How to Recover Data from a Damaged Mobile Phone

Losing all your contacts and data because of a simple error or accident can be disheartening. But accidents happen every day, and tons of people find themselves in this situation thinking there’s nothing to do but brush it off and get a new phone. But there are things you can do to retrieve data from a mobile phone that has suffered damage, even if the damage seems severe. Let’s take a look at what you can do to get data from a damaged phone.

Restore Data from a Backup

If you had enough foresight to use a backup service, congratulations to you, you should be able to get most, if not all of your data back. You’ll be able to get this data back on a new phone or on your current phone after it’s repaired. If you didn’t however, that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. For instance, if you have an Android phone and are using a Google account, all of your contacts can be found there. You’ll be able to retrieve them using nothing but your password.

Check Your SD Card

If you don’t have a backup for your data, then there’s always the chance that your SD card was able to make it scot free. However, note that retrieving data from a possibly damaged SD card can be risky, and you could actually end up making matters worse.

If there’s no damage, however, you can retrieve data from it in one or two ways. You can either use a card reader, or connect your phone to your PC and pray that it isn’t too damaged so you can see it as an extra drive. But still, you have to be careful using this method since making changes could actually damage your phone even further.

Data Recovery

If all else fails, then you’ll have to resort to data recovery. You have two choices there: either try to use data recovery software yourself, or work with a data recovery service. In some cases, data recovery systems will allow you to find files that your OS thinks has been deleted, but are still on the card.

However, working with a data recovery service is the best option for severely damaged phones, or if you can’t find the data using software. Companies like Secure Data Recovery, for instance, will open up your phone in a cleanroom and use the most advanced data recovery software to recover things like important files, pictures, contacts, and even messages and call history. All you have to do is drop your device at one of their locations or ship it to them. They’ll then send it back or you can pick it up with all the files once its completed.

As you can see, a damaged phone doesn’t always have to end in catastrophe. Make sure that you take the proper precautions so you don’t make matters worse, and consider contacting an expert right away if you can’t manage to retrieve the data on your own.