Accidents happen all the time and all too often this means a cracked touch screen on a device that holds a lot of your important files, sensitive information and treasured memories. If you have recently shattered the screen on your laptop, smartphone, tablet or another essential device, or the device has simply stopped responding to touch, you might be feeling frustrated and as if there is nothing left for you to do to retrieve your lost data.
But don’t panic just yet! There is no need to assume that your contacts, messages, photos, and other precious files are lost for good. Fortunately, several solutions now exist to recover data and files from a device with a broken screen. These methods will help you get back to your cherished data and files for business in no time. Read on to see if one of these data recovery methods can help you get back what you need from a malfunctioning device.
Try Using Your Device’s Backup To Restore The Data
One of the best ways to recover data from a device with a broken screen is to know how to restore the data from a previous backup. This particular method is an almost foolproof way to retrieve essential data quickly and efficiently.
However, the backup method doesn’t work after an incident has occurred and the screen stops working. Preventative steps would have had to be taken before an accident occurs. So, if you have backed up your files, you’re in luck! If you haven’t, you might want to skip ahead.
How To Retrieve Data From A Previous Backup
There are several different ways to backup your devices, and most devices have methods made especially for them.
Apple devices have iCloud and iTunes for backups, whereas Android devices can use a Google account. Dropbox and Google Drive also make great places to back up your files.
When the files on your device are backed up to another storage platform, all you have to do when your screen breaks is simply download the data onto a device that works or open them via the platform you used to back up your device.
If you have recently backed up your device that is now being dysfunctional, you can easily access your important information here. If your data has not been backed up recently, you might not be able to get all of the data that you want back with this method.
Connect Your Device To A PC With A USB Cable
If you’ve not backed up your data previously or your backup doesn’t contain your most recent data, you might want to try this method. Connecting your unresponsive device to a computer using a USB cable is an easy way to retrieve the data on the device.
If you are hoping to access files on an Android phone with a broken screen, you must have enabled USB debugging on the broken device. This setting must be enabled before the incident because you now won’t be able to use the screen to turn it on. If you have enabled this setting, you can easily recover the data on the Android device using a USB cable connection. Connect your Android phone or tablet to a computer using the USB cable and follow the steps below.
How To Retrieve Data Using A PC & USB Cable
- Once you connect your device to a PC using a USB cable, you can go to File Explorer and click “this PC.”
- Next, you have to find the device by name and then click “internal storage.”
- From here, you should be able to find and copy specific files such as music, photos, and videos, from the broken device and onto your computer.
Try Using A USB On-The-Go To Access Files On Your Broken Device
If a touchscreen device becomes unresponsive, you can try using a USB On-The-Go (OTG) cable with a mouse to access the data on the device with the broken screen. When it is plugged into your smartphone, the USB OTG will allow you to connect to external devices, such as a mouse.
Using a computer mouse connected to your phone via a USB OTG is an excellent option for you if you can still turn on the screen of the broken device and see what is happening on the display. Even though you cannot use the touchscreen, the USB OTG method makes it possible to maneuver around the display and adjust the settings using a mouse.
How To Retrieve Data Using A USB OTG
- Connect a USB OTG adaptor to the device that requires data recovery.
- After you connect this side, you just have to connect a computer mouse to the other side of the adaptor.
- This connection makes it so you can easily use the mouse in place of the touch screen and drag files around on the device.
- After connecting to a Wi-Fi network or turning on the broken device’s Bluetooth function, you can transfer files to a computer or cloud platform.
Take Out Your Cracked Android Phone’s SD Card
If the data you need to recover is from an Android device with a cracked screen that no longer functions, make sure you try checking out the phone’s SD card to solve your problem. Recovering data from an Android smartphone can be straightforward if the data is stored on the phone’s SD card.
Certain Android phones allow you to go into the storage settings and choose “SD card” as the preferred photo storage method. If you have turned this setting on, there is a high chance that you can get back the files you need when your screen stops functioning correctly.
How To Retrieve Data By Removing An Android SD Card
- To locate and access the files on the SD card, remove the SD card out of the phone and plug it into your computer.
- When removing the SD card, you should check your phone’s settings to see if there is an option to remove the card safely.
- The SD card in your phone will be a microSD, so you will need an adaptor to plug it into your computer.
- Once the card is properly plugged into your PC, you can open the card’s storage using File Explorer.
- All that is left to do is copy the files you need over to your computer or another storage device.
Use Data Recovery Software
There are plenty of free and paid data recovery software tools out there that you might consider using to access your vital information. You can use these tools to get files off of a device with a broken touch screen when the other options fail to work. You can use this software to gather files that exist within your device and, in some cases, the software is powerful enough to search for deleted files within a device, too.
For Android phones, you can use EaseUS Mobi Saver or PhoneRescue for Android, which are popular options among Android users in need of data recovery. There are also many iPhone data recovery software that you can use to try to recover data from a broken phone, including Dr Fone and ApowerRescue. However, it’s worth noting that data recovery attempts should not be made without the necessary knowledge. If you’re ever in doubt, turn to a data recovery specialist.
Many of these data recovery tools have helped users with broken devices recover essential data. However, a machine can be so severely damaged that the software still has trouble finding some or all of the data you wish to retrieve. If this is the case for you, it might be time for you to try a specialised service with a team of professionals to help you get back that tricky data.
How To Recover Data Using Data Recovery Software
- Download your tool of choice to your computer.
- After you have successfully gotten the program onto your computer, connect your broken device to the computer using a USB cord.
- From here, you should follow the steps that the software tells you, which usually involves getting the software to recognize your connected device and then scan it for the files.
- Now, you can recover and copy the precious data you thought you lost directly to your PC!
Turn To Datraction To Ensure Safe Recovery Of Your Data
If the data you need recovering is extremely important or needs to be recovered quickly, Datraction is here to help. Using Datraction’s data recovery specialists can save you both time and stress if you are struggling to retrieve your essential files. We have gotten valuable data back from even the most complicated data recovery cases and can help you too. Get a quote from Datraction today for efficient and affordable data recovery.
