Develop Bugs

Phone's back from the dead. Any ways to retrieve information that's been formatted?

Hi guys,
anyone's who's read my posts would know my phone died recently due to zero battery and going through the boot loop cycle continuously. After leaving it overnight for 2 days on a iPad charger, it came back on again. My phone's done a hard reset, and I was wondering if there are any softwares available to retrieve the information in it. I know there're tools to retrieve information from hard drives that have been formatted, and would appreciate if any of you know of a tool that can get my photos out of my phone. Thanks in advance.

MCChang said:
Hi guys,
anyone's who's read my posts would know my phone died recently due to zero battery and going through the boot loop cycle continuously. After leaving it overnight for 2 days on a iPad charger, it came back on again. My phone's done a hard reset, and I was wondering if there are any softwares available to retrieve the information in it. I know there're tools to retrieve information from hard drives that have been formatted, and would appreciate if any of you know of a tool that can get my photos out of my phone. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that greatly depends on how thorough you're hoping this will be. Anything synced through Zune should be available, anything replicated to the cloud should be available (Windows Live ID, if you have an exchange server, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, etc.) - but any game data is pretty much lost. In general, any applications that store info locally is pretty much lost AFAIK.
There's an application in Marketplace called Reinstaller that identifies apps you've already installed and helps you loop through them to, well, surprise surprise, re-install them. It's quite useful, here's the link in the Marketplace: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/search?q=Reinstaller
What other things were you looking for?

eknutson said:
Well, that greatly depends on how thorough you're hoping this will be. Anything synced through Zune should be available, anything replicated to the cloud should be available (Windows Live ID, if you have an exchange server, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, etc.) - but any game data is pretty much lost. In general, any applications that store info locally is pretty much lost AFAIK.
There's an application in Marketplace called Reinstaller that identifies apps you've already installed and helps you loop through them to, well, surprise surprise, re-install them. It's quite useful, here's the link in the Marketplace: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/search?q=Reinstaller
What other things were you looking for?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. My phone ran out of juice pretty much right after my trip to Taiwan, where I took quite a few photos. I didn't have time to sync it with my computer before it died. It's those photos I wish to retrieve. Any other suggestions?

My buddy who has an iPhone told me that in order to retrieve information from the iPhone, it needs to first be jailbreaked. That way we can bypass the phone's OS and connect to the hard drive directly. Obviously it's a long shot as any software would still need to retrieve what's been formatted over, but I wonder if it holds true in our case as well. Will I need to 'jailbreak' my phone first?

MCChang said:
My buddy who has an iPhone told me that in order to retrieve information from the iPhone, it needs to first be jailbreaked. That way we can bypass the phone's OS and connect to the hard drive directly. Obviously it's a long shot as any software would still need to retrieve what's been formatted over, but I wonder if it holds true in our case as well. Will I need to 'jailbreak' my phone first?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude you are in the wrong place, as this forum, thread is not for iPhone.....

truffle1234 said:
Dude you are in the wrong place, as this forum, thread is not for iPhone.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He's in the right place, just because this is a Lumia 900 forum doesn't mean he can't use the i-word He has specified that it is possible on the iPhone, and is curious if it can be done on the Lumia. Seems like the perfect place for him to me...

eknutson said:
He's in the right place, just because this is a Lumia 900 forum doesn't mean he can't use the i-word He has specified that it is possible on the iPhone, and is curious if it can be done on the Lumia. Seems like the perfect place for him to me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again, eknuston.
I did a search online, and came across 2 photo recovery tools, which spelt out were meant for the Lumia 900.
The Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery
http://android-photo-recovery.com/tutorials/recover-deleted-photos-videos-from-nokia-lumia-900.html
Photo Recovery Pro
http://android-photo-recovery.com/tutorials/recover-deleted-photos-videos-from-nokia-lumia-900.html
Unfortunately, both tools could not recognize our phones in the drive directory. That's when I realized that Windows 7 does not allow our phones to be used as removable drives.
I've since cracked the registry (using this tutorial)
http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2010/11/18/use-your-windows-phone-7-device-as-a-portable-usb-drive/
My computer could recognize the phone, but the directories were empty. So I installed this:
http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2010/11/18/use-your-windows-phone-7-device-as-a-portable-usb-drive/
and I can now access the current files in my phone.
HOWEVER, I STILL AM UNABLE TO RETRIEVE THE ERASED FILES, as the 2 softwares are still unable to recognize the phone as a drive, despite the fact that the file explorer can.
Does anyone have any ideas on what I should do next (other than forget about the files, get a new phone, etc.). Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I forgot to mention that 'Computer Management' under Window's Administrative Tools, can't find the phone too. I suspect they're linked..

4th link?
Did you mean for the 4th link to be the same as the 3rd? I am trying to follow your steps to see if I can access my files but I am not sure what did you install in order to see your current files after the registry change. Thanks.

Formatted data recovery
Hi
You can recover formatted data using best media recovery software. Using this software I was able to restore digital data from formatted usb flash drive. So, you can download demo version of this software and check it.
For more details visit the website - unformatdata.com

Hey guys, just stop posting BS about "flash drive recovery"...
Lumia 900 isn't a flash drive and can't be restored this way (it works via Zune drivers, and shows not an actual "drive" but just some "virtual folders").
Finalizing: MCChang, you can't recover lost pics or any other info. And I can give the only one suggestion: next time if you want to keep your pics/info, use clouds (WP7 have ability to automatically upload pictures to the SkyDrive).

sensboston said:
Hey guys, just stop posting BS about "flash drive recovery"...
Lumia 900 isn't a flash drive and can't be restored this way (it works via Zune drivers, and shows not an actual "drive" but just some "virtual folders").
Finalizing: MCChang, you can't recover lost pics or any other info. And I can give the only one suggestion: next time if you want to keep your pics/info, use clouds (WP7 have ability to automatically upload pictures to the SkyDrive).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks sensboston. I've pretty much resigned myself to it haha

You can recover deleted or formatted files from android phone with this data recovery solution: android phone data recovery
helped me before.

Android File Transfer finally working again Tmobile Galaxy S3 Jelly Bean iMac

This has been plaguing me for way too long! I couldn't get my S3 to connect with my Mac. I thought the first ICS update did something to keep ATF from reading my phone. I finally found a solution for getting Android File Transfer to work on my iMac with my Galaxy S3 even after the Jelly Bean update and on a custom ROM. I'm currently running Wicked JBv1, but I'm pretty sure this will work even if you're on stock or with any custom ROM. I found this solution in the Tmobile forums and I give the credit to user dk123 for posting it. I'm running OSX Lion by the way.
First make sure you remove the Kies software from your computer. I used appZapper.
Then I removed ssuddrv.kext from System/Library/Extensions. I made a copy of the file first and saved it in my documents just in case something goes wrong.
Before reconnecting my phone i made sure to check USB Debugging and when I reconnected it AFT found my phone instantly.
I don't know how helpful this may be, but I've been wondering for months why ATF wasn't working. It's still not the most user friendly way to connect your S3 to your Mac, but at least I can move music files over fairly easily without having to use the crappy Kies Software. I hope this helps even just one person.

EvilAldo said:
This has been plaguing me for way too long! I couldn't get my S3 to connect with my Mac. I thought the first ICS update did something to keep ATF from reading my phone. I finally found a solution for getting Android File Transfer to work on my iMac with my Galaxy S3 even after the Jelly Bean update and on a custom ROM. I'm currently running Wicked JBv1, but I'm pretty sure this will work even if you're on stock or with any custom ROM. I found this solution in the Tmobile forums and I give the credit to user dk123 for posting it. I'm running OSX Lion by the way.
First make sure you remove the Kies software from your computer. I used appZapper.
Then I removed ssuddrv.kext from System/Library/Extensions. I made a copy of the file first and saved it in my documents just in case something goes wrong.
Before reconnecting my phone i made sure to check USB Debugging and when I reconnected it AFT found my phone instantly.
I don't know how helpful this may be, but I've been wondering for months why ATF wasn't working. It's still not the most user friendly way to connect your S3 to your Mac, but at least I can move music files over fairly easily without having to use the crappy Kies Software. I hope this helps even just one person.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kies Air is the s&%$.
Use AirDroid app. All you need is your computer and your phone on the same Wifi network and a browser.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sand.airdroid
S-beamed from my GSIII via xda premium

That is a pretty good program, but my music library is a little on the large side. I like the quick use of AFT for moving ROM downloads or moving pictures off my phone. Small stuff. Kies is just way too slow and klanky on my machine.

[email protected] said:
Use AirDroid app. All you need is your computer and your phone on the same Wifi network and a browser.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sand.airdroid
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW THANKS for the tip !

how do you go about doing this step? =/
Then I removed ssuddrv.kext from System/Library/Extensions. I made a copy of the file first and saved it in my documents just in case something goes wrong.

rauyeu2 said:
how do you go about doing this step? =/
Then I removed ssuddrv.kext from System/Library/Extensions. I made a copy of the file first and saved it in my documents just in case something goes wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From finder, click on your hard disk, then find click on system folder, then library folder then extensions folder. Scroll down to find the file and drag a copy to your desktop before deleting it.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

It didnt work for me I have version 10.7.3 I cant use airdroid because I dont have wifi. I use tether.

Brilliant
EvilAldo said:
This has been plaguing me for way too long! I couldn't get my S3 to connect with my Mac. I thought the first ICS update did something to keep ATF from reading my phone. I finally found a solution for getting Android File Transfer to work on my iMac with my Galaxy S3 even after the Jelly Bean update and on a custom ROM. I'm currently running Wicked JBv1, but I'm pretty sure this will work even if you're on stock or with any custom ROM. I found this solution in the Tmobile forums and I give the credit to user dk123 for posting it. I'm running OSX Lion by the way.
First make sure you remove the Kies software from your computer. I used appZapper.
Then I removed ssuddrv.kext from System/Library/Extensions. I made a copy of the file first and saved it in my documents just in case something goes wrong.
Before reconnecting my phone i made sure to check USB Debugging and when I reconnected it AFT found my phone instantly.
I don't know how helpful this may be, but I've been wondering for months why ATF wasn't working. It's still not the most user friendly way to connect your S3 to your Mac, but at least I can move music files over fairly easily without having to use the crappy Kies Software. I hope this helps even just one person.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:laugh::laugh:
:laugh: I nearly cried/ That's brilliant. We were in a parallel universe, you and I with the android/mac connectivity and yes Kies really isn't geared for Mac users. ATF is clunky but certainly productive, And it would seem, the only way around the problem since Apple have fallen out with, well, most every other competitor, Especially Samsung given their legal arguments the last couple of years. Amyway, I'm waffling. Just wanted say thanks for the detective work and the solution.

[Q] Retrieving text messages from Samsung Galaxy s 3 phone with screen not working

Hi
I posted this message a while back but I couldn't understand how to try what was suggested, or maybe they weren't the solution to the problem. I further asked the advisors but didn't get any replies, so I thought I would post again in a hopefully more relevant area of this site. This is a genuine request and would appreciate the help.
I have a broken Galaxy 3 phone where the screen suddenly stopped functioning with a total blackout so I can't use the phone at all. There is no problem getting the phone fixed within a couple of days but the problem is I want to save all my messages, contacts and other data, to my pc, especially one conversation text message thread that has gone on for about a year. I want the information to be able to be viewed independently on my computer like I read emails etc. and then I can store it on a portable hard drive by copy and paste. Samsung kies doesn't seem to allow for this. I can back up the phone apparently but the info can only be read by another similar phone so it is restricting how you see your own information. I want the information on my computer without the need of another similar phone because what if I decide to buy a totally different phone that has software that's not compatible. The shop representing Samsung who will fix the phone said that everything gets wiped and they won't even have Kies on their computers because they think its unstable software. Ideally it would be great if there was some kind of software for my computer that enabled it to read all the info on the phone as if the phone was a flash drive connected by USB and then I could simply copy and paste across from phone to computer. The phone is recognised by the computer through the USB but obviously it can't read inside the folders on the phone which just show as empty. Anybody know of anything to get the results I want? Thanks.

[Q] Help formatting phone

I have an XT912 that was previously my roommates phone and he used it when he had Verizon. I planned on using the phone for an Android TV essentially, since it has both a micro sd port and a mini hdmi, so I attempted to format it to get rid of all his old stuff. Well apparently Verizon, or possibly just XT912's have this sh***y anti-theft program called Avast; which apparently was created by a mentally unfit human being. I attempted a hard reset through the settings in privacy, as well as by using the buttons during boot up, and both produce the same result. As soon as it finishes formatting that useless bloat/adware pops up and lets me know that my roommates phone "HAS BEEN STOLEN;" HOLY SH*, thank you Avast! Where would I be in life without you and you're amazing anti-theft program! Well, after some careful investigation, and asking my roommate, it turns out I didn't steal his phone, but now I am permanently locked out. I have tried formatting it about 5 times, and still no luck. The only way it offers to get past it is to send a text to the pre-established number, which it conveniently can't do because it hasn't been active for about 8 months. I am at a point where I am looking for a reason to chuck it as hard as I can against a wall, hopefully there is an alternative.. Is there anyway I can root it remotely via a pc? Can I install another android operating system, or a fresh copy of XT912's OS on it? What would you do?
EDIT: It may not be a standard program to come on the XT912, but my roommate says that he only installed the program for like a day, then removed it, and never heard/saw from it again and forgot the pin..

Wrong forum.

Question Slowdown when copying to internal storage?

Our family took the technically free at&t deal to switch to the galaxy s22 phone (256 GB model) by trading in our galaxy s7 phones, and I've been tinkering with the settings, turning a whole host of stuff off because forget auto-installing apps and whatnot, but when I was copying my old phone's pictures over manually (forgot about smart switch, sue me [but don't pls]), the process slowed down very much. Every 15 seconds or so, my windows would give the Asterisk sound, but the green progress bar wouldn't make it past the 1% mark, and when trying to close the file window on my desktop, it'd take the same 15 seconds time to do so, and to stop this I had to unplug the phone from my desktop. Then I had to upload everything to dropbox and download it through the app onto my phone just to export it that way.
Since im still making sense of the phone, is there a concrete reason behind this slowdown, some phone setting or whatnot, because i uninstalled/reinstalled the Samsung USB Phone/Device Drivers from the software downloads portion of samsung, and there's no speed increase. My galaxy s7 was faster, so unless this is a quirk of the firmware itself or something else....idk, help pls?

One or more of the files may be corrupted.
I ran into this the other day on my N10+ going from SD card to a OTG flashstick with a 50gb folder with more than a dozen subfolders and 20 loose media files. It kept crashing on the last 2 or 3gb. I tried copying a couple different ways, nothing worked until I discovered a corrupted avi file and deleted it.
Copied it straight up.
Find the root cause, it could be malware that inadvertently got downloaded. This includes jpegs.

I doubt its malware, all the pictures I did were from the default camera app on my old phone, and I figure if I did it through smart switch it wouldn't have any problems, but ill look through my pictures, delete some, maybe put mcafee livesafe on there and run a few scans to see if it picks up anything before I uninstall it (seriously, the app is a resource hog no matter what hardware its on, mobile or not). ill make another reply if I find some kind of resolutiuon and result(s)

LodeUnknown said:
I doubt its malware, all the pictures I did were from the default camera app on my old phone, and I figure if I did it through smart switch it wouldn't have any problems, but ill look through my pictures, delete some, maybe put mcafee livesafe on there and run a few scans to see if it picks up anything before I uninstall it (seriously, the app is a resource hog no matter what hardware its on, mobile or not). ill make another reply if I find some kind of resolutiuon and result(s)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never use SmartSwitch to backup critical data especially media. Never clone media files ie music databases. Never password protect backups. Keep it rock stupid simple.
Copy/paste then compare size, and folder/file count. Inspect at least some of the data for readability.
Malware is always possible. The scripted jpegs on Android tend to only effect the folder they're in. Was that avi file I found malware? Who knows? I don't care as I just delete it and move on unless it raises its ugly head again. The point is I found the cause and removed it.
The scripted Android jpeg I encountered did it's thing when opened. It damaged many loose files but no files that where in folders. Some files I repaired, the rest I deleted. The malware jpeg I deleted first though and it was only by cause and effect that I found it. Fortunately it was the download folder so it's reign of terror was brief; had that been a large database it could turn into a digital blood bath.
All downloads go to the download folder and stay there until vetted. Check all files by opening them there before moving them elsewhere. Delete any unknown ones without opening. Any file that is in doubt especially apks, executables scan with online Virustotal.
Keep email in the cloud ie Gmail.
I'm running on Pie but haven't had any malware damage in over 2 years and it's in part because of how I handle all downloads... carefully.

I did mine manually, I never touched smart switch for my phone, but I did a scan with the mcafee security app on my phone, and it didnt find anything sketchy on there, used the at&t mobile security app that was on there before I uninstalled it (adb is da best :3 ) and it didnt find anything hinky. I scanned the manual backups of my pictures on my desktop with mcafee livesafe and superantispyware and neither of them found anything bad, unless i should use more scan programs, but whether its on my phone or desktop, I think I got enough, anymore and im just hoarding antivirus programs, and I don't wanna do that

LodeUnknown said:
I did mine manually, I never touched smart switch for my phone, but I did a scan with the mcafee security app on my phone, and it didnt find anything sketchy on there, used the at&t mobile security app that was on there before I uninstalled it (adb is da best :3 ) and it didnt find anything hinky. I scanned the manual backups of my pictures on my desktop with mcafee livesafe and superantispyware and neither of them found anything bad, unless i should use more scan programs, but whether its on my phone or desktop, I think I got enough, anymore and im just hoarding antivirus programs, and I don't wanna do that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Over the years I found 2 scripted jpegs that were found by observing what happened when they were opened. There's no guarantee malware will be detected.
I ran a Malwarebytes scan occasionally. It found a trojan preloader I missed in the download folder, which I police daily now. This one downloaded itself, it slipped through the Samsung browser in spite of settings.
On Android antivirus is a waste of resources. Most victims install or download the malware themselves.
However anytime Android behaves strangely malware should be considered a possibility.
No idea how that file that screwed up my transfer got corrupted or if it was malware.
It acted like malware, regardless, deleting it fixed the issue. It took some time to track it down. Point being when you see odd behavior you don't ignore it, you find the root cause.

I think I fixed it somehow? I searched for reset in the settings and found reset network settings, reset accessibility settings, and reset all settings, so I chose reset all settings after backing up my current settings. After my phone restarted, I plugged in my phone and tried copying a 500MB sized file to my internal storage, and despite it taking a full minute, it actually finished without the problems I had before. Granted, now it seems only for the one file I just did, because after I tried one file and tried to do another, it stopped about halfway into copying a 400MB range file and gave me the same problems again. ffs fml

hopefully this is my last post (I swear if it isnt im tearing up the cable I got), because after trying multiple cables we got and different usb ports, I think I identified the culprit(s): my USB-C cable (the one I use to charge it) and my desktop's front-facing USB ports.
My desktop is an XPS 8700, and its taken on some age and some injuries due to power surges and what not, most of all the front-facing USB ports are wiggly as all hell, and occasionally choose which cables to like and which to not like. So I took the cable I usually use to charge it with and plugged it into a different usb port and tried copying over a set of files totaling 1GB+change to the internal storage, lo and behold, it copied over and no stopping halfway and cancelling the transfer because of it. Then I tried another USB-C cable we got (from a different piece of hardware) and used it on my front-usb ports, did the same thing again, 100% completion like the others did
The end result is my desktop being an ornery POS as usual and choosing which USB port likes which USB cable no matter how good I take care of both pieces of hardware. In the end, ill probably be getting a few more cables for our three phones and keep the cable I usually use with it for a different piece of hardware. This was one rabbit hole of a goose chase