How can I open my S4 to get the data if my screen is dead?

[kagisan94]

Screen is dead. Need to open on PC to copy data, but can't get through security with a dead screen.

Greetings!

My screen stopped working on my S4. Verizon is being fantastic, and replacing it under warranty.

However, I have notes, and details in apps that I will lose, if I can get to the data. With the screen dead, i can't draw the pattern to get through my security, and have the phone show up as a drive on my PC to copy the data. Anyone know a hack to get through it? I know the answers and passwords to all my security questions.

Many thanks!

Kagisan

 

[Rukbat]

Re: Screen is dead. Need to open on PC to copy data, but can't get through security with a dead scre

You'll need an OTG cable (they're about $2 if you get ripped off - I've seen them on eBay for 88 cents and they work just as well), a USB mouse,, a sheet of paper and a ball-point pen. (And a rubber band, or some other way of mounting the pen to the mouse, so that when you run the mouse over the paper it draws a line).

When you get the new phone, enter the same pattern. Plug the OTG cable into the new phone and plug the mouse into it. Run the mouse to one corner - you choose. Run it a foot to the left and a foot down and you're definitely starting at the lower-left corner of the screen - like that.

Move the mouse to unlock the screen. You'll have a line on the paper showing the mouse route from the corner you chose through the unlock pattern.

Unplug the OTG cable and plug it into the old phone. Run the mouse cursor to the same corner (you'll be working blind). Put the mouse down so it's at the beginning of the trail on the paper. Use the pen to follow the trail.. That should unlock the phone.

As an alternative, once you get the new phone you could bring both phones to a Verizon store that has a repair facility in the back and see if they'll plug a screen from a damaged phone into your old one long enough for you to get the data off it. (We did that sort of thing in the cellphone stores I owned, which is one reason we never threw out old phones, unless nothing at all in them was usable.) Or Verizon may have a "data copy machine" (there are all sorts of boxes and computer programs to do it, depending on the carrier and the phone brand) that they can use to copy almost all the data from your old phone to your new one. That would also be in the repair area, most likely. (The sales associates can usually copy your contacts, but it takes more than they can do to copy files.)

 

[kagisan94]

Re: Screen is dead. Need to open on PC to copy data, but can't get through security with a dead scre

Thanks! I will start with the Verizon store, and work back to the ingenious OTG cable idea.

Thanks!

K