Falang help needed on crashed cellphone art photo archive

[papersource]

Hi, 

 

I have known and have been buying some paintings from an artist at Chatuchak weekend market for 15 years now. The last 4-5 years he could never sell me any new paintings because he always pre-sold them in Paris and Australia for big money. But since Covid happened I have got a few and talked to him about his older paitings from 10 years ago that I remember and the memories of are still stuck in my brain. They were so great!
 

So, he told me that he saved all his paintings for the last 15 or 20 years on his phone. But his phone crashed and he took it to some IT people and they said that nothing could be recovered. He is obviously devastated  by this. he is not a tech guy and trusted his phone memory. 
 

But I do not believe that the photos can not be recovered. . If the CIA or FBI had this cellphone they would know a way to recover the photos for sure. 
 

So can anyone help to guide me as to where to take this phone to get back those photos. I have actually been thinking of taking the phone to the government computer crimes lab and begging for help but think there must be a better way. I just do not know how to do this. And also I want these photos in order to preserve them in book form. Money is absolutely no object but I do not know where or how to start. Can anyone out there help me on the path to recovering these photos. thanks so much, roger

[johng]

Where the photos stored in the actual phone memory ( not user removable)  or on a removable SD card ?

[Eindhoven]

Shall we guess the model of phone?  Such fun...

[tomazbodner]

Hopefully phone doesn't look like this:

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by tomazbodner

[RichCor]

If it was an android phone AND they had WiFi available sometime during active ownership then it's possible that the photos were automatically updated to the phone's registered gmail account:

 

https://photos.google.com

 

Just need to log into that user account** and use a standard web browser to see what (if anything) been uploaded and stored in "photos" or the photos "archive". 

https://accounts.google.com/AccountChooser/signinchooser?flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=AccountChooser 

 

 

**Many users don't know / don't remember / don't care about their smartphone's user setup account, or don't keep the same gmail address when moving on to a new phone. Shame. Browser access is a quick method of adding/editing/deleting contacts, calendar, todo, passwords, photos, etc. on the account.

 

[KhunHeineken]

1 hour ago, papersource said:

So, he told me that he saved all his paintings for the last 15 or 20 years on his phone.

I'm not sure that smartphones have been around that long.  Is this information correct?  Maybe he had someone place the photos on his phone for him.  If that's the case, that person may still have a copy of his photos.

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by KhunHeineken

[papersource]

Ok, I will see him saturday and ask about this. Any other advice is appreciated.
 

here is the last painting if his that I have seen to show you how good he is that is paintings are worth preserving:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by papersource

[OneMoreFarang]

If money is not an issue then contact a professional data recovery company. Something like this:

Data Recovery Singapore | Data Recovery Service Centre in SG

 

The last time I checked, which is already a couple of years ago, there was no professional company like that in Thailand. Maybe that changed.

 

Warning! If it is really important and money is no issue then go directly to a professional company and expect a 4 digit USD bill. Any not so professional company who claim they can do it or who try to recover the data might make things worse and then really nothing can be recovered anymore. Go to the expensive professionals if you really want it!

[papersource]

No, unfortunately, every painting from the last 15 years or so was on that phone. I am not a tech guy. It was an android and not apple.
 

Lots of great paintings from Thailand and Chinatown. Lost. I will ask him about logging in to google to check if google saved some of them. 
 

but I wanted to ask if anyone knows of a place where you can take the memory card of the  cell phone(i am stupid and do not even know if they are called this)to look at it and see what is on it like at the government computer crimes lab would do? I understand that it is a big job but do not know where to start..

[OneMoreFarang]

1 minute ago, papersource said:

No, unfortunately, every painting from the last 15 years or so was on that phone. I am not a tech guy. It was an android and not apple.
 

Lots of great paintings from Thailand and Chinatown. Lost. I will ask him about logging in to google to check if google saved some of them. 
 

but I wanted to ask if anyone knows of a place where you can take the memory card of the  cell phone(i am stupid and do not even know if they are called this)to look at it and see what is on it like at the government computer crimes lab would do? I understand that it is a big job but do not know where to start..

If it is a memory card then it's relative easy to try. I did that a week ago.

But if it's no separate memory card but the chip in the phone then things get a lot more complicated.

I am pretty sure if it would be a memory card then the guys in MBK etc. would have recovered the data already.

[papersource]

Onemorefarang, wow i am amazed that you could come up with that recommendation. That is exactly what I was looking for! But it looks like I have to wait a few months to go to see them due to covid. Or maybe not. And maybe it can be shipped to them. I will talk to them and talk to him. And try and set it up. 
 

you are a rockstar. If I ever complete my goal of preserving this artists paintings in book form I will acknowledge your contribution and send you a copy to say thank you.

best, roger

[OneMoreFarang]

8 minutes ago, papersource said:

Onemorefarang, wow i am amazed that you could come up with that recommendation. That is exactly what I was looking for! But it looks like I have to wait a few months to go to see them due to covid. Or maybe not. And maybe it can be shipped to them. I will talk to them and talk to him. And try and set it up. 
 

you are a rockstar. If I ever complete my goal of preserving this artists paintings in book form I will acknowledge your contribution and send you a copy to say thank you.

best, roger

Thanks!

I work with computers since forever and I had a couple of clients who needed professional data recovery over the years. So I knew what to search for.

 

I guess there should be no problem that you send the phone with a courier service to that company.

 

I think their prices depend a lot on how fast you want the result. I.e. if you want it within a day you pay a lot of money. If you have a week or two time then the same service cost a lot less.

[KhunHeineken]

I still think you need more information.

 

If the phone is very old, it would not have had much onboard storage, and if the phone is not so old, whilst it would have more onboard storage, photos from 15 years ago would have had to be transferred across. You need to ask by whom, and how were they transferred.

 

I would ask more questions before posting to Singapore.

 

If the photos were stored on an SD card inside the phone, put it into a card reader and then into a computer and see what you can find.   If you are incapable of this, take the SD card to a computer shop and explain the situation.  If the photo are still there, buy a USB stick of them and ask them to copy for you.  

[KhunHeineken]

10 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Thanks!

I work with computers since forever and I had a couple of clients who needed professional data recovery over the years. So I knew what to search for.

 

I guess there should be no problem that you send the phone with a courier service to that company.

 

I think their prices depend a lot on how fast you want the result. I.e. if you want it within a day you pay a lot of money. If you have a week or two time then the same service cost a lot less.

I agree with your advice, but I'm not quiet sure we are at that stage yet.   

[Pravda]

2 hours ago, papersource said:

Ok, I will see him saturday and ask about this. Any other advice is appreciated.
 

here is the last painting if his that I have seen to show you how good he is that is paintings are worth preserving:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great painting. 

 

How much do you normally pay?