Is there any way I can salvage data from this situation? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Yesterday night, after experiencing a hard crash, I found myself with a softbricked 2016 Samsung Galaxy Tab A.
Earlier today, while attempting to get it working again, I did a factory reset and a firmware flash in that order. Yes, in retrospect, I could have saved a lot of trouble if I hadn't done that factory reset, but hindsight is 20/20 and I'd never dealt with an android issue like this.
Anyway, I got the tablet working again, but I've lost all my data, and worse, since my SD card was encrypted, I have no access to the files on there either. I figure the data on the internal storage is as good as gone, but just in case, I've kept the tablet off since then.
Is there any way I could potentially extract the encryption key from the memory of the main tablet, and use it to decrypt my SD card? The majority of my files were on there, and while I'm fine losing most of the stuff on the tablet itself, I'd really like to salvage the SD card. It has about 10 gigs worth of pictures and videos on it.

Related

Peculiar DAMAGED SD CARD problem.

I've read upon the DAMAGED SD CARD problem with android, but most of the phone becomes virtually unusable, mine says it's damaged but market works, and I can install apps to phone memory, even with APPS2SD enabled. If I try and copy my files to the computer, it stops halfway with 'perimeter incorrect', glad I did a backup like 1 week ago. Funny thing is, in recovery the SD card is fine, I can make backups, I even tried to repair SD Ext Partition, no luck.
Its probably Android thinking it's damaged without it really being so. Totally confused since I warning/error is on the ongoing notification. Also when I go into the SD card & phone storage shows information as unavailable and SD information widgets can't read it either. I don't mind formatting and copying everything over, but it kinda works, but android thinks it's corrupted or something. Very weird. Also I did nothing out of the ordinary, but with computers or machines random errors can occur. I had the partition in place for a 3 weeks now, installed MCR 3.1 couple of weeks ago and using it pretty much like this, but since the WIFI hanged (kept saying it's turning off but being stuck) I rebooted and the message came up.
Is it possible to fix it how it is? Or shall I just re-format and copy everything again. I'm just worried it may happen again.

[Q] Recover Internal Phone Memory

So this is probably a question that has been repeated time and time before, but I couldn't find anything on basic phones to try to help me with my question.
My sister has a ZTE Adamant from Verizon that she was trying to get pictures off of by connecting the phone to her computer. Well low and behold the phones CD** drive only contains data for installing a EXE for drives, no list of internal storage. So one of the first things this magical software by Verizon ark’s is do you want to update your phone? However clicking yes ended up deleting all of the pictures(and only pictures) off of the phone.
I've tried for countless hours to find a way to get into the phones internal memory to try and recover the pictures. Called up Verizon and they informed us that because the phone updated, the update needed storage it deleted data off the phone for room. Which he suggested the files may have transferred to the computer or was deleted from the phone. I've checked her computer and could not find any JPG's that were recently added.
So my question; is there any way to recover the internal memory or access it without taking the phone apart? This is a task that is phone without thinking when a SD card is installed, but since the drive is not recognized, i cannot think of a way to get to it. If there is a way that will end up bricking the phone but being able to recover the data I’m all for it by the way.

[Q] Completely removing encryption on SD?

So when I joined my phone to the corporate network, it insisted on (amongst other things), encrypting the SD card. After some annoyance with that, pins etc, I decided to revert back. I successfully removed the accounts etc and unchecked the encrypted SD card option.
However, when I did so, it said something about only applying going forward and I still keep getting asked for the pin to decrypt the SD card. So it seems that stuff is still decrypted on there? I have done some searching but have had little luck finding any definitive answers, most seem to be related to problems with people losing whatever key to decrypt items which is obviously not the case here since once I enter the pin, I can access items with no problem
So what's the deal? Do I have to save everything off and reformat the SD card to get back to normal? Seems kind-of wonky to me but that's Android, I guess.
Oh, I have tried reencrypting and unencrypting the SD card again and the Android version is 4.1.2 if that's any help.

[Q] Completely removing encryption on SD?

So when I joined my phone to the corporate network, it insisted on (amongst other things), encrypting the SD card. After some annoyance with that, pins etc, I decided to revert back. I successfully removed the accounts etc and unchecked the encrypted SD card option.
However, when I did so, it said something about only applying going forward and I still keep getting asked for the pin to decrypt the SD card. So it seems that stuff is still decrypted on there? I have done some searching but have had little luck finding any definitive answers, most seem to be related to problems with people losing whatever key to decrypt items which is obviously not the case here since once I enter the pin, I can access items with no problem
So what's the deal? Do I have to save everything off and reformat the SD card to get back to normal? Seems kind-of wonky to me but that's Android, I guess.
Oh, I have tried reencrypting and unencrypting the SD card again and the Android version is 4.1.2 if that's any help.
[Solved]
Not sure how to mark this solved. Maybe a mod can do it.
So I ran into some issues with the phone and managed to back up my data, completely reformatted the card and copied all the files back to the SD card.
*Still* I would get the "encryption password" popup. Nothing was encrypted, I could view all the files if I used a card reader. Yet when I plugged it back in, I either had to enter the string or couldn't see the files at all (even though they were clearly unencrypted).
The culprit?
/.sds.bin
I deleted that and everything is fine again. I guess it hung around when I disabled the encryption and was causing my misery. I hope this can help someone else who might be having the same problem
Funnily enough, now that I know what I am looking for, I found the exact solution to my problem here.
https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/777978?start=0&tstart=0
In fact, there is a hidden and very magic file sitting on the card named ".sds.bin" which is the flag to Android that the data on the card (may) be encrypted. If you remove this file (easiest on Linux or OSX) and then put the card back into your phone, you will be back in business. It seems as if someone at the Google forgot to remove this file when I told it to decrypt my phone earlier this year.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh well, que sera sera.

Question Factory Reset my Samsung S23 ultra with no backups...can I recover photos?

So I was using my S23 ultra for camera and video purposes. It had no sim card.
Today i decided to get a sim card for it and use it as a phone finally.
Installing the sim card, It factory reset the phone, I wasnt aware it would do this...and it walked me through the setup the phone stuff.
I dont know if there is any way i can still recover all my pics and videos....the rest of stuff i can live without.
I did find an app called Droidkit which sounded promising but it was unable to ROOT the phone to do a deep scan....i assume cause the S23 is a Canada version.
Which basically brought me here to see if there was a way to ROOT this phone or if there was any other way to try to recover my photos and videos.
I hadnt done any type of backup nor used google photos etc.
I had planned to back everything up when i got home before installing the sim card, but when i bought it, the girl insisted she had to install it herself and make sure it was activated.
anyways, any help is appreciated, thanks!
I have never seen factory reset delete user data on internal simcard.
On samsung phones.
(unless specificaly requested to do so from recovery)
open file manager and browse around , very good chance your stuff is still there.
if it was really reformatted (almost always a quick format) which can allow file recovery,
(stop using phone as much as possible so not to overwrite the the sectors on internal sd)
Back up and restore data or files on your Galaxy device
When you back up and restore content using Samsung Cloud, you'll be able to save important files, download deleted files, and sync data on other devices.
www.samsung.com
Samsung Internal Memory Recovery | Samsung Files Recovery
I accidentally deleted my data on my Samsung, is there any way to recover deleted files on Samsung Galaxy? This post makes Samsung internal memory recovery easy in three trouble-free ways.
www.coolmuster.com
4 Ways of Samsung Internal Memory Recovery [with Pics]
I accidentally deleted my data on my Samsung. How to perform Samsung internal memory recovery? This page tells you 4 ways to recover deleted files from phone memory on Samsung Galaxy S21/S20/S10/S9.
www.mobikin.com
Samsung SD Card Recovery: Recover Files From a Samsung SD Card/Samsung Phone
Recover files from your Samsung SD card - or any SD card - and Samsung phone using our easy-to-follow guides (with screenshots).
www.handyrecovery.com
if proficient with android development or linux administration
look in to dumping the filesystems trough usb/adb/recovery and running
file system recovery on dumped images.
PS: samsung phones also have their own backup system besides google images,
if you even registered for a samsung acount on phone (look in to that also)
dandudikof said:
I have never seen factory reset delete user data on internal simcard.
On samsung phones.
(unless specificaly requested to do so from recovery)
open file manager and browse around , very good chance your stuff is still there.
if it was really reformatted (almost always a quick format) which can allow file recovery,
(stop using phone as much as possible so not to overwrite the the sectors on internal sd)
Back up and restore data or files on your Galaxy device
When you back up and restore content using Samsung Cloud, you'll be able to save important files, download deleted files, and sync data on other devices.
www.samsung.com
Samsung Internal Memory Recovery | Samsung Files Recovery
I accidentally deleted my data on my Samsung, is there any way to recover deleted files on Samsung Galaxy? This post makes Samsung internal memory recovery easy in three trouble-free ways.
www.coolmuster.com
4 Ways of Samsung Internal Memory Recovery [with Pics]
I accidentally deleted my data on my Samsung. How to perform Samsung internal memory recovery? This page tells you 4 ways to recover deleted files from phone memory on Samsung Galaxy S21/S20/S10/S9.
www.mobikin.com
Samsung SD Card Recovery: Recover Files From a Samsung SD Card/Samsung Phone
Recover files from your Samsung SD card - or any SD card - and Samsung phone using our easy-to-follow guides (with screenshots).
www.handyrecovery.com
if proficient with android development or linux administration
look in to dumping the filesystems trough usb/adb/recovery and running
file system recovery on dumped images.
PS: samsung phones also have their own backup system besides google images,
if you even registered for a samsung acount on phone (look in to that also)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks
im new to android and dont know linux.
i will try your other suggestions and see how i get on there.
appreciated!
First time ever i heard that when installing simcard phone goes to factory reset... I change them a lot also esim and no issue like factory reset...
You can try Ontrack to recover files.
B0B_SACAMAN0 said:
So I was using my S23 ultra for camera and video purposes. It had no sim card.
Today i decided to get a sim card for it and use it as a phone finally.
Installing the sim card, It factory reset the phone, I wasnt aware it would do this...and it walked me through the setup the phone stuff.
I dont know if there is any way i can still recover all my pics and videos....the rest of stuff i can live without.
I did find an app called Droidkit which sounded promising but it was unable to ROOT the phone to do a deep scan....i assume cause the S23 is a Canada version.
Which basically brought me here to see if there was a way to ROOT this phone or if there was any other way to try to recover my photos and videos.
I hadnt done any type of backup nor used google photos etc.
I had planned to back everything up when i got home before installing the sim card, but when i bought it, the girl insisted she had to install it herself and make sure it was activated.
anyways, any help is appreciated, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When Samsung had an sdcard you were able to store images and videos on your sdcard so that when you did a FDR you didn't lose your images or videos. Sorry to say that US and Canadian S23 Ultra's can't be bootloader unlocked at this time so no root for now. You can go to settings>Backup and Restore and see if by chance they were backed up, mine are backed up every so often automatically.
B0B_SACAMAN0 said:
So I was using my S23 ultra for camera and video purposes. It had no sim card.
Today i decided to get a sim card for it and use it as a phone finally.
Installing the sim card, It factory reset the phone, I wasnt aware it would do this...and it walked me through the setup the phone stuff.
I dont know if there is any way i can still recover all my pics and videos....the rest of stuff i can live without.
I did find an app called Droidkit which sounded promising but it was unable to ROOT the phone to do a deep scan....i assume cause the S23 is a Canada version.
Which basically brought me here to see if there was a way to ROOT this phone or if there was any other way to try to recover my photos and videos.
I hadnt done any type of backup nor used google photos etc.
I had planned to back everything up when i got home before installing the sim card, but when i bought it, the girl insisted she had to install it herself and make sure it was activated.
anyways, any help is appreciated, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only possible way is by physically removing emmc and then recovering using UFI tool box.
I don't recommend doing it for yourself as it has to be performed by trained professional.
thanks for all the replies.
didnt have any luck....if the phone was rootable, its possible i could have recovered some i guess.
fortunately it was only a couple months i had the phone....but i still took hundreds of pics n vids in that short time.
lesson learned...backup my shizzle.
i managed to salvage a few bits from messenger of stuff i had sent people.
appreciated.
did you use the file browser on the phone to check standard locations
(not the gallery browser, but actual file browser)
of the internal sd card
/sdcard/ (DCMI,Movies,Pictures)
even storage manager under settings should differentiate between
internal and external sd cards , even if external was formated to be used as internal.
(browse that and see how much space is used up by various things in internal-sd)
as i and others think, that you are just looking at external sd card only for some reason.
and internal sd should still be there with original content , unless purposefully erased
( factory reset should leave that allone )

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