Help Tried to undo the password unlock in settings, interrupted encryption and lost all data.

[fiona983]

Hello,

This morning I tried to undo the password from my phone since its annoying to type in the password every time. I accidentally went on to encrypt my phone and then I tried to stop it by doing the most stupid thing by taking the battery out to stop the process and later when I did a search on how to recover everything in my phone I realized it said data will be loss if the encryption is interrupted, so now I lost all my apps, all pictures that were saved onto my phone, and other files and data, everything. I'm hoping someone could tell me here that there is a way to retrieve all the lost data?

 

[girolez]

It is unlikely that you will get your data back. It depends how far the encryption process got. Anything that was encrypted will be lost permanently I think.

What make and model of phone was it?
Does the phone start up?
Can you get into the system settings?
Was any of your data stored on a removable SDcard?
Can you install a file manager app and look to see of anything is readable?

I think you should be able to factory reset the phone, start again (as if a new phone) by adding your google account and that way restore your google contacts (hopefully they were google contacts) and apps. This of course should only be done after any other methods have been tried.

 

[fiona983]

It is unlikely that you will get your data back. It depends how far the encryption process got. Anything that was encrypted will be lost permanently I think.

What make and model of phone was it?
Does the phone start up?
Can you get into the system settings?
Was any of your data stored on a removable SDcard?
Can you install a file manager app and look to see of anything is readable?

I think you should be able to factory reset the phone, start again (as if a new phone) by adding your google account and that way restore your google contacts (hopefully they were google contacts) and apps. This of course should only be done after any other methods have been tried.

Its a samsung galaxy note 4, the phone starts up fine, I remember the encryption percentage was about 46% before I took the battery out. I have lost everything except things on my sd card, and some photos that were saved onto google, don't think all my contacts were saved except for 2 people. I'm not sure how the file manager app works?

 

[girolez]

If you still have the "My Files" app, open it, select "device storage" and look for a folder called DCIM. There should be others called "Ringtones", "Pictures", "Music" etc

If there is anything there, copy it to your sd card.

Open your contacts app
menu
settings
contacts
contacts to display
select "all contacts"

now back out and see what is there. In future it is best to save your contacts to a google account so that they are backed up off the device automatically.

If you do not have My Files or Google Playstore any more, you will need to do a factory reset and log into your google account again to clear the partly completed encryption from the phone and restore your apps. (I would do this anyway)

settings
backup and reset
factory data reset

I'm afraid that stopping an encryption part way through is a real "no - no!" thing to do, but in future the inconvenience caused by this (or by losing your phone or having it stolen) can be avoided by having contacts, photos and data stored in google accounts - photos, drive, google contacts (or others such as dropbox if you dont like google). If you use cloud storage, everything is also automatically available on any PC with web access as well.

Sorry I dont have better news..

 

[fiona983]

If you still have the "My Files" app, open it, select "device storage" and look for a folder called DCIM. There should be others called "Ringtones", "Pictures", "Music" etc

If there is anything there, copy it to your sd card.

Open your contacts app
menu
settings
contacts
contacts to display
select "all contacts"

now back out and see what is there. In future it is best to save your contacts to a google account so that they are backed up off the device automatically.

If you do not have My Files or Google Playstore any more, you will need to do a factory reset and log into your google account again to clear the partly completed encryption from the phone and restore your apps. (I would do this anyway)

settings
backup and reset
factory data reset

I'm afraid that stopping an encryption part way through is a real "no - no!" thing to do, but in future the inconvenience caused by this (or by losing your phone or having it stolen) can be avoided by having contacts, photos and data stored in google accounts - photos, drive, google contacts (or others such as dropbox if you dont like google). If you use cloud storage, everything is also automatically available on any PC with web access as well.

Sorry I dont have better news..

Thanks I will try this, but will a factory reset delete everything again?

 

[girolez]

Hi

It won't delete your removable sdcard, if you are in doubt remove it before doing to reset! It will delete everything else. If you have spent time adding stuff back, back it up to google contacts, drive etc. before doing the reset. You can move contacts to a google account in the contacts app:

contacts
menu (...)
move contacts to
google