How to access data on android with broken screen?

DarkEnergy · November 24, 2016

Friend's phone's screen cracked and stopped working but the phone itself still works and the screen still recognizes touch. The problem isn't unlocking the phone, it's trying to access data on a computer. Usually when you plug an android into a computer you have an option to connect using MTP or PTP. Well I can't see the screen so I can't select an option. Is there any other way to enable it?

Bangflop · November 24, 2016

3 minutes ago, DarkEnergy said:

Friend's phone's screen cracked and stopped working but the phone itself still works and the screen still recognizes touch. The problem isn't unlocking the phone, it's trying to access data on a computer. Usually when you plug an android into a computer you have an option to connect using MTP or PTP. Well I can't see the screen so I can't select an option. Is there any other way to enable it?

If the screen touch still works but you see no visuals from it, you can look up online and try to find the general area as to where the button would be and see if that works.

If that doesn't work, I would either fix the screen yourselves or take it into a shop and have them fix it because broken screens aren't a huge thing these days and they would probably do it for around $50 and it would take a couple hours (depending on their workload)

AWSAM3 · November 25, 2016

This might be helpful I only gave it a skim read but if your friend's phone supports something like this then I reckon it'd be worth a shot since a cable would be cheaper than a screen replacement.

Alternatively if most of the phone's data is on an inserted micro-SD card then you can just remove that and it's GG (you've probably already checked that but hey I figured I'd mention it just in case)

DarkEnergy · November 25, 2016

1 hour ago, AWSAM3 said:

This might be helpful I only gave it a skim read but if your friend's phone supports something like this then I reckon it'd be worth a shot since a cable would be cheaper than a screen replacement.

Alternatively if most of the phone's data is on an inserted micro-SD card then you can just remove that and it's GG (you've probably already checked that but hey I figured I'd mention it just in case)

Trying to retrieve data from an installed app, it most likely wasn't on the sd card. Just realized the touch part of the screen might not actually be working after all, tried some Samsung software to access data on the phone but it kept saying the phone was still locked.