Hey everyone,
NB: If you don't want to read all the fluff skip to the part highlighted in red
I am a n00b in this section of the forums, although I am a long time Samsung user of quite a few different models. Off the top of my head I have owned Galaxy S I900 (been modding these since their first release), Galaxy SII I9100, Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE P7320T, Galaxy S3 LTE GTi9305.
I've developed ROMs for I900, I kick started a team that's now 22 developers in size that support most devices across the forums, and I myself support devs for various devices....so I am fairly seasoned with regards to Samsung devices. They are my weapon of choice because I understand them and *usually* know their weaknesses, exploits etc and most importantly understand how to port from various other Samsung models to less feature rich devices (ones that would lack support from Samsung). I enjoy bringing new features to devices. Its fun.
So for Christmas I got my mum her first Android device.
She has resisted and stuck with her nokias for so long now and I can hardly blame her, but she has seen what my devices are capable of and how simple they are to use so I decided to go with the Galaxy Ace for a number of reasons, price point being the major factor.
I was shocked that I could get a device of almost on par standards to my S1 for just $68 brand new! Yes that is correct OfficeWorks here in Australia had these babies on sale for only $68 however locked to Optus, although my particular one is unlocked.
They had made a stuff up and we were promised the last one available at the store and we were prepaired to drive an hour to Brisbane in search of a store that still had stock if I had to (as you can imagine they sold like hotcakes at such a steal of a price) I would have grabbed more had I known that the sale was on.
Anyway long story short, they admitted that they had sold out of locked devices long ago and a staff member had let slip that they had been selling the unlocked ones for the same price because people were swarming for them every single day and they only had 1 more device left. So lucky me got the last one they had. Awesome!
Heres the bad part now, the phone WILL boot into recovery fine red coloured 3e. The device is detected absolutely fine in Windows, no driver faults, nothing flagged in device manager in Windows 7 64bit. I cannot get it to boot into download mode via the 3 button method. It just blatantly refuses as though there isn't even a download mode? Inside of Windows even though it IS detected fine, ADB does not see the device what so ever. I get the generic list of devices attached message. I have removed and reloaded drivers. I have done the 3 button trick with the battery out and dropping the battery back in whilst already holding the 3 buttons in and still no download mode?
The device is running Android 2.3.6 and is a bit of a slug. I wanted to get a decent ICS ROM on there for her with some nice features for one, and secondly because OMFG gingerbread looks so darn horrid. I forget just how crap this software was. Man it's gotta go!
Next issue, I have a solid WiFi connection and this thing refuses to create a Google Account? WTF? I don't have the sim for it (she is using it and my sim in my current phone is a micro sim and won't work. I have made a dodgy jigsaw puzzle like carrier out of an old simcard that works well to hold micro sims in place but usually only in the flip down tray style of simcard trays...I am not game to stick my sim in this slot style. So thats a no go?
I don't really have the Option to return it unless it is physically not working, I guess the Google Account not registering is enough, but the thing is that they won't have a device to give me as a replacement. Usually almost always when there are specials like this with 3rd party suppliers (OfficeWorks are not an everyday reseller for Optus nor Samsung and they aren't a telco either) so I know they will probably turn me away and say send it off the Samsung if I have any issues (which I kind of expected).
So what are my options from here?
Should I attempt to flash the latest stock firmware from Optus in a hope that it has a kernel that will allow me into download mode? How would I go about doing this? Does anyone know of any signed firmware packages that I can flash via the 3e recovery? This was a solution when I had the same problem with Gingerbread. Basically Samsung has been known for blocking download mode in their kernels so as to stop users flashing their own firmware, but still allowing them to do a factory reset from recovery. Shifty lil buggers aren't they My Galaxy S1 that had much the same issues? Because I couldn't get download mode on my S1, I flashed stock recovery 2e over 3e and then from there I was able to flash a stock gingerbread kernel (insecure kernel) and from there the world was my oyster as they say
Would this be similar approach for me? I can't get into download mode so I can't use Odin, so could I flash a different recovery (like stock 2e) flash a stock "insecure kernel" (do they still call it that these days?) then I should be able to make a backup recovery, or flash root from 2e and then just a terminal back up dd to my SDcard or ext SDcard right? Would any devs have these resources on hand?
Can anyone tell me what type of update script is used on these devices? Is it edify or amend? Also what binary? Would the binary from my S1 developments work for the Ace?
The biggest hitch is being no download mode. I know a lot of you guys in here from your recommendations to several users have been that you are screwed when you have no download mode? I believe that not to be so.....well coming from my SGS1 days that was quite common to have a device that would not allow download mode, I am just not so sure with the Ace? Maybe you guys are right and know better than me and maybe I am screwed?
I am all ears? Shoot with suggestions and I am willing to give them a try before driving all the way to Brisbane to search for a store that might still have stock to possibly get a device that might still have the same issue?
First person that can help me out of this situation I will share with them my work (that I still have) from the first port of proper TouchWiz ICS to SGS1 device (all but working with exception of the FM radio) I would really love to kick start that again and get another ROM going with some ICS but something other than AOSP (nothing wrong with AOSP btw, just there is less dramas with integrating TW apps into genuine TW firmware thats all ....anyway....
Ok I'm done. I have about half a week to spare before my mum is back from holidays to have this done for her, otherwise it's ****ful gingerbread for her
Cheers and merry Christmas if I don't hear back from anyone till then
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
I tried to flash new recovery without download mode from existing 3e using this --> [UNOFFICIAL][RECOVERY] ClockworkMod v3.2.0.1 I was at least hoping to make a backup in recovery before "flashing anything dangerous" but unlucky me has gone and f*#ked things right up good and proper.
Has Australian model got a different partition layout or something? I was on Gingerbread as per the directions in the thread. What gives?
Now I can't boot, I can't factory reset error failed to mount system. No way of pushing to the sdcard from recovery cause ADB never worked to begin with. Now I am screwed.
Whats my options?
Wow, you're seriously have a problem...
What is your device? Ace S5830?
Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk 2
Good morning everyone. I have been on these forums for awhile but couldn't remember my username.
Anyway, I have a Note 9 and yesterday was Christmas of course. I had recorded a video of my son opening his presents. He got a hold of the phone and deleted the video by accidentally. There is no backup of it. Phone is newer and backup wasn't set up yet.
Is there ANY way of recovering the deleted video? I have tried DiscDigger but it requires Root to recover deleted videos. And with my understanding there is no root for the Note 9? All help is appreciated as I feel terrible that we didn't take any pictures of him opening and now the only video is gone.
Thank you!
o6blin,
You are correct, there is no root & your video is gone.
Try to recapture that moment by giving him another package to open.
There is alot we cant do yet because of permissions.
Trust me, there are a ton of things that I can't do because of permissions.
Root would be perfect and we would be able to do what we want to do & how we want to do it without any resistance from the manufactures.
If root was discovered or released, this would be much of a better community with so much involvement from developers, app makers, theme bakers & such.
o6blin you are better off with a pure android so that you will never be in a situation as such or use the screen lock.
Regards,
There are programs that say they recover, ranging from $30-$59, videos without root. I've found a few, not many, people that say they work but not a convincing amount. I'm willing to spend that on memories. Any input?
Thanks for your help.
serendipityguy said:
o6blin,
You are correct, there is no root & your video is gone.
Try to recapture that moment by giving him another package to open.
There is alot we cant do yet because of permissions.
Trust me, there are a ton of things that I can't do because of permissions.
Root would be perfect and we would be able to do what we want to do & how we want to do it without any resistance from the manufactures.
If root was discovered or released, this would be much of a better community with so much involvement from developers, app makers, theme bakers & such.
o6blin you are better off with a pure android so that you will never be in a situation as such or use the screen lock.
Regards,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
o6blin said:
There are programs that say they recover, ranging from $30-$59, videos without root. I've found a few, not many, people that say they work but not a convincing amount. I'm willing to spend that on memories. Any input?
Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if it on ext sd yeah probably very easy to do.( just put sd card and a card reader and plug in a pc and use Recuva software)
if video was on internal storage, good luck.
btw stop using the camera or writing data because the more you wait the less chances of recovery is possible.
be careful that you aren't paying 50$ for someone to steal your phone.( they will probably ask you to send the phone and give your credentials or something.)
It was in internal storage yes. I've stopped using the phone for pictures and believe I found the video in the my files/cache but it is unopenable.
I know it's too late for this video, but I would send all pics and video to external SD card and turn on Google Photos backup settings.
can it be read by some recovering programs on pc when connecting yr phone to the pc ?
emuashui said:
can it be read by some recovering programs on pc when connecting yr phone to the pc ?
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Try and download ES file explorer and it will give access to recycle bin, as long as you turn recycle bin on.
Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
If you haven't written anything new onto your device yet. There is still a chance that you can recover that video. You would have to connect your device to a computer and run data recovery software on it. However if you have used your device since you have deleted your video. There is a chance that you won't be able to recover it as you may have partially or full written over the sections of the internal storage space it was stored on.
This is the exact reason why I always install dumpster on all my phones.
Check the play store an install it ... most likely u have lost the video but all other deleted will be saved in dumpster.
o6blin said:
Good morning everyone. I have been on these forums for awhile but couldn't remember my username.
Anyway, I have a Note 9 and yesterday was Christmas of course. I had recorded a video of my son opening his presents. He got a hold of the phone and deleted the video by accidentally. There is no backup of it. Phone is newer and backup wasn't set up yet.
Is there ANY way of recovering the deleted video? I have tried DiscDigger but it requires Root to recover deleted videos. And with my understanding there is no root for the Note 9? All help is appreciated as I feel terrible that we didn't take any pictures of him opening and now the only video is gone.
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give Samsung stars a call. I spoke to them a while back fixing a problem and he said he had helped another customer recover some photos that they had deleted by accident. Is worth a try
Possibly..
Connect your phone to a pc and allow data transfer. The phone now shows up in the explorer as mass storage. Maybe a recovery tool is able to recover some photos from the storage. Hope this works.
If you are a pie beta tester there is a recycle bin feature in the gallery app.
.
I first learned of super user access in 2010 and I partitioned my hardrive on my sony vaio f series .... I rooted my Samsung ... Yet wasn't quite sure what all modifications I could actually make... After that I really didn't have the time for tech .... But now as of the last few months I'm back at it.. but out of necessity,.. I was working two jobs and building a business at the same time... Well I had my first real vacation from work when I got hurt on the job... Out of work for over a month I began to dig into my Laptop settings trying to get it user friendly... When I stumbled upon some files that looked familiar... Dump stack, and drivers installed that are used for rooting ...then I dug deeper and sure enough my laptop has two OS's it has an Xbox gaming console... Which I never noticed... And then I found a trustedagent that has full super user access to my laptop... And I went through the performance logs and sure enough more and more apps and actions were being used ... I've been hacked... I decided to check my pHone out and sure enough... As I had been having data issues and my sim wasn't registering properly... Now I want/ need to Root my Motorola Moto g stylus 2021 X115 however is it already partially rooted...?? And if so would I brick my device if I tried.... I found a performance log recording everything, a logger that was logging everything into a notepad and exporting it... Can I figure out where my data is going? I used a tracert in command prompt and found the IP address associated with whomever is hacking me... Please provide me with an easy root or significant root for my Motorola Moto g 2021 stylus...
Timmagisk said:
I first learned of super user access in 2010 and I partitioned my hardrive on my sony vaio f series .... I rooted my Samsung ... Yet wasn't quite sure what all modifications I could actually make... After that I really didn't have the time for tech .... But now as of the last few months I'm back at it.. but out of necessity,.. I was working two jobs and building a business at the same time... Well I had my first real vacation from work when I got hurt on the job... Out of work for over a month I began to dig into my Laptop settings trying to get it user friendly... When I stumbled upon some files that looked familiar... Dump stack, and drivers installed that are used for rooting ...then I dug deeper and sure enough my laptop has two OS's it has an Xbox gaming console... Which I never noticed... And then I found a trustedagent that has full super user access to my laptop... And I went through the performance logs and sure enough more and more apps and actions were being used ... I've been hacked... I decided to check my pHone out and sure enough... As I had been having data issues and my sim wasn't registering properly... Now I want/ need to Root my Motorola Moto g stylus 2021 X115 however is it already partially rooted...?? And if so would I brick my device if I tried.... I found a performance log recording everything, a logger that was logging everything into a notepad and exporting it... Can I figure out where my data is going? I used a tracert in command prompt and found the IP address associated with whomever is hacking me... Please provide me with an easy root or significant root for my Motorola Moto g 2021 stylus...
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Click to collapse
Nice intro! Welcome to XDA
Problem:
My mum has an Android-based Samsung phone and unfortunately, when the main folder with photos ("Camera") was moved from the Phone to PC via USB cable, it was made using Cut and Paste. By accident the files were pasted into Recycle Bin and we received warning "Files will be permanently deleted. Do you wish to proceed?". We pressed "No" to abandon this process and undo the mistake. Nevertheless, the entire folder "Camera" has already disappeared from the window of DCIM folder on the phone (as viewed from PC). Similarly, the folder appears to have been deleted when viewed from within the phone. (also the phone now has 150 Gb free, while before the process it had 110 Gb free, so it appears 40 Gb of photos have been deleted....
Attempts to fix:
Standard photo / data recovery services failed to bring results (searching hidden folders using Windows Explorer, Total Commander and Ultdata Android).
We then tried two professional software solutions (Cellebrite UFED and Oxygen Forensic Device Extractor -- Android Agent), which also did not manage to locate photos on the device.
It appears as if they were completely deleted.
The same person who used the two prof software solutions above has access to PC-3000, but he claims it's not suitable for Android data recovery (?)
We have already spent 2 days and hundreds of dollars on consultations, which unfortunately still have not brought any results, while the emotional weight of deleted memories is haunting us. Thus, we appeal to help of this forum.
Current thoughts:
#1 All other methods suggested require rooting the phone, which apparently will wipe the whole and make recovery of that specific folder even less likely (correct me if I'm wrong).
#2 All suggestions to make back-up of the phone / clone the entire memory are not relevant, as the only files that are of importance here are the files in the deleted folder, and those files are not hidden and therefore will not copy into this back-up anyway (correct me if I'm wrong).
#3 One person told us to ask Samsung customer service, but their response was that they don't do data recovery and that they only can restore if there was Samsung cloud backup activated.
Questions:
Q1: What is our best course of action? It seems, rooting is one way or another, inevitable. What rooting method would be best to use here, given the situation and my phone specifications? I understand that there is no 100% guarantee to recover the erased photos, but we would like to at least give it a try with maximum chances of success.
Q2: Given that the files we want to back-up are already deleted and not visible, is it even worth it to try to make any back-ups? or will it be in vain, and should we just proceed to rooting and further recovery attempts?
Q3: IF, we successfully root, what is the best way to access the hidden data? Do we need help of this expert who has PC-3000 and specialized software, or is it going to be accessible using our own PC+USB cable + extra downloaded software?
Phone:
Samsung S21 Ultra (G998B). Android 12. No cloud, no backup. Phone not used for now. New data is not copied onto the phone. Phone not rooted.
Thank you for all your help. I do hope to find some solution. We are down hundreds of dollars, many hours of talking to consultants, many of whom appear to just google potential solutions and offer us some basic things, while the pain of cherished memories potentially lost forever is the worst, much worse than money lost. Any help or constructive feedback would be appreciated!
BTW if someone offers a working solution, I can offer consultancy fee for time and success fee in case of recovery.
Root probably won't be possible without unlocking the bootloader, and unlocking the bootloader factory resets the phone, which formats the internal storage and permanently deletes everything. I've used root apps to recover deleted photos and videos before but that only works if the phone was already rooted, or if there's a way to do it without wiping the phone. When I joined XDA almost a decade ago it was relatively common to see root methods that used exploits, and didn't require you to wipe the phone but that's not really a thing today. All this is to say that root is almost certainly not a viable option.
Have you checked for professional forensics services that can disassemble the phone and connect wires directly to the storage chips?
I've seen Youtube videos like this, where they get into the guts of the electronics and use solder and wiring. Sorry I don't know more specifics, but perhaps you can find them online and mail your phone for professional forensics recovery.
Maybe you can download a folder files of camera for the S21 Ultra :U
KingFatty said:
Have you checked for professional forensics services that can disassemble the phone and connect wires directly to the storage chips?
I've seen Youtube videos like this, where they get into the guts of the electronics and use solder and wiring. Sorry I don't know more specifics, but perhaps you can find them online and mail your phone for professional forensics recovery.
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Click to collapse
^this^ Your best shot. With this you may only get one shot especially if you cause more damage by misadventure...
Others here have gone this route and gotten good results. $400-800 for non rush service is in the ballpark.
KingFatty said:
Have you checked for professional forensics services that can disassemble the phone and connect wires directly to the storage chips?
I've seen Youtube videos like this, where they get into the guts of the electronics and use solder and wiring. Sorry I don't know more specifics, but perhaps you can find them online and mail your phone for professional forensics recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
blackhawk said:
^this^ Your best shot. With this you may only get one shot especially if you cause more damage by misadventure...
Others here have gone this route and gotten good results. $400-800 for non rush service is in the ballpark.
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Click to collapse
Thank you. I have come across some websites mentioning this, but could not find any agency of repute in my region offering such a solution. And especially if I can only get one shot with this, I definitely want to pick the best agency to try it out. The photos inside are worth it for me to shell out hundreds of dollars if necessary...
I wonder also, if we can reasonably expect technical progress to be able to solve this situation. I don't mean some stuff like quantum computing, but for instance I'm aware that PS3 has recently been cracked , a few years after it came out. Can I reasonably expect something similar to happen to Android 12 that what's not breakable/crackable today, may become so in 1-2 or maybe 3-4 years? While I'd hate to have to wait for 2-3 years, there's nothing time-sensitive in those photos; just family moments that I would like to be able to revisit 10 years later, so if I only will be able to access them later on, that's fine, I can just put my phone in a drawer for a few years and wait. As long as this wait is not in vain. Definitely don't need false hope.
Thanks for your feedback!
samsungs21 said:
Thank you. I have come across some websites mentioning this, but could not find any agency of repute in my region offering such a solution. And especially if I can only get one shot with this, I definitely want to pick the best agency to try it out. The photos inside are worth it for me to shell out hundreds of dollars if necessary...
I wonder also, if we can reasonably expect technical progress to be able to solve this situation. I don't mean some stuff like quantum computing, but for instance I'm aware that PS3 has recently been cracked , a few years after it came out. Can I reasonably expect something similar to happen to Android 12 that what's not breakable/crackable today, may become so in 1-2 or maybe 3-4 years? While I'd hate to have to wait for 2-3 years, there's nothing time-sensitive in those photos; just family moments that I would like to be able to revisit 10 years later, so if I only will be able to access them later on, that's fine, I can just put my phone in a drawer for a few years and wait. As long as this wait is not in vain. Definitely don't need false hope.
Thanks for your feedback!
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Click to collapse
There's a thread here I posted on going 4-8 months. He had hid data recovered from a Samsung for $1200 rush job vs the usual $800 charge). I've tried to find it, but you see my post count. Usually that works in my favor but not always He shipped it to them if I recall correctly.
Try these guys. That may be the company he used. Been too long and it was of passing interest to me. If you do recover the data please report back. Many posters here have asked for this.
Due to the way those files were lost they may not be recoverable. Personally I would've written them off. However only a recovery specialist can say for sure.
blackhawk said:
There's a thread here I posted on going 4-8 months. He had hid data recovered from a Samsung for $1200 rush job vs the usual $800 charge). I've tried to find it, but you see my post count. Usually that works in my favor but not always He shipped it to them if I recall correctly.
Try these guys. That may be the company he used. Been too long and it was of passing interest to me. If you do recover the data please report back. Many posters here have asked for this.
Due to the way those files were lost they may not be recoverable. Personally I would've written them off. However only a recovery specialist can say for sure.
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Click to collapse
reached out to the guys you recommended, though their website / social media have not been updated since 2020... Will report back on the progress.
samsungs21 said:
reached out to the guys you recommended, though their website / social media have not been updated since 2020... Will report back on the progress.
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I'm not sure that's who he used and I know only what I read on their site. Just saying...
Can't you just plug the phone to a PC and use a recovery tool like DiskDrill, or something?
Flash the original firmware
Samarimama said:
Flash the original firmware
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Click to collapse
That would do nothing except complicate the issue.
RSGI said:
Can't you just plug the phone to a PC and use a recovery tool like DiskDrill, or something?
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tried that. The phone is not considered a hard drive, hence neither appears on the list of hard drives on Disk Drill, nor can be selected as folder/destination to run it on...
samsungs21 said:
tried that. The phone is not considered a hard drive, hence neither appears on the list of hard drives on Disk Drill, nor can be selected as folder/destination to run it on...
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Click to collapse
I should mention that even if the jpegs can be recovered their exif data is not able to be associated with the jpeg. The folder structure is lost as well. A sea of jpegs with no time stamp or original image name. A daunting task in itself to sort these out.
Make a factory reset
Samarimama said:
Make a factory reset
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That would overwrite the lost data potentially making it impossible to recover as if it's not already bad enough.
It was a simple data transfer that went bad (this can happen), nothing indicates the user partition or rom are corrupted... throwing rocks at it doesn't help.
samsungs21 said:
tried that. The phone is not considered a hard drive, hence neither appears on the list of hard drives on Disk Drill, nor can be selected as folder/destination to run it on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try an app called "Disk Digger". Its on the playstore. It might belp.
RSGI said:
Try an app called "Disk Digger". Its on the playstore. It might belp.
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If you're not going to use a professional recovery service, go for it.
Otherwise using the device risks overwriting the now unallocated data... once overwritten recovery is completely impossible on a flash drive.
blackhawk said:
That would overwrite the lost data potentially making it impossible to recover as if it's not already bad enough.
It was a simple data transfer that went bad (this can happen), nothing indicates the user partition or rom are corrupted... throwing rocks at it doesn't he
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Samarimama said:
Make a factory reset
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That would definitely ruin his chances of any recovery... just avoid making any writing on the storage, cause if the data you want to recover is overwrite, it's definitely gone... at least intact...