded as advertised. Including wallpaper. I am not sure about wifi settings but rest of the stuff was there.

edit - have tried on samsung, asus and pixel devices but I am sure almost all brands do provide this facility if not all.

[sgosnell]

On my Pixel, it's backed up automatically. I've been through a dozen or so Android phones over the years, and a decade or so ago it did take some effort to back everything up. Now it's done automatically. When you set up the phone it asks if you want to back up to Google. You can choose not to if you want, or accept the offer and it's done all the time. Switching to a new phone only requires logging in to the same account, and it all comes back. The last time I did it, the wallpaper, which is a photo of my grandchildren, was restored without doing anything else. If you think it's hard to do backups on Android, you must not have been paying attention for the past several years. What you're claiming simply isn't true.

[oswaldkelso]

1. Replace the broken screen
2. replace MTP with something that works
3. like https://github.com/ppareit/swiftp
4. relax

[maurizio78]

Thanks all,

I'll consider replacing the screen,
I'll have to decide if it' s worth it.

Interesting swiftp, I'll give it a try.

Cheers,
Maurizio.