Copy pictures from phone with broken screen?

ak22 · 21 Apr 2018 at 20:57

My moto G5 screen is smashed and the battery came out when i dropped so i can't enter the password any ideas on how to move my pictures to my macbook?

MrRockliffe · 21 Apr 2018 at 21:04

Should be able to plug your phone into your Mac, and with android file transfer, copy pictures from the photo folder to your computer.

ak22 · 21 Apr 2018 at 21:08

MrRockliffe said:
Should be able to plug your phone into your Mac, and with android file transfer, copy pictures from the photo folder to your computer.

Thanks for the reply I have tried that but says "Could not connect to device"

MrRockliffe · 21 Apr 2018 at 21:11

That's odd - perhaps permission is needed in the device.

Have you got access to a Windows machine?

Do Motorola have their own branded file backup tool?

ak22 · 21 Apr 2018 at 21:23

No windows machine and motorola don't seem to have any software, such a shame just got back from holiday got lots of pictures...

Not sure why it does work as when i plug in the phone Android file transfer automatically loads up.

Armageus · 21 Apr 2018 at 22:24

I've got the same issue with a Moto X play - screen completely dead but need to recover some photos.

Can't use usb as you need to see the screen to put it into mtp mode or whatever to transfer files.

Coolasmoo · 21 Apr 2018 at 22:35

Try plugging in a usb mouse and using that to control the phone

Akagi · 21 Apr 2018 at 22:36

If all else fails you'll just have to fix it. It probably isnt that hard on a G5.

Sin_Chase · 22 Apr 2018 at 06:43

If you had USB debugging enabled try using Android ADB, command line but slightly more powerful than USB file transfer alone.

https://www.howtogeek.com/125769/how-to-install-and-use-abd-the-android-debug-bridge-utility/

Is the screen not showing anything or is it just input which is broken? If you can see something on the screen get a USB OTG cable and plug in a keyboard and mouse?

AndyCr15 · 22 Apr 2018 at 07:07

This might sound like I'm just being a d*ck, but I'm actually curious, is there a reason you didn't have them auto backing up?

Unfortunately I'd be a little surprised if you can just plug it into a computer and get photo's off while the phone is locked. I'd be a bit worried if it was that easy for someone to get my photos anyway. As has been said, if they're important, you might just need to get it fixed.

joey1211 · 22 Apr 2018 at 07:15

Are they stored on an SD card which can be removed?

Columbo · 22 Apr 2018 at 09:53

AndyCr15 said:
This might sound like I'm just being a d*ck, but I'm actually curious, is there a reason you didn't have them auto backing up?

Unfortunately I'd be a little surprised if you can just plug it into a computer and get photo's off while the phone is locked. I'd be a bit worried if it was that easy for someone to get my photos anyway. As has been said, if they're important, you might just need to get it fixed.

Exactly this and I know it doesn't fix your current problem but this is exactly why the Google photos app exists and is about as seemless as it could possibly be.

MrRockliffe · 22 Apr 2018 at 14:13

I was doing a bit of brainstorming, and had an idea.

Does the phone support display out via the micro usb?

You could use it to navigate the display

ak22 · 22 Apr 2018 at 16:57

Coolasmoo said:
Try plugging in a usb mouse and using that to control the phone

Can't see what I'm controlling the screen is broken.

MrRockliffe said:
I was doing a bit of brainstorming, and had an idea.

Does the phone support display out via the micro usb?

You could use it to navigate the display

Not sure good idea will look into it thanks

Sin_Chase said:
If you had USB debugging enabled try using Android ADB, command line but slightly more powerful than USB file transfer alone.

https://www.howtogeek.com/125769/how-to-install-and-use-abd-the-android-debug-bridge-utility/

Is the screen not showing anything or is it just input which is broken? If you can see something on the screen get a USB OTG cable and plug in a keyboard and mouse?

Not sure if i did will give it ago now

Edit: Didn't work

Akagi · 23 Apr 2018 at 00:16

joey1211 said:
Are they stored on an SD card which can be removed?

Obviously not...

Richy888 · 23 Apr 2018 at 06:38

AndyCr15 said:
This might sound like I'm just being a d*ck, but I'm actually curious, is there a reason you didn't have them auto backing up?

Unfortunately I'd be a little surprised if you can just plug it into a computer and get photo's off while the phone is locked. I'd be a bit worried if it was that easy for someone to get my photos anyway. As has been said, if they're important, you might just need to get it fixed.

Says he just got back from holiday and may not have had free wifi or a data plan allowing the transfer to google possibly - but I've no idea really

Still surprises me how many don't back data up. It's not 'if' you lose your data it's more likely 'when'.

Armageus said:
I've got the same issue with a Moto X play - screen completely dead but need to recover some photos.

Can't use usb as you need to see the screen to put it into mtp mode or whatever to transfer files.

From using Moto phones this is the case. Need to confirm on the phone every time you plug it in.

If you send it back to Motorola then ask them not to wipe the phone. I sent one for screen replacement back in the day and they wiped it and installed the already installed latest software version just for laughs :confused:

I'd try a high street repairer over motorola or even maybe the tech guys at Carphone warehouse who were surprisingly good recently when I used them - though this was a warranty repair.

Armageus · 23 Apr 2018 at 08:09

Richy888 said:
From using Moto phones this is the case. Need to confirm on the phone every time you plug it in.

If you send it back to Motorola then ask them not to wipe the phone. I sent one for screen replacement back in the day and they wiped it and installed the already installed latest software version just for laughs I'd try a high street repairer over motorola or even maybe the tech guys at Carphone warehouse who were surprisingly good recently when I used them - though this was a warranty repair.

I've already replaced the screen myself but still a no go, as think the damage is more severe (some water damage) - looks to be either the screen connector or possibly something else.

X Play doesn't have MHL/HDMI video out, and pretty sure ADB isn't turned on, so think I'm stuffed at recovering this one. Have tried the Micro SD in a reader, which shows some Android/Linux partitions but none of the Linux filesystem readers for Windows would touch it as I'm assuming it was set up as extended storage and thus encrypted.

Already told my sister that she should have had Photo sync turned on

Alibaba99 · 23 Apr 2018 at 11:44

The Moto G5 should have access to Android photos so all images will be automatically backed up. I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything on my G5 Plus for that to become active. After killing that phone due to large amounts of water, all photos were available on my older 1st gen G once I had sorted out the sim.

SimonCHere · 24 Apr 2018 at 09:45

I'm not tried pushing anything from the play store recently, but can you install something like Airdroid from the play store?
It might install and be set up to run automatically? then you can control the phone from your pc

ak22 · 24 Apr 2018 at 18:34

SimonCHere said:
I'm not tried pushing anything from the play store recently, but can you install something like Airdroid from the play store?
It might install and be set up to run automatically? then you can control the phone from your pc

Issues is the phone is not connecting to the PC I will take to phone repair centre.