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Hi,
this seems to be the right place for the question, but I'm sure the answer will be applicable to other phone. Assuming there is going to be an answer
Stupidly, yours truly downloaded and installed hotfix from here http://www.htc.com/www/supportdownloadlist.aspx?p_id=140&act=sd&cat=all in the hopes of improving audio quality. Well, this apparently was not meant for CDMA (or US phones). After installing the phone rebooted and got stuck at the Touch Pro screen where it lists FW/SW versions in red towards the bottom. The phone can not get past that point no matter what I do (reset, battery remove/replace) or how long I wait (overnight). Sprint 'suggested' hard reset (thank you very much) and HTC said they have no fix for that either. Well, if you have not guessed it already, I have not backed up the data on that phone. Ever.
Not smart
The phone was running stock SF/FW before. I have not had time to mess with it.
US$64K question is: Could I retrieve the phone book? Any other data that was not on SD card (that one is safe)? Is there a chance to recover data AFTER hard reset? Anything else the smart folk out there can recommend?
Thanks a lot in advance.
try flashing via SD card
If its stuck at the bootloader mode (the tri color screen) i thing its possible to flash it via SD card.
there is plenty of info around or check out the Raphael wiki.
There is a chance it is not bricked.
(i seriouslly doubt is it because the HTC hotfix cannot do that)
Let me know if you need any more help my email me at hotmail
best regards.... Erik
The screen looks like this: http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h15/cadillacjew/TP-1.jpg
with some test indicating SW/ROM etc versions in RED at the bottom. If it is important I can upload the picture of it.
Also may take you up on your offer. Need those contacts, otherwise I'm so screwed
I dunno, it sounds like you're going to need a hard reset. That will fix the problem, I'm sure. Have you tried connecting by active sync? I'm 99.999% positive it won't work, but it wouldn't hurt to at least try and see if you can pull pim.vol off of it. Also, you might download ceregeditor (just google it) and install it on your pc, and see if you can dump the registry from the phone. But I have a bad feeling you're screwed.
Is this really the end of the road?
Yes, I (and Sprint store that I went to) tried connecting the phone via usb and it was not even recognized as a device. Hard reset sounds goo, but it will erase the data. Before I take that drastic measure I'd like to make sure there is nothing else I could do.
I'm willing to pay some money to a forensics company to extract the data, but can not find one that looks trustworthy and experienced when it comes to Win mobile phones. Any recommendations, btw?
I have no clue; you might try one of the rom dumping procedures. I think that some may dump the rom and all the info on the phone; I've never done it myself (well, I've played with grab_it on another device, with little success). I believe that some will dump all the info on the phone (rom + stuff in main memory). But I can't tell you how to do it, I'm afraid, and I have no clue if it will work on your phone.
You can check these tools-maybe there's something there.
Most likely everything is gone.
I have to sadly agree. This sounds like something only a hard reset would fix.
Any possibility of data recovery after hard reset? Anybody knows of a way to that? Of course this is wishful thinking on my part, but I'm pretty desperate now.
fatherof2 said:
Any possibility of data recovery after hard reset? Anybody knows of a way to that? Of course this is wishful thinking on my part, but I'm pretty desperate now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, it seems that you are stuck. I do not know of any way to recover your data if the device is stuck on bootloader since, as you pointed out, the device does not get recognized by the computer.
Anything that you do at this point might end up making things worse if you are not careful. Just cut your losses and hard reset the device.
its not in booloader mode, dumping the ROM sounds like a good and only way to go, try it, it wont hurt you, if that dont work i'd say its pretty much dead with no way to recover it, unless the info is unrecoverable (spell?) hard reset it.....
best regards. Erik
The only issue with your suggestion is that I'm no longer in possession of the phone. I had to leave it in the Sprint store in order to walk out with working phone. I can go back to the store and try to get the data off of my old phone. They are holding it for me.
However, I need to know what to do exactly and be able to do it quickly. So if there are easy to follow instructions that you can point me to, please do so.
Also after dumping ROM what data will I have?
TIA for all your help.
your data will be gone but try putting a raphimg.nbh file on the memory card then holding power and volume down while hitting the reset button, that will flash you off the mem card. good luck. Ive had to do this several times due to bad flashes and vista issues. Oh and as an added thought start using microsoft myphone to back up your data in the future.
Thanks for your suggestion. I will try this in a week or so when I'm back in town.
Also myphone is something that should work. I actually did not know about it until this past Monday. I have not looked at any MS-based backup solutions because I'm not using their software, if I can avoid it. So while I have a Windows PC I do not have Outlook installed and thus have never given my phone a chance to sync up. Kind of silly, I know.
I had bitpm installed on another system that went bad. I've replaced it with a new one, retrieved other files and data, but forgot about Bitpm folder
So few lessons learned ...
Thanks again to all who provided feedback.
It sucks if you lost everything, but you should be able to put your phone in bootloader and connect it to your pc through usb. The only question is if you can dump the rom that way and if you can dump all the files on it with the rom. The only problem is that some of the rom dumping methods (like with pdocread, I think) require you to transfer a file to your \windows directory, which you're not going to be able to do. It's a long shot at best.
I back up my pim stuff 3 different ways-I think you want to do it in multiple ways just to be safe. My main method is using sk tools and its backup tool. You can separately back up the pim database and the messaging databases (not as important to me). You can also back up email accounts with sk tools (using the pim information tool). These are my main backups, and I keep them on my sd card, and occasionally transfer them to a hard drive (it's not that big of a deal if the hard drive backup is a month out of date to me). I also use Pimbackup 2.8, and store that on my sd card (and hard drive). I don't use it for restoring anymore, because it's pretty slow with 6.5 roms in my experience. Finally, I have a file backup mortscript that I use that backs up user data for various apps; I use it to restore the data after flashes. Anyway, included in the script is a command to copy pim.vol to my sd card. I never restore my pim files by copying pim.vol back to main memory, but I like having it saved just in case, and it doesn't take any time to run the script (FYI-all your contacts, tasks and calendar stuff is stored in pim.vol, which is on the root of your device). Anyway, I feel like my pim databases are pretty safe-it would take an awful lot of bad things to happen for them to be lost, and I'd probably be dead in half of those scenarios, lol.
You're going to lose everything. The phone will not boot and as a result, all your data is unrecoverable. Next time, use a back up solution like Google Sync.
Do a hard-reset on it and you should be good to go. Turn the phone off, hold the volume down key, the center dpad key, and then hold the power button. It'll come up to a screen with hard reset instructions. Push the volume up key here. It'll be ready to go like it's brand new out of the box.
Lost everything, but .... happy
Hi,
thanks to everyone who replied. Just wanted to post and update so we can close this thread.
As I indicated before, Sprint has replaced my phone with Touch Pro 2 when I came to them with this problem. They did it beacuse they no longer have loaner phones and because I was about to go on 10 day business trip.
After using the new phone for 2 weeks, I got to tell you that this one is a leap forward compare to the the old. So I'm happy with new device, installing software and trying to recreate my Address Book by dumping my friends and family's data via Bluetooth. Backing up using MyPhone and about to install Outlook (not going to use it for anything else but the backup)
Also, I finally went to Sprint store and asked them one more time if they can think of any other way to recover the data. I even mentioned bootloader. They did not know/could not do it. I asked them to hard reset and after few tries the phone was restored to it's original state. Not a trace of my data .
Would be nice if in the future I could save contacts (and other data) directly to SD card. IMO it will give better chance of recovery, but I'm not sure it is possible.
Again thanks to all who tried to help. Much appreciated.
Same problem sort of
I tried to load Energy Rom 28005 and now can't get pro to do any thing but restart every 15 seconds or so. any ideas on what can be done? tia.
Hello,
I'm writing this as a last refuge to console myself. I got caught up in a dangerous situation today in which I had to give up my android phone i.e. Motorola Atrix 2 in order to save my life. Since all my personal and official data was stored on the sd card, which I couldn't pull out from the phone, I had activated the factory reset - including sd card formatting - before handing it over. As luck would have it, I was pressurized to give it up before the process finished so in a bid to save the data from getting into the wrong hands, I pulled out the battery while it was erasing data from the sd card according to the dialog box. My questions is: What are the chances of the sd card getting corrupted and the data becoming inaccessible? I need to know as I'm under a lot of stress because of it and there's no chance of getting it back. I had changed my google account's password the moment I reached home (after fifteen to twenty minutes) so I also the phone would have locked out. Please respond at the earliest.
Thanks.
It probably deleted some files depending on how long the dialog was up. From my past experiences sometimes I got a corrupt card (very rare) and sometimes a few files were deleted. The only thing you can do from this point is to actually check and see it any damage was done.
lEquin0xl said:
It probably deleted some files depending on how long the dialog was up. From my past experiences sometimes I got a corrupt card (very rare) and sometimes a few files were deleted. The only thing you can do from this point is to actually check and see it any damage was done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was up for 30 seconds to a minute. May be a little more. What do you think?
How much difference does it make if I change my Google account's password?
bayhosh said:
It was up for 30 seconds to a minute. May be a little more. What do you think?
How much difference does it make if I change my Google account's password?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could be a lot of data was deleted but it shouldn't be corrupt as far as I know just most likely completely formatted. So yea, tell you carrier that you don't have the phone anymore. The person who took your phone will just have to create his own Google account afterwards. Call the cops? They could trace the number and whatnot. I guess I didn't understand what I was reading the first time I read the post, you were held at life or death to give up your phone? That sounds horrifying, I'm sorry.
lEquin0xl said:
Could be a lot of data was deleted but it shouldn't be corrupt as far as I know just most likely completely formatted. So yea, tell you carrier that you don't have the phone anymore. The person who took your phone will just have to create his own Google account afterwards. Call the cops? They could trace the number and whatnot. I guess I didn't understand what I was reading the first time I read the post, you were held at life or death to give up your phone? That sounds horrifying, I'm sorry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Being an ordinary citizen, I don't have such luxuries available in my country so I have to do pretty much everything myself. I was and it's been a terrible experience - mostly just because of my data. If he logs in from another Google account on my phone, will he be able to access my apps/contacts? I had taken the battery and sim out while it was factory resetting so he'd be asked to sign-in again, right?
Thanks a lot for your response.
bayhosh said:
Being an ordinary citizen, I don't have such luxuries available in my country so I have to do pretty much everything myself. I was and it's been a terrible experience - mostly just because of my data. If he logs in from another Google account on my phone, will he be able to access my apps/contacts? I had taken the battery and sim out while it was factory resetting so he'd be asked to sign-in again, right?
Thanks a lot for your response.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really sorry to hear that!
Quite shocked as well
Well,if factory reset is complete which I believe shouldn't take upto 1 min [still,depends on your data, ]
Then,he'll have to sign in for sure!
If you've not backed up your contacts to Sd card and he doesn't know to recover it back, then you're contacts are safe!
However you should have probably tried not removing battery at that time [I know it's easier said than done, anyways I sincerely hope things go fine and also hope you are alright]
Take care
Sent from my Xperia Neo V using xda premium
Ghostfreak NB said:
Really sorry to hear that!
Quite shocked as well
Well,if factory reset is complete which I believe shouldn't take upto 1 min [still,depends on your data, ]
Then,he'll have to sign in for sure!
If you've not backed up your contacts to Sd card and he doesn't know to recover it back, then you're contacts are safe!
However you should have probably tried not removing battery at that time [I know it's easier said than done, anyways I sincerely hope things go fine and also hope you are alright]
Take care
Sent from my Xperia Neo V using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I'm still in shock and under a lot of stress.
Factory resetting hadn't completed and it was erasing sd card when I pulled the battery out hoping it would get corrupted. To see what happens in such a situation, I went to a friend's place today who has the same phone. We used his spare sd card of 4 gb (mine was 32gb with at least only twelve gbs free) to perform the same action. I started the factory reset with sd card formatting and pulled the battery out once it started erasing (didnt give it as much time as I had given to mine. After doing that I inserted the battery again and restarted the phone to check the sd card but it had corrupted although it didn't ask me for any gmail id. That's some relief but my card had larger storage so there are some doubts as well. *sigh*
I don't remember backing them up so I'm not sure.
I wish I could...
Thanks a lot, brothers. Do let me know what you think. Its very much appreciated.
You take care as well.
Apps and contacts data are linked to your Gmail so the guy shouldn't have access to any of your data without your Gmail account. Good news that the sd card got corrupt, at least it's safe to know there's a higher chance to know it corrupted or not.
If you backed up your contacts on sd card and he finds the vcard he will restore it into another android phone! I think the sd card will got corupted!
lEquin0xl said:
Apps and contacts data are linked to your Gmail so the guy shouldn't have access to any of your data without your Gmail account. Good news that the sd card got corrupt, at least it's safe to know there's a higher chance to know it corrupted or not.
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Click to collapse
Good to know that! I agree. I'm just hoping everything and everyone remains safe...
Just to be 100% safe, I would change the password to all my major information first. Things that have to do with credit cards like PayPal or ebay. But since you factory reset the phone it also removed the pass code you had put in it (I'm almost certain it does). Just watch yourself is all I can say, watch your online activities to see if he has any of your info.
lEquin0xl said:
Just to be 100% safe, I would change the password to all my major information first. Things that have to do with credit cards like PayPal or ebay. But since you factory reset the phone it also removed the pass code you had put in it (I'm almost certain it does). Just watch yourself is all I can say, watch your online activities to see if he has any of your info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Working on that. I'm even watching my physical activities.
bayhosh said:
Working on that. I'm even watching my physical activities.
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Click to collapse
Well that's good. It sucks to have to watch your every move to avoid being treated wrongly. I hope everything goes well .
lEquin0xl said:
Well that's good. It sucks to have to watch your every move to avoid being treated wrongly. I hope everything goes well .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You bet!
*sigh*
Thanks a lot, brother! Its really appreciated.
Hello everyone,
first-timer, so I hope I won't screw up!
My Samsung Galaxy SII I9100 is broken. And I don't just mean the screen (which is what I found threads on aplenty on here), I mean really broken.
It won't turn on at all. No Recovery/Download-mode, either. The only reaction it shows at all is when I plug it into a computer via USB, the area around the camera starts heating up slightly. That's it.
The last thing I did with it was visiting facebook when my phone froze up, I turned it off and it didn't start back again. It might have been exposed to a certain high temperature from the sun when I had it in my pocket but it's unlikely it reached any temperature above 40°C/104°F.
I was running the latest Cyanogen Mod 9 for SGSII.
Anyway, this thread is less about trying to find a fix for my phone (though if you can help me with that –*cool) but instead I'd like to know if there's a way to recover the data on my phone. That includes photos and music, possibly contacts, messages and Whatsapp-content.
If there is any way to do that, no matter what, I'd like to hear about it. I'm thinking about sending it in to get it repaired but before I do, I'd like to hear about my other options.
Thank you very much in advance.
Almost zero chance. The fix is replacing the motherboard, which has the internal storage on it. A company that specialises in recovery of data from dead HDD's might (but it's a very remote chance, and expect it to be very expensive if it is possible) be able to help, but you really don't have any options (shoulda/coulda/woulda backed it up).
MistahBungle said:
Almost zero chance. The fix is replacing the motherboard, which has the internal storage on it. A company that specialises in recovery of data from dead HDD's might (but it's a very remote chance) be able to help, but you really don't have any options (shoulda/coulda/woulda backed it up).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Figured as much... I guess I'll cross my fingers when I send the little bastard in for repair/data-recovery.
I did a back-up on a whim some months ago so at least some stuff is saved but I got some new data on it since then, so that would have been nice.
Anyway, thank you very much. I just ordered a USB-jig as a last resort but I'm not having high hopes.
So my wife broke her phone. (A car ran over it) .
As you can imagine the phone is pretty messed up. Originaly the phone still worked(for a few weeks) and then she bought a new phone and left that one.
Now a few weeks later i try to turn it on to take the pictures off and it boots into the bootloader and thats where i am in need of your help. If there a way for me to get the pictures off of this phone?
Photos shows you have an M7, and this forum section is specific to the M8. While the devices have some similarities, its always best to get help in your specific device forum, in case of any M7 specific naunces, pitfalls, etc.
What I can say, in general:
1) Try booting into recovery, and see if it will mount the internal storage if you connect to a computer. I know custom recovery (TWRP) will let you do this, but I don't know if stock recovery (since it looks like the phone is stock and never modded) has this ability or not (I'm thinking probably not, but hey its worth a try). It might be a long shot, but if you can mount memory, you should be able to simply browse to the folder where the pics are saved, and just copy and paste them to your computer.
2) These devices have a good amount of cloud backup apps built-in (Google Photos, Dropbox, HTC Backup). Depending on whether your wife opened any of them, and agreed to backup the pics, they may already be on the cloud, and can be easily accessed by logging into the specific service's website on a computer. Again, might be a longshot, but one can always hope; and it doesn't hurt to check.
3) Short of the above, if the phone won't boot into OS, you may be somewhat stuck. If the phone can't bootup into OS, and won't mount recovery otherwise, the only options I can think of to get OS or custom recovery on the phone, involves unlocking the bootloader; which will wipe the storage and defeat the whole purpose.
I know hindsight is always 20/20. But I've lost count how many times I've told folks on here and other smartphone forums: If the data is important to you, than back it up. With so many options to do so (backup to computer, cloud, removable SD) there is really no good reason not to. As already mentioned, in particular the cloud backup solutions take very little interaction, and fully automated once you've accepted the option to use them to backup the pics.
I know you've mentioned its your wife's phone. But regardless of whether its her device or yours or whatever; the previous paragraph applies to everyone with a smartphone. At least moving forward, you and your wife should start backing up your personal data (if you haven't already). Waiting for a disaster is not really the best time to started considering backup methods; but late is better than never.
Rant over. Good luck recovering the pics, in any case!
My wife bought an S7+ from Amazon and it's been fine for a couple of months. She had a popup today which warned that the device would be locked because it was part of a trade in scheme and there was some sort of problem. I assumed some sort of malware but I was working so I didn't do much with it but now the device appears to have locked into a sort of "kiosk mode" where we just get 2 screens:
https://imgur.com/a/Z4N9TLy
All the blurb is plastered with "Samsung Electronics UK" but the domain the email is going to is "tradeinresponse.co.uk" which after some Googling seems to have been linked with some scam stuff in the past.
I've tried safe mode with the same locked screen, plugging the tablet into a PC results in it locking to the first screen.
I can get into recovery and I wanted to try a wipe, but the wife has some drawings on there she's done in Sketchbook that she would like to keep.
I'm a software developer by profession but I work with Windows/.NET and SaaS stuff so I've not got much experience with droid devices (a bit of java here and there in the past, but not so much XP with the OS itself)
So my questions are:
Does anyone know if this is any sort of official thing or is this malware/scam stuff as I suspect?
Is a factory reset likely to resolve the issue?
If I want to factory reset, can I pull files off the devices internal SD via ADB or some other tool before I do it?
Do I have any other options?
Kind of a wind up - I'd just have factory reset it by now to find out but like I said, I don't want to lose any of the wife's data if possible. If she gets anything back I'm going to make sure she sticks it in the cloud.
Any help would be appreciated and thanks in advance!
Always backup critical data redundantly to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC.
Or you will lose data eventually.
Factory reset but you will lose all data. If the drive is encrypted, you likely already have.
Sounds like ransomware. Contact Samsung and do some Google searches. See what you got and if there are any work arounds.
You may need to reload the OS completely if it's a rootkit and running on Android 8 or below.
This could be a nasty little bugger...
If it wasn't present on the device when purchased, your wife either downloaded or installed it. She needs to be more careful!!!
Maybe this will impress that onto her...
Thanks for the advice but I've already googled as much as I can. The domain doesn't go anywhere except a holding page though through reverse lookup it seems there are also other domains on the same host including some legitimate businesses that appear to do Samsung second life schemes for devices.
I've googled the actual lock message but no-one on the net seems to have seen it before.
The wife hasn't installed anything, she got the device a few weeks ago (from Amazon, supposedly new) and did a transfer from her old s6 (that has gone to my daughter) to the s7 using Smart Switch. Since then she's not installed any other applications.
It's not "critical data", per se, it's just drawings she'd like to keep, plus copying stuff onto physically disparate hard drives seems a bit overkill given she can just drop the files into a cloud storage account and have way more redundancy than you/I could ever reproduce by doing manual backups.
I'm posting in an s7 forum about an s7 so it's going to be running Android 10 at the minimum (given that's what the device ships with). Not sure why the comments about Android 8.
Anything she could have installed would have been from the Play store (and I don't believe she installed anything other than what automatically installed from what was on her old s6), plus her apps are from a reputable vendors (Autodesk etc). My son has a tablet and he installs all sorts of crap and hasn't had this issue because the OS prevents stuff like this from happening unless you allow side loading.
Is it possible to install a rootkit from the play store? I didn't think so ..?
So, either it was on there when we got it, it's legit or it's a vulnerability that exists in the OS and we are some of the first people to see it...
You can do what you want but any backup database that requires a password can be lost.
I have close to a dozen backup hdds, there's no way to I can lose my entire database.
At least use 2 OTG flashsticks to completely backup the data but hdds are still preferable.
NEVER encrypt data drives... and verify the backups are complete and readable.
As to how it happened you're going to have to sort that out or suffer the same fate possibly again in the future.
A factory reset seems inevitable at this point.
Afterwards change all passwords.
Malware has always existed on Playstore albeit not much or for long. She may have imported from your daughter's phone.
You got some potentially gigantic problems now.
Personally I would have already gone full nuke by now. It's simply not worth the risks.
In the future hawk the download folder daily for files you didn't authorize. Delete any unknowns without opening. Scrutinize all downloads and installs carefully, always. Scan as needed with Malwarebytes. Online Virustotal can be used to scan smaller files and apks.
There are also maliciously scripted jpegs too that can cause damage to any files in the same folder when opened. Be aware of any changes or strange behavior in the download folder. Vet all downloads before moving into your database.
Use a good brower like Brave and be careful what links you click, in the browser, emails and texts.
I can't even begin to estimate how many websites I backed out of, closed that tab or wiped the browser data over in the last year alone. Better safe than sorry. Zero malware infections in over 1.5 years and that's running on outdated Pie.
Almost all malware, rootkits etc are loaded by the user. Some will self install if the device's security isn't configured correctly or if not spotted on a timely basis. Androids, even ones with out of date OSs are generally very secure unless the user does something stupid... learn or get burned.
blackhawk said:
You can do what you want but any backup database that requires a password can be lost.
I have close to a dozen backup hdds, there's no way to I can lose my entire database.
At least use 2 OTG flashsticks to completely backup the data but hdds are still preferable.
NEVER encrypt data drives... and verify the backups are complete and readable.
As to how it happened you're going to have to sort that out or suffer the same fate possibly again in the future.
A factory reset seems inevitable at this point.
Afterwards change all passwords.
Malware has always existed on Playstore albeit not much or for long. She may have imported from your daughter's phone.
You got some potentially gigantic problems now.
Personally I would have already gone full nuke by now. It's simply not worth the risks.
In the future hawk the download folder daily for files you didn't authorize. Delete any unknowns without opening. Scrutinize all downloads and installs carefully, always. Scan as needed with Malwarebytes. Online Virustotal can be used to scan smaller files and apks.
There are also maliciously scripted jpegs too that can cause damage to any files in the same folder when opened. Be aware of any changes or strange behavior in the download folder. Vet all downloads before moving into your database.
Use a good brower like Brave and be careful what links you click, in the browser, emails and texts.
I can't even begin to estimate how many websites I backed out of, closed that tab or wiped the browser data over in the last year alone. Better safe than sorry. Zero malware infections in over 1.5 years and that's running on outdated Pie.
Almost all malware, rootkits etc are loaded by the user. Some will self install if the device's security isn't configured correctly or if not spotted on a timely basis. Androids, even ones with out of date OSs are generally very secure unless the user does something stupid... learn or get burned.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With all due respect we aren't getting anywhere here, I don't want backup advice or malware advice, I want to know the answers to the few small questions I asked about whether this is legit and if I can access the device files or not.
You seem to be convinced it's malware, you also seem to be skim reading my posts which is fine - but I don't think your input is helping me.
I'm not going to use a different "paranoid" browser - chrome is fine, the tablet doesn't have a "security configuration" that is any different from the hundreds of thousands of other S7+ devices out there since it's a tablet and out the box it's ready to go. I'm not checking the downloads folder daily just in case some random malware has somehow "installed itself" onto my device, I'm also not keeping random flash sticks and hard drives lying about - I'll just use that geo redundant pretty solid cloud storage like most of the populace.
Yes you can put malicious content in a JPEG or a JPEG header, but it requires that there's an exploit in the OS or the app opening it (for example hiding a javascript eval in the file metadata); I don't think that's an attack vector on a tablet as far as I know given that she only browses, watches Netflix and draws using her S-pen on the device.
She's not imported "malware" from someone else's phone because if you read my post properly you'd understand that it was HER device that she transferred her data from - one that she's since given to the daughter (who has no issues). If you know how Smart Switch works you'd know that it's an unlikely vector (it just transfers data from application storage and then reinstalls the apps from the play store), plus the fact the original device doesn't have the issue...
Stop telling me to "learn or get burned". This is not a "misuse" problem. The wife is on Android 10, it's a relatively new and secure O/S and she didn't install anything she shouldn't have (she didn't actually install anything at all - it was the stock samsung application and the play store that installed the apps she ALREADY HAD on her previous device). It's not a "learn" scenario. Nothing she did should have caused this - if it is/was an OS exploit or some sort of security issue what could she have done to prevent it? Nothing.
What I have done is:
* Contacted the vendor of the device (we can still send it back if they've sent us a refurbed device instead of new as advertised)
* Sent an email to the address advertised to see what response I get (if they demand money then clearly a scam)
I've checked and the domain in the above shares a host with a company called MTR which happens to be a DCC Group company (one of the groups of companies I actually consult for) so worst case I'll speak to someone from DCC Group and see if they can shed any light.
Seems like it might be legit and quite possibly a mix up.
Do what you will... if you understand the origin of that phrase.
Anything that can't be IDed is considered malware until proven innocent
The fact that you're now completely locked out speaks volumes.
Good practices and backup are your only defenses. They apply to the future not the past... so much for flavors
Personally I think it's already too late for that device's OS load and data.
Of course I could be mistaken.
If you really want the data, take it to a data recovery specialist. They may be able to recover it.
When your at the beginning you can determine how potential data lose will end. When at the end, the outcome has already been predetermined by your actions or lack of.
You are now at the end... likely a dead end.
Been there, done that... actions have consequences.
@Charleh: if I were you, I would back up all important data and do a clean firmware flash with Odin. And a factory reset on top of that, just to be sure. Definitely sounds like you got hit by a scammer.
AnonVendetta said:
@Charleh: if I were you, I would back up all important data and do a clean firmware flash with Odin. And a factory reset on top of that, just to be sure. Definitely sounds like you got hit by a scammer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said there's not really any important data on there, just some drawings the wife would like to keep. Also, I can't backup anything since I can't access the device.
I'll probably just speak to DCC group and see if this company is one of theirs.
If the data is lost we are just talking some drawings the wife has done, there's nothing important on there, she just loses the layers (they are stored as multi page tiffs and sketchbook uses those as layers). She has all the images as flat renders on her cloud storage drive and on Instagram.
Think we just need to invest in some extra cloud storage as the free 15gb that Google give you isn't enough to store what she wants at the moment as the images are tens of megabytes each.
Worst case scenario I factory reset and flash it, best case I get someone at DCC telling me what's what.
The bit that gets me is that there are no ransom demands at this point so I can't be sure what's what. Usually by now with crypto ransom malware you are already being given demands...
We will see.
blackhawk said:
Do what you will... if you understand the origin of that phrase.
Anything that can't be IDed is considered malware until proven innocent
The fact that you're now completely locked out speaks volumes.
Good practices and backup are your only defenses. They apply to the future not the past... so much for flavors
Personally I think it's already too late for that device's OS load and data.
Of course I could be mistaken.
If you really want the data, take it to a data recovery specialist. They may be able to recover it.
When your at the beginning you can determine how potential data lose will end. When at the end, the outcome has already been predetermined by your actions or lack of.
You are now at the end... likely a dead end.
Been there, done that... actions have consequences.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not a big deal mate.
Stop flogging a dead horse, the most annoying thing is just that the device is unusable, regardless of me making backups or signing a pact with the devil or putting candlewax on my nips, it wouldn't have prevented this from happening..
The only reason I haven't tried a factory reset up to now is because if there's a chance I can get the drawings off the device I'd like to try it first before I nuke it.
Stop talking about my lack of actions, it's getting really boring. There's nothing I could do to forsee this happening and not my fault the wife didn't put the drawings on her cloud storage.
Go bother someone else with your multiple flash disk tinfoil hat backup routines (I bet you've got a tape drive in that routine somewhere too), stop trying to be helpful by saying "told you so" after the fact, instead try answering the questions I asked.
@Charleh: The way I see it is this:
The device's data partition/internal storage (where the drawings are stored) are encrypted by default, by Samsung. So, unless you can manage to use a MTP USB connection or ADB to make copies of them, then you're locked out and there's nothing you can do to recover them. Since they're located in an encrypted area, I highly doubt that even a professional data recovery business would be able to get them back. There are certain encryptions out there that even the US govt (NSA/CIA/FBI) can't break.
I'm assuming that you're not a l33t hax0r with uber skills, so unless you can successfully boot into Android again, your recovery chances are almost zero.
Or, maybe this company can help you out. It's worth a shot. But if I were a gambling man, I'd wager a lot of money that you will end up having to clean flash/reset, without being able to recover anything.
In the future, think about making copies of this stuff before bad things occur. As the saying goes, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, sooner or later. I rarely lose access to my data because I'm frequently backing it up.
Good luck!
AnonVendetta said:
@Charleh: The way I see it is this:
The device's data partition/internal storage (where the drawings are stored) are encrypted by default, by Samsung. So, unless you can manage to use a MTP USB connection or ADB to make copies of them, then you're locked out and there's nothing you can do to recover them. Since they're located in an encrypted area, I highly doubt that even a professional data recovery business would be able to get them back. There are certain encryptions out there that even the US govt (NSA/CIA/FBI) can't break.
I'm assuming that you're not a l33t hax0r with uber skills, so unless you can successfully boot into Android again, your recovery chances are almost zero.
Or, maybe this company can help you out. It's worth a shot. But if I were a gambling man, I'd wager a lot of money that you will end up having to clean flash/reset, without being able to recover anything.
In the future, think about making copies of this stuff before bad things occur. As the saying goes, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, sooner or later. I rarely lose access to my data because I'm frequently backing it up.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks - that was a helpful answer. I suspected that droid encrypted the data - I was looking at making an ADB connection using Android tools. Might as well give it a try before I nuke.
I can't use MTP as the device auto locks when I plug in a USB cable.
Like I've said a few times it's not a massive issue if I lose the data - I work in IT, I know the importance of backing up important data. I've seen a client lose months worth of data to crypto-ransomware (they cancelled their backup solution a few months before saying they were moving to Azure soon so they didn't need it).
I've explained though, it's not my device and it's up to the wife to put her stuff on her cloud storage if she wants to keep it. She uses Google Drive for her docs etc.
Worst case scenario I complain to Amazon, wife is saying she doesn't remember the screen having a protector/film on it when she opened it and we still have time to return/exchange it since I have a Prime account.
@Charleh: AFAIK, Amazon has a 30 day no questions asked return policy for almost everything. If you're still within that return window, then I guess you just have to decide whether the loss of drawings is worth returning it, assuming all recovery efforts fail. I bought my Tab S7+ new direct from Samsung, I haven't encountered like what you describe. And your edge case is the first one I've seen.
I think it's possible that you bought a refurbished device that was preowned but sold as new. The original buyer didn't finish paying it off, returned it, it's sold to you, you get this message. It's either legitimately locked, or someone has remotely locked it and intends to scam you. Contact that company ASAP.
Another option is to find a local techie/shop that can remove this lock for a fee, preferably without data loss. They make want to see proof of purchase, if they're legit. This would at least give you the ability to use the device again. People used to bring me locked phones/tabs all the time, this is pretty much what I did for side cash. As long as they didn't outright admit they were stolen, I didn't care.
Ok speaking to Samsung support and it's legit - what's happened is that someone's returned the device to the supplier after doing a trade in with it and receiving a new device from Samsung Trade In.
Supplier has refunded us and told us to keep the device until the issue is resolved with Samsung.
Now fighting with Samsung themselves about it. Absolute pisstake.
Basically I have a brick and although Samsung have the capability to unlock the device through Knox they won't do it until a resolution is found with the supplier.
Fun-times. Sent a complaint email to Samsung as they are essentially holding the wife's artwork to ransom because of an issue they have created with the rules of their trade-in program.
I've already received the refund too - sounds like the Amazon reseller is trying to wash their hands of it.
@Charleh: So, they refunded you AND they're going to let you keep the tablet? I'd be quite happy with that.
AnonVendetta said:
@Charleh: So, they refunded you AND they're going to let you keep the tablet? I'd be quite happy with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends if the tablet is ever going to be functional again...
Fingers crossed!
Time to reflash, ODIN or do whatever and see if you can and up with his + hers new(sort of) tablets.
Hello, some solution?
Charleh said:
Depends if the tablet is ever going to be functional again...
Fingers crossed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did this end?
corb06 said:
How did this end?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
still ongoing - Amazon is trying to get hold of the original supplier but they've gone dark; I complained to Samsung and they are looking into it, just waiting for a reply.
They took almost a month to get back to me - only did so when I started complaining publicly on all social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram etc) - they don't like it when you do that.
Will update when I know more.
Charleh said:
still ongoing - Amazon is trying to get hold of the original supplier but they've gone dark; I complained to Samsung and they are looking into it, just waiting for a reply.
They took almost a month to get back to me - only did so when I started complaining publicly on all social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram etc) - they don't like it when you do that.
Will update when I know more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to hear it's taking so long. I'd be super pissed. Next time, buy direct from Samsung, you wouldnt have to deal with this ****. Because they wouldnt sell you a used/refurbished device unless it's clearly marked as such, and i'm pretty sure they only sell new devices anyway.
Can you post a link to the seller's Amazon page? They could be a fly-by-night op.
If you cant get your money back or an exchange, just contact your bank/card issuer and do a chargeback. This is a last resort ootion, if nothing else works. Explain the whole situation to them. Chances are, they would force the seller or someone else responsible, to give your money back. The only caveat is that if you wait too long, it might not work. i've inititated chargebacks against sellers who dont respond to support requests, it usually worked in my favor.
Edit: If you go the chargeback route and Amazon is forced to refund your money, they may retaliate by banning your account. it recently happened to a friend. Just so you know.....