Hi there, I’ve had a broken phone lying around for ages, only kept it as I know there are some pictures and files I wish I could gain access to again. I’ve tried a variety of methods gaining access to the files, but it doesn’t seem possible as I cannot actually use the screen to “allow usb transfer” etc… Is there any methods I might have missed or something that could help me retrieve these files?
It’s an Huawei Mate 10 Pro.
Any tips, tricks and recommendations are appreciated 🌻
If the screen is broken (not showing anything) but the digitizer (touch) is still working, you might be able to plug the phone to your computer and blindly unlock your phone to enable usb data transfer with trial and error. It’s going to be hard to tap the correct button without seeing it, but you might get lucky. Alternatively, your phone might support hdmi. If you have a usb c to hdmi dongle, you might want to try connecting your phone to your tv/monitor.
If the digitizer is broken (touch not working) but the screen still working, you can plug a mouse with an otg cable to control the device and initiate data transfer.
If both the screen and digitizer is broken, you’re probably out of luck unless you already have usb debugging enabled beforehand, or have a usb-c hub so you can use a monitor and mouse at the same time.
Thanks for this, will try what you mentioned accordingly. Don’t have all of the stuff you mentioned, but shouldn’t be to expensive I hope. Thanks for your input 🌻
The dongle is <$20, although a usb c docking station might make it easier.
If you had adb debugging already enabled there is an app to have the phone display on your desktop computer :
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https://github.com/srevinsaju/guiscrcpy No longer maintained, Flatpak, and Windows exe downloads
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https://github.com/barry-ran/QtScrcpy Windows/MacOS/Linux
If all else fails and you really want the data, you could replace the screen.
Hi, almost all android phones support keyboard and mouse. You can use a USB-C adapter to plug them in. Ditto with screens. You can use an unofficial Switch dock to do the job.
You could try to plug it into a USB C to HDMI adapter. The Mate 10 Pro supports HDMI over USB C. It even has a Desktop Mode simmilar to Samsung DEX.
