Menu
homeFiles and folders

How to transfer data from a broken Samsung phone. How to Recover Data from a Dead Phone

A modern person stores a large amount of very important data in the memory of his smartphone. These can be photographs, audio recordings, videos, books, notes and much more. However, as a rule, the main value for any user of a mobile device is the contents of the contact book, where all phone numbers ever saved by the user are stored.

Life is an unpredictable thing and you can easily damage your smartphone during use.

Repair is not always advisable and you could simply buy a new device. This is where the question arises of retrieving saved contact data from a damaged smartphone.

In the informational article below, we will look at how to remove contacts from a broken Android phone. Methods for extracting information will depend on the extent of damage to the smartphone.

Situation 1. The screen is broken, but the sensor works and the image can be viewed

So, you are lucky and the device’s screen has retained its functionality, despite the damage. The procedure in such a situation is quite simple:

After the operation all contact information will be saved in a special file with the *.vcf extension on an external microSD memory card.

It is important to know

To transfer information about phone numbers to another smartphone, just insert a memory card into it, select “Import/export” in the “Contacts” module menu and activate the “Import contacts from memory card to phone” item.

Situation 2. There is an image on the screen, but the sensor does not work

Is the smartphone display working?

Now let's consider another situation, when the touch layer of the display is damaged and the screen does not respond to touch. In this case, it can help us out to a smartphone via the USB-OTG interface. Almost every modern smartphone is equipped with this interface. Through a special adapter (it can be purchased at a smartphone store, it is inexpensive) you can connect to a phone, a mouse, and even a physical keyboard.

Will be useful

If the sensor is damaged, it is advisable to connect a computer mouse via the OTG interface, clicking on the buttons will replace tapping on the screen with your finger. Once connected, you can export contact information to a file on a microSD memory card.

The simplest situations with screen damage were discussed above. Below we will try to figure out how to retrieve data from a broken Android phone if the screen does not show.

We will also look at options for controlling your phone from a computer via USB if its touch screen is broken.

Situation 3. The screen and sensor are broken and do not show anything, but the phone functions normally

In a situation where the smartphone screen is severely damaged and does not allow you to see the displayed information, there are several options for retrieving contact information. They are listed below.

Recovering contacts via Google cloud service

When setting up a new Android phone for the first time, the user is strongly recommended.

The main advantages of creating an account are as follows:

  • Access to a large Google Play Market application store;
  • The ability to track the location of smartphones with a connected account and activated data transfer (for example, to track the coordinates of a child);
  • Ability to save basic data (for example, contact book) when synchronized with Google cloud storage service.

As follows from the listed advantages, when activating an account on an Android smartphone and synchronizing information with the service cloud, . The procedure is as follows:


Recovering contacts through a Google account on a personal computer

Another option for how to retrieve data from a broken Android phone if the screen does not show can be Login to your Google account on your personal computer. In this case, you need to do the following:


Retrieving contacts from your phone via USB

If the previous methods for some reason are not suitable for retrieving contact data, you can try if the screen is broken, control your phone from your computer via USB. You can use the ADB interface for this.

More than 80% of buyers prefer smartphones with the Android operating system already installed. A lot of exciting applications in the Play Market, the ability to download free software updates, a user-friendly interface, flexible settings, GPS navigator, support for multiple accounts and much more.

But modern mobile device models are not very durable. Therefore, the problem often arises of how to obtain data and restore contacts and sms that are located in the internal memory of an already broken Android phone. In this article, we will help you recover lost information from your smartphone, in particular, retrieve contacts from a broken Android phone.

I’ll immediately suggest an interesting way - you can connect an HDMI cable to your TV and monitor. And then, by connecting the mouse via Bluetooth or USB, save the data to a memory card.

Proven Ways to Retrieve Contacts from a Broken Phone with a Broken Screen

The absence of direct interaction with water during a fall makes it very easy to recover data from the SIM and external memory of the phone. To do this, just take out an SD or operator card and place it in another work phone.

Below we will look at other ways to gain access to a phone with a broken display:

  • via USB cable;
  • Email;
  • special programs;
  • cloud data storage;
  • ADB protocol.

Let's consider what difficulties users usually encounter, how to help yourself in such a situation, and how to look up numbers on a broken phone.

How to get Android data from the cloud?

The convenience of working with the Google service is that when registering a mobile device, an account is created in Gmail.com. It will be the same in the future after accepting the user agreement.

To get contacts from your computer from the cloud if your Android is broken, use your mailbox. In the upper left corner, click the “Gmail” and “Contacts” icon. In the upper right corner we find an image in the form of tiles with the caption “Google Applications”, go to “Drive”, select the file “Contacts.vcf”. You can select “Backups”.

The easiest way to do this is to go to www.google.com/contacts and copy contacts from a broken Android to a new Android smartphone. On your work device, enter your account information and turn on synchronization.

Method via USB cable and PC: how to enable USB debugging?

If something goes wrong with your phone, don’t be upset. To gain absolute access to the device and be able to remotely update the smartphone software, create backups and restore lost data, and move files from Android to PC, you should use ADB.

But first you need to enable USB debugging. There are several versions of operating systems; accordingly, we will consider options for enabling debugging for each version.

For Android software 2 and 3. Go to the menu. Select “Settings”. The next thing we need is to go to “Applications”. Open them and find a section called “Development”. Here we see the USB Debugging feature. We agree with the “Yes” button.

Version 4 of the Android operating system. Of course, we go to the device menu. Select settings. We are looking for a category called “System”. Select information “About phone”. Please pay attention to “Version Information”. In the “Build number” parameters, click until a window appears with the inscription “You have become a developer.” We return to the “System” again. We are looking for a new point. This will be the already connected “For Developers” section, where the necessary “USB Debugging” will appear. Let's choose.

Version 5. From the settings you need to go to the “About phone” information. We are looking for parameters. Select "Build number". A few clicks and “You have become a developer”! Again we go to the initial settings. We turn to the “Advanced” category. We are looking for the corresponding menu item: “For developers”. We continue by going to the “USB Debugging” category. All is ready!

How to use ADB for recovery and copying

Before you begin the recovery work, you need to download ADB from the official website qtadb.wordpress.com, download version QtADB 0.8.1 (tested on Windows 7) or the “Android Debug Bridge” driver to your computer.

This program is for extracting data from broken android. Let's look at step-by-step instructions that will help you extract files using the capabilities of a personal computer from a broken Android smartphone:

  • download Adb Run on PC;
  • unpack;
  • We are looking for the required file called “adb.exe”;
  • run as administrator;
  • A blue window pops up;
  • Press the “y” and “Enter” keys several times;
  • load the mobile device;
  • connect the phone to the computer via USB;
  • open “Task Manager”;
  • select your mobile device;
  • right-click to open the menu;
  • select “Update drivers”;
  • go to the “adb” folder;
  • press “Shift”;
  • choose a free place;
  • open the “command line”, start-type “cmd”-press “enter”. Here you need to be especially careful;
  • carefully write “adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db”;
  • press “Enter”.

The final file will have a db extension. To open it, use Excel. And after converting to csv, you can restore the phone book back using .

Android programs for receiving and copying information

Not too complicated instructions for the Recovery menu will help you recover data from the memory of a phone with an operating system on the Android platform and find out the information we need. This program is already installed on the smartphone itself. How to enter the menu and through recovery to quickly extract contacts and SMS from Android with a broken screen:

  • turn off the smartphone;
  • simultaneously press the volume down and the power button;
    Use the sound button to select “backup and restore”;
  • go to the “backup” section, select it several times using the device’s power button;
  • launch the smartphone connected to the PC;
  • select “My Computer”, find Android and look for the “backup” folder;
    unpack the archive;
  • select data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts.db;
  • We open it in a convenient way or through the online converter gsmrecovery.ru. Typically an Excel spreadsheet is used for this purpose.

You can also use “dr.fone” to extract contacts from a broken Android phone, but first you need to find and install this program on your computer. This video demonstrates how the program works.

After clicking the “Allow” button, you allow access to all personal data, including photos, numbers, videos. The “Start” button starts scanning the phone. All recovered items will appear on the screen. Having noted the information that is important to you, continue by clicking “Recover”. It is better to copy contacts and SMS from Android to a computer in CSV or HTML format.

Other options for removing contacts

  1. Try this other method - . A good option would be to install the Viber application on your PC. Viber displays all contacts in the phone book.
  2. Using the MyPhoneExplorer application (www.fjsoft.at/en/downloads.php). Install the program and copy all the contents to the PC. On a smartphone, the program is installed without using the screen. But only USB debugging should be enabled!
  3. If nothing helps you, you will have to seek help from expensive service centers and change the screen.

Ask questions in the comments, we will try to help.

Let's imagine a situation: by some accident, your smartphone fell or was crushed so that its display does not work. It doesn’t matter at all how: it may not respond to touches or not show information (in whole or in part).

Is it possible to save important information from this phone? We are talking, first of all, about the phone book: after all, collecting a contact database manually is quite a task.

Ways to save data from a smartphone

If your smartphone does not respond to any manipulations with the display, this is not the end. Do you have a computer or other devices at hand? Then you have a chance. Follow one of the given methods.

Use ADB (Android Debug Bridge)

Install this program on your computer, and you can connect your smartphone via USB and control it from your computer. An important condition: the smartphone must first have .

If the conditions are met, then the easiest way is to connect the affected phone with a cable, call the command line and enter adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contact2.db /home/user/phone_backup/ to copy the contact database file to your computer. Subsequently, copy this file to the appropriate folder of the new smartphone.

Connect a Bluetooth mouse and an external display to your smartphone via MHL

This will compensate for the lack of a working screen. However, for this it is necessary that the mouse connection has already been pre-configured, and MHL technology must be supported at the hardware level. Therefore, such a witty method is suitable for few people.

Replacing the display

The most expensive and time-consuming, but most effective way: replace the display. It’s good if your model is popular: then spare parts for it can be found at any decent service center. For exotic smartphones, the display will most likely have to be ordered through online stores, often from abroad. But in the end, you won’t have to spend money on a new smartphone.

When you don't need a phone

In most cases, the smartphone itself is not needed at all to restore contacts. All you need to restore your phone book is your Google account.

The easiest way to find your phone book is at www.google.com/contacts. To sign in, you'll need the Google account you used on your phone. By opening the page, you will have access to all entries. Gmail also allows you to access your phone book.

If your new smartphone is a modern Android model (as well as an iPhone or Windows Phone), then there is no problem at all. You don't need an old smartphone or a Google web page to do this. The algorithm is simple:

  • find the “Accounts” section in the settings
  • add your Google account there
  • turn on synchronization
  • ready!

Be ready!

If such a problem has not yet happened to you, but you want to be prepared for any surprises, then you should worry about the possibility of saving data in advance. To do this, we recommend the following measures:

  • Enable USB debugging in Android settings. This is necessary to access your smartphone from your computer if necessary.
  • Enable server synchronization (primarily with Google). When creating a new contact, choose to save it in your Google account rather than on your phone.
  • Periodically make a backup of your contacts in .vcf format, which can later be restored on almost any phone. Modern versions of Android have built-in import/export tools. Save the resulting file on a memory card, on your computer, or send it to yourself by email.
  • Buy a good smartphone case! This will reduce the risk of mechanical failure.
  • And don't forget about saving your most important contacts to your SIM card. This is the fastest way to start a new telephone life, not from scratch.

The race for fashion sometimes harms comfort - a modern glass smartphone is a rather fragile device. We’ll talk about how to protect it another time, but today we’ll talk about ways to extract contacts from the phone book of a broken smartphone.

This operation is not as complicated as it might seem - fortunately, manufacturers took into account the possibility of damage to the device and included tools in the OS for rescuing phone numbers.

You can remove contacts in two ways - by air, without connecting to a computer, and through the ADB interface, to use which the gadget will need to be connected to a PC or laptop. Let's start with the first option.

Method 1: Google Account

For full functionality of an Android phone, you need to connect a Google account to the device. It has a function for synchronizing data, in particular, information from the phone book. In this way, you can transfer contacts directly without the participation of a PC or use a computer. Before starting the procedure, make sure that data synchronization is active on the broken device.

If the phone's display is damaged, then most likely the touchscreen has also failed. You can control the device without it - just connect a mouse to your smartphone. If the screen is completely broken, then you can try connecting the phone to the TV to display the picture.

Telephone

Direct transfer of information between smartphones consists of simple data synchronization.

Done – numbers transferred.

Computer

For a long time now, the “good corporation” has been using a single account for all its products, which also stores telephone numbers. To access them, you should use a separate service for storing synchronized contacts, which has an export function.

  1. Follow the link above. Sign in to your account if prompted. After the page loads, the entire list of synchronized contacts will appear in front of you.

  2. Select any position, then click on the icon with the minus sign at the top and select "All" to select all saved in the service.

    You can simply select individual contacts if you do not need to restore all synchronized numbers.

  3. Click on the three dots in the toolbar and select an option "Export".

  4. Next you need to note the export format - for installation in a new phone it is better to use the option "vCard". Select it and click "Export".

  5. Save the file to your computer, then copy it to your new smartphone and import contacts from VCF.

This method is the most functional for transferring numbers from a broken phone. As you can see, the option of transferring phone-to-phone contacts is somewhat simpler, but using Google Contacts allows you to do without a broken phone altogether: the main thing is that synchronization is active on it.

Method 2: ADB (root only)

The Android Debug Bridge interface is well known to fans of customization and flashing, but it will also come in handy for users who want to retrieve contacts from a damaged smartphone. Unfortunately, only owners of rooted devices can use it. If the damaged phone turns on and can be controlled, it is recommended to obtain Root access: this will help save not only contacts, but also many other files.

Before using this method, carry out the preparatory procedures:

  • Enable on the damaged smartphone;
  • Download the archive for working with ADB to your computer and unpack it into the root directory of the C: drive;
  • Download and install.

Now we proceed directly to copying the phone book data.


This method is more complicated than the previous one and more time-consuming, but it allows you to extract contacts even from a completely dead phone. The main thing is that it is recognized normally by the computer.

Solving some problems

The procedures described above do not always go smoothly; difficulties may arise during the process. Let's look at the most common ones.

Synchronization is enabled, but there is no contact backup

A fairly common problem that arises for many reasons, ranging from simple inattention to a malfunction of Google Services. Our website has detailed instructions with a list of ways to fix this problem - visit the link below.

The phone connects to the computer, but is not detected

Also one of the most common difficulties. The first thing you need to do is check the drivers: it is possible that you did not install them or installed the incorrect version. If everything is absolutely fine with the drivers, this symptom may indicate problems with the connectors or USB cable. Try reconnecting your phone to a different connector on your computer. If this does not help, try using a different cord for connection. If replacing the cable turns out to be ineffective, check the condition of the connectors on the phone and PC: perhaps they are dirty and covered with oxides, which is why the contact is broken. In extreme cases, such behavior means a malfunction of the connector or a problem with the phone’s motherboard - in the latter case, you can’t do anything on your own, you’ll have to contact service.

Conclusion

We introduced you to the main ways to get numbers from the phone book on a broken Android device. This procedure is not complicated, but it requires the functionality of the motherboard and flash memory of the device.

If your phone is broken and all important information (phone book numbers, SMS messages, notes) was stored in the device’s memory, do not worry - it is possible to restore this data, even if the phone does not turn on. There can be two reasons why a smartphone may not work: a software failure or a hardware failure of the device. Each case must be considered individually; often a preliminary diagnosis is needed to accurately say whether it is possible to extract address book contacts or not. So, more details about the different options later in the article.

First of all, check the synchronization of your phone with the cloud

Modern phones, when connected to the Internet, are synchronized with your account by default (I hope you use this feature!). If your phone (or tablet) stops turning on, the first thing you need to do is check what data has been synchronized. Perhaps you have everything stored in the cloud and there is no need to contact a service center. How to do it:

If you have an Android smartphone:

In the browser on your laptop, go to your Gmail mailbox (which was your Play Market login on your phone). In the upper left corner there is a Gmail-Contacts-Tasks switch. Select "Contacts" and check if the recipients you want are in the list.

If you have an iPhone

On your computer, open a browser and go to iCloud.com. Enter your login (mail) and password for your iCloud account, which was used on your iPhone or iPad to access the App Store. Check that all the necessary information is there.

If there is no synchronization...

It all depends on what kind of phone you have and what happened to it. The most popular cases in which you can recover information from a smartphone or tablet:

1. The display does not show or the sensor does not work

This is a problem with all touch phones, when the device falls and appears. If the display is damaged, the picture cannot be seen. It's unlikely that you'll be able to access your phone's memory blindly. Or another variant of the problem is when the sensor stops working. When the screen is not working, the phone cannot be connected to a laptop to download information or set up synchronization.

There are two options (applicable to iPhone and Android devices):

  • Repair the device and change the screen. This is if you want to continue using the phone further. The cost will depend on the smartphone model and the quality of the installed spare part. Check with the master.
  • Substitute the working display and save all important information. After this, return the screen to the warehouse and do not repair the phone. This option would be advisable if the device is old and changing the screen on it is simply unprofitable. Only the phone book, photos and other information from the device’s memory are important. The cost for such a procedure will be 300-450 UAH, depending on the complexity of disassembling the device to replace the working screen.

2. The phone won't turn on

There are a lot of options here, because the phone may not turn on for various reasons. Whether it will be possible to read the information can only be said after diagnosis. What are the options:

Water got into the phone

The phone stopped charging

Naturally, the battery ran out and the smartphone now does not turn on. It’s good if the battery is removable and can be charged separately on the “toad”. But if the battery is built-in, you need to contact for repairs. There are also several options here: a problem with the charging socket, with the battery itself, the power controller, and more. The simplest case is to charge the battery from the power supply and turn on the phone to save data.

Firmware problem

Important! No not like this. MEGA IMPORTANT! Do not try to flash your phone or do a factory reset! This will delete all information from the device’s memory and it will be impossible to restore it. In case of software glitches, there is only one way out - unsolder the flash memory and read it on the programmer. More about this in the next paragraph:

90% successful data recovery cases

The most expensive, but the most effective way. It involves physically soldering the flash memory chip. This chip stores all the information: both the firmware and your personal data. You can proofread everything: phone book, SMS messages, notes, calendars, photos. But provided that The chip is not damaged! The condition of the phone itself is indifferent. Whether it was drowned in the sea, run over by a car, or even broken in half. The cost of such a procedure from 600 UAH, depends on the phone model.

In a nutshell, how it's done. Solder the flash memory chip. We put the memory chip in the programmer. The program downloads the memory dump and decrypts the necessary information. The process of this method of data recovery in pictures:

Note! This method only works for Android phones and tablets. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you won’t be able to subtract data from them using this method, because... all information on iOS is encrypted.

Transferring a memory chip to a donor phone

This is the case when the memory chip is not readable by the programmer. This happens on new phones, where the information is encrypted and flash memory only works in conjunction with the processor. This option is also applicable if you need to turn on the phone (that is, turn it on) in order to view the data of some program, for example, correspondence in Telegram or Viber. If the phone is severely damaged, for example, it was run over by a car or stepped on after getting wet, but you need to turn on the device - in all these cases you need to look for the same phone as the donor and solder memory chips onto it, and if you need a processor and RAM, it all depends depending on the phone model. The photo shows an example of one of the phones after chip transplantation.

If you have an old push-button telephone

The phone does not turn on, or simply does not display phone numbers in the contacts list. In such a situation, the main condition is Do not flash your phone or update its software under any circumstances., otherwise all data will be lost forever. The principle of data extraction is to read the phone's firmware file and then decrypt it using special programs.

Let's sum it up

In the event of a hardware malfunction, there are many possible solutions, but the result depends on the reason for the phone’s inoperability. If the phone cannot be synchronized with the computer due to damage to the display, non-working sensor, damage to the cable or synchronization connector, you need to replace these elements.

In any case, it is best to contact the specialist first and discuss with him the possibility of restoring the necessary information from your phone. You can ask a question in the comments to the article or on our website.

Schedule:

Mon-Fri: 11:00-19:00
Sat-Sun: closed