Summary: A physically damaged phone doesn’t mean your data is entirely lost and can’t be recovered. In this blog post, we share the best DIY methods to recover photos from your broken or damaged Android phone.
Contents
Jack couldn’t believe that his one grand Galaxy S10 was a goner… it had just ‘slipped off’ his hand and hit the ground hard. Lying dead on the floor with a cracked screen, the S10 made a painful sight. But the next moment he realized that he was in for deeper trouble…the precious family photos on his phone were supposedly lost forever…Anger and grief swept his mind.
You may be able to replay a similar situation, with worrisome thoughts of losing your treasure trove of photos stored on a broken phone.
But first, are the photos even recoverable from a broken phone?
The answer is, that it depends. A physically damaged phone doesn’t mean total data loss. However, the successful recovery of photos (and the method) would largely depend on the kind and extent of damage to your phone.
Data from a severely damaged Android phone can be retrieved best by professional data recovery service providers in their specialized labs. However, there are do-it-yourself tools and techniques that can help you recover photos from a broken phone.
Watch this video to understand how to recover photos from a broken phone.
So, before you take your phone to a mobile data recovery center, try out the following DIY methods to recover the photos from your broken or damaged Android phone.
DIY Methods to recover photos from broken Android phone
Method 1: Use AutoPlay to retrieve photos
Works in the situation:
- You can see the display but the touch is not working
- Smartphone screen is cracked
- Touch is not working
- Display is black
- USB slot of your phone is working
Utilize the AutoPlay feature on your computer to get the photos from your broken Android phone. For this method, the USB slot of your phone should be working, as it requires connecting a USB cable for the purpose. The USB debugging should be enabled so that you can connect the phone to a Windows PC via USB cable.
Steps to recover photos from broken phone with USB debugging enabled:
- Connect your broken/cracked phone to the PC via USB cable
- AutoPlay window appears on PC. Click Open folder to view files
- As the files from the broken phone appear on your computer screen, select, copy and paste the photos to your computer at another location
However, if the USB debugging is Off, you can see nothing on the screen when you connect your phone to the computer. In that case, just use an OTG cable for connecting your Android phone to a mouse and then control the operations of the broken phone with the mouse. Your phone should support an OTG cable for the same.
- Simply connect your Android phone to an OTG cable.
- Connect the mouse to the cable.
- Then recover photos and other media files from the broken phone.
If the photos are saved to an SD card, then remove the SD card from the broken phone and insert it into another working smartphone.
Method 2: Recover photos from Google Drive
Works in situation:
- You can see the display but the touch is not working
- Phone screen is cracked
- Display is black
- The phone has hung or frozen
- Phone is broken badly
- The backup and sync with Google Drive is enabled
Google Drive backup and sync feature allow you to access the photos on all your synced devices. You can easily recover broken smartphone photos on your computer with the help of Google Drive.
The app stores all your photos saved on Android phone including Gallery pictures and those shared via WhatsApp messages app etc.
Steps to restore Android pictures from Google Drive:
- Open Google Drive on your computer in Chrome browser
- All the photos stored on phone appear. Right-click on photos and download on onto your computer
Method 3: Use Stellar Photo Recovery software
Works in situation
- Phone’s display is not working
- Phone screen is cracked
- Touch is not working
- Display is black
- Phone has hanged or frozen
- SD card is present in your phone
Almost every Android phone has the SD card option to store photos and videos. If your photos were saved in the memory card, use an SD card photo recovery software — Stellar Photo Recovery. The software retrieves pictures from the broken Android phone’s storage card. It can also recover deleted or lost photos from damaged, corrupt, formatted, and inaccessible mobile phone SD cards.
Stellar Photo Recovery can retrieve photos from memory cards of all Android phones including Samsung, Nokia, Redmi, Sony, HTC, LG, etc.
Carefully take out the mobile SD card from the slot of your broken phone and follow the given steps.
Steps to retrieve photos from broken phone SD card:
- Download, install and launch the trial* version of Stellar Photo Recovery on your PC or Mac
- Connect the phone SD card to the computer via a card reader
- Select your SD card from the location window. Click Scan
- Click Recover
- Once the scan is completed, Preview all your recoverable photos.
- Activate the software and Save the photos at your desired location
*The trial software scans the media and shows a preview of all the recoverable files. Once you are able to ascertain the effectiveness, you can save the recoverable files by activating the software.
Problem:
SD card of your broken phone is inaccessible or asks to format when you connect it to the computer.
What you can do
Do a Chkdsk scan on your computer as per the steps given here. If the card is still inaccessible or throws formatting errors, recover the photos by using Stellar Photo Recovery. The software can detect
corrupt, damaged, inaccessible, or formatted SD cards and foster recovery from it. Once you restore photos from the SD card, format them to reuse.
Steps to perform Chkdsk scan
- Go to Windows Start and type cmd in the Search box
- Right-click cmd and select Run as Administrator
- A command prompt opens,
type chkdsk < SDXC card drive
letter>:/f (e.g., chkdsk E: /f) - Hit Enter
To Sum Up
Physical damage is a possibility with any smartphone, no matter how much claim is made around their evolving sturdiness. The screen is made of glass and therefore fragile (maybe a few degrees lesser with tempered glass protection, etc.). But, a physically damaged phone shouldn’t bother you about losing the photos stored on the phone. Of course, a damaged pricey device will burn a hole in your pocket, but an emotional comfort is that the photos can be salvaged.
The various DIY photo recovery methods shared in this blog post are worth trying before approaching a professional service provider. To recapitulate the methods—
- Try retrieving the photos from your broken Android phone by connecting it to the computer through a USB cable;
- Use Google Drive backup (if available) which is a convenient option to restore the mobile phone pictures;
- Try out Stellar Photo Recovery software to get back the photos stored on your phone’s SD card.
If these DIY methods don’t work, then visiting a professional Android mobile data recovery expert should help.
About The Author
Sumona is a tech blogger, avid photographer, & technogeek with vast experience in writing about media file recovery tips and tutorials. She has over 10 years of experience in media file recovery/media file repair technology. She is passionate about Photography, Creative Designing, Music, and Exploring lesser-known destinations.
I can’t see the screen. It is all black. I can’t see the button to click allow because of blacked out screen.
Hi Marian
Use the AutoPlay feature given in this post, to get the data from your broken Android phone.
Hi. I dropped my Samsung s6. Old phone I know but it did the job. Total black screen. Connected USB to no avail. You talk about Google Drive to recover photos? Never heard of it before. Did I have to save them to this Google Drive in order for me to retrieve them?? I’ve never done this. Last thing do I need a laptop to access google drive or can it be a smart phone instead? I’m so very grateful for any advice offered. Many thanks indeed.
Hi Joeanne,
If you have a Gmail account, you automatically get access to Google Drive. You can find the app on your Samsung phone and access on it. You don’t need a laptop for this.
Hello. I have Realme 1 that is completely broken now (touch doesn’t work & distorted screen shows up). Though it’s USB is working but when I connect it to my laptop the mobile asks for options of normal charge or share files/photos which is by default selected to normal charge and for looking all those files in my laptop I need to click on share files in my mobile that is not possible 🙁
Does Realme has its own cloud storage? If I login from new Realme phone with same id can I retrieve my photos back?
Also will I be able to use otg with mouse to use my broken phone?
Use Stellar Photo Recovery software if your photos are saved in SD card of your Realm mobile.
Realm Cloud is available only if you have installed the cloud disk and then opened it to back up the data.
You can also use the data cable to connect the mobile phone to the computer and use the mobile assistant installed on the computer for backup and recovery.
Hope this helps!
is there anyway to get files off of my phone that wont stay on for long? it keeps dying and barely holds a charge.
Hi Max, Please follow the ways as we discussed in our blog. For more information, you can contact our support through email support[@]stellarinfo.com or call at +1-877-778-6087. Thanks!
Accidentally, my android phone screen broken and I need couple of my holiday picture which I capture from my phone. Solution 2 is helpful for me to retrieve photos from google drive. Thank you very much!
Hi Jon, Thanks for reading our blog and sharing you valuable feedback with us!
Thanks for discuss this issue on your platform, I had this issue with Samsung S9 and unable to get access due to the phone broken. This post help me to restore the mobile phone images!
Hi Holger, Thanks for reading our blog and sharing your feedback with us Keep reading for the next update!
I had a Huawei mate 9 and accidentally the broken screen. Can I get my pictures off it?
Hi Benjamin, I would like to suggest the best ways you can easily recover broken smartphone photos on your computer with the help of Google drive. Kindly follow the given steps as we mentioned in our blog. Thanks!
I formatted my SD card and lost all my photos and everything. What should I do? Please help!
Hi Craig, Yes, you can recover your photos and videos with the help of our software. If the SD card not overwritten our software definitely recover your files. Thank!
This information is helpful for me! I had also the same problem with my Samsung galaxy S6 was broken. Then I lost all useful data on it. Thanks for given the useful methods to retrieve at least photos from Google drive.
Glad to found it helpful Emily! Keep Reading!
Hi, I had an android phone with a cracked screen, I wanted to retrieve my pictures and voice memos due to screen unresponsive so my computer won’t see it. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi David, I suggest, you need to connect your phone to pc via USB. Try our software demo version and see the preview of deleted or lost file. Thank you very much!