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Help Need contacts from phone - broken screen, not rooted, no backup/sync

zilonox

Lurker
Aug 1, 2012
1
0
First off, this is not my phone but rather belongs to a non-tech savvy friend of mine. It is a Samsung Stratosphere from Verizon. She ran over it (don't ask) and the screen broke, though the phone does seem to still work. I say "seems to work" because if I pull the battery, put it back in and power the thing up, it plays what sounds like a start-up animation. Also, when i plug it into the computer with a usb cable, the phone beeps like it's asking what I want to do with the connection (charge only, mass storage, etc).

As I mentioned, my friend is not tech savvy and even though she set up a google account, she somehow declined the contact sync. Due to some combination of contract requirements and insurance snafu's, she wound up buying an iPhone as a replacement. The folks at the store told her they could not transfer her contacts over and so she turned to me for help.

My first thought was to pull the SD card and slip into my computer (running Windows 7 64 bit, btw - I'm sure that will be important later) and look for the contacts.db file with the hopes of extracting info via SQL commands later. Unfortunately, I could not gain access to the /data/data folder through windows explorer. I downloaded/installed Android Commander, but that was unable to find the /data/data folder on the SD card either. (While she does not know, I'm fairly certain (given her level/lack of expertise) that the phone has never been rooted.)

Next thought, install USB drivers for the phone and try adb shell to retrieve the Contacts.db file. I downloaded drivers directly from Samsung (specifically for the Stratosphere and Windows 7 64bit), but the phone did not seem to be detected. Next, I downloaded the Android SDK and used the SDK manager to install the platform-tools and the Android usb drivers. Yet still the phone is not detected when I plug it into the computer (and consequentially, neither Android Commander nor adb can find the device).

I'm not sure what else to do. As I mentioned, the screen is toast, at least as far as the display is concerned. It does seem to give a tactile-bounce when I touch it, but without the visual display, I don't know where to touch it to activate the mass storage option when I plug it in to the computer, and I certainly wouldn't be able to activate usb debugging if it's off (which it probably is knowing my friend).

Is there any hope for this phone? Should I just tell her that her previous contact list is lost? I don't want to do that, though it has more to do with me not wanting to accept defeat at the hands of this phone than it does with sympathy over her lost contacts.

Anyone out there have a genius idea???

EDIT: I put it in the title, but forgot to mention it here: there was no backup done prior to the phone being run over. So, no Titanium, Nandroid, etc. :(
 
You won't get access that way, those partitions are locked away from the regular USB connection... the only way you will get access to that stuff is if they have happened to have USB Debugging turned on (not likely) and you can use adb from the Android Developers Kit to get into the phone and pull that file... The phone is likely not detected because USB Debugging is not turned on, that is an essential part to getting these tools to work.

Having a smartphone and not having backup/sync of contacts to Google or VZW backup... not a real good idea and kind of defeats some of the benefits of the phone.

Another possibility might be to jump into the #stratosphere IRC group on irc.andirc.net late evenings and talk to withere2 or bag, they are the main ROM developers for the Stratosphere over on RootzWiki and might be able to give you some more pointers, but this is likely a lost cause.
 
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I had the same problem trying to get contacts off my galaxy s3 with a broken screen, and the solution was a program called "My Phone Explorer" from fjsoft (you'll have to Google it, since forum won't let me post links) It's free, you DON'T have to be rooted, modded, or apped to use it, and it seriously took me a minute or so to get my contacts AND text messages. I had tried everything I could find on the web, plus the people at my Verizon store, but couldn't find a solution that worked for retrieving contacts AND SMS messages from a phone with a broken screen. I hope it's as good for you as it was for me. This seriously was a couple of clicks for a solution. All I ask is that you tell two people about it if it works for you, since this program is free, and promotion is the best thing we can do for the guy that made it. Donation is also an option on the fjsoft website.

Coney Fox
 
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I had the same problem trying to get contacts off my galaxy s3 with a broken screen, and the solution was a program called "My Phone Explorer" from fjsoft (you'll have to Google it, since forum won't let me post links) It's free, you DON'T have to be rooted, modded, or apped to use it, and it seriously took me a minute or so to get my contacts AND text messages. I had tried everything I could find on the web, plus the people at my Verizon store, but couldn't find a solution that worked for retrieving contacts AND SMS messages from a phone with a broken screen. I hope it's as good for you as it was for me. This seriously was a couple of clicks for a solution. All I ask is that you tell two people about it if it works for you, since this program is free, and promotion is the best thing we can do for the guy that made it. Donation is also an option on the fjsoft website.

Coney Fox

The phone screen is broken. MyPhoneExplorer requires that you do things on screen, how is that possible with it being broken? This is probably a good app, but it is no help here. This just caused me to waste a bunch of time
 
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Same problem here. After 2 days of researching all possible technical solutions, I tried a shot in the dark. I used a working strat to memorize the hard key strokes to export contacts to an SD card. Took a few times to get it right...
Put SD card in BROKEN Stratosphere and power on.
Open key pad..
push right arrow until the clicking stops
push the down arrow until clicking stops
push up arrow once
enter
push the HARD settings key (farthest top left key on keyboard)
push down arrow one click
push the up arrow until clicking stops
push down arrow one click
enter
enter
Wait a minute then remove SD card and put it in the working stratosphere. Go to contacts and import from SD card.
If it worked, the next step in this solution is to immediately BACKUP YOUR CONTACTS TO GOOGLE!!!
 
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ConeyFox - thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU!!! MyPhoneExplorer did the trick!!!

I dropped my Droid 2 yesterday and completely lost the display. Verizon insurance replaced it with a Droid 4. I did not have my contacts, etc. backing up to Gmail and didn't realize they weren't being written to the SDcard until today. : (
MyPhoneExplorer was super easy to install and set up for USB connection. It took about 30 seconds to recognize my old phone and about 30 minutes to pull 464 contacts, 4001 events (all my calls log to the calendar) and 2778 text messages. Then I made a backup and disconnected the old Droid. Next, I added my new phone to the software with the add user option, connected the phone via my WiFi (just make up a PIN) and waited just a few seconds for it to be recognized. That sync ran quickly because it was a blank canvas, then I restored the backup I had just done from the old Droid2 to the new Droid4. It gave me a warning about restoring to a different phone, but let me go ahead. *** I NEVER had to use the screen on either phone. ***
All my contacts, call logs and text messages are in the Droid 4 PERFECTLY!!!
I am definitely donating and will spread the word. I spent hours looking for what I could do to fix my situation and was about to give up when I found this thread, which I almost passed over. This software was a LIFESAVER!

Gracie

p.s. Just discovered it has a feature to control the phone from your PC too - FREAKING AWESOME APP!
 
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I don't often do this but the MyPhoneExplorer utility worked perfectly allowing me to download media, contacts, apps, logs, messages...everything...from our Samsung Stratosphere. I am sure that debugging was not turned on and it worked just the same. Another thing I don't do...if ever...is send a donation to the developer... This utility worked so well and was so comprehensive that I did just that and being an "IT Guy" I know how much work goes into creating applications like this... By the way...I am not affiliated with the developer...and this is not a paid announcement :)
 
Upvote 0
I had the same problem trying to get contacts off my galaxy s3 with a broken screen, and the solution was a program called "My Phone Explorer" from fjsoft (you'll have to Google it, since forum won't let me post links) It's free, you DON'T have to be rooted, modded, or apped to use it, and it seriously took me a minute or so to get my contacts AND text messages. I had tried everything I could find on the web, plus the people at my Verizon store, but couldn't find a solution that worked for retrieving contacts AND SMS messages from a phone with a broken screen. I hope it's as good for you as it was for me. This seriously was a couple of clicks for a solution. All I ask is that you tell two people about it if it works for you, since this program is free, and promotion is the best thing we can do for the guy that made it. Donation is also an option on the fjsoft website.

Coney Fox
worked like a charm! thanks a bunch
 
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does anyone know how we are supposed to turn on usb debugging if the screen doesnt work? ive tried two different programs (myphonexplorer and drphone or whatever) and both refuse to sync because usb debugging isnt turned on... what are these programs for if you need to access the settings to turn it on? if i could access the settings i wouldnt need this at all....:rolleyes:
 
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