recovery of data on an android device

[DeathTheKid]

Hi there I at the moment I have not been able to get by my password on my samsung s5 device so now I am looking into data recovery if I restore it to factory settings anyone know any software or ways of recovering my photos and video.All help will be greatly appreciated.Also could you tell me how likely they are to work.Also if there is any way  to apply update from an external storage or something to turn on my data that would unlock my phone.

[Kulverstukas]

From my experience there isn't much tools to go about this and recovering deleted shit on an android device isn't domesticated yet. I tried once to do that, this: http://www.wondershare.com/data-recovery/android-data-recovery.html
Seemed to find some deleted files and recover some, but I don't know how likely it is to recover from a factory reset. For all we know it could just wipe the device clean with multiple writing passes of random data to make sure everything is eradicated. But you can try anyway and tell us how it went

I'll go ahead and say that the one who has the last laugh is the one who has backups I keep regular backups, who knows when such stuff will happen.

[gray-fox]

It just came in my mind that with galaxy S3, factory reset left stuff in internal sdcard intact. Atleast with custom recovery, don't know about stock.
But i remember reading from somewhere that with s5 internal sdcard's data gets wiped also. Not sure though, because i don't have any own experience with s5.

Edit: Maybe this could provide some help to OP if you have wifi or data connection in your locked phone on. Don't know if GPS has to be enabled.
It seems that atleast in some cases you can unlock your phone through Samsung's site if you have Samsung account credentials.
http://support.three.co.uk/mobiledocs/Support/Device_support/Mobile/Samsung/galaxy_mega/unlock_phone.html

@DeathTheKid I think i have solution for you to save your stuff like pictures before factory resetting, if you hadn't done it allready.
You just need Odin(google it if don't know it) and knowledge of some linux commands. This doesn't require usb debugging on.

Steps:
-Flash TWRP recovery via odin; instructions and files --> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2697762
-Boot in twrp(Hold home+vol.up+power keys)
-Go advanced  settings and there is option to run "Terminal command".
So now you should be able to for example:

Code: [Select]

cp /path/to/your_stuff /path/to/extSd
Now you could also try to remove file that holds your screenlock password to bypass it.

Staff note: I can see you can use the modify button, but you still to choose to double post?

Edit: for the staff member behind the note. I thought i had some relevant things to say for the OP and doubleposted for the "bump" effect that OP would more likely noticed it because the topic was a bit "dropped down" allready. My apologies.

[Oggie7797]

Just because I'm new to evilzone don't think I'm new to android. Now that that's out of the way....

A factory data reset wipes everything from /data, /cache, and /data/dalvik-cache. All of your pictures and videos and music is saved to /mnt/sdcard0 and unless you specifically set internal storage to be wiped you'll be fine.

Tap'd from my Bionic

[DeathTheKid]

 Thanks gray-fox will try, I am using my old phone now trying to hold off on the reset until I get something that I am confident enough will work, and oggie are you sure a factory rest doesn’t wipe the internal memory cause i presumed it was like a computer factory reset and there customer service said I would lose my data(but then again she was probably reading from a book) and  the option in the android system recovery says wipe data/factory is there a specific way to say what you want to reset or is that the one? not questioning your knowledge on the subject just want to be sure before I try,and all suggestions are welcome and again thanks everyone for your help
 

[gray-fox]

Just because I'm new to evilzone don't think I'm new to android. Now that that's out of the way....

A factory data reset wipes everything from /data, /cache, and /data/dalvik-cache. All of your pictures and videos and music is saved to /mnt/sdcard0 and unless you specifically set internal storage to be wiped you'll be fine.

Tap'd from my Bionic

Actually as far as i can tell this is only partially true. If OP does factory reset with stock recovery he's actually doing so called hard reset and it wipes all data from phone including internal sdcard data. With custom recovery like cwm and twrp things usually goes like you explained. Further reading:
http://support.bell.ca/Mobility/Smartphones_and_mobile_internet/Samsung-Galaxy-S5.how_to_perform_a_hard_reset_when_my_samsung
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s2/help/factory-reset-vs-hard-reset-t1098809
http://www.technobezz.com/restore-files-videos-pictures-samsung-galaxy-s5/
From last link:

If you need to perform Factory reset on your Galaxy S5, first backup all data such as files, videos, pictures, messages, contacts that are stored in your phone because factory reset will delete everything.

I have done about ten to twenty "factory resets" with cwm and twrp when flashing rom's with few different samsung devices and yes with those custom recoveries intSdcard has stayed intact, but i haven't done resetting with stock recovery so this is just based what i have read from many places. But it seems that with stock recovery you get "true" factory state.

One more quote from xda: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1842675&page=3

To clarify: if you wipe data and factory reset in CWM, it will NOT wipe the stuff on the internal SD card (ie. music, pictures, etc). Your downloaded apps and user data for those apps will be wiped, but not your media files on the internal SD.

However, if you factory reset within the ROM then it will wipe everything including the media files on your internal SD.

I'm not questoning your android knowledge just wanted to make clear to OP that this isn't actually as simple as you made it to seem. And if i got something wrong here that you know please tell.

And still for the OP, i think best bet would be to go with custom recovery because stored passwords are in /data so they get wiped, but you may got your pictures etc. saved and he can try before resetting that copying i mentioned in earlier post.

[TheWormKill]

I don't have much knowledge of android whatsoever, but if you want to save at least the data on the SD card, why don't you just take it out? Some things that are in internal storage will be lost, but the rest will be fine. I don't know if this is applicable here, just wanted to put my knowledge in. So, would that be a (partial) solution?

[gray-fox]

I don't have much knowledge of android whatsoever, but if you want to save at least the data on the SD card, why don't you just take it out? Some things that are in internal storage will be lost, but the rest will be fine. I don't know if this is applicable here, just wanted to put my knowledge in. So, would that be a (partial) solution?

In android sdcard usually refers to partition of internal storage named sdcard, so it isn't really a normal sdcard to take out. Ofc there is also external ones but OP's problem is stuff in internal one.

Best explain i can give.

[Oggie7797]

You have a point gray-fox. I didn't consider the stock recovery part because I don't do stock anything lol. How about you just use adb to pull everything from internal storage?

Tap'd from my Bionic

[Kulverstukas]

You have a point gray-fox. I didn't consider the stock recovery part because I don't do stock anything lol. How about you just use adb to pull everything from internal storage?

That would only work if he had USB debugging enabled.

Tap'd from my Bionic

Turn that shit off!

[gray-fox]

You have a point gray-fox. I didn't consider the stock recovery part because I don't do stock anything lol. How about you just use adb to pull everything from internal storage?

Tap'd from my Bionic

Needs to have usb debugging on and i guess that OP doesn't have it on. I don't know if there is direct command to turn usb debugging on from terminal(in twrp in this case). But maybe with twrp+"terminal command" option it's possible to edit some system files and in there change some values to 0 or 1 to switch between usb debug. enabled or disabled.
But this get's kind of tricky .

edit:Oops, Kulver was bit faster and i have to agree with him that, that tapatalk signature thing is bit annoying.

edit2: I might have found right way that might work, to turn usb debugging enabled with editing system files.(from xda suprisingly)

Just need to add these to "/default.prop" and "/system/build.prop"

persist.service.adb.enable=1
persist.service.debuggable=1
persist.sys.usb.config=mtp,adb

Also it seems that if booted in custom recovery, adb should work even if usb-debug. is disabled. Never tested this but i thought it's worth of mentioning.

[Oggie7797]

Turn that shit off!

Deal with it

Tap'd from my Bionic