Possible to Recover photos Samsung S7?

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Feb 23rd, 2018 2:55 pm

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Feb 20th, 2018 8:26 pm

bcti [OP]: Sr. Member; Feb 16, 2005; 869 posts; 61 upvotes; Calgary

Feb 20th, 2018 8:26 pm

Possible to Recover photos Samsung S7?

A friend asked if I could try to recover photos from a crashed samsung s7. The phone wont boot but can enter android recovery. My current plan unless someone knows a better way is to do a factory reset and then try to use some photo recovery software. Is there a way to recover the files from the recovery menu? If not does anyone have a suggestion for the best software or way to recover the photos. As far as i know the photos are not backed up on google photos or cloud and she is 70 years old and just wants to get back pictures of her grandchildren.

Thanks.

10 replies

Feb 20th, 2018 9:13 pm

shabby: Deal Addict; Jul 2, 2001; 4576 posts; 1937 upvotes; GTA

Feb 20th, 2018 9:13 pm

If you do a factory reset you're less likely to recovery anything as it wipes all the partitions, did your grandma try to root the phone or something, why can't it boot? Have you tried clearing cache in recovery?
I have a feeling you're outta luck if you can't boot the phone, your data in encrypted. I was thinking of installing twrp in download mode but if i remember correctly one of the steps involved is to wipe data since twrp can't read the user partitions. I'd go into the xda s7 forum and ask around.

+2

Feb 20th, 2018 11:26 pm

robertz: Deal Addict; Nov 21, 2008; 1355 posts; 245 upvotes; North Vancouver, BC

Feb 20th, 2018 11:26 pm

If you enter recovery mode and then connect the device to your computer via USB, try ADB and see if it recognizes the device.

+1

Feb 21st, 2018 6:18 am

Devhux: Deal Addict; Jan 13, 2014; 2267 posts; 1317 upvotes; Calgary

Feb 21st, 2018 6:18 am

robertz wrote: ↑ If you enter recovery mode and then connect the device to your computer via USB, try ADB and see if it recognizes the device.

A good step for sure. Also, when you say it doesn't boot, is it just staying on the Samsung screen?

+1

Feb 21st, 2018 5:44 pm

bcti [OP]: Sr. Member; Feb 16, 2005; 869 posts; 61 upvotes; Calgary

Feb 21st, 2018 5:44 pm

Phone had no password. I tried did factory reset then rooted then tried data recovery programs. No luck

set it to backup to google photos and samsung cloud for her from now on. The way i would try in the future is maybe to do and update from an sd and hope that maintained existing data. Yes it was stuck at samsung screen.

Feb 21st, 2018 6:11 pm

Evil Baby: Deal Expert; Mar 18, 2005; 21586 posts; 3471 upvotes; Niagara Falls

Feb 21st, 2018 6:11 pm

You should have tried using ODIN to flash a custom recovery and then use that to transfer files to SD card or via ADB with a USB cable.

Feb 21st, 2018 9:39 pm

taro-chan: Deal Fanatic; Nov 26, 2003; 9927 posts; 1370 upvotes

Feb 21st, 2018 9:39 pm

Evil Baby wrote: ↑ You should have tried using ODIN to flash a custom recovery and then use that to transfer files to SD card or via ADB with a USB cable.

This was the answer. Flash a recovery on top. ADB command line copy the files off the phone...

Also, the S7 has an SD slot. Why didnt she just use that for her photos?

Feb 21st, 2018 10:09 pm

shabby: Deal Addict; Jul 2, 2001; 4576 posts; 1937 upvotes; GTA

Feb 21st, 2018 10:09 pm

taro-chan wrote: ↑ This was the answer. Flash a recovery on top. ADB command line copy the files off the phone...

Also, the S7 has an SD slot. Why didnt she just use that for her photos?

The files are encrypted by default on the s7 until you unlock the phone, so pulling anything from recovery wont work. Also the recovery won't see the files because it can't decrypt them, you have to wipe the partitions and disable encryption and then you can pull files from the phone, but then they're lost due to the wipe.

+1

Feb 21st, 2018 10:44 pm

Devhux: Deal Addict; Jan 13, 2014; 2267 posts; 1317 upvotes; Calgary

Feb 21st, 2018 10:44 pm

If there was a password, recovery would ask for that on startup. As for using an SD card, most non-techies probably don't ever put an SD card in their phone. "Why buy storage when I've got enough in here?"

(I do think they should, but that's a different matter entirely)

Feb 21st, 2018 11:04 pm

jdayellow: Jr. Member; Nov 24, 2016; 166 posts; 147 upvotes; Waterloo, ON

Feb 21st, 2018 11:04 pm

If there was no password on the phone, wouldn't the phone not be encrypted? That would mean that TWRP would work without wiping?

Current device: Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
On Freedom Mobile - $45/22GB + $0 Google Pixel 3

Feb 23rd, 2018 2:55 pm

taro-chan: Deal Fanatic; Nov 26, 2003; 9927 posts; 1370 upvotes

Feb 23rd, 2018 2:55 pm

shabby wrote: ↑ The files are encrypted by default on the s7 until you unlock the phone, so pulling anything from recovery wont work. Also the recovery won't see the files because it can't decrypt them, you have to wipe the partitions and disable encryption and then you can pull files from the phone, but then they're lost due to the wipe.

Looking more at this, yes, the S7 is encrypted by default so you will need to flash more then just the recovery. Flashing the complete firmware lineup back on the phone should work.

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