Mom dropped her phone and needs urgent help with recovery

[lenpro]

Long story short, mom has dropped her Samsung J smart phone. The screen was flickering afterwards but it was still usable. Today, the screen has degraded and the backlight is not working. She's so stressed out because while she was able to back up the photos last night, her notes in the Samsung Notes app are not backed up - and it contains her important passwords and accounts.

I tried connecting the phone via usb to my PC but I don't know where to find the notes save location.

I think time is also of the essence because as of this morning, I could BARELY use the phone as the backlight is basically non existent and the screen is about 70% blacked out now.

Please help my mom? Thanks

 

[Rukbat]

Notes would probably be in a database file - that you can't access without root, which isn't a possibility at this point. Either the plug from the screen to the motherboard came loose (plugging it back in just takes a slight finger-press, but opening and closing the phone is labor intensive and expensive. Since the phone is over 6 years old, it's not worth even what it would cost to get a quick eyeball estimate. I'd say it's time for a new phone.

 

[SpookDroid]

Notes aren't saved in 'plain text' or in visible folders. You need to export them manually from the Notes app, or if your mom didn't disable the feature and is signed into her Samsung account, notes should be synced there (unfortunately, they can only be restored to another Samsung device with Samsung Notes).

You can try looking for SDOC files but I doubt they'll be easily found or read. If the screen is still responsive, you can also try SmartSwitch or Flow on a computer as these allow you to mirror the phone's screen and manipulate it using the computer's keyboard/mouse. This needs the screen to be working because if it's the first time you're using it, you need to authorize access on your phone's screen (and the phone needs to be unlocked or it won't connect).

 

[lenpro]

So I can't just copy all the files from the old phone and paste it in the new phone? It has to go through SmartSwitch, right?

 

[SpookDroid]

Correct, not for notes (security reasons, so it's a good thing you can't just copy/paste those). You can also manually export them to a non-secured format either to a computer or via Bluetooth without SmartSwitch, but if you do have access to another phone and can use SS, it just makes it a lot easier.

 

[lenpro]

Is my best bet to buy mom a new phone and 1) Download SmartSwitch on my PC 2)Connect her old phone and copy it via SmartSwitch 3)Connect her new phone to the computer and copy files via SmartSwitch?

Do I need to 'touch' the old phone if I go via the SmartSwitch route? Asking since I prob can't do much on it so I'm hoping connecting it via usb to my PC and let my computer do all the work.

 

[SpookDroid]

If you go the SmartSwitch route with a new phone (has to be Samsung, otherwise it won't work) is usually better to connect both phones. Yes, you need access to the 'old' phone to unlock it and to accept the data access prompt (again, security features... also you might need to download it on the old phone if it didn't have it before).

Again, if the old device had a Samsung account signed in and synced, the notes are already backed up on her Samsung account. When setting up a new phone with the same account, the notes would be synced back (no need to connect to another device).

 

[lenpro]

Thanks a lot. I will give that a go and hopefully the screen is still usable.

 

[lenpro]

Thanks. Update. The screen on the old phone has degraded so much but thankfully I still managed to connect it to Smart Switch on my PC, do a backup and transfer everything to the new phone. Mom happy. Thanks everyone!

 

[SpookDroid]

Glad we could help and that you got the data out of there!