27
votes
Accepted
How to recover a deleted file from /data partition on a rooted phone?
First to clarify root and data:
Root directory / of Android devices is a read-only pseudo (temporary) filesystem (rootfs) that lives in RAM and is vanished when device is powered off. When device is ...
- 19.9k
9
votes
Accepted
How to make a complete factory reset, without anyone being able to retrieve my data?
HOW DELETED DATA IS RECOVERED?
Data (un)deletion strongly depends on how a storage media (HDD, SSD, eMMC etc.), filesystem (NTFS, FAT32, ext4 etc.) and OS save and delete files.
File carving / ...
- 19.9k
9
votes
Accepted
How to shred deleted files to prevent data recovery?
Managed flash memory
Most smartphones use managed eMMC memory which means the flash chip itself is performing the flash wear leveling (the eMMC chip has a small CPU integrated which performs the wear ...
- 18.9k
8
votes
Why can't I see Android storage as a partition on PC?
Connecting to PC through USB (MTP) doesn't expose underlying filesystem (ext4 or f2fs) of internal storage (/data partition) to PC. But recovery programs need direct access to filesystem i.e. block ...
- 19.9k
7
votes
Accepted
What is the .android_secure Folder?
android_secure folder contains those apps which you have moved to external SD. Files inside them would have .asec extension
Android 6.0 upwards don't allow you to move apps to external SD as you have ...
- 40.3k
5
votes
I was recording and video on my phone when the battery died, how can I recover the video file?
I had the same promblem. A solution which worked for me was an app "MP4Fix", which you can get in google play for free. It repaired my video in a few sec and placed it in different folder (it kept ...
- 51
5
votes
SD card formatted as internal storage Recovery Data
This question appears to be a duplicate of How to decrypt Adopted Storage?
in many regards, but if I understand it correctly, the following things happened and one step makes it unique:
You adopted ...
- 6,197
4
votes
Accepted
How to Audit Android Apps (for screenshot activity)
Taking a screenshot requires root or system permissions (or an root exploit). I assume your ROM is a official Lineage release. Assuming further that their signing key has not leaked the app you are ...
- 18.9k
4
votes
Data recovery from encrypted phone based on glitches in the encryption?
I'm not an expert in the filed, it's just an analyses of the case according to my limited knowledge.
ANDROID'S ENCRYPTION
Android supports two modes of encryption; FDE and FBE. FDE encrypts whole ...
- 19.9k
4
votes
Accepted
Can I access my Android through ADB if the phone can only get to the fastboot menu?
No you can't access your phone via adb while you are in fastboot menu.
While in fastboot menu only the fastboot binary + driver can access your device.
ADB is only available when the device is ...
- 18.9k
4
votes
Accepted
Do any data-recovery solutions still work on android 11?
Since about Android 6 all devices come with enabled user data encryption. I think since about Android 8 Google enforces that this encryption is hardware backed, which means you can't export the used ...
- 18.9k
4
votes
Do any data-recovery solutions still work on android 11?
If you ever enabled Google's "Find My Device", you might be able to unlock your phone by locking it there with another password. You can check if your device is listed in Find My Device. ...
- 361
3
votes
Is it possible to back up the encryption key of Android?
You didn't specify in your question whether you're looking for the FDE, Full Disk Encryption, key or the FBE, File-Based Encryption, key. Technically they can both can have their keys recovered (so ...
- 163
3
votes
Is all data lost after factory reset?
You might have a chance via a custom recovery:
boot into recovery-mode and see if adb devices shows your device
if not, or if you have no custom recovery, you can "temporarily load one" using ...
Izzy♦
- 90.8k
3
votes
Accepted
Is a ROMs data (/data) from Nougat compatible with MM?
From one of my earlier answers:
Older version of an app might not recognize the data created by the newer version of the same app. Although user apps are rarely affected, crucial system apps might ...
- 9,524
3
votes
Unable to recover SD card used as internal memory after factory reset
TL;DR: Yes.
Details: By adopting your SD card as internal storage, it was encrypted. The encryption key was stored on the device itself – and thus deleted when you performed the factory-reset. For ...
Izzy♦
- 90.8k
3
votes
Is it possible to transfer the internal memory/storage chip of an S9?
Based on the iFixit tear-down of the Samsung Galaxy S9 you can see that the flash chip in this model is a single chip soldered onto the motherboard - it is inside the orange rectangle below, a 64 GB ...
- 18.9k
3
votes
/data's data is garbled in TWRP. How to decrypt
I was in a similar issue on a Nokia running a stock ROM. Basically Magisk module killed my phone and the TWRP won't allow decryption.
I was able to boot successfully to system again by.. Removing ...
- 2,417
3
votes
Recovering Phone Data after Hardware Failure
Copying data from a phone which is not detected by adb and has no screen info to tell what is happening is not going to take you very far from where you are.
Either try to get it to show on system ...
- 328
3
votes
Accepted
How can I access my phone with a broken screen when TWRP decryption is unavailable?
You can enable ADB by editing certain build.prop options which can be done without data access. Then, like you already mentioned, you can easily control your phone with scrcpy.
For an in-depth ...
- 65
2
votes
Accepted
Factory reset on merged storage - Shall I lose my data
According to the article Reset your Nexus device to factory settings (Nexus 5 and Nexus 9 listed too) by Google,
By performing a factory data reset, all data will be erased from the device. While ...
- 24.9k
2
votes
Accepted
Can I recover the WhatsApp chat history from a damaged phone?
You can, if you can save everything in the /data/data/com.whatsapp folder. Your logs will be in /data/data/com.whatsapp/databases but they are encrypted as you mentioned and encryption key is in /data/...
- 2,682
2
votes
Samsung S3 - Device Memory Damaged
You could get the same version of your operating system as flashable zip-file for the recovery mode and flash it, or use Odin to flash a kdz-file of it. If the files you'd like to get back are not in ...
- 21
2
votes
Unlock encrypted Android from ADB
Although buying an OTG cable should work fine, there is in fact a way to unlock your device through ADB alone. Found this out the hard way when I included a character in my password that was not ...
- 151
2
votes
How to restore files on SD card protected by NQ vault?
There is a related post here which indicates that vault app is phone specific How to restore files on SD Card that was protected by Vault app? which indicates it is not possible, more so since your ...
- 40.3k
2
votes
I was recording and video on my phone when the battery died, how can I recover the video file?
To expand on Martin's answer, yes you can use MP4Fix. However it is very strict what the video is made with.
I found I needed to set the recording settings in order for the mp4 video to be in a ...
- 121
2
votes
Accepted
Get a list of all applications I have ever installed on any phone
Forgive me if you've already tried this, but there's a tab in the Google play store for all apps installed or not. It's under the my apps and games button.
- 36
2
votes
Accepted
ADB pull error: remote object '/dev/block/mmcblk0p24' not a file or directory
adb pull is for files. /dev/block/mmcblk0 is a block device. user1133275's answer to that question doesn't work; try the other one, i.e. run adb shell and then:
$ su
# dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/...
- 50.5k
2
votes
How can I recover my phone (factory reset doesn't work)?
Get factory firmware here. There are versions matching exactly what you have (scroll down below), though ideally you need the one that also matches your SKU (region). It should come with instruction ...
- 9,524
2
votes
Enable ADB and/or change USB connection mode on Galaxy S7 w/ broken screen
I cannot test this method because my device don't have USB-OTG support. I am not sure if the key sequence is always the same on each phone, this is for android 7.0 nougat
This only works with PIN ...
- 3,875
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible