[Q] Water Damage- Trying to Recover Contacts (Only boots to recovery/download) - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have a non rooted Samsung Galaxy SIII on Verizon (now deactivated). Last year the phone was submerged in water for a few seconds. I did the usual wet phone tricks and it worked for about 6 months. Recently it has been randomly restarting until a few days ago when it would not boot up.
When booting, I get to the Samsung logo screen then the phone will shut off. I AM able to boot to recovery and download mode but I cannot turn it on fully. Most of my data has been backed up (photos, videos, app info) but I must have made an error when backing up my contacts on Verizon's backup assistant and I have not backup of them.
I am looking for any way to get my contacts. Any solution I can find online requires that the phone be rooted which it is not and I do not think I can do as it won't turn on. I am not sure if USB debugging is enabled or not.
Any help is very much appreciated.

jham1496 said:
I have a non rooted Samsung Galaxy SIII on Verizon (now deactivated). Last year the phone was submerged in water for a few seconds. I did the usual wet phone tricks and it worked for about 6 months. Recently it has been randomly restarting until a few days ago when it would not boot up.
When booting, I get to the Samsung logo screen then the phone will shut off. I AM able to boot to recovery and download mode but I cannot turn it on fully. Most of my data has been backed up (photos, videos, app info) but I must have made an error when backing up my contacts on Verizon's backup assistant and I have not backup of them.
I am looking for any way to get my contacts. Any solution I can find online requires that the phone be rooted which it is not and I do not think I can do as it won't turn on. I am not sure if USB debugging is enabled or not.
Any help is very much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe i'm stating the obvious but login here www.google.com/contacts and see if your contacts are there.

Or is it possible that you have your contacts stored on your SIM card? Mine are, as even though you can only store basic phone number info per contact, it makes it very easy when switching phones.

Related

Touch screen not working.

Hi guys. I'm totally new to the android/smart phone world btw. Anyways, I recently got my Samsung Galaxy S2... first thing I noticed, my touch screen wasn't working. I popped the battery in and out and then it started working as it should.
My phone was working fine this morning, then all of a sudden out of no where, the touch screen stopped working again. I've tried turning on/off the phone multiple times. I've taken out the battery and even my SIM card nothing... i'm worried.
Has this happened to anyone else? Is there a fix? Do i have to go through Samsung? I hope not. Incase anyone asks, I did not root my phone.
Any help/feedback would be appreciated.
When the touchscreen stops working... were you charging the phone at that time?
The first time i turned on my phone, was actually by accident and it was charging.
However, just earlier now, it was not. it was just sitting on my computer desk. The home button, lock button and touch capacitive buttons work.... but i can't get past the lock screen
you could try a factory reset to see if its software related, but it sounds like hardware. I would definitely Return the phone .
I guess I can't do a factory reset, since I can't get into any of the menus... man this sucks. I spent $900 *gulp*
To do a factory reset,
1. Turn the POWER OFF, pull the battery out and put it back again.
2. Simultaneously press and hold the Volume Up, Home and Power button
3. If the Samsung Symbol appears, release the Power button
4. A Boot Menu will then show, Use the volume up/down to choose wipe data/factory reset.
touch screen not needed this way.
oo that's interesting... I tried it. and it didn't get to a boot menu. maybe I was doing it wrong. I tried a few different ways, but no success. It turns out I have warranty with the store. They're going to replace it for me Thanks for the feedback guys. Awesome forums.
Something similar happened to me yesterday. When I had the in-box USB cable attached to a BoxWave VersaCharger (combined AC/DC charger), and the VersaCharger was plugged into 120V AC, the touchscreen would stop working. As soon as I unplugged the USB cable from the SGS2, or plugged the VersaCharger into a 12V DC lighter socket, the touchscreen would work fine.
I've got the same problem as the OP... I had my phone charging overnight and this morning when I first went to use the phone I could not unlock the screen. I could wake the screen via the home button, and see I had a missed call etc but it just wasn't responding to touch. BTW I can't remember if when I first tried to unlock the phone if it was charging or not but really this shouldn't matter.... oh and btw, I'm not rooted or anything either! Naturally I rebooted the phone but still the same problem....so I tried a battery pull and still the same problem. Just now I did a factory reset but the touch screen still isn't working! I guess this is a hardware problem so I'm going to get it fixed under warranty by Samsung! Gutted that I will likely be without my phone for a week or 2!
EDIT, UPDATE...
Well, I was just on my way to the repair shop Samsung warranty had told me to take it too, and I took my sim card out to put in my old Hero (the only thing I hadn't tried!) and I couldn't believe it but the touch screen started working fine again! Weird, but that is now my advice if anyone else has a problem with their touch screen not working - oh and I took the sim out whilst the phone was still turned on. Crisis averted!
UPDATE 2
Sadly this has happened about 4 times to me now and I'm just waiting for the inevitable next time. Each time doing a factory reset then taking the sim card out seems to bring the screen back to life (though last time not immediately) but I shouldn't have to put up with this. Problem is, I don't want to send off a seemingly perfectly working phone to get repaired as I fear they will struggle to notice the problem, never mind fix it! I'm hoping a new firmware comes out soon, in the hope that it may resolve my issues...
Me as well ...
I have had this happen to me twice now (Touchscreen not responding).
The first time I had just installed a game and thought it must have been related to that. Pulled the battery and no joy, left it for a while and it came back to life...
Second time I was surfing the web and it stopped responding, pulled the battery and left it for maybe a minute but no joy .... pulled the battery again and left it for probably 20min and it came back to life. When it came back up I noticed the livewallpaper had been turned off and my widgets were gone from the homescreen.
What I did notice when it wasn't working was it had "safe mode" displayed at the bottom left of the screen
Have the Same Problem
Have the same problem i Mine and was super exicedat first it worked fine and after charging the touchscreen stopped working i pulled the battery out and put it back in but no luckso im gonna return mine to the shop hope they replace it
Moral:AT FIRST SUPER EXICTED BUT NOW SUPER ANGRY
Same issue - Is there ANY way to save my data before I send it in for repair/replace?
Hi all,
As of this morning, I have exactly the same issue as the OP. Screen doesn't react to touch, with the exception of the capacitive buttons. I found a dude on YouTube that had the same issue: youtu.be/0oIdllWiV4I
The last thing I did with the phone before it started misbehaving was to answer a call. The phone was on the charger when the call came in - I can't recall whether I unplugged it before answering, or after, or at all during the call. Not sure it has any relevance anyway, only mention it because I've seen reports of people's screens no longer reacting to touch when the phone is plugged in to a charger (apparently it even states in the manual that this may happen).
Anyway, whilst all my contacts, SMS, photos etc are backed up to the cloud, the same can't be said for my app data. Before I lose hours and hours of progress in various games, or all my settings in numerous other apps, etc, can anyone think of any way to get access to the memory of the phone, bearing in mind the following:
I can't connect to Kies to pull a back-up because bluetooth is currently enabled on the phone and when one connects the USB cable, it says "Activating USB mode will deactivate Bluetooth. Continue?" but I can't click the Yes button
I can't connect in USB mass storage mode because I can't navigate to the settings menu entry to enable it
I can't turn Bluetooth off in order to get Kies working, becuase I can't get to the settings menu or pull down the notification bar to reach the power control.
I can't use Voice input to control the device (on the off chance there was a "bluetooth off" voice command) because (presumably with the most recent firmware I flashed via Kies a few weeks back) for some reason Vlingo is no longer the app on the double-home button action. Instead it calls Samsung Voice and wants to walk me through a first use tutorial, but I can't click the next/skip buttons
I installed via Android Market push the app belonging to www_remoteaccessphone_com as it promises to be able to remotely switch bluetooth off, but the website says I haven't installed the app yet, presumably because alrhough I was able to install it without touching the phone, it probably needs to be run at least once to set it up, and I obviously can't do that
I can't start Kies Air to try and get my data that way (starting it would require using the touch screen)
Kies via bluetooth isn't supported on Android
Needless to say, the data I'm trying to retrieve is on the internal memory, not the SD card. As you can see I've been trying all sorts of creative things, but I'm fairly sure I'm screwed. Any bright ideas I haven't thought of?
blaubeer said:
Hi all,
As of this morning, I have exactly the same issue as the OP. Screen doesn't react to touch, with the exception of the capacitive buttons. I found a dude on YouTube that had the same issue: youtu.be/0oIdllWiV4I
The last thing I did with the phone before it started misbehaving was to answer a call. The phone was on the charger when the call came in - I can't recall whether I unplugged it before answering, or after, or at all during the call. Not sure it has any relevance anyway, only mention it because I've seen reports of people's screens no longer reacting to touch when the phone is plugged in to a charger (apparently it even states in the manual that this may happen).
Anyway, whilst all my contacts, SMS, photos etc are backed up to the cloud, the same can't be said for my app data. Before I lose hours and hours of progress in various games, or all my settings in numerous other apps, etc, can anyone think of any way to get access to the memory of the phone, bearing in mind the following:
I can't connect to Kies to pull a back-up because bluetooth is currently enabled on the phone and when one connects the USB cable, it says "Activating USB mode will deactivate Bluetooth. Continue?" but I can't click the Yes button
I can't connect in USB mass storage mode because I can't navigate to the settings menu entry to enable it
I can't turn Bluetooth off in order to get Kies working, becuase I can't get to the settings menu or pull down the notification bar to reach the power control.
I can't use Voice input to control the device (on the off chance there was a "bluetooth off" voice command) because (presumably with the most recent firmware I flashed via Kies a few weeks back) for some reason Vlingo is no longer the app on the double-home button action. Instead it calls Samsung Voice and wants to walk me through a first use tutorial, but I can't click the next/skip buttons
I installed via Android Market push the app belonging to www_remoteaccessphone_com as it promises to be able to remotely switch bluetooth off, but the website says I haven't installed the app yet, presumably because alrhough I was able to install it without touching the phone, it probably needs to be run at least once to set it up, and I obviously can't do that
I can't start Kies Air to try and get my data that way (starting it would require using the touch screen)
Kies via bluetooth isn't supported on Android
Needless to say, the data I'm trying to retrieve is on the internal memory, not the SD card. As you can see I've been trying all sorts of creative things, but I'm fairly sure I'm screwed. Any bright ideas I haven't thought of?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
flash it with CF-root, boot into CWM recovery, do a nandroid backup after that, use CWM recovery again to mount USB storage, connect to your PC and pull everything off.
Nitrile said:
flash it with CF-root, boot into CWM recovery, do a nandroid backup after that, use CWM recovery again to mount USB storage, connect to your PC and pull everything off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the quick advice. I guess I'll need to use my girlfriend's phone to download CF-root and then transfer the SD card to my device. Quick question before I proceed though - is it possible to remove all traces of such tampering, since I've already made out with Samsung that I'm sending it in for repair, and I'm not sure they will honour the warranty if they see it has been rooted etc.
blaubeer said:
Thanks for the quick advice. I guess I'll need to use my girlfriend's phone to download CF-root and then transfer the SD card to my device. Quick question before I proceed though - is it possible to remove all traces of such tampering, since I've already made out with Samsung that I'm sending it in for repair, and I'm not sure they will honour the warranty if they see it has been rooted etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
get a USB jig off ebay or amazon to reset the flash counter. should not cost more than 5 or 6 euros, shipped.
anyways you need to flash CF-root through ODIN if you are coming from stock. instructions are all in chainfire's cf-root thread.
Nandroid Restore
So I successfully rooted, used CWM to do a Nandroid backup, mounted the sd_card and saved the contents (including the nandroid backup) to my PC, reflashed the stock rom & kernel, usb-jigged it to get the counter back to zero/original and sent the phone in for repair. My efforts paid off as they repaired it without question under warranty. I just received the phone back and today set about restoring my backup:
Copied the sd_card contents I'd saved to my HDD back onto the phone
Re-roooted it with Cf-mod.
Used CWM to restore the backup I took before sending it in
It restored boot/system/data/cache successfully
selected reboot now in CWM
The result is that it is still missing all my apps. It only seems to have the "data" like my camera shots and SMS messages, system settings like whether bluetooth is on or off, the volume level, Wifi networks etc. So something was restored. But there is no Google Account configured, the lock screen picture is the default not the one I had beforehand, and as I said, all the apps - the main reason I did this whole thing as my personal data is all backed up to the cloud on a regular basis anyway - have not been restored. Am I confused? I thought a nandroid backup took a complete snapshot of everything, apps included.
Finding out the list of Apps I had in order to reinstall them is not an issue - I have a list of everything I had installed saved on AppBrain. But if I reinstall the apps, all the settings (or progress in the games) within those freshly installed apps will be back to square one, not where I left them, right? Or should I reinstall the apps and then restore the data partition over the top again?
Are you guys using any type of screen protectors, cause if you are, that may be the issue s their have been reports that the screen becomes unresponsive with certain screen protectors when connected to a charger.
However, if you are not using a screen protector, then I would suggest getting the unit replaced as you should not have to do anything, root or otherwise, to get the touchscreen working on a touchscreen phone
achillies400 said:
Are you guys using any type of screen protectors, cause if you are, that may be the issue s their have been reports that the screen becomes unresponsive with certain screen protectors when connected to a charger.
However, if you are not using a screen protector, then I would suggest getting the unit replaced as you should not have to do anything, root or otherwise, to get the touchscreen working on a touchscreen phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, no screen protector or any kind of case for that matter. Anyway, that isn't my issue anymore. The touch-sensitive unit was defective, the phone was repaired under warranty. My issue now is getting my apps & settings back. I have meanwhile read elsewhere that Nandroid doesn't back up the apps - pretty deceptive "backs up everything!" "it is like time travel" etc comments around here then.
Anyway, I reinstalled all the apps I had previously, and thought by reapplying the data partition from the nandroid backup it might then bring back the settings for the reinstalled apps. Instead all it did was remove all those apps again - now I am really confused. How come the restore DOESN'T bring back the apps I used to have, but DOES remove the ones I subsequently install. Does Nandroid touch the apps or doesn't it?
Touch screen not working
So i am having a very peculiar problem related to the GT-I9100 Touch Screen.
I bought the phone from Saudi Arabia and I live in Bangladesh at the moment. So for now I don't have warranty.
I bought it on 4th of this month. It had 2.3.3. So I updated it to 2.3.5. I did not use the phone much before that so I don't know if this problem was there before.
So here is the problem.
First time I noticed it when i pulled the phone from my pocket and could not unlock the pattern. First I thought I forgot the pattern. After sometime I noticed that i could not touch the buttons. I was dragging my finger over the points but there was no connecting line. I restarted the set. But it still did not work. After sometime I took the battery out. And after that it started normally and unlocked. And the touchscreen is totally fine.
I tested it using *#0*#. And every single point in the screen registers touch.
After that this happened couple of times. First couple of days I thought it was a pattern unlock problem. But i tried PIN and Password even using no unlock. It happened in every case.
So after couple of days it totally stopped happening.
But from yesterday it is happening again. And today it happened 3 times.
So today as I had no unlock protocol i tried tapping Home twice. As this brings on the voice command menu. And for the first time i was in the phone without touching the screen.And first i noticed the Menu and Back Soft keys works.And the touchscreen still does not work. And i noticed some thing weird. Always some thing in the screen is Selected. In Menu the + Icon is selected. In first screen the Map icon is selected. Also in Recent Apps the first App is selected. So after a lot of reboots it is back to normal again. Now i see something interesting. In the Battery Usage Graph i can see some really sharp drops. 3 times. Looks like when this happens phones charge takes a nose dive.
So here is the Gist.
Info related the Problem:
1. Usually happens when the phone is my pant pocket for sometime. It does not happen if it is sitting on the table.
2. Touchscreen gets totally disabled.
3. I have no idea why this happens.The exact reason behind it.
4. Battery Charge takes a nose dive when this happens. See the attached images.
5. I still don't know how to bring it back. Sometimes a simple reboot works. Sometimes I have to pull the battery. And sometimes it works on its own.
6. Every other function of the phone works. Like music playback using my UE 200vi music keys using PowerAMP, Siri(Android version), Call can be received using headset.
Battery nose Dive:
dl.dropbox.com/u/30943431/SC20111115-203017.png
dl.dropbox.com/u/30943431/SC20111116-202913.png
Also the selection
dl.dropbox.com/u/30943431/SC20111116-202146.png
So this is the thing. My biggest problem right now is, I don't know why it happens and I don't know how to bring it back from this situation. If I knew I could make sure I don't get it again or I would just fix it every-time. As when this happens I cant make calls or anything which requires the touchscreen.
So guys help me if you can by giving ideas. As i will not go back to KSA in 6 months. So buying a $550 phone unlocked was a total waste. As i cant use it here.
Thanks a million in advance.
---------- Post added at 09:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:13 PM ----------
Sorry for this. But looks like i cant post outside links before i have 8 posts. So i removed the "ht tp : //" part of the links. Copy paste in browser address bar and it will open fine.
And also the next time it happens i will do a video to shou you guys.
Having the same problem while charging touch screen doesn't work
Stock charger and usb cable
i was on CM7 but that happend so i flashed stock but no luck
I will write more observations

[Q] How can I tell if my SGS II is softbricked or not?

Is there any way that I can tell if my Galaxy S II is softbricked or not?
Basically, I was recharging it on Saturday when it suddenly began to get really hot and reboot itself every couple of minutes.
When I later checked my phone, I found that I got a 'System UIDs Inconsistent' message when I switched it off and then back on.
I tried to do a force close on the phone and that didn't seem to work.
The data on the data partitions seem to be safe and I can access ClockworkMod within the phone without any problems, but at the same time, I can't access the data partitions at all via Windows Explorer after being connected to my laptop.
Is there any way I can fix the phone without having to delete the data partitions at all?
EDIT: When I boot up the phone, the lock screen works fine along with the time and date that appears on it as well as the icons that appear on the top of the screen.

[Q] Retrieve contacts and data with a cracked screen?

Today I cracked the screen on my sgs2 while it was in my pocket, I have no idea how it happened but the good news is my service provider is replacing the phone for free.
The problem is I only get a blue line across the screen, I know the phone is working because I am still recieving messages and it rings etc but I cant unlock the screen to get it into mass storage mode to retrieve my data!
Any idea if I can get into the phone any other way to retrieve contacts etc?
No backup ???
Or Nandroid backup ??
jje
People should sync with google more. For anyone reading this: go into Contacts, press menu, and select Merge with Google (it should be something like that, my os language is Dutch).
This way you can see al your contacts at contacts.google.com
@topic starter: have you tried looking at http://contacts.google.com if your contacts are stored here?
Have you tried adb as long as debugging was turned on which some roms do by default it should work. Or boot into recovery then use adb.
I have tried adb it doesnt seem to do anything, how do I put the phone into recovery?
dawson8 said:
I have tried adb it doesnt seem to do anything, how do I put the phone into recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Vol up--->Home--->Power. Hold this three buttons on the same time and release when Samsung logo apperas
Well, I couldnt get the phone inot recovery mode either, but now my replacement has arrived I guess I just have to bite the bullet and use an older backup.
Is there any app or a way that I can install something on my phone so that if the screen ever breaks again I can access my data not just to back it up but to delete it?
I just assumed you are rooted (most people on this site are) but I should make sure so that you actually had a recovery with adb, are you? I don't know if the stock one does.
If not flashing cf-root using download mode would give you CWM recovery.
No I am not rooted, I was unsure if rooting was reversable and didnt want to void my warranty, Im even more scared off now that I know the screen can break when the phone is in my pocket and hadnt been mis-used or dropped at all!
Well the phone is already wrecked so the warranty is already gone. Just root it so you can get your data.
The main problem is do you remember your software version so you can use the right cf-root kg* kernel.
the phone is still under warranty, and has been replaced. I would now like to know how to prevent this from happening in the case of the screen breaking again?
Wow I never knew of a warranty that would cover physical damage like a broken screen.
For the new phone make sure the first thing you do is to turn on usb debugging so that you can use adb on the stock rom.
Also another possibility for getting data (just a theory) but if any remote control software (VNC etc) in the Market AUTO STARTS with the phone, it could be installed by using market.android.com then control the phone from your computer as long as wifi was on.
I don't know if any exist like that though and a quick search showed one VNC server but you had to open the app and turn on the server.
Edit: I wasn't thinking of the limitations of adb data access when not rooted, so well it is still a good idea for the new phone you may want more ideas from other people

[Q] Completely dead phone.. possible to retrieve photos?

Hi everyone, bit of a long story this one so feel free to skip the next couple of paragraphs.
Got a new Samsung S4 mini and at the time was using a Samsung S2. So when the new phone came I wanted to get some stuff from my old phone to the new one. So I tried with the Smart Switch app, I downloaded and installed it onto the S4 without any problems, but when it came to trying to get it onto the S2, I wasn't even able to find it in the play store, because the version wasn't compatible.
So off I went to settings, to try and install the S2 into the latest Android version which downloaded fine, but for some reason it was failing during the installation stage. The phone told me to do it via KIES instead. So I got KIES onto my PC and tried updating the phone via that. This was when even more problems started, it seemed to update, but then on the phone there was a message something like "updating android apps" and it got on the final couple of apps and it never installed, it was basically frozen (I left it a while, maybe not long enough), so the installation of the apps was disrupted when the USB was taken out. The screen stayed the same so I just turned the phone off and tried to reboot it but it wouldn't power up at all.
I can not enter download or recovery mode, the phone doesn't even switch on. It's as if the battery is completely dead.
Long story short: Can I retrieve photos from the internal storage of a dead phone, somehow? I'm not fussed that the phone is/may be broke. All I want is the photos from it so I can transfer them to my new phone.
From what I've read over the last few days, updates etc shouldn't delete things like photos. So it's really annoying that the photos are there on the phone, I just can't get to them.

[Q] S3 screen (possibly digitiser) issues

So I have a Galaxy S3 that took a drop, and while the glass is not cracked, the touch screen does not work (all physical and capacitive buttons still work). I was thinking its no biggie since my phone plan ended, so I bought an S5. However I realised that I had never made a backup of the contacts and messages on that phone, as I didn't use a Google account on the phone (I used the phone for just work-related calls, messages, emails, documents and photos - yes its a stupid mistake). Also the last time I connected my phone to the computer, it was in mass-storage mode instead of MTP.
Since the screen does not work, I have no way to salvage my contacts and messages. When I try to connect my phone to the computer, I cannot find a folder which stores these when I use Windows Explorer. Also Kies won't connect to the phone because it keeps saying that the phone needs to be in MTP. But since the screen doesn't work, I cannot change the USB mode. The phone is also not rooted/has no recovery installed.
I'm thinking about installing a recovery that requires the volume buttons to operate, so I might have a chance of accessing the stored contacts and messages which are currently hidden. However I believe to install this requires some interaction with the phone using the touchscreen, unless there is a way to do it. Does anyone know a way?
If there isn't a way to do this, I'm thinking of replacing the digitiser myself, but I'm not sure if this is the part that's giving the problem or if its some other part. I have taken apart the phone before and there were signs of water damage (rust) on some of the metal parts.
Can someone help me with what to do? Thanks in advance!
Flashing a recovery with Odin doesn't require touch screen.
Buy a phone with motherboard failure and swap the screen assembly over.
Ooh thanks, I'll try Odin, and if I can't retrieve contacts and messages through that, then I'll start searching for a phone with a failed motherboard
boomboomer said:
Flashing a recovery with Odin doesn't require touch screen.
Buy a phone with motherboard failure and swap the screen assembly over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi again, sorry for this late response! I tried flashing cwm from the official site, but this doesn't seem to have an option to mount the data partition so that I could view it on my pc. Do you know which recovery could be used for this? It must be a non-touch version of the recovery.
Thanks in advance!

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