Question OTA update bricked phone!! (sorta)

William 5

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Oct 4, 2018
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Hello i am making this post out of desperation :mad:.

i own a Samsung A35 bought through a US carrier. A few months back i dropped it and the screen went black and never worked again even though it wasnt cracked. A little while later i bought a non genuine screen and replaced it and it worked perfectly fine.

Until today ive ignored the OTA updates and for some reason decided to let the device update today. First update went fine, second update went fine. On the third update and the phone rebooting the touch screen no longer registered any touches. I know the update caused this as the phone never left the desk and worked fine on the previous 2 updates.

So for some reason the samsung update caused my non genuine screen to stop responding to touch. My idea was to flash back to an older update (if possible, didnt get that far) but i wanted to save all my data and picture before i did that. I was simply going to plug an OTG mouse in and use the device that way and backup the data.

The issue here is the phone does not allow an ADB connection (debugging is enabled and the PC's RSA fingerprint is allowed) nor an OTG connection to any keyboard or mouse unless the device is unlocked using the PIN.. i have no way to input the pin. I was not using the Samsung find my device feature so i cant remotely unlock with that and the google find my device does in fact see the phone but does not give an option to unlock remotely.

Is there anyway else i can physically get the pattern entered so i can use an OTG device to back up my data? Any help at all is greatly appreciated.
 
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From what version to which? You can't always go back.

Either way, it's hosed. Look at your Google Drive/Photos of anything is backed up.

Only option that may still not work is factory reset and lose everything. Or replace the screen with a genuine one, likely won't work either.

Take the loss, learn from not backing up your files.
 
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Details..
From what version to which? You can't always go back.

Either way, it's hosed. Look at your Google Drive/Photos of anything is backed up.

Only option that may still not work is factory reset and lose everything. Or replace the screen with a genuine one, likely won't work either.

Take the loss, learn from not backing up your files.
why exactly wouldnt replacing with OEM work?

I have attempted hotswapping displays to no avail so im curious why an OEM display wont work? I can get device to boot with old OEM and non genuine just fine but it seems to know when hotswapping and i cant get display at all on non genuine after a hotswap from OEM unless i boot phone with non genuine already hooked up.

I have very important authenticator data on the device. I can live without the pictures but i cannot live without the data
 
Because if for whatever reason the display tripped Knox, I don't know why it would but Samsungs been in stupid mode, it's irreversible.
Like my raincoat.

Samsung uses A/B now but used to old school blindly overwrite files. If it overwrite any system files related to the display, that file now correlates to the display you have now. It could say non-genuine screen and bricked your phone. Or it could say genuine screen needed, don't display until replaced.
Thats theoretical and unlikely to be the case.

By the time you pay for a genuine screen, you might as well just get a new phone especially as it isn't guaranteed to fix your issue. A factory reset might be needed for the genuine one to work if at all.

I also don't remember how the A series behaves but Ultras remember if you trusted the host for ADB. That further means something either got FUBAR or maybe your Windows is being dumb. Try a different port and cable. I haven't cross flashed in a long time but don't remember having to unlock the phone to send commands.

To summarize a new might or might not work, you may need to factory reset regardless on top of that. If ADB is rejected, you are really SOL.
 
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