Galaxy S6 active scrren is black, phone is locked, computer can't access files

[Jennifer Gilbert3]

So I am almost ready to give up with fixing my black screen problem but I really want to get my pictures off of my phone. I will never buy a phone again that doesn't have a micro SD slot. since my screen is black ( resets are not working) I can't unlock the phone. When I plug it into my computer, it can't see the files on the phone until it is unlocked. That means my pictures are locked on the phone. Any suggestions on how I can circumnavigate this block?

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[B. Diddy]

Try this method: http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...de-accessing-locked-phone-cracked-screen.html

Also, you don't really need an SD card if you turn on Google Photos Auto Backup: https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6193313?co=GENIE.Platform=Android&hl=en. The photos are much safer in the cloud than on an SD card, because SD cards fail, too.

 

[SpookDroid]

Unfortunately there's a reason secure lockscreens are called that: they're secure. Unless you unlock the phone, you can't access its contents. If the phone still has connectivity, you can try to unlock it either from the Google Play Device Manager (using the same Google account on the phone) or, if set up, the Samsung account via Samsung's FindMyMobile.

If you have connected it before, using SideSync on your computer should display the screen on your desktop, allowing you to unlock the screen using your PC's keyboard/mouse.

A last resort is using an HDMI cable (via MHL) to watch the screen on a TV IF the screen is still responsive to touch, but I'm not sure if the S6 was still MHL-compatible or not.

I really hope you can get access to your photos and retrieve them. For next time, however, may I suggest using a cloud back up? There are many out there that are free and most will keep your pictures/videos safe with little to no compression, so SD card or not (SD Cards are highly unreliable, as Alex Dobie can attest to) you still have your pictures safe no matter what, and what's more, available anywhere and on any device.
Five things I learned traveling with the Galaxy S7 edge | Android Central

 

[Jennifer Gilbert3]

Unfortunately my lock is a swipe pattern lock and not numbers so that first article that B. Diddy pointed me to didn't work. There were a number of people that had teh same issue as me commenting there asking if there was a way to use a similar method with a swipe pattern but no one was able to answer that question.

From the android device amnager it seems that you can lock your phone, but not unlock. Unfortunately I have never used sidesync before (but thanks for letting me know about it, I will in the future) so I think I am SOL. There is no way for me to get teh pin or scan the QR code to initiate the connection. Frustrating.

I'll take both of your cloud storage suggestions into consideration. Thank you.

 

[Phoneguy108]

Did you try contacting Samsung tech support yet?

 

[SpookDroid]

Didn't the swipe pattern ask you for a back up password? I'm not sure if it's just fingerprint that does this, but anyway, using SideSync you can use the mouse to emulate your finger on your PC to unlock a swipe pattern. If you could see the screen, you could also use a wired mouse connected directly to the phone via an OTG adapter, but I guess that's not the case here since you say your screen is black (unless you know the motion accurately and emulate it with the mouse without seeing the screen).

Try using SideSync anyway... I don't remember it asking you for a PIN or QR Code. Might kick in automatically and let you see the screen on your PC.

Also, if you activated a Samsung account to your phone, go to findmymobile.samsung.com I just checked and you can remotely unlock a device from there.

 

[B. Diddy]

Oh, I thought you could use a USB mouse to try duplicating the swipe pattern.:-\

 

[Phoneguy108]

Didn't the swipe pattern ask you for a back up password? I'm not sure if it's just fingerprint that does this, but anyway, using SideSync you can use the mouse to emulate your finger on your PC to unlock a swipe pattern. If you could see the screen, you could also use a wired mouse connected directly to the phone via an OTG adapter, but I guess that's not the case here since you say your screen is black (unless you know the motion accurately and emulate it with the mouse without seeing the screen).

Try using SideSync anyway... I don't remember it asking you for a PIN or QR Code. Might kick in automatically and let you see the screen on your PC.

Also, if you activated a Samsung account to your phone, go to findmymobile.samsung.com I just checked and you can remotely unlock a device from there.

System will ask for PIN backup to pattern lock yes