Hi all!
I've been researching this for the past few days. I recently dropped my Nexus 6P and it broke the LCD display. Google voice commands still work and I was able to unlock it with a USB OTG cable, so it appears that the only thing that's broken is the display. Of course, I didn't have USB debugging, Developer Mode, or it set up as an MTP device. I've only had the phone for a couple months so it's not a big deal but I would like to get my pictures back if at all possible. I know almost 0 things about android development, but am fairly tech savvy so I'm trying, here.
I have Android Development Studio with the Google USB Driver installed. Plugging the phone in via USB shows a "Nexus 6p" device with no files on it. I've gone through some tutorials but always get stuck at the "adb device" part.
I get the following from running commands:
Code:
C:\Android\Sdk\platform-tools>adb.exe devices
List of devices attached
C:\Android\Sdk\platform-tools>fastboot devices
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX fastboot
C:\Android\Sdk\platform-tools>fastboot oem unlock
...
FAILED (remote: unknown command)
finished. total time: 0.031s
I think I am able to boot my device into recovery mode, but that hasn't helped as of yet.
Would appreciate any and all advice. Thanks for taking a look. Don't worry, I immediately set up my new phone in case I'm ever in this situation again. Take it from me... set it up now
OK so fastboot is for the bootloader and adb is for either recovery or the system itself.
You also won't type .exe after it either. Boot up your phone and unlock it then type "adb devices" into the command prompt. If that doesn't work (since you mentioned USB debugging is off) try from stock recovery. I'm honestly not 100% sure this will work TWRP is the 1st thing on my phone's. I don't mess with stock, but it's worth a shot. Reboot while holding volume up and it should bring you to stock recovery. Wait a few seconds and then hold the power button and quickly press and release volume up and then let go of both buttons. Do this plugged into a PC since when you enter the bootloader you get the little noise that plays. That way you know when it actually reboots and when to try the button combos. Now run "adb devices" again and it should show "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX recovery"
From there just try adb pull.
"adb pull /storage/emulated/0 c:/Users/YourUserNameHere/Downloads"
Obviously in the path above, you'd enter your own username and entirely change the path to wherever you want your data saved. The above pull command will take your entire internal storage, all files if it works.
Hey Roy,
Thanks for posting. Still no luck getting it to show up on the device list. Followed your instructions and got a connected noise for the boot screen, then unconnected noise and connected noise again when I held the power button and pushed the volume up button, then released. So I think I got it into recovery mode but still no dice. Any other ideas on things I could try?
ahalbert said:
Hey Roy,
Thanks for posting. Still no luck getting it to show up on the device list. Followed your instructions and got a connected noise for the boot screen, then unconnected noise and connected noise again when I held the power button and pushed the volume up button, then released. So I think I got it into recovery mode but still no dice. Any other ideas on things I could try?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly if you fully booted into stock recovery and adb still isn't working, I'm not sure there's a way to enable Android debugging at this point. Maybe someone else could chime in, but I think you'd need to get your screen replaced at a local repair shop.
RoyJ said:
Sadly if you fully booted into stock recovery and adb still isn't working, I'm not sure there's a way to enable Android debugging at this point. Maybe someone else could chime in, but I think you'd need to get your screen replaced at a local repair shop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's too bad. Thank you for the advice though!
I briefly took over another thread where this issue didn't belong, but since I am still having issues, I thought I would start my own thread. Okay, so I am on Sprint, sideloaded several of the updates, including most recently the Oreo Beta. I have been very happy with the beta, and was looking forward to the update due this week. However, yesterday evening I dropped the phone on the sidewalk and it cracked very badly, and as I am paying insurance with Sprint I want to bring it to a store and have it fixed. Not only is the screen badly cracked, but the keyboard is acting up a bit also.
Anyway, I was getting advice on the Oreo thread about how to do this, and as I said, I had hijacked the thread, but I was at work and didn't get to try this until tonight when I got home. Anyway, I had originally plan to just find the Ota and sideload it, but it was recommend that I use flashall and the full image file from the Essential site. I tried to do that, but when I restart the phone to get into Bootloader mode, it disappeared from the list of devices visible on my desktop and via adb. It was a bit disturbing to me as I am not used to working in Bootloader, previously did anything like this via recovery, and I wasn't sure how to exit the bootloader, but I chose power off, and saw a weird screen with what looked like a coffee cup, and eventually the phone rebooted and seems unchanged at the moment.
I still want to revert to the sprint nougat before I bring the phone in, but I admit I am a little nervous now about the best way to do this. I could use some suggestions. I hope this post is not too long-winded, but I wanted to explain as much of what has happened as possible.
maltydog said:
I briefly took over another thread where this issue didn't belong, but since I am still having issues, I thought I would start my own thread. Okay, so I am on Sprint, sideloaded several of the updates, including most recently the Oreo Beta. I have been very happy with the beta, and was looking forward to the update due this week. However, yesterday evening I dropped the phone on the sidewalk and it cracked very badly, and as I am paying insurance with Sprint I want to bring it to a store and have it fixed. Not only is the screen badly cracked, but the keyboard is acting up a bit also.
Anyway, I was getting advice on the Oreo thread about how to do this, and as I said, I had hijacked the thread, but I was at work and didn't get to try this until tonight when I got home. Anyway, I had originally plan to just find the Ota and sideload it, but it was recommend that I use flashall and the full image file from the Essential site. I tried to do that, but when I restart the phone to get into Bootloader mode, it disappeared from the list of devices visible on my desktop and via adb. It was a bit disturbing to me as I am not used to working in Bootloader, previously did anything like this via recovery, and I wasn't sure how to exit the bootloader, but I chose power off, and saw a weird screen with what looked like a coffee cup, and eventually the phone rebooted and seems unchanged at the moment.
I still want to revert to the sprint nougat before I bring the phone in, but I admit I am a little nervous now about the best way to do this. I could use some suggestions. I hope this post is not too long-winded, but I wanted to explain as much of what has happened as possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just an FYI, I found that putting Oreo on the phone resulted in ADB not working 100% anymore, such as attempting to reboot into recovery/etc. It would just reboot back into the O.S..
Here is what I did to flash the stock firmware.
- download the current release you want to flash. (e.g. NMJ32F), then unzip it into a new folder.
- on your phone, verify that USB debugging and OEM unlocking are turned on in the developers menu.
- reboot your phone into the fastboot mode (power and volume down buttons)
- from your adb command line: type: fastboot flashing unlock
- This will make your phone show a new screen asking if you want to unlock the bootloader. Use the volume down to select YES, and hit the power button. It will now reboot and erase the phone. It will eventually end up booting up too request you setup the phone. (that is what it did for me.)
- reboot the phone back into the fastboot mode (power and volume down buttons)
- you should now see the bootloader listed as unlocked (vs locked)
- from your adb command line: type: fastboot devices (which should show your phones serial number and fastboot next too it.
- on your computer, using the command line, go to the unzipped folder of the NMJ32F build you downloaded
- in the folder there is a batch file you will run called flashall.bat. run it
- your phone will start flashing the NMJ32F build
- when it completes it will reboot a couple of times, erase the phone, and end up at the "lets get started" screen.
- reboot the phone back to the fastboot mode
- from your adb command line: type: fastboot flashing lock
- select the option to lock your bootloader. The phone will reboot/erase I believe, and then end up back to the "lets get started" screen.
- after you setup your phone, you can go back into the developers menu to turn off the oem unlocking
The above steps pretty much follow essentials instructions. (the essential instructions don't give some specifics.)
You are all done. (I recommend you review my instructions and the essential instructions carefully, don't copy paste commands as I may have spelled something wrong, etc.. Just wanted to give you a flow of the process.)
I was following those directions, but what happens is that though the phone appears as a device in adb before rebooting, once I reboot into fastboot mode, it is no longer listed. I also noticed that when tried to reboot the phone into bootloader mode with an adb command, instead, it did a regular reboot, and when it did that reboot, it again was no longer listed as a device, because it went into charging mode. So I'm not sure how to keep this from happening.
maltydog said:
I was following those directions, but what happens is that though the phone appears as a device in adb before rebooting, once I reboot into fastboot mode, it is no longer listed. I also noticed that when tried to reboot the phone into bootloader mode with an adb command, instead, it did a regular reboot, and when it did that reboot, it again was no longer listed as a device, because it went into charging mode. So I'm not sure how to keep this from happening.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason why the adb command (to go into bootloader mode) didn't work is it is broken when you installed Oreo, that is why you need to do it manually.
When you put your phone into fastboot mode (power button / volume down) plug in your phone into your computer, and from command prompt (make sure you are in the adb folder), type fastboot devices (don't type adb devices) and see if anything replies back.
kbonnel said:
The reason why the adb command (to go into bootloader mode) didn't work is it is broken when you installed Oreo, that is why you need to do it manually.
When you put your phone into fastboot mode (power button / volume down) plug in your phone into your computer, and from command prompt (make sure you are in the adb folder), type fastboot devices (don't type adb devices) and see if anything replies back.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, I understand now. I can't start this tonight, but I will try the again next time I have time at the desktop.
You are probably missing the phone's driver. Download this, Essential device driver for Windows machines. Supports 32/64 bit on Windows 7, 8 and 10., from the essential developer site and install it.
damn it, I read somewhere that there are problems while using adb on the current official beta. There was a command for getting connection again. But I can't find it right now.
Just to be clear. when the phone is on, you enabled USB debugging and plugged in the USB cable and checked the tickbox before you granted debugging access, right? If you don't check the box, there is no access granted after a phone reboot.
take care, I had problems getting through the initial phone setup after I did a factory reset. The Oreo beta still has some hickups. I got it to work after a few reboots. Without finishing the intial phone setup you can't enable USB debugging, you know.
emowing said:
You are probably missing the phone's driver. Download this, Essential device driver for Windows machines. Supports 32/64 bit on Windows 7, 8 and 10., from the essential developer site and install it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point on the driver, I wasn't even thinking about that.
Well, my phone was being read when I previously sideloaded updates, so I think I have the right drivers, but I will double check. Can anyone suggest why the phone keeps defaulting to charging mode rather than file transfer every time I reboot it?
maltydog said:
Well, my phone was being read when I previously sideloaded updates, so I think I have the right drivers, but I will double check. Can anyone suggest why the phone keeps defaulting to charging mode rather than file transfer every time I reboot it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's a typical android habit. charging mode is default.
did you checked the tickbox when debugging window is appearing?
iceman#1 said:
that's a typical android habit. charging mode is default.
did you checked the tickbox when debugging window is appearing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes.
iceman#1 said:
that's a typical android habit. charging mode is default.
did you checked the tickbox when debugging window is appearing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I did, thanks.
F
iceman#1 said:
that's a typical android habit. charging mode is default.
did you checked the tickbox when debugging window is appearing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I did, thanks. Trying to reply and it doesn't appear. Edit: Sorry for the multiple posts,they all appeared at once.
Okay, I am back to this now, I had time today. I installed the windows drivers from the Essential site (I am running Windows 10 64 bit) and the device was recognized in fastboot devices. The phone wiped my data and restarted with a setup screen. So far, so good. So I shut down the phone again, turned it on again in fastboot mode, it was unlocked. I went into a CMD screen and typed fastboot devices, and the phone was still listed there. So I opened windows explorer and got to the folder where I had unpacked the image files and also copied the flashboot file. I right-clicked the flashall.bat file, chose run as administrator. When I did this, I got a bunch of error messages that went by so fast, they were practically impossible to read, though they seem to say something about files not found. I didn't see any log file in the folder, so I guess they are not created. I went back to the Essential site and downloaded the zip file with the correct image files again and tried a second time, with the same results. Anyway I have wiped my phone, but still have not reinstalled the Sprint nougat software I need on this phone. Any other suggestions?
Okay, I tried again, and I was able to read the error message. They all said cannot load "filename" no such file or directory. It sounds like some kind of path error, right? I expanded the file from the Essential download for build Build NMI81C into their own directory, a subdirectory of a library where I have been keeping various android files, and I copied the flashboot file into the same directory from the platform-tools download, but only that file. That seems to be what instructions specify.
Also, I notice on this thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/essential-phone/development/stock-7-1-1-nmj20d-t3701681/page3 it mentions also using the command "fastboot flashing unlock_critical" but I do not see that elsewhere.
I was able to get flashall to run using the command prompt instead of Windows Explorer. It seemed to run okay, except a couple of items cause me some concern.
I got a message "FAILED (remote: Flashing is not allowed for Critical Partitions)" for the abl.img file.
And the other command "Did you mean to fashboot format this ext4 partition".
Are either of these a problem?
Try running the commands one at a time. Open the flash-all.sh in a text editor and copy the commands.
As I said in my last message, I was able to get Flashall to work when I ran it in the CMD prompt rather than in windows explorer (which is how it was done in the video posted on Youtube, but didn't work for me). My only concern at this point is whether I should be concerned about the two commands posted in the email.
Interestingly enough, my phone did an update to the build NMJ32F as soon as I started it up.
maltydog said:
As I said in my last message, I was able to get Flashall to work when I ran it in the CMD prompt rather than in windows explorer (which is how it was done in the video posted on Youtube, but didn't work for me). My only concern at this point is whether I should be concerned about the two commands posted in the email.
Interestingly enough, my phone did an update to the build NMJ32F as soon as I started it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did u not do the flashing unlock_critical?
Airwolf79 said:
Did u not do the flashing unlock_critical?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I didn't. It was not mentioned by anyone but me in this thread until you did.
So far I have received no error messages since I did the reversion to stock. As I said,
I did get an update almost immediately.
I realize there are many other threads on this, bear with me please, I was not able to find a solution that works.
-display is broken, shows light but nothing else
-digitizer is 99%? broken, back and menu buttons work, there is some heptic feedback in upper part of the screen
-phone does not have a lock pattern or password, just swipe to unlock
-voice commands work
-phone was rooted a long time ago, I don't recall the mehod, I think the current OS is likely 4.4 but i'm not sure (is there a way to check)?
-I had a custom recovery on it which i think was CWM, again, not sure how to check this now
-I can install apps via web appstore
-At some point I installed a clockroot app (never worked) it's probably still on the phone
-I don't have OTG, ordered one
-I don't want to order a new digitizer
Here are somethings that kind of work and some that don't
-dr.fone shows a USB debug promt with instructions on how to accept the RSA key. I'm guessing USB debugging mode is on but it's not the same computer
-if I have the device in download mode, it is "sometimes" recognized by dr.fone, just says its in download mode and asks to reboot
-if I have the device in recovery mode (i think), it's not recognized at all, does not even show up in device manager
-when phone is just on, it's recognized by the computer, I can browse and backup files (i need to backup google auth app)
-with phone on, its recognized by windows and adb, adb says the device is not authorized.
-however adb does not recognize it if I boot into recovery
I think my best best to just to push the rsa key to the phone in recovery but I'm stuck because the phone is not recognized. I will try re-installing drivers next but I doubt this will help.
Lastly, I wasn't sure if I really do have CWM installed or its stock recovery. So I tried to flash CWM using Odin, with phone in download mode, recognized by Odin, the flash fails with an auth error, i'm reading that might mean the phone is not rooted which is 100% not the case here, maybe the rootclock app is doing something to it.
Any advice?
I'm starting to recall the rooting process a bit and I'm fairly sure I used safestrap method, as I was on 4.4.2-4 NJ something kitcat at the time. So I may not have CWM installed after all.
little bit of progress to report. I'm fairly certain i have safestrap recovery on this phone. So booting into recovery must have been bringing me to the safestrap screen that needs a screen tap to recovery or continue. If I hit power it reboots, if its only 2 options recovery or continue to normal boot, volume down move me to the other option, + power....now adb detects the phone! in sideload mode, lets see if I can do something with this, fingers crossed.
no luck, sideloading seems useless. How can i get myself into recovery!?
I think if I can push the adb rsa key I would be set to use one of the screen mirroring apps. How can I sideload it in?
Hi guys,
the phone is from my sister and it got hit by some tool from her (ex-) husband. The screen has been hit on the left side with destroying the battery too. So I have NO display, NO Touch. Latest Android (I think 7.0.1) is installed. The phone has never been tampered with and all is stock.
Because of all the photos from kids and cat she asked me to rescue the photos from it - and then the fun began.
Of course I bought a used A3 2016, but the display showed just static crap. A new display spare part did the same ...
The mainboard seems to be working ok - I am with Apple Phones only because my employer tells me to
It is for almost a year now, and I cant get to the photos.
So far I've read that I should root the device so I could access the filesystem to just simply save the jpgs. Of course no USB-debugging enabled the phone is locked with a patternlock ...
Problems so far: I cant get the phone into Download-Mode - it seems to bee booting through and after 30-40 secs my PC recognizes the device as it should, but the file folder is empty.
I can get into recovey-mode, and there I'm stuck. I can use "get update by adb" and adb shows me, that the phone is in sideload-mode but any upload ends with an error at 0% ...
Total factory reset could be an option, because I think I can recover most of the files from internal storage, right?
So I decided to ask the PROs and ask for help and/or ideas here ...
Thanks for reading !
How would you recover the files if you factory-reset the device? Are they not saved in standard locations? If yes, a factory reset will remove all normal user-files.
Are you able to get into an ADB shell from recovery mode? ("adb shell" command)
If you can get a shell, you could navigate to the directories and download ("adb pull <file>") the files to your PC.
I believe you could get a shell from TWRP. If you can flash the recovery with TWRP and boot into it directly via console (unfortunately I don't have a command handy), then you might be able to access the shell, too. (Take this with a grain of salt, but it's better to try it before doing a factory reset.)
Do you know if the storage has been encrypted? If so, then forget everything I wrote.