I have a real cry for help!
Somehow all my pictures disappeared from my Galaxy Nexus. My only possible explanation (since it could not have decided to delete them itself!) is that I must have been a complete idiot and last night when I thought I was deleting a video I had just taken I must deleted the camera directory itself. This is supported by the fact that there was no ‘camera’ directory when I looked this morning. I then took a new photo and the directory reappeared. I have plenty of experience with PC’s but I’m a newbie with smartphones. I figured if I don’t write any more files to the phone then most of the actual data should still be there so I hoped to do some kind of undelete.
I’ve done some research and it looks like the ‘feature’ of only connecting as an MTP device (rather than USB mass storage) is potentially a killer blow. Without an assigned drive letter it seems that none of the usual recovery programmes will recognise the phone.
In theory an alternative might be to take a complete image of the phone contents and somehow recover the data from here?
I am pretty desperate as I have five months of pictures/videos of my kids etc, and most of that data must still be on the phone – but how to get to it?
Finally – yes I am a complete plonker, I shouldn’t have made such a stupid mistake and I should have backed up the phone or the pictures. I have learned my lesson. But given that, is there anything I can do?
BTW - the phone came from 3 network (via a reseller) and I have not touched it with respect to unlocking/rooting etc. It is in the state I received it.
HELP please!
Thanks very much...........
I believe the MTP vs. USB Mass storage would be a driver thing. There are many different versions of drivers so its possible there are ones that will mount the phone with a drive letter. I can think of some other things to try (Boot into fastboot mode by turning phone off then powering on by holding power, volume up and volume down at the same time and holding till it vibrates). You could also try Disk Management under windows to see if you can assign a letter
In the future I highly recommend setting up a google account and using Google Photo/Instant Upload to keep a backup of your photos. You dont even have to sync anything else
Thanks for your suggestions, much appreciated.
I’ve now tried going into fastboot mode and connecting to PC but no joy – Windows recognises there is a device connected (usually ID’d as an OMAP4440) but can’t find a driver.
Disk Management also doesn’t show the Nexus as a drive and therefore won’t allow a Drive letter to be assigned.
Try these (obviously no guarantees and I havent used any personally)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fahrbot.apps.undelete
http://android-photo-recovery.com/tutorials/deleted-file-recovery-for-google-nexus-phones.html
EDIT: Found another:
http://www.wondershare.com/disk-utility/recover-deleted-photos-from-nexus-s-and-galaxy-nexus.html
Thanks again, I appreciate all suggestions. Yes I have come across these and unfortunately they don’t solve my issue. The last two are amongst those I’d seen reported as not working as they need a drive letter. I had installed both anyway but found that to be true (
The first requires root access which I don’t have. If I understand correctly, to root I’ll need to unlock the bootloader first, and unlocking will erase all the data anyway??
Unfortunately, you are out of luck. You cannot mount the storage on a GNex in USB Mass Storage mode, and I am pretty sure that none of the "undelete" programs that run in Android support ext4 (which is what our GNex internal storage is formatted).
If you are running 4.0.1 or 4.0.2, you can still get root access without losing your data (but not on 4.0.4), but I can't see how it will help you given what I mentioned above.
I am on 4.04 so sounds like I can't get root access without overwriting, can I roll back to 4.01/2 without overwriting the data? (sounds unlikely but I have to ask - I upgraded from 4.02 without losing data....).
If not, is there a way to get a data image without rooting? That way at least I have the data preserved if at some future point it becomes possible to do an undelete on Ext4 data??
Gavdroid said:
[snip]
can I roll back to 4.02/3 without overwriting the data?
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Click to collapse
Unfortunately no.
Gavdroid said:
If not, is there a way to get a data image without rooting? That way at least I have the data preserved if at some future point it becomes possible to do an undelete on Ext4 data??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe there are utilities to "do an undelete" on ext4. The problem is how to get access to the data image. I don't really know of any way to pull off the data partition of a GNex to your computer, but it may be possible.
Have a look at this thread. I think shaaXo managed to find a way for your computer to see the memory on the GNex and likely dump it (although it is not very user-friendly).
That sucks. If it's deleted, it's gone for good. Sorry, buddy.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Thanks very much I will go through that post and see where I get to!
Edit! - uh-oh, taking a quick look it seems you need to use CWM, which I take to be ClockworkMod, which I thought required the phone to be rooted to install it? And if I understand correctly, rooting requires an unlocked bootloader, which wipes your data??
I will take a deeper look in case I've misunderstood (very likely), but am I thinking clearly here?
My USB port is "challenged". I am getting a replacement phone from Tmobile. But I want to back up my phone data without using the USB cable.
Caveats:
- Phone is Stock ROM - Unrooted
- Can not root my phone now (as I would need computer to do ODIN)
Options:
- Is there any software that will be able to communicate via wi-fi (intranet) so I can backup my files ?
- Any app that can backup apps data without having to root the phone ?
There are plenty of WiFi sharing programs but you should use the kies that came with the phone it does wireless transfer if not search the market for WiFi transfer
Sent from my SgS2 beast
Thank you.
I copied everything from internal SD and transfer to external SD. Used ES explorer. Backed up my apps (apks). Individually backed up settings of apps where ever available (notes, K9, call log, sms's, whats app, etc)
Ofcourse, I lost my some of settings in that process (mostly games etc) but atleast, it was not as nearly heart breaking as it could have been.
Its unfortunate that there are not good ways to completely connect to PC's and take control. I remember LG Optimus X used to have on screen controls where you can use your computer to control your phone wirelessly.
Hey Guys,
I've got a big problem, maybe anybody can help.
Currently my girlfriend is spending a few weeks aboard at here
parent's house.
This morning she wrote me a message in a textfile aon her Nexus
Galaxy and and wonted to encrypt it first on pc, but after she
didnt manage to copy it via USB she tried openpgp keychain App.
During Copy and Paste tshe reported there are suddenly no
Folders and Files exccept "Android" Folder anymore in her
Filebrower.
Even after Rebooting the Storage remains like this and after
reboot only a "WhatsApp" Folder was added to the Android one.
Apperently her data is gone and shes not able to recover it via
the PC because it only is mounted as MTP/PTP Device on the PC.
Her Phone is not rooted and she never tried, she doesnt do any
fancy stuff with it just normal useage.
This Guid may could help:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1994705
but its not realy an option cause A: I think its to complicated
to do for her and I have no access to the device and B: the
available PC of her parents must be the slowest and oldest xp
maschine existing.
Does anybody have a clue how we could retrieve her data?
Importent to her are her pictures and a few work related text
files with important notes.
And while I read a lot of stuff about loosing data on attempting
to root, I didnt find any reports on cases where data was lost
without deleting it accedently or trieing to root.
Must she be concerend about her memory being damaged?
Thank you very much,
Stefan
While updating to lollipop i accidentally relocked and unlocked the bootloader resulting in a full memory wipe but i had my college work on there so i really need to recover the data lost but upon connecting the phone to the pc it appears as "portable device" which is not detected by recovery tools as well as the android apps as the undeleter root couldn't recover the data i need so is there a way to
1- connect htc one m8 to the pc as usb storage (aka removable disk)
2- another way to recover files
Thanks in advance
The issue is that Android now mounts internal storage by MTP, as opposed to the old Mass USB storage format. So computer's can no longer read the memory like its a USB drive. I think at some point (probably not even for this phone) I saw a method to dump the files in order to perform a file recovery, but it was pretty complicated and looked like a PITA.
You can try some apps on the Play Store that claim to recover files (using the phone itself, not a computer). But I've never used any, can't vouch for them, and don't know if they really work. Also keep in mind, the more you use the phone, the higher the likelihood that the files you want will be overwritten by other data.
Good luck. But in the future you have to remember to backup important personal data before making any major changes or mods to the device. I never fail to be disappointed at how many folks never bother to backup their important data; than freak out about it once its lost. Most of the time, at that point its too late. You should have been backing it up all along. If its important to you, back it up.
Well sir thank ypu for your help i don't think ill be able not to use the phone all that long as well as im now facing that the wifi wont open which is really annoying
Recently I "accidentally" formatted my phone thinking it wouldn't delete my pictures because before it never deleted the pictures and stuff but this time it did and i was wondering if it's possible to recover those data? Like pictures and stuff. Is it possible?
Fapical said:
Recently I "accidentally" formatted my phone thinking it wouldn't delete my pictures because before it never deleted the pictures and stuff but this time it did and i was wondering if it's possible to recover those data? Like pictures and stuff. Is it possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your phone is rooted, then use DiskDigger app, available on play store. It can recover any kind of data from the phone Unless the data is overwritten.
no luck
Connect the phone to the PC and download a recovery program to your PC and recover the files as you would normally do with any USB stick or an SD card I've done it many times.
I won't tell you the name of the software or where to find here, but if you know about torrents you will manage it.