Cracked Screen, How to blind copy data to replacement?? - Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I just got my captivate 1 month ago (first android). I rooted the phone and installed Cognition 2.3b6 right when i got it. I have never backed up the phone.
2 days ago the phone dropped from about 18 inches onto the bathroom floor. Cracking the interior of the screen. Origintally i could see the top half, the touchscreen hardly works. Now i can only see a faint blue color when i boot hte phone. It still works, i get alarms and feel it vibrate.
I understand that I might be able to do a nandroid backup (is it possible to do it blind?), but is that the correct thing to do? Will that change the deviceID of my replacement phone from AT&T (insurance replacement).
I would like to get the data backed up and transferred over asap so i can pack the old phone up and ship it off before the holidays.
Thank you guys!

adb pull /sdcard
Some one else might be able to help you with the specifics, but pull the /sdcard data from your phone.
From a phone

what?
I figured i need to probably copy it to the sd card. But from what i understand, some applications rely on DeviceID's and not the actual phone. Ergo, if you do a complete nandroid backup it will also copy over the DeviceID (from what i understand, correct me if i'm wrong).
Or is that something different than what you are suggesting?

Your data is stored in /sdcard. The external sdcard is /sdcard/external_sd for froyo, cant remember file path for 2.1. What else could you be wanting to transfer to the new phone?
From a phone

I've never done it before, I want to be able to transfer all data (ie, installed apps, cached notebooks for evernote, preferences, etc) to the other phone.
I have never done this before on an android phone and don't know the best way to tackle this using a cracked screen (can't even unlock the phone)
I think I can manage to do a nandroid backup ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEqbjUb4WxM ) but i'm concerned about the device id

Cassetti said:
I've never done it before, I want to be able to transfer all data (ie, installed apps, cached notebooks for evernote, preferences, etc) to the other phone.
I have never done this before on an android phone and don't know the best way to tackle this using a cracked screen (can't even unlock the phone)
I think I can manage to do a nandroid backup ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEqbjUb4WxM ) but i'm concerned about the device id
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are 2 way i can think of.
1- Like mentionned in prior post do a adb pull /sdcard
2- Boot into recovery and try to a backup from there blindly (following online pictures/video of the different menus and pressing the buttons accordingly).
I don't see the big deal about your deviceid. Many users have had a auto generated id with roms. It will be ported with the nandroid. Not sure just how wide spread the use of deviceid is used in apps.

Thanks I was really confused about the whole DeviceID thing. Figured it was best to play it safe.
I'll give it a try, i'm sure i can manage to do a nandroid backup on my phone
I'll keep you posted

There are ways of getting your device id back. First of all theres a market app that can backup the device id on your new phone and restore it back after you restore the backup http://www.appbrain.com/app/android-id-changer/adaptive.cogid Or you could search around the forums and/or google for ways of changind and backing up your device id, there are multiple ways of doing it. And don't forget about backing up your sdcard, like boborone said, do an adb pull /sdcard from the clockworkmod screen (adb works from recovery in case you didn't know).

Hell man, you can adb pull the whole phone if you want.
From a phone

Can you send the link to where i can find out how to do and adp full pull from the pc? The only instructions i'm seeing are for the android sdk (bit confused)

the sdk is downloaded to your pc, and then you run that command from a terminal/command prompt with the phone connected.

kmac1914 said:
the sdk is downloaded to your pc, and then you run that command from a terminal/command prompt with the phone connected.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do i need to have left the phone in USB debugging mode? I believe 3 days before the accident, i turned off USB debugging on purpose (for file transfers)

Check out my Screencast video...It may help you here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=877652

Cassetti said:
Do i need to have left the phone in USB debugging mode? I believe 3 days before the accident, i turned off USB debugging on purpose (for file transfers)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe you can use adb from recovery screen.

connexion2005 said:
Check out my Screencast video...It may help you here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=877652
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, the screencast helped, but i honestly think that 2 days before i did this, I turned off usb debugging (so i could use my phone as a hard drive)
I think that is why whenever i plug in my phone, it vibrates really hard and droid explorer doesn't find any devices. Suggestions?

Related

flash ROM without overwriting data

Is there a way to flash a minimal ROM to the SE X1 such that the data (documents, pictures, music, etc) on the existing ROM does not get overwritten?
taz1973 said:
Is there a way to flash a minimal ROM to the SE X1 such that the data (documents, pictures, music, etc) on the existing ROM does not get overwritten?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to backup these things, like putting it on your SD card or PC. No other way.
Seriously? There is no way of me getting to my data?
I am able to start the phone (get the "beta expired message" plastered all over the screen).
I can get into the bootloader and when I plug the phone to the PC I see a Microsoft USB sync device but cannot sync with it.
Is there a way to start active sync via an autorun file on the SD card?
Come on...there has got to be a way for me to get to the data on the phone.
taz1973 said:
Seriously? There is no way of me getting to my data?
I am able to start the phone (get the "beta expired message" plastered all over the screen).
I can get into the bootloader and when I plug the phone to the PC I see a Microsoft USB sync device but cannot sync with it.
Is there a way to start active sync via an autorun file on the SD card?
Come on...there has got to be a way for me to get to the data on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You cannot sync with it because your phone isn't on. As far as I know there is no other way then flashing or hard-resetting your device.
not that I heard of
the q sounds familiar, wasn't that already raised in another thread...?
Mod. edit: not dev related, moved to general
Here you go:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=673925
Same OP btw
on topic: afaik there is no way getting your data from a beta expired device (except the data on the storage card). And you can't flash a ROM without erasing the data on the phone.
What ROM are/were you using?
Maybe try contacting the Chef to see if he has any ideas...
I was using the Energy ROM. I already contacted NRG and he was not very helpful.
When the phone boots up, I can see the custom background image. I can also, with some messing around, get to the slide show and I see that all my pictures are there.
However, I cannot get the phone to connect to my PC via activesync (possibly because activesync is disabled on the phone). I tried to blindly navigate the menus but no luck so far. On the other hand, I was able to connect the phone to my PC using bluetooth, but for some reason OBEX file transfer is not working therefore Bluetooth explorer does not work with the phone.
If I slide open and closed the screen, I can somewhat navigate through some screens. If I hit the START button, I can navigate through all the menus, but then nothing shows up because of the white screen.
This is really frustrating because all my files all there, but just a wee bit out of reach.
I toyed with the idea of flashing with the smallest ROM I could find and then dump the ROM back to the PC and then use recovery software to try and recover the files. I would need to experiment with a second X1 just to be sure that it could work.
At this point, any ideas are more than welcome, and anything other than "it can't be done" will definitely be appreciated.
Thanks,
T

[Q] Reviewing Android Security - MUST be root?

So as a little side project I've tasked myself to review the security features and potential risks to data being stored within the Android OS and I've been using my Captivate as the test rat. Since pretty much everyone with an android device uses Gmail I wanted to focus first on the Gmail app. I know that information for many apps are stored under the /data/data/[app package]/databases directory structure in an SQL Lite *.db file.
That being said, I wanted to inquire with everyone here about being able to access the /data/data directory and all info there-in WITHOUT having to root the device. Im sure there might be some on that but Im just trying to be thorough in my review...any potential thief would obviously just instantly root and delve right in afterward the data but what other potential ways are there to get into that directory, if there are any?
I've been playing around with ADB and from what I can tell that is not a viable path. The only thing I could think of is somehow tricking the ADB daemon into thinking my phone is a development phone which would allow ADB to run as root but haven't found that to be possible.
So in any case, just looking for insight from the more experienced folk as to other avenues of attack against the user data beyond the obvious root method. Thanks very much for any help!
You can run adb shell as root if the phone is in clockworkmod recovery - but if someones going to the trouble of dropping a clockwork update.zip could just as well and as easy drop a root update.zip on the phone.
If someone physically gets a hold of your phone anything tied the google account/s on the phone would have to be considered compromised - as these phones are so easy to root anyway.
I just thought of another thing, if someone were to get a hold of your phone and have access to a computer with odin they could pretty quickly do a system dump (grab every file off your phone) return where you could find it without you ever knowing they got it.
dayv said:
I just thought of another thing, if someone were to get a hold of your phone and have access to a computer with odin they could pretty quickly do a system dump (grab every file off your phone) return where you could find it without you ever knowing they got it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you dont need odin. adb will do it too
Pirateghost said:
you dont need odin. adb will do it too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you do a system dump in adb without root?
dayv said:
Can you do a system dump in adb without root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes
adb pull /system
Pirateghost said:
yes
adb pull /system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Learn new things every day.
I like this phone allot, but there just is no way to secure it against someone physically gets their hands on it.
Pirateghost said:
yes
adb pull /system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep thats actually very easy to do however it doesn't contain any critical private data really. I looked through the directories and while there is some interesting information that can be gleaned (e.g. the generic APN configs and other hardware information) there isn't any actual private stuff such as Gmail data, authentication info for apps, etc. That is all contained within the /data/data directory from what I understand.
You CAN get a list of all the packages on the device through /SYSTEM as well as all the APK's of the installed apps but otherwise not much I've found to be worrisome.
I'll have to check out Odin and see what that can offer from a non-root perspective.
Pirateghost said:
yes
adb pull /system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But, that is why you don't leave USB debug on all the time - and why there is a warning when you do turn it on.
PIN or pattern lock keep prying eyes out, and protect your phone from ADB, but not if you leave USB debug on. But, like other hardware, if someone has physical access and enough time, they can get to your data.
So now that Im rooted, is there an easy way to write up a script to copy all files in the /data/data and whatever other folders I decide onto my PC?

[Q] All files are gone!

Hey guys, big problem here.
I was backing up, preparing for the 4.3 upgrade. I was cleaning some files off the storage using my pc, including the weird storage folder that only contained (more) titanium backup stuff.
Well, next thing I know, my phone doesn't see any of my files anymore. They're not there on PC now either, and no root-enabled file manager can see anything. However, 9gb of space is still being used by "other"!
Please help!
If it helps, I think I broke the symbolic links. Any solution? Or have I screwed this?
There might be an adb pull command to grab all files in /media. However I don't know the full syntax. Google adb pull sd card and you should hopefully find the correct command. You might have to play with the path a bit to get it right. It's something like /data/media/ on the One.
I'm not close to a pc so can't see what it should be.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4
No luck. After major research online, the files are gone - I'd have to use recovery software after performing a very long backup in order to retrieve, and there wasn't that much that I lost since the last backup, a few photos just.
More a pain in the ass really. I never would have thought that those directories could do that. Kinda dangerous.
(accidental double post)

Recovering deleted pictures

I accidentally deleted some pictures off of my ATT s6. I thought it would be easy to recover the pictures, but that does not seem to be the case. My phone has 5.0.2 android with a baseband version ending in OF4. The kernel is Aug 5th 2015. Based on my research it appears that my phone is currently unrootable? And root privileges are needed by any android app to recover the pictures? I also tried a windows app Wondershare Dr. phone for android, although it doesn't seem to recognize my phone. Any solutions? I know that I am running out of time since the pictures will be gone forever if the memory if used by other files. Thanks in advance!
zmijewski said:
I accidentally deleted some pictures off of my ATT s6. I thought it would be easy to recover the pictures, but that does not seem to be the case. My phone has 5.0.2 android with a baseband version ending in OF4. The kernel is Aug 5th 2015. Based on my research it appears that my phone is currently unrootable? And root privileges are needed by any android app to recover the pictures? I also tried a windows app Wondershare Dr. phone for android, although it doesn't seem to recognize my phone. Any solutions? I know that I am running out of time since the pictures will be gone forever if the memory if used by other files. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont know if this helps. U gotta stop trying to root and try to find away to get it without root
If you connect the phone to your pc via usb, the pc will see the phone as a removable hard drive. You can use hard drive recovery software on the pc to recover the deleted files. I did this to recover files from an sd card that I accidentally deleted. I do not remember which recovery utility that I used.
AoN
Can you post if any of those programs work? I always thought once you delete stuff it is gone. I really dont see how you can recover it but maybe theres a way. Thanks
Unless you use secure delete, most of the time, all that happens is that the address of the data is removed from a table of files to be tracked. The original data is still there. File recovery utilities just look for blocks of data that appear to be connected, and attempt to recover / copy / rename each block to a new (safe) location.

Can't move TWRP folder off phone

I recently unlocked my bootloader using sunshine and installed TWRP. After rebooting into recovery, I immediately made a backup of my phone. When I plug my phone in, I can see the TWRP folder, but it shows as empty. None of my file explorers can see anything, either. TWRP, however, is able to see it when I go into the file manager. I can't get ADB to see the device when hooked up to my computer while in TWRP. MTP also doesn't work. Chmod 755 and 777 doesn't do anything. I was able to initially copy the TWRP folder into the downloads folder in the TWRP file manager, but now it just hangs there if I try to move it again.
How do I get access to my backup?
evanft said:
I recently unlocked my bootloader using sunshine and installed TWRP. After rebooting into recovery, I immediately made a backup of my phone. When I plug my phone in, I can see the TWRP folder, but it shows as empty. None of my file explorers can see anything, either. TWRP, however, is able to see it when I go into the file manager. I can't get ADB to see the device when hooked up to my computer while in TWRP. MTP also doesn't work.
How do I get access to my backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/droid-turbo/help/twrp-backup-file-location-t3259060
6Binford said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/droid-turbo/help/twrp-backup-file-location-t3259060
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, there aren't any solutions in that thread.
evanft said:
Unfortunately, there aren't any solutions in that thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are two solutions in the first 4 posts:
ruledrbrt1 suggests http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64048593&postcount=2
And GeoFX has the great : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64049328&postcount=5
Both work on my phone so they should work on yours too.
Have you given file explorer root privileges?
josephpalozzi said:
There are two solutions in the first 4 posts:
ruledrbrt1 suggests http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64048593&postcount=2
And GeoFX has the great : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64049328&postcount=5
Both work on my phone so they should work on yours too.
Have you given file explorer root privileges?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't even see GeoFX's post for some reason. That looks like it worked. Thanks!
TWRP and NAND Backups
I had the same question, and found the previous thread too. So what's the difference between these 2 locations?
/data/media/0/TWRP
and
/sdcard/TWRP
From my point of view, they are duplicates - same data in both folders, just duplicated into separate partitions. If this is true, then my 7.5 GB NAND backup, is really taking up 15GB of memory. Can that be true? I'm doubting it, but you never know.
I started to dive into this, because I was also wondering if NAND backups made copies of my media or not (photos, music, etc). After digging into it a bit, it looks like it does NOT make a backup of anything in the root folder "/data/media" in order to prevent it from non-stop backing up in a loop (you can't back up the location your backing up to, at the same time). This is also noted on github: https://github.com/TeamWin/Team-Win-Recovery-Project/issues/276 Logically, this would make sense since I currently have 25 GB of data in my /sdcard/ location. That's one helluva compression if you were able to get this down to 7.5GB! So I'm guessing this isn't included, which is also why I'm guessing that these are really the same. /sdcard/ must be a shortcut to the /data/media/0/ location, that's my best understanding.
So my original question still stands. What's the reason for these 2 locations, and is there a difference?
This also brings up the next question, what's the best way to make an all-encompassing backup? NAND + Titanium Backup + copy all the contents of your /sdcard/ over to your computer (or OTG drive)?
Florestan2 said:
I had the same question, and found the previous thread too. So what's the difference between these 2 locations?
/data/media/0/TWRP
and
/sdcard/TWRP
From my point of view, they are duplicates - same data in both folders, just duplicated into separate partitions. If this is true, then my 7.5 GB NAND backup, is really taking up 15GB of memory. Can that be true? I'm doubting it, but you never know.
I started to dive into this, because I was also wondering if NAND backups made copies of my media or not (photos, music, etc). After digging into it a bit, it looks like it does NOT make a backup of anything in the root folder "/data/media" in order to prevent it from non-stop backing up in a loop (you can't back up the location your backing up to, at the same time). This is also noted on github: https://github.com/TeamWin/Team-Win-Recovery-Project/issues/276 Logically, this would make sense since I currently have 25 GB of data in my /sdcard/ location. That's one helluva compression if you were able to get this down to 7.5GB! So I'm guessing this isn't included, which is also why I'm guessing that these are really the same. /sdcard/ must be a shortcut to the /data/media/0/ location, that's my best understanding.
So my original question still stands. What's the reason for these 2 locations, and is there a difference?
This also brings up the next question, what's the best way to make an all-encompassing backup? NAND + Titanium Backup + copy all the contents of your /sdcard/ over to your computer (or OTG drive)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way I understand it, and I might be wrong, is that before Android 4.0 (or maybe 5.0), the partition containing user data was called /sdcard and apps were stored in a separate partition. The partition where apps went was significantly smaller, which could result in people running out of space for apps while still having a ton of free user data. To remedy this, the newer version of android places apps and user data in the same partition (called media). The /sdcard that you see is a symlink (shortcut) to this new partition, and is included so that older apps that were designed to expect the /sdcard partition to be there will still work.

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