Hi everyone!

My friend's phone got wet, really wet. The local repair shop dried it out and got it working - up to a point. Everything seems to work EXCEPT getting past the lock screen!! He is getting another phone and just wants to recover everything - especially his contacts. The internal and external SD are visible when connected to laptop so I have managed to recover photos, music, text files but the contacts are troublesome.

the phone is not rooted, nor is USB debugging turned on and he did not back-up to Google... So commercial recovery programs seem to be no use...

So my thoughts are:

1. Anybody know of a way to extract contacts with USB debugging off and no rooting?

2. Temporarily replace the screen so that I can slide the lock open, turn on USB debugging and proceed from there...

Any thoughts appreciated. Also I have no idea of the make or model of the phone, nor the version of android its running!!! Photos of phone below.

Sorry about the title... Ghosts edited my Topic Title... I have asked Mods to fix it!! Thanks!!

Sorry about the title... Ghosts edited my Topic Title... I have asked Mods to fix it!! Thanks!!

Topic title has now been edited.

Was it synced with a google account ?

If so https://www.google.com/contacts/

Just an idea, connect a mouse via OTG if the touch screen doesn't react.

Was it synced with a google account ?

If so https://www.google.com/contacts/

Unfortunately, as I stated in the OP, no Google back-up.

Just an idea, connect a mouse via OTG if the touch screen doesn't react.

I would like to try this... I assume I would need to get some sort of adapter to connect a standard USB mouse to the phone, correct?

This one:

Just ask for an "OTG adapter"

Just an idea, connect a mouse via OTG if the touch screen doesn't react.

I would like to try this... I assume I would need to get some sort of adapter to connect a standard USB mouse to the phone, correct?

Just a micro USB adapter

If your friend set up the Android Phone with an email address, and if he ever had WiFi or 3G Internet connectivity, it's possible that Google automagically synced the contacts to that account ... though usually you have to invoke by checking it off as an option in the Google Account options in System Settings.

Couldn't hurt to log into the account via a PC and look. He does remember the email and password used to set up the phone, doesn't he? (most sheeple don't remember or care) which makes me sad.

Connect via samsung kies, give that a go..

Also great suggestion about trying a mouse

Put the sim card in another phone and see how much is in contacts there. I store in both the phone and the sim and the contact list app shows what looks like double entries but they are not really as they are stored in two places.

Connect via samsung kies, give that a go..

Also great suggestion about trying a mouse

The pictures in the OP doesn't look like a Samsung phone. Kies will only work with Samsung phones. Different drivers are used by different companies. USB drivers are hardware specific for Android devices on a PC.

Put the sim card in another phone and see how much is in contacts there. I store in both the phone and the sim and the contact list app shows what looks like double entries but they are not really as they are stored in two places.

This is an issue android needs to solve. Who wants to see double contacts, especially when the sim card one is often truncated. Android should allow the user to specify which contact list to use.

Ok, to try and help the OP, there are PC programs for backing up phone data, including contacts. Might want to give one of those a try.

And when the friend gets his phone sorted out, and presubably has a new phone, there are backup programs for saving the contact list in a separate file. This is what I do and once saved, I copy to my PC.

The app I use is called Super Backup. All this talk of contact backup makes me realize I need to make a current backup of my own contacts.

I see it's a TRUE phone so I presume a TRUE account. If he entered contacts to his SIM, then a TRUE office might be able to recover them. AIS was able to provide most of mine when I lost a phone years ago.

Put the sim card in another phone and see how much is in contacts there. I store in both the phone and the sim and the contact list app shows what looks like double entries but they are not really as they are stored in two places.

This is an issue android needs to solve. Who wants to see double contacts, especially when the sim card one is often truncated. Android should allow the user to specify which contact list to use.

Ok, to try and help the OP, there are PC programs for backing up phone data, including contacts. Might want to give one of those a try.

And when the friend gets his phone sorted out, and presubably has a new phone, there are backup programs for saving the contact list in a separate file. This is what I do and once saved, I copy to my PC.

The app I use is called Super Backup. All this talk of contact backup makes me realize I need to make a current backup of my own contacts.

The phone does allow me to select if I want to see only the 1 or 2 sim or the phonebook only, but it also allows to see all - I just leave it on all. The presented double entry have a colored mark with sim icon blue for dtac green for AIS and blank are the phone book copy. It reminds me to make a copy to other sim if I don't see all three.

Put the sim card in another phone and see how much is in contacts there. I store in both the phone and the sim and the contact list app shows what looks like double entries but they are not really as they are stored in two places.

This is an issue android needs to solve. Who wants to see double contacts, especially when the sim card one is often truncated. Android should allow the user to specify which contact list to use.

Ok, to try and help the OP, there are PC programs for backing up phone data, including contacts. Might want to give one of those a try.

And when the friend gets his phone sorted out, and presubably has a new phone, there are backup programs for saving the contact list in a separate file. This is what I do and once saved, I copy to my PC.

The app I use is called Super Backup. All this talk of contact backup makes me realize I need to make a current backup of my own contacts.

The phone does allow me to select if I want to see only the 1 or 2 sim or the phonebook only, but it also allows to see all - I just leave it on all. The presented double entry have a colored mark with sim icon blue for dtac green for AIS and blank are the phone book copy. It reminds me to make a copy to other sim if I don't see all three.

I had a phone with 'options' for displaying contacts, but no matter what I selected, everything always showed up. I eventually gave up and erased what was on the sim to save me the grief of looking at double entries.

Just an idea, connect a mouse via OTG if the touch screen doesn't react.

I would like to try this... I assume I would need to get some sort of adapter to connect a standard USB mouse to the phone, correct?

Just a micro USB adapter

Micro USB adapter.jpg

He might have one. I got 2 with my latest phone. One plugs into my car charger and the other plugs into my laptop or into a wall charger - either.

He might have one. I got 2 with my latest phone. One plugs into my car charger and the other plugs into my laptop or into a wall charger - either.

I think, you confuse something....

We are talking about an "OTG adapter", not a standard USB to MicroUSB cable.

Got one today (OTG) will try it later tonite!

If your friend set up the Android Phone with an email address, and if he ever had WiFi or 3G Internet connectivity, it's possible that Google automagically synced the contacts to that account ... though usually you have to invoke by checking it off as an option in the Google Account options in System Settings.

Couldn't hurt to log into the account via a PC and look. He does remember the email and password used to set up the phone, doesn't he? (most sheeple don't remember or care) which makes me sad.

When you lost data from android .The first thing that you need to stop your android phone or did not add new data on android .If the data be overwritten ,you will not recover lost data.

A good lesson for us all, to backup phone data regularly

If it's only the touchscreen that isn't working, then a MicroUSB mouse/keyboard should do the trick.

Or maybe ask True how to replace the touchscreen?