to make a long story short, something went terribly wrong with my android phone, wiping my contacts and SMS. How do I go about recovering deleted files from internal storage (NAND)? And which files do I need if I only want to recover my contacts and sms?
I've spent the past 6 hours searching and attempting to recover them by following different tutorials, but no dice. Ive read an article where people were saying that if I take too long, I will not be able to recover my data. Please please help me as I really need to get my important data back. I'll return the favor by buying you a beer or something! THanks in advance for your help!
" Ive read an article where people were saying that if I take too long, I will not be able to recover my data. "
Although I can't help you with the actual issue of getting the data back, I believe it is not so much taking time to recover your data which will delete it, but how much data is rewritten to your phone (which could overwrite the previous data) atleast thats how it works on desktops...
My only idea would possibly to have a look for a .trash folder in the root directory of the phone's memory, or maybe look for a LOST+FOUND folder, hopefully this will be of some help to you!
Whippopotamus said:
" Ive read an article where people were saying that if I take too long, I will not be able to recover my data. "
Although I can't help you with the actual issue of getting the data back, I believe it is not so much taking time to recover your data which will delete it, but how much data is rewritten to your phone (which could overwrite the previous data) atleast thats how it works on desktops...
My only idea would possibly to have a look for a .trash folder in the root directory of the phone's memory, or maybe look for a LOST+FOUND folder, hopefully this will be of some help to you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you wait too long, but there is no current running to the device, the data on the flash storage will not change. Flash has more data remnance than a magnetic storage. What is important is not the time taken, but rather how much data has been written to the disk.
I hope you have a nandroid backup of your device, if not, see if it's possible to boot to clockworkmod now and make a backup.
Using this disk image, you can then use flash memory data recovery tools to recover the data you need.
Hope this helps.
exge said:
I hope you have a nandroid backup of your device, if not, see if it's possible to boot to clockworkmod now and make a backup.
Using this disk image, you can then use flash memory data recovery tools to recover the data you need.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good idea, so I was able to boot into Clockworkmod recovery, and right now i'm making a backup through that recovery. So once the backup is created, how do i go about getting my contacts and sms back? like which files do i need to recover?
EDIT: Here's what I'm getting when trying to create a backup:
SD Card space free: 6075MB
Backing up boot...
Backing up recovery...
Backing up system...
Backing up data...
Can't mount /data!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^operation stopped while trying to back up data, for some reason it could not mount /data.
despite the operation halt, clockworkmod was still able to create a backup that contains 3 files: boot.img (about 4.4MB), recovery.img (about 5KB), and system.img (about 370MB).
ok now how can I open system.img to look the for my contacts and sms? and what would be the file names?
The data issue means that the data partition is corrupted. The only option is to format it.
Sent from my phone to your eyes
yea i gave up. went ahead and reformat/reflashed my rom. fortunately i was able to find a really old backup of my contacts, but that's better than losing everything. thanks
you can install a recovery apk your phone or recavery app your camputer and then recovery informations from your phone
You can find many Android phone data recovery applications that advertised to be able to recover files from SD card if you search on Google, but which one can recover data from Android internal storage? Luckily FonePaw Android Data Recovery just supports Android phone internal storage recovery. The program is a professional data recovery tool for Android phones and tablets. It can retrieve lost files from SD card inside Android devices as well as internal memory of the Android devices. You may interested in what files the program can recover, let me tell you. Lost pictures, videos, contacts, text messages, documents, audio files can all be retrieved effectively no matter how you lose it.
Related
My partner's phone has suddenly decided of its own accord that it wants to reformat the internal memory, presumably due to some sort of unrecoverable data corruption. The message that came up informing us of that was something along the lines of "Phone memory is damaged. The data partition is damaged, you should restore your phone to factory settings. Doing so will delete all your data" and then a single button saying "Restore phone to factory settings". (I say something along the lines because that is a translation from the actual Spanish message that comes up)
So, she has a bunch of data that she would prefer not to lose (mostly backed up, but some apps not, and photos missing for last month or so of our daughter - usual story).
So I have been hunting around to see if it would be possible, and mostly what I have found isn't too optimistic. I did however find the following link that did seem somewhat promising:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1994705
So it is for the Nexus and the title refers to internal data, but then also refers to SD cards, but the process does seem to refer to internal data. I have a bunch of questions about the process in the context of an S3:
1. Anyone think this process is transferable to the S3? If so what is the equivalent data partition name? For the Nexus it appears to be /dev/block/mmcblk0p12. Would that be the same for the S3?
2. I am going to have to root this device first unfortunately (meaning I am going to have to write to the internal memory ahead of doing the RAW dump, obviously not ideal, but I see no way round it). Is the process described here (root only option):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2046439
appropriate, or am I going to need to somehow find out what version my partner was on (not 100% sure but I think it was 4.1.2) and adjust accordingly?
3. Do I have to have a fully working version before I can install busybox, or is that something that can be put in place using CWM?
4. Likewise do I have to have a fully working version before I can get ADB working or can I get ADB to work with CWM? I have found a couple of threads that suggest ADB works natively with CWM and others that suggest not.
5. I know how to turn on USB debugging if I can get into setttings of a normal Android system, but how do I do that without a working version, can that be done via CWM?
I guess basically I want to know what would be the minimal set of steps that I can run through to get Busybox installed on the phone, (presumably rooted) and talking ADB to my PC. I say minimal set of steps becuase the less writing I do, the more data might be salvagable.
I am surprised that there isn't some bootstrap version that can't just pull off the existing data and allow you to manipulate it elsewhere (which is what the process I have put the link to seems to do) but it seems much more involved than just a bootstrap.
Be gentle with me - I am just a noob!
bobalucci said:
So, she has a bunch of data that she would prefer not to lose (mostly backed up, but some apps not, and photos missing for last month or so of our daughter - usual story).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if its only that I would do it a bit more simpler:
for app data: make a nandroid backup and after the reformat you can use nandroid manager to restore your apps and their data (if you simply restore the damaged data partition as a nandroid backup the problem could accur again). but maybe if the apps and data are damaged because of the damaged data partition they could maybe not be restored.
for photos etc. you can flash philz touch and then follow the steps in the main thread of philz touch on how to put the aroma.zip onto an external sd card (just search for aroma in the thread, you'll find it). aroma is like a file browser with root priviliges which can be executed through recovery. with that you can copy your photos onto the external sd card
btw. I am not sure if the standard factory reset wipes the internal sd cards data. if you only format your data partition photos etc. shouldn't be affected (for example through philz recovery you can just format data partition).
Data Recovery from sick galaxy s3 (installing custom recovery)
Thanks for that... that makes sense... any way I can get the custom recovery onto the phone without having already reformatted the data partition? All the methods I have seen for installing a custom recovery require normal access to the phone... and I don't have that at the moment - just to a screen that tells me that it will reformat the data partition - and I don't want to do that if I can avoid it - as it will modify the data I am trying to save.
Darkened_Sky said:
if its only that I would do it a bit more simpler:
for app data: make a nandroid backup and after the reformat you can use nandroid manager to restore your apps and their data (if you simply restore the damaged data partition as a nandroid backup the problem could accur again). but maybe if the apps and data are damaged because of the damaged data partition they could maybe not be restored.
for photos etc. you can flash philz touch and then follow the steps in the main thread of philz touch on how to put the aroma.zip onto an external sd card (just search for aroma in the thread, you'll find it). aroma is like a file browser with root priviliges which can be executed through recovery. with that you can copy your photos onto the external sd card
btw. I am not sure if the standard factory reset wipes the internal sd cards data. if you only format your data partition photos etc. shouldn't be affected (for example through philz recovery you can just format data partition).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Data recovery sticky ???
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2344125
Things had been going good for a couple months, and my internal media had been intact on my Nexus 5 for almost a year. So, after backing up kitkat using twrp, and installing the lollipop developer preview, everything was going fine. But after rebooting twice I found out that my data/media and /sdcard/ were empty, and es file explorer said that my data (nexus 5 doesnt have an sdcard, so es file explorer just looks at the sdcard folder) partition was almost full. So then I installed kitkat again after not being able to copy anything to my sdcard folder, and it created all new folders and everything, but es file explorer still says the data is their. Then, I used disk digger and it recovered all the photos and mp3 files from the data partition that dissapeared. But, what's really important to me is things like my backup, and the titanium backup files so I can have all my data from my apps.
IS THERE ANYWAY TO RECOVER ANY KIND OF FILE, I'VE DONE IT WITH MY COMPUTER WITH PROGRAMS LIKE RECUVA, BUT ANDROID PROGRAMS ONLY RECOVER PICTURES AND MUSIC FILES!? ANYWAY TO RECOVER TITANIUM BACKUP FILES FROM A PARTITION WHERE THE DATA IS STILL THERE TAKING UP SPACE, BUT JUST INVISIBLE?!
How To Recover Data From Android Media Partition when data is invisible
There are ways to recover data from Android media Partition without using any special tools. Contact us for further details.
jeyaram06 said:
There are ways to recover data from Android media Partition without using any special tools. Contact us for further details.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to bother you, but did you get my message?
@jeyaram06 how do I recover my data without special tools?
Hello,
I have made a backup of my calendar with "easy backup" from the Play Store and installed a custom rom. Therefore I made a full wipe - unfortunately I lost the backup.
I have stored both, the internal SDCard and the external SDCard to my Computer and still have this data.
Is there any possibility to restore my calendar entries with the given data?
Thank you very much
GerhardK90 said:
Hello,
I have made a backup of my calendar with "easy backup" from the Play Store and installed a custom rom. Therefore I made a full wipe - unfortunately I lost the backup.
I have stored both, the internal SDCard and the external SDCard to my Computer and still have this data.
Is there any possibility to restore my calendar entries with the given data?
Thank you very much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just move the Easy Backup data folder back to your device and reinstall the app. As long as the folder is in the right spot, the app should recognize and restore your data. It's a good idea to sign into an account for the Calendar stuff so it gets stored in a cloud service, thus making this transition easier.
Thank you for your reply!
ahh I think I werent exact enough in my explaination. The problem is, that I made the backup of the internal and external SDCard first and then downloaded the backup tool of which I thought it would make the backup on the external SDCard. Unfortunately the tool stored the backup file on the internal SDCard. So the problem is, that my current backup does not hold the files of the backuptool.
GerhardK90 said:
Thank you for your reply!
ahh I think I werent exact enough in my explaination. The problem is, that I made the backup of the internal and external SDCard first and then downloaded the backup tool of which I thought it would make the backup on the external SDCard. Unfortunately the tool stored the backup file on the internal SDCard. So the problem is, that my current backup does not hold the files of the backuptool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, I see. Gonna be out of luck then unless you
A) Had signed up with a Samsung account and it had synced before wiping
B) Have a nandroid backup of your previous rom to restore (if you don't - shame on you! lol)
If it was saved to your internal storage, then I'm not sure why it still wouldn't be there unless you intentionally wiped it in recovery. Factory data resets in a custom recovery do not touch the partition of your internal storage that you save your app data and media to.
Edit: App data in this sense is what the apps store on your internal storage partition that the phone sees as /sdcard/, which is /data/media not the regular app data stored in /data/data such as like settings and preferences, which does get wiped in a reset.
es0tericcha0s said:
Ah, I see. Gonna be out of luck then unless you
A) Had signed up with a Samsung account and it had synced before wiping
B) Have a nandroid backup of your previous rom to restore (if you don't - shame on you! lol)
If it was saved to your internal storage, then I'm not sure why it still wouldn't be there unless you intentionally wiped it in recovery. Factory data resets in a custom recovery do not touch the partition of your internal storage that you save your app data and media to.
Edit: App data in this sense is what the apps store on your internal storage partition that the phone sees as /sdcard/, which is /data/media not the regular app data stored in /data/data such as like settings and preferences, which does get wiped in a reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:S I do not understand that actually, because somewhere S-Planner has to save the entries - or not? So I think if I backup anything from the internal/external storage I should also have backed up the database with the entries or not ?
Hi guys,
I wanted to update my Custom Android and did a TWRP backup before.
It required to do a factory reset and format data which I did.
After finishing everything up and installing the new ROM, I saw that all pictures stored in /storage/emulated/0/Pictures are gone.
There were all Screenshots and saved Snapchat files. Fortunately, the Camera pictures were saved on the SD-Card which I didn't formatted.
Since I am not able to undo "format data" (or can I somehow??), how am I getting to the path above? I tried Nandroid Manager and were able to load the backup but it seems that this path was not included in the backup...
I thought everything internal will be saved in a TWRP backup?
Does anyone know how to get on those files or are they completely gone?
I'm on a LG G3, bumped stock Rom (Lollipop 5.0), and TWRP 2.8.5.0.
Thanks!!
Are you able to find the path /storage in your backup?
popthosegaskets said:
Are you able to find the path /storage in your backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I was unable to find it but it is very unclear and confusing to find paths anyway...
jwsp1 said:
Hi guys,
I wanted to update my Custom Android and did a TWRP backup before.
It required to do a factory reset and format data which I did.
After finishing everything up and installing the new ROM, I saw that all pictures stored in /storage/emulated/0/Pictures are gone.
There were all Screenshots and saved Snapchat files. Fortunately, the Camera pictures were saved on the SD-Card which I didn't formatted.
Since I am not able to undo "format data" (or can I somehow??), how am I getting to the path above? I tried Nandroid Manager and were able to load the backup but it seems that this path was not included in the backup...
I thought everything internal will be saved in a TWRP backup?
Does anyone know how to get on those files or are they completely gone?
I'm on a LG G3, bumped stock Rom (Lollipop 5.0), and TWRP 2.8.5.0.
Thanks!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TWRP only backups system+data+cache. So if you have formated your internal storage even after backing up with TWRP that means you have deleted your content's forever.
Luckily you can take them back.
If you are rooted, then there's a app named DiskDigger. This app can recover deleted files from selected storage media. Below is the play store link for the app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.defianttech.diskdigger&hl=en
Hope it helped you
hitman-xda said:
TWRP only backups system+data+cache. So if you have formated your internal storage even after backing up with TWRP that means you have deleted your content's forever.
Luckily you can take them back.
If you are rooted, then there's a app named DiskDigger. This app can recover deleted files from selected storage media. Below is the play store link for the app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.defianttech.diskdigger&hl=en
Hope it helped you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, it didn't work... I just found the pictures I took by myself in the Camera folder which were not affected and are there anyway but the deleted files (especially screenshots and snapchat photos) can't be found...
Any other option I could try?
Thanks so much for your help!!
jwsp1 said:
Unfortunately, it didn't work... I just found the pictures I took by myself in the Camera folder which were not affected and are there anyway but the deleted files (especially screenshots and snapchat photos) can't be found...
Any other option I could try?
Thanks so much for your help!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you should try other apps similar to DiskDigger. It might help you.
I know a computer software for recovery but it'll not on internal storage as internal storage is ext2 format.
No solution found; thread closed.
hitman-xda said:
Maybe you should try other apps similar to DiskDigger. It might help you.
I know a computer software for recovery but it'll not on internal storage as internal storage is ext2 format.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer.
I tried a lot of software but none of it worked. I believe that the data was already overwritten - so permanently erased.
I decided to give up; but I learned that you should have recent backups of your phone and that twrp is not a full backup of data.
Thanks for your help!!
Hey,
I have a Samsung S6, and want to install my first ever ROM (gonna be Cyanogen Mod 12 or 13). It's recommended that I backup my device, but need help with using TWRP.
I clicked 'Backup' in recovery, and it comes up with options to backup: Boot, System, Data, Cache, EFS and another thing I can't remember. I assume I need to backup Boot and System, because I am assuming that this is the Marshmallow OS and Boot. I also want to backup Data, because I do not want to lose my apps, pictures and music. However, to backup all of them at once is too large of a file.
Instead, I decided to backup them all separately, then move them over to my PC and delete them from my phone. My question is, if I want to restore my phone, is it possible to restore each backup separately, of do I need to join them up into one file. If so, how do I do it?
Cheers in advance )
P.S. DO I NEED TO BACKUP THE EFS, CACHE AND OTHER THING I CANNOT REMEMBER???
You can backup to a flash drive using USB OTG cable as well. You will want to backup boot, system, and data. EFS is not needed, but I find it a good practice to back it up and save it to a safe spot like your computer. The nandroid will back up each partition separately into a folder marked with the date. You can restore each individual part as needed. Just keep everything in the folder as it was set up for ease of use.
Also, your /data backup will not include music and pictures. It will back up data/data and data/app. The pictures and music are stored in data/media, or what the phone and recovery see as /sdcard though it is an emulated point and not a physical "sd card". When you perform a factory reset in recovery, it does not wipe /data/media, thus leaving everything on /sdcard intact. Though I do recommend making a copy of that to a safe space as well. It's just not what a nandroid backs up.
es0tericcha0s said:
You can backup to a flash drive using USB OTG cable as well. You will want to backup boot, system, and data. EFS is not needed, but I find it a good practice to back it up and save it to a safe spot like your computer. The nandroid will back up each partition separately into a folder marked with the date. You can restore each individual part as needed. Just keep everything in the folder as it was set up for ease of use.
Also, your /data backup will not include music and pictures. It will back up data/data and data/app. The pictures and music are stored in data/media, or what the phone and recovery see as /sdcard though it is an emulated point and not a physical "sd card". When you perform a factory reset in recovery, it does not wipe /data/media, thus leaving everything on /sdcard intact. Though I do recommend making a copy of that to a safe space as well. It's just not what a nandroid backs up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for helping me, Ill back it up now )
No problem. Let me know if you have other questions. I've literally flashed roms 1000+ times on over 100 different kinds of phones.