25 votes
Accepted

How to recover a deleted file from /data partition?

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 ...
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 / ...
8 votes
Accepted

How to manually restore Call Log from adb backup on OnePlus One? (SMS already restored)

Note: OP already knows the answer but the following info is for those souls who might be troubled with the same issue. Disappointment! CM11 in OnePlus One (be it 44S or 05Q update) doesn't have any ...
  • 24.1k
8 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 ...
  • 17.4k
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 ...
  • 38.5k
7 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 ...
6 votes
Accepted

Read content of .thumbdata file

It contains 96x96 pixel versions of your photos. The file is simply a concatenation of JPEG files. You can split it into individual JPG files by searching for the signatures indicating the start and ...
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
4 votes

How to backup data on a non-booting, unrooted phone?

Personally, I am a Nexus user. But having repaired a friend's international variant S3 before, I do know some things about Samsung. And since you don't have custom recovery, you cannot access /data (...
4 votes
Accepted

Whatsapp chat history Transfer to android phone

You can't restore chat history from one platform to a different platform. Eg:- Window to Android or vice-versa as in your case. Read the below Whatsapp faq, http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/wp/...
  • 3,283
4 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 ...
  • 5,936
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 ...
  • 17.4k
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 ...
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 ...
  • 17.4k
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 ...
  • 17.4k
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. ...
3 votes

How to restore whatsapp media?

It's not possible to get it back through WhatsApp, since they don't store images on their servers anymore after you've downloaded them once. You can try and use your Photos app and then through the ...
3 votes

Moto G -- recovering files after bootloader unlock (wipe)?

I had the same question. Then I used a retired Moto G to test ROOT (as usual) and recovery with this method: http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/general/guide-internal-memory-data-recovery-...
3 votes

How can I recover files from a phone that won't boot?

I had the same problem with stock Nexus 7 2012 GSM. The relevant documentation for this is https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4596836?hl=en the Recovery mode section https://developers.google....
  • 183
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 ...
  • 90.1k
3 votes
Accepted

Files and folders in USB drive lost after connecting to Android phone!

All your data seem lost or corrupted. Improper removal of drives could cause data corruption, or in worse cases, put the integrity of your drive at risk. We need to consider three different protocols ...
  • 3,148
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 ...
  • 9,442
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 ...
  • 90.1k
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 ...
  • 17.4k
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 ...
  • 2,407
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 ...
  • 310
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 ColorNote notes after factory reset?

I ran into this when I purchased a new phone. SD cards were not the same. One from my old phone would not fit the new one. I used windows to copy the ColorNote files over to the new phone. I first ...
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 ...

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