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2

I just broke the screen of my (unrooted) Galaxy S.

How do I get back my SMS and contacts?

PS: I tried Kies but it won't detect my phone for some reason. (Kies works fine with another Galaxy I possess but not this one)

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Why do you restrict the answers to include solutions using adb? I would ask something like "How can I retrieve my data from a device with a broken screen?". – Flow♦ Jul 11 '12 at 18:02
@Flow: android.stackexchange.com/questions/25666/… same question but in different layout... OP sounds desperate.. – t0mm13b Jul 11 '12 at 18:02
See also android.stackexchange.com/questions/12834/… – Flow♦ Jul 11 '12 at 18:20
@Flow yeah, you are right. I shouldn't limit it to adb because all I care is my Contacts and SMS. – Abdul Karim Memon Jul 11 '12 at 18:36

6 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

Does your device has HDMI or TV out facility? If so, you can connect it to another display device (monitor/TV) and install applications to backup your stuffs.

Another solution you could try is to install an app called Remote phone access via adb and control your device through PC. But the catch here would be that if have to configure the app for remote access, then you are in trouble as you cannot see what is happening as your screen is dead.

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I think your idea just saved all the data on my hubby's htc phone with a dead screen. thanks for throwing it out there even if the galaxy s probably doesn't support that feature. – Jessica Brown Apr 17 at 2:30
@JessicaBrown, I will be glad and rest like you might be benefited if you shed some more light on which procedure you adopted and how you did it (in brief). – Narayanan Apr 17 at 4:43
1  
Well, I'm still working on it, but in short I hooked the phone up to the TV with the HDMI output cable, enabled USB debugging by touching the black screen in the right places. Then I hooked the phone up to the computer and am using Android Screen Monitor to watch the screen, and side-loaded ShareKM to use the keyboard/mouse on the computer (laggy, but at least accurate), so I can install the appropriate apps to backup all the important data on the phone – Jessica Brown Apr 17 at 19:27
up vote 2 down vote

All of the solutions above require USB Debugging to be on. If it is not and you are using Android 4.0 then you can press power and volume down buttons simultaneously to obtain screenshot. If USB is not connected it will be placed somewhere on the SD card (e.g. \Pictures\Screenshots). Then you can connect USB to see the screenshot, then disconnect, navigate further and so on till you navigate yourself to enabling USB Debugging.

When USB Debugging enabled it is all easy as pie.

  1. Provided you have SDK installed you can use ddms.bat from tools folder to get screenshots fast and convenient, adjusting any options you need and even installing apps.
  2. Classic way - adb
  3. I've found Moborobo to be very convenient way to make full backup

I understand this is very late and hardly helps OP, but I hope it helps someone else lurking here for the way to save data, like me.

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up vote 1 down vote

These are located in

/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db

and

/data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts.db

Edit: I couldn't get adb pull working (requires root, can't remember how to call adb pull with root) but I just opened adb shell and used cp as root to copy it to /sdcard

Edit2: I found this thread and it looks like your directories might be different.

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You can use adb root to gain root access. However, this only works with rooted phones and emulator images. – Bob Jul 11 '12 at 15:12
damn! my phone isn't rooted :/ Any other option? Can i use adb to open up contacts and fire an intent to Export my contacts to SD card? – Abdul Karim Memon Jul 11 '12 at 16:45
adb has no bearing or relation to controlling the GUI aspects of Android what-so-ever. – t0mm13b Jul 11 '12 at 18:09
what version of Android does your Galaxy S run on? You can dissect most exploit kits to run their parts manually via adb and also get root. When you get that you could use android screencast as a remote vnc like solution to install Titanium Backup. Last resort : install a CWM recovery via heimdall and do a full backup. TiBackup can extract data from that – ce4 Jul 12 '12 at 4:54
I've been successful at exporting my contacts to SDcard with the help of 'adb shell input keyevents xx'. The first thing I'm going to do, after that fscking screen is repaired, is to root it and install android screencast. :) – Abdul Karim Memon Jul 12 '12 at 20:42
up vote 1 down vote

I had the same problem trying to get contacts off my Galaxy S3 with a broken screen. The solution was a program called "My Phone Explorer" from http://www.fjsoft.at/en/ It's free. You DON'T have to be rooted, modded, or anything to use it. I had tried everything I could find on the web, plus the people at my Verizon store, but couldn't find a solution that worked for retrieving contacts AND SMS messages from a phone with a broken screen.

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Hummm... I saw this identical answer posted on the other question Are you affiliated with this app? – t0mm13b Dec 29 '12 at 23:20
up vote 0 down vote

Have you not thought of considering using DroidExplorer as the alternative to using Kies instead? It might help you pull in the contacts?

Using Kies can be quite obnoxious and not exactly on-the-ball...

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DroidExplorer is "A tool to manage your rooted android device with the simplicity of Windows Explorer." I don't have root access and I am on Linux (Debian sid amd64) – Abdul Karim Memon Jul 11 '12 at 18:48
Install mono and run it!! – t0mm13b Jul 11 '12 at 19:32
I didn't know the Mono port is already that far? On his website, Ryan still states he's looking for help with that. Are you using DroidExplorer on Linux via Mono, @t0mm13b ? – Izzy Apr 24 at 10:52
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@Izzy yes, very occasionally, it works... you'd be surprised how under-rated Mono is on Linux - provided there is no iffy Win32API used, you can actually run Win32 dotnet exe's under mono! :) – t0mm13b Apr 24 at 13:38
OK, so I will see to give it a try as soon as time permits -- thanks for the feedback, @t0mm13b ! – Izzy Apr 24 at 13:50
up vote -1 down vote

I suggest using MyPhoneExplorer and its desktop companion:

In my case, debugging was not enabled on the phone. MAKE SURE THE PHONE IS ON AND PLUGGED IN!!!

You have to make sure that the driver is installed and that there is not an exclamation mark next to the device in device manager:

  • right click My Computer
  • left click Properties
  • left click Device Manager

If there is an exclamation mark next to your phone:

  1. go to Samsung's website and download the correct driver., there is one for sprint, Verizon, google, etc...
  2. Install the driver by double-clicking the downloaded file.
  3. go back to device manager and double click on the device
  4. click on update the driver
  5. click on browse my computer
  6. click let me choose from a list of device drivers
  7. click on adb interface
  8. click on the newest android interface
  9. click on whatever is necessary to keep the driver install going.
  10. It will say complete.

Get MyPhoneExplorer from the Playstore and install it (it's well worth a donation if you can afford it, if not it is free). On your PC, download and install the app's desktop companion.

From this app, read the help file and sync!!! It's very easy to use.

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Remark: This solution requires a Windows computer (to my knowledge, there are no versions of the desktop companion for other OSses). Should be fine for the OP, as using Kies implies a Windows machine :) – Izzy May 9 at 17:52

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