Solved How do I save my data

[oakston]

My Xperia L4 has died. Screen is broken. I have a copy of all the files on my pc. I can see the folders in explorer. There s nothing in the sms folder when I look on PC. How can I copy them to my new phone.if I cannot find them? Any help appreciated.

 

[SpookDroid]

SMS/MMS are encrypted and tied to the phone. Unfortunately, unless you can initiate a back up FROM the phone (either to a 3rd party app or to a cloud back up either from your Google Account or if Sony has such a service), there is no easy way to access these. Since you seem to be able to connect to a computer from the phone, I take it just the screen is damaged. If Sony has a PC back up app, you may be able to connect and back up through that. Another option is to connect the phone to a TV using an USB-C to HDMI dongle with support for a mouse connection (I'm assuming the screen won't take input either and the the L4 supports HDMI output; I see conflicting info online on the latter so not really sure). That way you can see the phone's screen on TV and initiate a back up that way.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! If you get a new phone and choose the option during setup to copy data from an old phone via USB connection, this should copy over SMS as well. Hopefully this would work without having to unlock the screen on the broken phone.

 

[oakston]

SMS/MMS are encrypted and tied to the phone. Unfortunately, unless you can initiate a back up FROM the phone (either to a 3rd party app or to a cloud back up either from your Google Account or if Sony has such a service), there is no easy way to access these. Since you seem to be able to connect to a computer from the phone, I take it just the screen is damaged. If Sony has a PC back up app, you may be able to connect and back up through that. Another option is to connect the phone to a TV using an USB-C to HDMI dongle with support for a mouse connection (I'm assuming the screen won't take input either and the the L4 supports HDMI output; I see conflicting info online on the latter so not really sure). That way you can see the phone's screen on TV and initiate a back up that way.

Thanks for that. Is it because SMS are encrypted I can't see them on pc? I can go to folder but it's empty

The Sony app does not work on my Xperia

 

[oakston]

I don't have a Google account. I tried a recovery program but it asks me to enable developer options. I can't as I have no working screen. I can't even swipe up to unlock screen. Is there any way to enable debugging remotely?

 

[SpookDroid]

Correct. All texts and phone call data is not readily available to view (You may be able to see the files if you select to 'unhide' system files on a PC, but the contents are not machine-readable without the encryption key).

If you can't unlock the device because the screen is non-responsive, unfortunately you cannot do any sort of USB control/debugging for obvious security reasons.

At this point your only option is to try the HDMI+Mouse 'hub' (again, not sure if this device supports video output or not) so you can see the screen on a TV and unlock using the mouse to emulate touch input, or to get the screen replaced.

 

[oakston]

Correct. All texts and phone call data is not readily available to view (You may be able to see the files if you select to 'unhide' system files on a PC, but the contents are not machine-readable without the encryption key).

If you can't unlock the device because the screen is non-responsive, unfortunately you cannot do any sort of USB control/debugging for obvious security reasons.

At this point your only option is to try the HDMI+Mouse 'hub' (again, not sure if this device supports video output or not) so you can see the screen on a TV and unlock using the mouse to emulate touch input, or to get the screen replaced.

OK thanks.