Can I recover data from formatted phone - Realme 6 Questions & Answers

Is it possible to recover data such as photos from internal storage after accidentally formatted Realme 6 phone

Oh heavens no
If you did there be no file index just tens of thousands of juxtaposed files like a huge digital jigsaw puzzle.
That's assuming they haven't already been overwritten and you (or $omeone) can directly interface with the chipset.

Related

Random factory reset

My phone (sk17i ) did a hard reset with a full wipe of the sd card contents. Do not know how this happened. I was at 10 percent battery, i just pressed the button on top and it just restarted and now the sd card is wiped clean but i do have my google account on the phone. This is stock firmware , stock rom , rooted with blocked bootloader, only modifications are systemui and quickpanel ( colored ) . Other root applications are Xperia Cwm Auto Installer and titanium backup. Is there a log i can look into to see what happened ?
kasmq said:
My phone (sk17i ) did a hard reset with a full wipe of the sd card contents. Do not know how this happened. I was at 10 percent battery, i just pressed the button on top and it just restarted and now the sd card is wiped clean but i do have my google account on the phone. This is stock firmware , stock rom , rooted with blocked bootloader, only modifications are systemui and quickpanel ( colored ) . Other root applications are Xperia Cwm Auto Installer and titanium backup. Is there a log i can look into to see what happened ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think there isn't any log for that action.
Are you sure you didn't doing something with your SK17i before it got fully wiped..??
By default, there is no background logging process in order to have better performance and battery life.
I did not do anything . i was just checking the battery life. so i opened the phone looked at the 10% of battery that i had left and closed it. Now- any good sd card data restoring software anybody can help me with. I need a good one , and i tried 4 until now and i can't seem to find anything on that sd card.
If the SDcard was formatted, then there is only a very small chance to restore anything.
From Wikipedia
As in file deletion by the operating system, data on a disk are not fully erased during every[17] high-level format. Instead, the area on the disk containing the data is merely marked as available, and retains the old data until it is overwritten. If the disk is formatted with a different file system than the one which previously existed on the partition, some data may be overwritten that wouldn't be if the same file system had been used. However, under some file systems (e.g., NTFS, but not FAT), the file indexes (such as $MFTs under NTFS, inodes under ext2/3, etc.) may not be written to the same exact locations. And if the partition size is increased, even FAT file systems will overwrite more data at the beginning of that new partition.
From the perspective of preventing the recovery of sensitive data through recovery tools, the data must either be completely overwritten (every sector) with random data before the format, or the format program itself must perform this overwriting, as the DOS FORMAT command did with floppy diskettes, filling every data sector with the byte value F6 in hex.
However there are applications and tools, especially used in forensic information technology, that can recover data that has been conventionally erased. In order to avoid the recovery of sensitive data, governmental organization or big companies use information destruction methods like the Gutmann method or the DoD 5220 of the National Industrial Security Program[18]. For average users there are also special applications that can perform complete data destruction by overwriting previous information. Although there are applications that perform multiple writes a single write is generally all that is needed on modern hard disk drives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From my personal experience i restore from my sd card in photocamera (fat32 like here) few 5 years photo even when i using this camera. Its becouse theses jpg files wasnt ovewrited with other. But that program was especialy designed for photo files only.
My point is i thing there is bigger chance just keep away from formating and ofc make restoring to your hard drive
Sent from my ST15i using XDA
So - for photos i used East Imperial Soft Magic Photo Recovery - did a great job, except it changed the names of the photos .
And for the other files i'm using EASUS data recovery wizard -this is the best thing ever. It recognized a ton of files and right now i'm restoring all my files.

[Q] Internal file recovery?

Ok so i have a question I am hoping you can answer.
So andorid os,
Htc amaze 4 G to be exact.
There was a factory secure wipe/factory reset done somehow and
Had photos which might have been storing to the internal storage instead of external sd.
So my question is i have tried numerous recovery softwares that usually works.
I can get all the pictures videos etc all the way back to a year ago off the external sd.
However i cant recover anything off the internal storage.
I cant even see the internal file structure.
Almost like it never existed.
is there a way to be able to scan the interanl storage?
I tried scanning what can be detected in windows but it recovers nothing from the past.

How to create full sector based Raw image backup of Atrix's 16GB disk? (NOT Nandroid)

I have this Atrix now for a few days and want to examine it. It is one of my favourite devices since it was released years ago.
I will start to tamper with it, and try custom Roms etc. But first of all i want to make a full backup of the device, so i can probably recover it fast and without hassle in the future. I also use Huawei Ideos X5 and i have full Raw backups of its 4GB emmc (2GB part is used as an internal SD originally). I backup and restore these images with the basic free program "Roadkil's Disk Image" in Windows.
As we all know, to use this program or similar disk backup programs, we have to reach the phone's whole disk (called emmc or internal card, i guess). In Ideos X5 the procedure is as follows;
1) Make sure the bootloader is unlocked.
2) Open the phone to reach the "pink screen" by pressing VolUP+VolDOWN+POWER buttons at the same time.
3) When you see the pink screen connect the phone to the PC via USB.
4) The disk is reachable now, use a sector based backup program such as "Roadkil's Disk Image" (sometimes called Forensic Copy).
OK, it's a brief explanation but clear enough, i guess. Now i want to do the same thing in Atrix, since i unlocked the bootloader and installed CM7.2 to it, 6-7 months ago, while my relative was using it.
I connect the phone to the PC in Fastboot and RSD modes, but i can't reach the disk itself. The adb and fastboot commands work, the connection is successful, but neither Windows, nor Linux Mint sees the 16GB disk. So, full Raw backup seems impossible in this manner!
I searched the Atrix forum widely, but couldn't find a solution. There are threads of making Nandroid backups or partition based backups with a different approach which i didn't try yet. For example:
"[INFO] Backup the pds partition of your Atrix!"
Link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1138220
I can learn and apply this commandline method but 4GB Fat32 file limit will probably be the base problem. Taking the backup directly to the NTFS HDD on PC can be a solution but, has anyone tried it?
It seems that, important partitions are backed up using ADB /shell commands. But i believe that full disk backups may be the best way to recover a phone in some situations. I know that backing up the whole disk including also the 10,7 GB internal SD part is useless, time and space consuming. But recovering the phone totally to a previous state is sometimes fatally important or advantageous. ie:
* Recover the phone when the IMEI is gone somehow,
* Recover the phone when the partitions are resized
* Recover the phone when partition table is corrupted or partitions are lost
* Move between your installed Roms without worrying about all the procedure, wipes, resizes, bla bla...
* ......
Anyway, here comes my main question:
Is it possible to reach the 16GB disk of Atrix from PC? If so, how?
Thanks in advance.
Be-Mine said:
I have this Atrix now for a few days and want to examine it. It is one of my favourite devices since it was released years ago.
I will start to tamper with it, and try custom Roms etc. But first of all i want to make a full backup of the device, so i can probably recover it fast and without hassle in the future. I also use Huawei Ideos X5 and i have full Raw backups of its 4GB emmc (2GB part is used as an internal SD originally). I backup and restore these images with the basic free program "Roadkil's Disk Image" in Windows.
As we all know, to use this program or similar disk backup programs, we have to reach the phone's whole disk (called emmc or internal card, i guess). In Ideos X5 the procedure is as follows;
1) Make sure the bootloader is unlocked.
2) Open the phone to reach the "pink screen" by pressing VolUP+VolDOWN+POWER buttons at the same time.
3) When you see the pink screen connect the phone to the PC via USB.
4) The disk is reachable now, use a sector based backup program such as "Roadkil's Disk Image" (sometimes called Forensic Copy).
OK, it's a brief explanation but clear enough, i guess. Now i want to do the same thing in Atrix, since i unlocked the bootloader and installed CM7.2 to it, 6-7 months ago, while my relative was using it.
I connect the phone to the PC in Fastboot and RSD modes, but i can't reach the disk itself. The adb and fastboot commands work, the connection is successful, but neither Windows, nor Linux Mint sees the 16GB disk. So, full Raw backup seems impossible in this manner!
I searched the Atrix forum widely, but couldn't find a solution. There are threads of making Nandroid backups or partition based backups with a different approach which i didn't try yet. For example:
"[INFO] Backup the pds partition of your Atrix!"
Link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1138220
I can learn and apply this commandline method but 4GB Fat32 file limit will probably be the base problem. Taking the backup directly to the NTFS HDD on PC can be a solution but, has anyone tried it?
It seems that, important partitions are backed up using ADB /shell commands. But i believe that full disk backups may be the best way to recover a phone in some situations. I know that backing up the whole disk including also the 10,7 GB internal SD part is useless, time and space consuming. But recovering the phone totally to a previous state is sometimes fatally important or advantageous. ie:
* Recover the phone when the IMEI is gone somehow,
* Recover the phone when the partitions are resized
* Recover the phone when partition table is corrupted or partitions are lost
* Move between your installed Roms without worrying about all the procedure, wipes, resizes, bla bla...
* ......
Anyway, here comes my main question:
Is it possible to reach the 16GB disk of Atrix from PC? If so, how?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
System + data (internal storage) is your 16GB. You'll backup system and your internal storage to get what you're looking for. And to the best of my knoledge, sbf'ing will do the rest. IMEI may be somewhere else, not sure. Afaik we don't have a tool to edit some advanced stuff like the latest qualcomm devices do.
Sent from my ATRIX HD using XDA Free mobile app
Sector by sector Raw image backup and restore options in Android devices!
I guess i couldn't explain the issue clearly.
The 16GB Atrix disk that i meant, is the main memory block which is exactly 15.914.762.240 bytes in total. This memory consists of 3 primary and 14 logical partitions. Some of these can be considered as the /recovery, /boot, /pds, /cdrom, /osh, /system, /cache, /data, /emmc(~11GB internal SD).... etc. partitions:
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From what i've learned from the below links;
[DEV][REF] El Grande Partition Table Reference
[GUIDE] Making Dump Files Out of Android Device Partitions
[GUIDE] How to make a nandroid backup directly to your computer without using sdcard
these partitions can be backed-up and restored within terminal emulator or ADB, with the help of the so-called "dd method" (which i will research more)!
Backup of the whole 16GB memory block is also possible regarding to these links, but restore of this whole block image seems impossible, which is the main problem!
Now, let me explain the weird situation on my ancient Huawei Ideos X5 phone. If i connect the Ideos X5 to the PC with the "pink screen" (by pressing VolUP+VolDOWN+POWER buttons), the phone's whole 4GB memory block is reachable. Eventually i can do whatever i want with the phone, because the memory block is seen as a USB disk to the Windows,Linux,etc:
Here are the possibilities that i can do (and already did) with the Huawei Ideos X5:
1) Intelligent sector copy of the recognized partitions.
Only data blocks are backed up and restored on ext2/ext3/ext4,Fat32 partitions, so the backup files are small. But the other unknown partitions can't be backed up with this method.
2) Forensic copy of the partitions.
Sector by sector Raw copy is made, so the backup file is exactly the same as the partition size. All known and unknown partitions can be backed up and restored with this method.
3) Forensic copy of the whole disk (full memory block)
The whole memory block is copied (raw backup) and restored. The image file size is exactly the same as the disk size (But can be zipped afterwards to reduce the size.)
I checked the forum widely, now i understand that the "pink screen" property is unique to the Ideos X5! Most of the devices (if not all) seem to NOT support this option. The whole memory block is NOT reachable within the Windows, Linux, etc. It's only available with ADB or within the device from the terminal emulator.
As a result, i won't be able to make full Raw image backups and restores of the whole disk of Atrix, which also seems impossible on the other devices.
If we find a method to reach the memory blocks of the devices as a USB HDD within OSes (just like in Ideos X5), then we will be able to do full backup and restores which is important in some situations as i described before. (But we may brick the devices easier also )
But i believe that full disk backups may be the best way to recover a phone in some situations. I know that backing up the whole disk including also the 10,7 GB internal SD part is useless, time and space consuming. But recovering the phone totally to a previous state is sometimes fatally important or advantageous. ie:
* Recover the phone when the IMEI is gone somehow,
* Recover the phone when the partitions are resized
* Recover the phone when partition table is corrupted or partitions are lost
* Move between your (previously) installed Roms without worrying about all the procedures, wipes, resizes, bla bla...
* ......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please share your opinions.
Be-Mine said:
I guess i couldn't explain the issue clearly.
The 16GB Atrix disk that i meant, is the main memory block which is exactly 15.914.762.240 bytes in total. This memory consists of 3 primary and 14 logical partitions. Some of these can be considered as the /recovery, /boot, /pds, /cdrom, /osh, /system, /cache, /data, /emmc(~11GB internal SD).... etc. partitions:
From what i've learned from the below links;
[DEV][REF] El Grande Partition Table Reference
[GUIDE] Making Dump Files Out of Android Device Partitions
[GUIDE] How to make a nandroid backup directly to your computer without using sdcard
these partitions can be backed-up and restored within terminal emulator or ADB, with the help of the so-called "dd method" (which i will research more)!
Backup of the whole 16GB memory block is also possible regarding to these links, but restore of this whole block image seems impossible, which is the main problem!
Now, let me explain the weird situation on my ancient Huawei Ideos X5 phone. If i connect the Ideos X5 to the PC with the "pink screen" (by pressing VolUP+VolDOWN+POWER buttons), the phone's whole 4GB memory block is reachable. Eventually i can do whatever i want with the phone, because the memory block is seen as a USB disk to the Windows,Linux,etc:
Here are the possibilities that i can do (and already did) with the Huawei Ideos X5:
1) Intelligent sector copy of the recognized partitions.
Only data blocks are backed up and restored on ext2/ext3/ext4,Fat32 partitions, so the backup files are small. But the other unknown partitions can't be backed up with this method.
2) Forensic copy of the partitions.
Sector by sector Raw copy is made, so the backup file is exactly the same as the partition size. All known and unknown partitions can be backed up and restored with this method.
3) Forensic copy of the whole disk (full memory block)
The whole memory block is copied (raw backup) and restored. The image file size is exactly the same as the disk size (But can be zipped afterwards to reduce the size.)
I checked the forum widely, now i understand that the "pink screen" property is unique to the Ideos X5! Most of the devices (if not all) seem to NOT support this option. The whole memory block is NOT reachable within the Windows, Linux, etc. It's only available with ADB or within the device from the terminal emulator.
As a result, i won't be able to make full Raw image backups and restores of the whole disk of Atrix, which also seems impossible on the other devices.
If we find a method to reach the memory blocks of the devices as a USB HDD within OSes (just like in Ideos X5), then we will be able to do full backup and restores which is important in some situations as i described before. (But we may brick the devices easier also )
Please share your opinions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, i'm getting the drift of what you are trying to do now. For that, there is a thread regarding dual booting. I'll dig that up and give you the link. For that, we dd'd via adb in recovery. I'll need to dig into my files for a bit more specifics, but hang tight and i'll get you the info i know
Sent from my ATRIX HD using XDA Free mobile app
palmbeach05 said:
Ok, i'm getting the drift of what you are trying to do now. For that, there is a thread regarding dual booting. I'll dig that up and give you the link. For that, we dd'd via adb in recovery. I'll need to dig into my files for a bit more specifics, but hang tight and i'll get you the info i know
Sent from my ATRIX HD using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, my ultimate goal is not a multi-boot. I triple-boot in my PC but i was never eager of this in Android devices. If i had very large memory blocks (32GB,64GB) in my devices, i would try it already. But i think multi-booting may negatively effect the storage partitions on Ideos X5 and Atrix (especially the /system, /cache, /data partitions ?)
Anyway, i will check that link and informations based on dual booting Atrix, comparing CM7 vs CM10 easily on Atrix can be very interesting.
But my main concern is reaching the whole memory blocks of the devices within windows/linux directly as a USB-HDD, probably with the help of a hack or a patch.
Thanks for all :good:
Be-Mine said:
Actually, my ultimate goal is not a multi-boot. I triple-boot in my PC but i was never eager of this in Android devices. If i had very large memory blocks (32GB,64GB) in my devices, i would try it already. But i think multi-booting may negatively effect the storage partitions on Ideos X5 and Atrix (especially the /system, /cache, /data partitions ?)
Anyway, i will check that link and informations based on dual booting Atrix, comparing CM7 vs CM10 easily on Atrix can be very interesting.
But my main concern is reaching the whole memory blocks of the devices within windows/linux directly as a USB-HDD, probably with the help of a hack or a patch.
Thanks for all :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the dual boot mentioning ties into the dd method.
This might be more up the alley of your main concern http://www.paragon-drivers.com/extfs-windows/
On a side note, dual booting on this device can be done on a 16GB sd card, but for space reasons (compensation for space lost to do dual boot), a 32GB is a bit more recommended for this, plus it adds a bit more memory in the process.
palmbeach05 said:
Well the dual boot mentioning ties into the dd method.
This might be more up the alley of your main concern http://www.paragon-drivers.com/extfs-windows/
On a side note, dual booting on this device can be done on a 16GB sd card, but for space reasons (compensation for space lost to do dual boot), a 32GB is a bit more recommended for this, plus it adds a bit more memory in the process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If only my issue was that simple, but unfortunately not.
The link you gave is of a basic software to work with linux file systems from Windows. I can already achieve this when needed, using similar software like Explore2fs, Ext2explore, etc.
But the case is very different. The whole memory block (disk) of the devices are not accessible as a USB disk within OSes (both Linux and windows, and also MacOS most probably) natively. The full disk is only accessible from ADB, or the phone itself. So native disk softwares can't be used, especially for full backup and restore purposes.
From what i understood from my researchs, "dd method" seems the Linux alternative to make sector based backups and restores. But even dd can't be used to restore the memory block. Because, to restore, we have to access the disk when the phone is not used , AFAIK.
That's why Huawei Ideos X5 "pink screen" option seems very rare, extreme and useful. Please take a look at the links i gave in my previous posts, you'll get what i mean.
Anyway, dual-booting Atrix is still another interesting issue to research for me.
AFAIK you can't directly map the raw Atrix eMMC to a block device on Atrix, at least not via USB, using standard tools. And you definitely wouldn't want to do this in write mode (The tegra2 on Atrix has a strict boot protocol. It's so strict that IIRC it even requires an encrypted/digitally signed boot loader which resides on the beginning of the drive. AFAIK you can't even mess with partition table).
I guess you could use a custom recovery mod for doing that if all you want is to read the eMMC as a block. The linux kernel has a mass storage gadget which can expose a block device as an usb drive. You'd need to point /dev/block/mmcblk0 to it and voila (see for instance http://www.linux-usb.org/gadget/file_storage.html). Old android uses it for mounting your storage areas when you plug it to a host usb. Newer uses other methods as you need exclusive device access for safely writing to the storage partitions.
And as you can't have read-write partitions mounted while you're playing with the same block device, and AFAIK a recovery is fine with read only mounts, contrary to a normal android boot, you could go with it. But check that e.g. /data is mounted ro, some recoveries mount it rw by default.
I think there's a way to use adb in recovery, if you can get a root console via adb then you may be able to use a standard recovery to command the usb mass storage gadget without need to customize a recovery.
Btw, I think the usb gadget only exposes the device in read-write mode, so there's nothing preventing you or some application of attempting to write to the device, and this would probably be a bad idea. So watch out if you want to do that, people got hurt for doing less hacking :silly:
@PolesApart
Thanks, you encourage me to research deeper.
But, as you already mentioned, this kind of backup/restore seems very tricky. I would check other sources and try to find a way to achieve, but i lost my ambition regarding that i have no backup phones. And i don't have time and experience to struggle with such dangerous issues.
I'm still using this Atrix as a main phone. I hope to get a Z5 Compact soon. Maybe i can go on seeking info and tests when this Atrix becomes totally idle afterwards. :laugh:
Thanks for your interest and the informations. :good:

Formated microSD in android, cant recovery files even with softwares

My microSD was almost full and I kept takeing pictures with my phone then feel day after I realize that I has noone of photos saved, then when I tried access micro sd a message shown saying that my sd was corrupted.
So I tried to use a small usb adapt with sd in windows and explorer could not show the memory properly to access it and then I realize if I format in android I could then recovery the files in windows after.
I formated to use to share files betwen pc and android, now I tried Ease, Recuva and some others recovery softwares and all of them cant show my old files even with deep scan and using the original microsd-to-sd adaptator. Tried some store apps too, they dont even run in my android.
I did not write upside the files I had but android automatically put a lot of folders inside, no one with much amount of files.
So now I ask, can a diferent software or trick take my old files back? this micro sd is old, I had important files from 2010 there. :crying:
Ive mi a3 with android 9. 16g c16g micro sd
Recovery will depend on if you encrypted the SD or not. If the SD was previously encrypted you will not be able to recover any of the files. That is kind of the point of encryption.
If you did not encrypt the SD and Recuvva failed you may still be able to recover some of the files. I had a similar issue where I knew the deleted files were on the drive and while Recuvva managed to pull a few it was not finding the one that I really needed. This lead me to looking for other recovery programs online. I Googled "apps similar to recuvva". I found a site with 10 programs like recuvva and I found one in that list that worked. I did have to try 3 or 4 to find that one but it not only found the file I needed but it found about a dozen more that I didn't even know I was missing. I would tell you which program it was but I don't remember and I uninstalled it after using it.
Best wishes.
---------- Post added at 01:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:25 AM ----------
While I have your ear, backup backup backup… I really can't say it enough. I hate to see people on here who've lost memories or important docs because they didn't back them up. Google provides so many ways to backup all for free. Google Drive will backup your docs and files, Google Photos will backup your photos and videos, Gmail Contacts will backup your contacts. Many carriers also provide backup options. Verizon Cloud will essentially backup your device similarly to iTunes. It doesn't backup your game progress and all of that, I think iTunes does, but it will backup your texts, files, settings, contacts and photos.
dionei said:
...
So I tried to use a small usb adapt with sd in windows and explorer could not show the memory properly to access it and then I realize if I format in android I could then recovery the files in windows after.
...
I formated to use to share files betwen pc and android, now I tried Ease, Recuva and some others recovery softwares and all of them cant show my old files even with deep scan and using the original microsd-to-sd adaptator. Tried some store apps too, they dont even run in my android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IMHO it mainly depends on Android SD card's filing system whether there is a chance to recover data after having formatted it. For an Android device, the compatible file system of external storage is FAT32 or exFAT.
To unformat the SD card in Android phone to get back the deleted files, I suggest you to try iBeesoft Data Recovery. It is designed for users to unformat SD card on Android phone specially.
Here are the simple steps for how to use iBeesoft Data Recovery to unformat SD card in Android phone:
Step 1. Install iBeeSoft Data Recovery software on computer
Step 2. Connect your Android device with computer
Step 3. Select "Unformat File Types"
Step 4. Select Formatted SD card to scan
Step 5. Unformat SD card in Android phone
Full guide here.
I've attached Google's USB driver (read: Android Debug Bridge - ADB-client) software for Windows computer.

Samsung Encrypted Memory card help to Decrypt

Hi all
I have a Samsung S20 Ultra with a memory card that all of my photos are saved to, unfortunately I had to take my phone into Samsung experience store for a screen / back cover repair, the staff removed my Memory card and told me to factory reset due to GDPR as the device had to be sent away, when my device returned in the post 5 days later I went to put the memory card back in and a notice appeared stating the memory card is encrypted to a different device! I am totally devastated as there are pictures of my father who has passed away and other images that they are the only copies I have, I know now I should have unencrypted the memory card before the factory reset. I have spoken to Samsung directly so say there is nothing that can be done.
does anyone know of a way I can get round this I would be so very grateful!
Thanks in advanced
Stu
The best thing I could suggest is a third party solution that may be able to decrypt the information on the card, such as FeExplorer. Check to see if you have a "Decrypt SD card" option in the Lock Screen and Security settings, although I suspect it won't be able to do it.
The problem is, the encryption key is unique and stored in user data. When data is wiped during a factory reset, the key is wiped as well, so even if the user configures the same lock settings (password, pattern, etc) they key would be different.
I am not aware of an absolute solution, but here is what I would strongly suggest you do:
If able, make sure the contents of the card are backed up. Use cloud storage such as Google Drive.
Keep the card in a safe place; maybe put it in a small envelope or something, and mark it in such a way as to discourage accidental discarding or wiping.
Buy a new SD card to use in the meantime while you look for a way to recover the information on the encrypted card.
I am sorry for your loss, and I wish I had a better answer for you.
Edit: Found this on another site, maybe it's worth a try. MAKE SURE YOU BACK UP THE DATA ON THE CARD IN CASE THIS GOES WRONG.
On a PC: Copy (the encrypted and unreadable) contents of the sd card from the phone to your harddrive
On the phone: Settings -> Storage -> Sd Card -> Format sd card (this erases all the data on the sd card but don't worry you have a copy on the PC)
On the phone: Settings -> Security -> Encrypt sd Card (should be real fast since it's an empty sd card)
On the PC: Copy the contents of the sd card onto the phone
On the phone: Settings -> Security -> Decrypt sd card (edit: this may take a while depending on how much data was on the card)
sorry but none of the above "solutions" makes any sense. it is not possible to recover data. encryption key was located /data/misc/vold and /data itself was encrypted, too. Furthermore one can't access /data aka userdata partition.
BUT... and here comes the but.. adoptable-storage usually is DISABLED in One UI
So how is it possible your MicroSD Card is encrypted at all? It's not, except you have installed custom ROM or installed any 3rd party encryption tool (you would remember)
There is a good chance your MicroSD Card is plain exFAT or Fat32 unencrypted file system. I recommend to use a card reader for PC and make a 1:1 dump with gddrescue and analyze the dump with photorec or other file carver solutions.
There exist tools for windows too, for example
https://www.klennet.com/carver
https://www.z-a-recovery.com
https://www.runtime.org
Don't buy any software if your MicroSD Card is encrypted, it will definitely not work.
You can easily check if your MicroSD Card is encrypted by opening raw disk image with HxD hex editor and search for any plain text or series of zeros. gparted or testdisk will tell you if partition table exist
aIecxs said:
sorry but none of the above "solutions" makes any sense. it is not possible to recover data. encryption key was located /data/misc/vold and /data itself was encrypted, too. Furthermore one can't access /data aka userdata partition.
BUT... and here comes the but.. adoptable-storage usually is DISABLED in One UI
So how is it possible your MicroSD Card is encrypted at all? It's not, except you have installed custom ROM or installed any 3rd party encryption tool (you would remember)
There is a good chance your MicroSD Card is plain exFAT or Fat32 unencrypted file system. I recommend to use a card reader for PC and make a 1:1 dump with gddrescue and analyze the dump with photorec or other file carver solutions.
There exist tools for windows too, for example
https://www.klennet.com/carver
https://www.z-a-recovery.com
https://www.runtime.org
Don't buy any software if your MicroSD Card is encrypted, it will definitely not work.
You can easily check if your MicroSD Card is encrypted by opening raw disk image with HxD hex editor and search for any plain text or series of zeros. gparted or testdisk will tell you if partition table exist
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when you put an SD card into a Samsung ultra it asks if you want to encrypt it through their own software, no third party apps were used
True, I realized after posting. Samsung is always bit special, they tried to think differently... In that case your data was lost in the moment of factory reset.
https://www.samsung.com/au/support/mobile-devices/how-to-encrypt-decrypt-sd-card
Stu_C said:
Hi all
I have a Samsung S20 Ultra with a memory card that all of my photos are saved to, unfortunately I had to take my phone into Samsung experience store for a screen / back cover repair, the staff removed my Memory card and told me to factory reset due to GDPR as the device had to be sent away, when my device returned in the post 5 days later I went to put the memory card back in and a notice appeared stating the memory card is encrypted to a different device! I am totally devastated as there are pictures of my father who has passed away and other images that they are the only copies I have, I know now I should have unencrypted the memory card before the factory reset. I have spoken to Samsung directly so say there is nothing that can be done.
does anyone know of a way I can get round this I would be so very grateful!
Thanks in advanced
Stu
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Hello, have an experience that my samsung device were dead and my sd card still encrypted.
Firstly, you have to backup entire data on your sd card just in case.
And then, format your sd card using another device (maybe your another android).
Last, put your sd card to windows device and recover all data with DiskDigger software.
It's work on my sd card, give it a try.. Dont forget to backup all data

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