How to Recover Files From a Broken Phone

Today’s cell phones are filled with photos, videos, contact information, personal information and a host of other data. We often mistakenly assume that this data is completely safe, until one day our phone becomes unusable and it appears to be lost forever.

If you have broken your phone or one of its critical components and are worried that you have lost all the content stored on your device, don’t panic too quickly.

There are actually different ways to recover data from a broken cell phone, whether it is an iPhone or an Android device. Check out the most popular ones in this article.Useful tips for broken phone data recovery

Before taking any of the data recovery steps explained below, there are some things you should know.

First, if your mobile device’s hard drive or SD card was damaged by water or suffered physical damage, the data might not be accessible. However, with basic data recovery tools and techniques, chances are you can recover data from most devices, especially if the storage functions have not been affected.

Before trying anything else, it’s worth checking the iCloud or Google account associated with your cell phone. Automatic backups are always better than data recovery, and most devices automatically back up items like photos, videos and other personal files to a cloud. All you might need to do is go to Google Drive or iCloud using a computer, log in and search for the data you want to recover.

That said, if the data you need has not been backed up automatically, your best option is data recovery using a technique appropriate for the problem plaguing your phone.Different methods of phone data recovery

Not all common phone problems will affect your device in the same way.

For instance, if you’re just having trouble with your screen or home button, finding another way to access the device will usually be enough to recover your data. On the other hand, if your phone is completely unresponsive, you will need to use a computer or a second phone to remotely recover the remaining data. In short, the recovery method you choose should be prioritized based on the problem.Recover data from a broken phone

To recover data from a broken phone with a non-functional screen, you will need to use a second device to extract the data from the SD card or a third-party application.Recover data from an SD card

Android devices such as Samsung, Motorola and Google Pixel cell phones can hold an SD card where music, videos and photos can be saved. However, depending on the version of your Android system and the settings you have chosen, you may even have applications and other data saved.

That may not be everything you want to recover, but it’s often a good start and it only takes four quick steps to recover the data:

1.Remove the SD card – You can usually find your SD card with your SIM card, either in a tray on the side of your device or behind the battery.

2.Insert SD card into another device – You can use a microSD adapter to put your SD card into a laptop or you can transfer it to a new Android device and connect it to a computer with a USB cable.

3.Explore the contents of the SD card – Open Windows File Explorer and find the new drive that contains the data on your SD card.

4.Find the files you need to recover – Search for the folders you need and copy them to your computer for easy access at any time.

Use a third-party application

There are many data recovery applications and software that can help you recover your data. Here are several options:

  • Fone
  • Enigma Recovery
  • DroidKit
  • And many more

However, before you start, keep in mind that the capabilities of these applications are limited and you may lock your phone if the operation is not done correctly. So be careful!

Recover data from a phone with a broken screen

A cracked screen that prevents touch controls from working can render a smartphone basically useless. However, there are ways to get around this and recover your data.

Using software

There are applications that allow you to control your phone through a computer. Once you have control of your damaged phone, you can copy the files to a new safe location.

We recommend the Droid@screen software or the Vysor extension for Chrome. Vysor is convenient because it works for both iPhone and Android devices.

Using a mouse in OTG

If your screen no longer works with touch but still lights up, you may not be able to unlock your phone unless you use an OTG (USB On-The-Go) computer mouse!

The procedure is simple and works for Android devices. You need to connect an OTG mouse to your smartphone, enter your password or recreate your unlock pattern.

Next, disconnect the mouse and connect your phone to your computer via a USB cable. Then simply open Windows File Explorer and copy and paste the files and folders you want to recover into a folder on your PC.

Recover data from an iPhone with a broken home button

Considering the importance of the home button on the iPhones that preceded the iPhone X (iPhone 8, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, etc.), it only makes sense that Apple has a built-in way to use their devices even when the button is broken.

This mode is called “assistive touch” and works by giving you a fixed menu with various options. You can add all sorts of custom settings, but a button to access the home screen will be present by default. Activate this mode and your broken home button will no longer be an issue.

Take steps to avoid emergency data recovery

In conclusion, there are several methods and techniques you can try if you ever need to recover important data from a broken or damaged phone.

However, why not do everything in your power to make sure you won’t have this dilemma? You can avoid these data recovery headaches by making backups on a regular basis.

And if you ever decide to replace your damaged phone, you can avoid paying an exorbitant price for a new device by choosing refurbished phones or used cell phones. At Recycell we offer models as recent as a used iPhone 12 so you can quickly replace your phone without breaking the bank or having to use an outdated device!

Interactive ‘dynamic email’ rolling out to Gmail for Android and iOS

Google wants the future of email to be less static and more interactive. Its solution based on Accelerated Mobile Pages has found industry support, and “dynamic email” is now coming to Gmail for Android and iOS.

Instead of clicking links that open in a browser, dynamic emails let you interact with calendar invites, respond to questionnaires, and browse catalogs right from a message. One particularly interesting use case is commenting in a Google Docs thread right from the email notification already in your inbox.

This saves you from having to open the full app and lets you quickly return to triaging messages instead of getting distracted. Another part of dynamic email is making messages more current. For example, you could have up-to-date order statuses or the latest job listings every time you check.

After rolling out in July to Gmail on the web, Google is adding support to the Android and iOS apps. Starting today, it will begin rolling out to free consumer accounts and G Suite customers. It will be widely available over the next two weeks.

Yahoo Mail, Outlook.com, and Mail.Ru have also announced support. Besides Google Docs, other senders that support the interactive format include Booking.com, Despegar, Doodle, Ecwid, Freshworks, Nexxt, OYO Rooms, Pinterest, and redBus. Google reviews who can send dynamic emails through a registration program.

It first rolled out to Gmail on the web in March and came to G Suite accounts in July. End-users will have the option to disable in settings and stick with static email.

There’s Finally a Decent Smartwatch for Android

IIswitched from an iPhone to the Google Pixel 2 a few years ago after thinking about the move for a long time. My Apple Watch had held me back. The watch is an expensive device, but it would be rendered a paperweight if I used a Pixel full time, because Apple doesn’t allow it to work with Android phones. There were few alternative watches that would work with my Pixel — or at least few that seemed at all appealing.

Ultimately, I still decided to change over to a Pixel, which had become compelling enough despite the lack of Apple Watch support, and gave up wearing a smartwatch altogether.

But now I’ve finally found a smartwatch I’m willing to wear again, from an unexpected source: Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Active2. Awful naming aside, it’s one of the strongest competitors to the Apple Watch I’ve seen.

Companies like Fossil and Misfit make wearables that run Google’s Wear OS, while FitBit and Withings churn out smartwatches focused on fitness or aesthetics. For the most part, smartwatches like the TicWatch look decent online, but are thick and chunky to wear in real life. They feel more like knock-off spy watches than accessories. Worse still, Wear OS devices are notorious for poor battery life and aren’t likely to get updates for the long haul — manufacturers don’t make money from keeping the software up to date, so they simply ignore it.

Samsung’s Active2, though, works with any device, looks great, and can make it almost two days on a single charge (not bad, given Apple targets 18 hours of battery life with its Series 5 watch).

What’s most surprising about the Active2 is an attention to detail that’s rare.

The difference starts with its appearance. I have wanted a circular smartwatch ever since the Moto 360 debuted and ultimately disappointed back in 2014; the shape looks natural for a watch. The Samsung’s Active2 is also slim enough to hide under a shirt or sweater, and small enough that it doesn’t seem like a smartwatch at all. The always-on display, especially with circular analog watch faces, helps it blend in even better.

What’s most surprising about the Active2 is an attention to detail that’s rare. The edges of its round display, for instance, can be used as a way to scroll through the UI—dragging your finger around the edge to the right scrolls down, and to the left scrolls up. While the bezel doesn’t physically move as it does in previous generations of Samsung smartwatches, it understands touch, and it’s more intuitive as a way to interact with a watch.

Many of the watch’s other features take advantage of the round display. The “My Day” watch face, for example, places reminders of the day’s meetings around the edges of the display, which is a helpful way to see what’s coming up for the entire day without jumping into an app.

Though not specifically targeted at fitness tracking like some of its competitors, the Active2 delivers on health features as well. While many watches require you to manually specify when a workout has begun, the Active2 automatically logs workouts, so that you don’t need to explicitly indicate you’re out for a run or cycle. After 10 minutes of activity, a little vibration notifies you the workout has started — which is so much better than fidgeting around with menus to get a workout kicked off.

Active2 has other thoughtful fitness prompts, clearly inspired by the Apple Watch, like a “heart” that fills up (similar to the Apple Watch’s rings) as you exercise and go about your day. But the Active2’s prompts go even further than Apple Watch’s prompts: Rather than pushing you to simply stand up hourly, the Active2 detects and shows inactivity, prompting a short walk or stretch.

I tested the Bluetooth version of the Active2, but I’m thinking of returning it for a refund so I can buy the LTE version, which would allow me to stream music, as well as get calls and notifications on the go.

What I most want from my smartwatch is the option to leave my phone at home entirely while I go for a run or cycle — or even just to escape scrolling through social media for a while — and Samsung might be the first brand to truly pull it off. The Apple Watch only allows Apple Music to sync offline. With the Active2, you can sync the device to Bluetooth headphones directly and use a Spotify integration to play play music offline while still doing GPS tracking on a run with the Strava watch app, finally free of wires.

I had worried that the Active2’s battery life wouldn’t be good enough. For the last two years, I’ve worn a Withings Steel HR, which only needs charging once every month. The Apple Watch I wore before that needed to be charged much more frequently — about once every two days — and I rarely remembered to charge it before the battery died.

Despite my fears, I was delighted by the Bluetooth Active2: Every night after a full day’s use — including workout tracking — I dropped it onto the magnetic charger with a solid 60% of battery life leftover.

Samsung didn’t get everything right with the Active2. One of the biggest pain points is its app store. Samsung has its own entire ecosystem of apps, if you’re noton a Samsung phone like the Note 10, you need to install three separate apps to even get started with the watch. That’s notincluding the Samsung Health app, which you’ll also need if you want health data on your phone andthe third-party syncing app for Google Fit if you want your data in there instead of Samsung’s silo.

Unlike the Apple Watch, Active2 allows third-party watch faces, but almost all of them are terrible. And its app store does a terrible job of showcasing watch faces that aren’t hideous. Instead, it shows a giant list of poor quality designs before you eventually find a good one buried at the bottom. That’s a shame, really, because the included watch faces are really good— they show off interesting ways to take advantage of the display, and I found myself wanting even more.

The Active2 has other minor quirks, like coming with always-on display disabled by default and burying the setting to turn it on yourself deep in a menu. Samsung did the same with the setting for the bezel-scrolling feature, which is also disabled out of the box.

Then there’s Bixby, Samsung’s voice assistant. Settings need to be disabled in multiple places to avoid accidentally triggering it on the watch. And Samsung wouldn’t let me use a different, more capable assistant, like Alexa or Google Assistant. I found myself even wishing Siriwas on this watch, something that I’ve never wanted any other time in the past — Bixby is that bad.

But, amongst all of these quirks and annoyances, the Active2 is surprisingly delightful. It delivers a good smartwatch alternative for anyone who is notdeeply invested in the Apple ecosystem (it works with an iPhone too, but has limited functionality due to Apple restrictions), at a fraction of the price — and with great aesthetics on top. I went in with low expectations, but was delighted to find myself enjoying wearing a smartwatch again.

If you’re in the market for a watch that isn’tthe Apple Watch, the Galaxy Active2 is what you should get. Samsung has delivered something for everyone, and the quality is at the level you’d actually wantto wear on your wrist, rather than hide it up to your sleeve.

Google is hiding OEM gesture navigation systems on Android, can’t include in setup

Android 10’s new gesture navigation system is a bit of a mixed bag, but it’s what Google wants to be a standard across every Android device. Now, we’re learning that Google is going to force OEMs to hide their own gesture navigation systems in Android, even going so far as to not include them in the setup wizard.

9to5Google was provided a copy of the latest version of the Google Mobile Services (GMS) agreement that OEMs have to abide by. This document lays out requirements for Android device makers, and it reveals a lot of interesting information about what device makers have to be compliant with. One interesting section of the document talks about gesture navigation systems.

Back at I/O 2019, Google confirmed that device makers would be able to keep making their own systems, but they would also be forced to include the new Android 10 gestures as well as the traditional three-button setup.

Thanks to this document, we’re getting further clarification on Google’s requirements. Apparently, any Android device using GMS that launches on Android 10 will need to ship out of the box with either the classic three-button or the new Android 10 gestures. If a device ships with the gestures by default, the three-button setup must be supported as an optional setting.

Notably, this effectively kills off the two-button “pill” navigation from Android Pie, as Android 10 devices can’t include it as a “user-selectable option.” Google mentions that devices being upgraded to Android 10 are strongly encouraged to keep that option in place. We’ve seen this on Pixel and Essential devices, but OnePlus removed the “pill.”

Another interesting tidbit from the GMS document is that Google is essentially forcing OEMs to hide their own gesture navigation systems. While they can be included on a device, Google says that they cannot be advertised by the “Setup Wizard or any other method” including pop-ups or notifications. Obviously, these systems also cannot be the default option.

Further, OEMs are forced to bury their systems one level deeper in the settings menu. Google gives the example of putting it under “Advanced or similar.” Clearly, Google doesn’t want users to have easy access to third-party systems. Google also reminds partners that their own gesture navigation systems must still be CDD compliant.

We’re not entirely sure how OnePlus’ modified Android 10 gestures fit into this picture, at least based on this document, although there is mention of “implementation details” without further information.