Recover Deleted Texts/Photos

[noishloish]

I recently found an old phone and want to recover as many deleted texts and photos as I can. I bought the charger for it on eBay. Screen works fine. I tried hooking it up to my computer via usb and nothing happened.. nothing was prompted. Its not the usb that came w the phone though. It’s just a generic one. Not sure if that matters. Any suggestions?

 

[ocnbrze]

check to see if you have the htc drivers for the phone. so it charges? it just will not connect to the pc for transfer of photos, correct?

 

[noishloish]

Yes, it charges using the wall charger I bought on eBay. And it also charges using the usb when I hook it up to the computer, but it doesn’t seem to have any sort of sync option or prompt. My computer doesn’t even acknowledge the device when hooked up. I’m not sure about the htc drivers you mentioned. Not very savvy with this stuff

 

[ocnbrze]

Yes, it charges using the wall charger I bought on eBay. And it also charges using the usb when I hook it up to the computer, but it doesn’t seem to have any sort of sync option or prompt. My computer doesn’t even acknowledge the device when hooked up. I’m not sure about the htc drivers you mentioned. Not very savvy with this stuff

maybe this might help:
https://www.htc.com/us/support/apps...t-htc-sync-manager-to-recognize-my-phone.html

 

[svim]

https://www.gsmarena.com/htc_droid_incredible-3230.php
That's a 12 year old phone running Android 2.1. I would readjust your expectations accordingly about being able to remotely restore old data off that phone. Does it still boot up properly at all?

 

[mikedt]

I recently found an old phone and want to recover as many deleted texts and photos as I can. I bought the charger for it on eBay. Screen works fine. I tried hooking it up to my computer via usb and nothing happened.. nothing was prompted. Its not the usb that came w the phone though. It’s just a generic one. Not sure if that matters. Any suggestions?

Sometimes cables that come with generic chargers are wired for charging only, and NOT data transfer. Especially cheap ones from Ebay. Try another cable that's known to work for USB data transfer.

 

[Dannydet]

12 year old device?
Good luck with that as the battery is long gone. The charger may show as charging but it's dead.
Toss it and move on

 

[Hadron]

As said above, check that the cable is capable of data transfer.

You say "screen works fine", so does it boot up into Android? If so you should be able to activate data transfer, though I've not run 2.1 since about 2011 so can't recall whether you need to go into a menu somewhere to tell it you want to transfer. If it doesn't boot up and log in then there's no hope. If you are using Windows you may well need a driver (or the HTC software suite, whose name I've long forgotten, installed): on other platforms it should appear as a generic USB mass storage device (this is old enough that it did use UMS as the protocol rather than MTP).

My only 2.1 device was older, so essentially all storage was on the removable card. Presumably this one has the internal storage partitioned into a /data partition and a fake /sdcard - I never used that setup (I skipped over the period where it existed), but MTP came in Android 4 so I think what I wrote above should still apply. But you will need to tell the phone to mount the /sdcard partition.

 

[noishloish]

https://www.gsmarena.com/htc_droid_incredible-3230.php
That's a 12 year old phone running Android 2.1. I would readjust your expectations accordingly about being able to remotely restore old data off that phone. Does it still boot up properly at all?

So I purchased the htc oem usb and it was able to pull lots of pictures and videos and random files! I was wondering if it could also pull up any deleted texts or Pictures. Can’t seem to find any sort of sms or mms folder. I heard that nothing can really be deleted from the sim storage. That a deleted text or picture would be somewhere just not on display on the device. Any ideas?

 

[noishloish]

As said above, check that the cable is capable of data transfer.

You say "screen works fine", so does it boot up into Android? If so you should be able to activate data transfer, though I've not run 2.1 since about 2011 so can't recall whether you need to go into a menu somewhere to tell it you want to transfer. If it doesn't boot up and log in then there's no hope. If you are using Windows you may well need a driver (or the HTC software suite, whose name I've long forgotten, installed): on other platforms it should appear as a generic USB mass storage device (this is old enough that it did use UMS as the protocol rather than MTP).

My only 2.1 device was older, so essentially all storage was on the removable card. Presumably this one has the internal storage partitioned into a /data partition and a fake /sdcard - I never used that setup (I skipped over the period where it existed), but MTP came in Android 4 so I think what I wrote above should still apply. But you will need to tell the phone to mount the /sdcard partition.

So I purchased the htc oem usb and it was able to pull lots of pictures and videos and files! I was wondering if it could also pull up any deleted texts or Pictures. I can’t seem to find any sort of sms or mms folder. I heard that nothing can really be deleted from the sim storage. That a deleted text or picture would be somewhere just not on display on the device. Any ideas?

 

[svim]

There's a distinction between individual items like your photos, videos, music files and the individual text messages. Things like photos are their own actual file, but text message files don't get stored as individual files, they get added/deleted into a mini-database file. This also applies with email messages so with individual email and text messages, you need to try to access the email database file and the text message database file, then use something like a text editor to read the messages within those two files.

Since you've purchased a USB cable for this phone, if directly viewing this phone's internal storage is a problem using a computer's default file manager, you might want try using this BitPim utility:
http://www.bitpim.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitPim
Keep in mind that remotely accessing the file system on a 12 year old phone could be something of a real project.

 

[noishloish]

There's a distinction between individual items like your photos, videos, music files and the individual text messages. Things like photos are their own actual file, but text message files don't get stored as individual files, they get added/deleted into a mini-database file. This also applies with email messages so with individual email and text messages, you need to try to access the email database file and the text message database file, then use something like a text editor to read the messages within those two files.

Since you've purchased a USB cable for this phone, if directly viewing this phone's internal storage is a problem using a computer's default file manager, you might want try using this BitPim utility:
http://www.bitpim.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitPim
Keep in mind that remotely accessing the file system on a 12 year old phone could be something of a real project.

Much appreciated. I will have to try digging deeper. I can’t recall a text message file. I think I saw an email one but I did have an issue reading some files with my computer. It’s an HP Envy 2-in-1 (one of those big tablets with detachable keyboard).

 

[svim]

Text messaging database files have been typically SQLite file types so look for a file with a sql or sms suffix. You'll be able to view the file contents with any text editor (and most word processors) but it'll be pretty chaotic with a mix of wording you'll recognize intermingled with lots of formatting code. Best use an actual sqlite editor utility so the messages are better defined as 'human readable'.
Email database files might be eml or mbox, and the same applies as far as viewing the contents with just a text editor. If you're able to import the file into an email client application, that'll be optimal in viewing individual emails.
Note those database files typically get stored in folders that themselves reside in protected system-level folders. Direct access to system directories involve special permissions.

 

[Antrel]

Currently, I also have a device on which to recover deleted files. I will use the software recommended here. I'm also looking at other software that can help me.