Help Water damage and phone has secure startup

[MartinB42]

Hi Guys

My name is Martin, I am from South Africa and this is my first post on this forum and I need some advice please.

My LG G8's screen cracked long ago but was still working. Recently the phone got water damaged and I took it in for repair as I thought the screen does not work anymore due to the water. I can switch it on I can hear it starts up and volume buttons respond. BUT....I have secure startup on the phone so it does not start up and Now I cannot plug the phone into my PC to extract all my Photos as it will only list on the PC once the operating system starts up.

I took the phone in for repairs and they checked the screen etc. the screen works on another phone but my processor/cpu is damaged and that's why screen does not come on. They tried fixing it but no luck.

I have read on a a few tech sites on how to try recover data but no definite solution to my specific problem.

The only way I might be able to do it is to try start the phone in safe mode with power and volume down button, then hopefully manage to hard reset the phone...then use some software to do data recovery via the pc for all the deleted files?

Can someone please advise me on what would be the best way to try and recover my photos?

I do not have a backup of the last 5 or 6 months photos and trying to recover that. (my own stupidity I know)

much appreciated
Martin

 

[Hadron]

That plan will not work: the phone's storage is encrypted, the reset will erase the encryption key, and then it's game over as far as recovering the data goes.

If it's only the display hardware that isn't working there may be a way of unlocking the phone. If the touch layer is working you can try to do it blind, though if it supports some sort of wired casting (e.g. USB-C to HDMI via an adapter) then mirroring the display to a TV or monitor will make that easier. If the touch is also dead then it may be possible using a mouse or keyboard via the USB port, but you could not see what you are doing and actually do it at the same time. I have managed to unlock a phone in this state and get data off it by swapping between mirroring and controlling, but it takes time and patience. For getting past the lockscreen PIN I found using a keyboard and practising on a device with a working screen was the way to do it.

If you can unlock it and want to get data off you will need to be set up so that you do not need to change USB connection modes when you connect it to a computer. May be OK if you have already done this, or already authorised adb. Otherwise you can set the default USB configuration in the developer options, but if you haven't already enabled that there is another hurdle there.

I doubt it's the actual SoC that's damaged or the phone wouldn't boot. But this is a tricky one, and I would try to solve it without hoping that data recovery will work (because most of the tools you find advertised on the Web don't work anyway, never mind the encryption problem).

 

[Dannydet]

Too bad you didn't use Google photos, as all of your photos and videos would be recoverable....

 

[MartinB42]

That plan will not work: the phone's storage is encrypted, the reset will erase the encryption key, and then it's game over as far as recovering the data goes.

If it's only the display hardware that isn't working there may be a way of unlocking the phone. If the touch layer is working you can try to do it blind, though if it supports some sort of wired casting (e.g. USB-C to HDMI via an adapter) then mirroring the display to a TV or monitor will make that easier. If the touch is also dead then it may be possible using a mouse or keyboard via the USB port, but you could not see what you are doing and actually do it at the same time. I have managed to unlock a phone in this state and get data off it by swapping between mirroring and controlling, but it takes time and patience. For getting past the lockscreen PIN I found using a keyboard and practising on a device with a working screen was the way to do it.

If you can unlock it and want to get data off you will need to be set up so that you do not need to change USB connection modes when you connect it to a computer. May be OK if you have already done this, or already authorised adb. Otherwise you can set the default USB configuration in the developer options, but if you haven't already enabled that there is another hurdle there.

I doubt it's the actual SoC that's damaged or the phone wouldn't boot. But this is a tricky one, and I would try to solve it without hoping that data recovery will work (because most of the tools you find advertised on the Web don't work anyway, never mind the encryption problem).

Hi Hadron

thank you for your response!

So my screen does in fact respond you are right. I managed to switch off the phone and start it up and switch it off again by choosing options on screen. however I struggle to make the pattern to start up. And I know there is only 30 tries so have no idea how many tries I have left.

I will get another G8 and set up the same pattern on startup and put my phone next to it so I can basically try and mimic the pattern on the off screen and see if I manage like that. I will try that a few more times then if I do not succeed I will try another option.

thank you once again

regards