Droid Razr Screen Cracked and Unusable, Need To Retrieve Information

[cmarkus123]

Hello everyone,

A few weeks ago my Motorola Droid Razr was stepped on and the screen was cracked. It worked for a few days after it happened but it finally decided to completely stop working. The actual display is cracked underneath the glass, so I'm pretty sure it is also not responsive to touches either. I have many pictures on it (on the internal memory) that I am hoping to recover, but I haven't been able to figure out how. When I plug it into my laptop (Windows 7 but also have access to Mac with 10.5 Leopard), three devices show up in My Computer: 'CD Drive (G) MotoCast' and two Removable Disks (H and I). When I click on either of the two Removable Disks, I get the message "Please insert a disk into Removable Disk (x)" I'm not quite sure what exactly this means for my chances of recovering the data, but if anyone could steer me in the right direction on how I might go about recovering the pictures and such it would be great

 

[FoxKat]

Actually, if the "display" glass is cracked, but the front "digitizer" glass is still intact, you may be able to use HDMI output to a monitor and have complete touch screen control. Connecting to a computer should give you file transfer capability, but I don't understand why it's asking you to insert a card, since the cards are already there. The Internal SD Card is hard-soldered to the board, and the External SD Card is the one in the slot on the side of the phone.

Sent from my A210 using Tapatalk HD

 

[cmarkus123]

Actually, if the "display" glass is cracked, but the front "digitizer" glass is still intact, you may be able to use HDMI output to a monitor and have complete touch screen control. Connecting to a computer should give you file transfer capability, but I don't understand why it's asking you to insert a card, since the cards are already there. The Internal SD Card is hard-soldered to the board, and the External SD Card is the one in the slot on the side of the phone.

Sent from my A210 using Tapatalk HD

Thank you for your reply FoxKat. Yes unfortunately both the glass digitizer (the external glass you touch I'm assuming you're referring to) and the display underneath are cracked. I actually did attempt using an HDMI to see if I could get anything but didn't have any luck with that. And yes I'm curious about that too I can't figure out why it's asking to insert them when it is already detecting them

 

[tapenick]

I'm in the exact same boat! I have a Droid Razr with a damaged display (the glass didn’t crack, the digitizer behind it did) that I’d like to get the pictures, etc off of. I plugged it in to the USB port of a computer, but cannot access the data. Drives E: (MotoCast), F:, and G: show up... E: shows the MotoCast install files and F:/G: say "Please insert a disk". I’m not sure if it’s because the phone isn’t unlocked? Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Miklb58]

I'm no expert, but I dropped my phone and cracked the front glass (digitizer?). The damage was mostly in the lower left quadrant. No visible damage to the LCD. Right afterwards, I discovered that if I pinch the phone on the top left corner, the phone would immediately shut off dead. I bought a non working phone off eBay and replaced the screen and all is good.
My point here is that breaks in the screen (glass or LCD) can apparently cause some short circuit I guess. Maybe your data is all in there and retrievable if the screen were fixed....??
Just a thought...

 

[JMont]

Ok, I have the same phone, same issue. Both lcd and digitizer are cracked and unusable, so video output thru the hdmi to my tv screen simply shows the unlock screen which I have no way of getting around since I have lost all touch screen capabilities.

So my question is how do I deactivate the security screen on my phone, without the use of the touch screen? I believe once I do this my computer will then be able to recognize the internal drive and allow me to retrieve data off the phone via usb. I think what I'm looking for could be two things: (1) an external digitizer/lcd that plug and plays (i would hope) and would allow me a secondary touch input screen, or (2) a program similar to a winternals commander that installs on a computer and hacks into the phone thus bypassing the security screen. Any one come accross either of these?

 

[Marce]

Mine got broken as well, both touchscreen and digitizer - it's a RAZR HD (XT925) - and PIN protected.

Back in the days where Android used to support the Mass Storage Mode, solving this would have been as easy as plugging the phone to a PC with the USB cable.
But latest Android releases no longer support the Mass Storage Mode - replaced with MTP, and this is when media contents are not displayed on PCs until the PIN is entered.

I was about to give up searching for a solution to retrieve the contents of the internal memory when I thought that I was actually needing another pointing device.

Then I remember having read that within each of our Droids is a full featured Linux core, in most cases, containing many drivers for several devices.
So I decided to try the following:

These elements are needed:
- the wrecked Droid: it must support USB Host Mode (this comes right out of the box in stock version of the latest devices)
- HDMI capable external display
- micro HDMI cable
- USB On the Go cable
- micro SD
- USB mouse!

An these are the steps:
- insert the micro SD into your Droid's external card slot
- plug your Droid to the HDMI display using the micro HDMI cable
- turn your Droid On
- plug your USB On the Go cable to your Droid
- plug your USB Mouse to the other End of the USB On the Go cable

After a few seconds, you will find a mouse pointer showing on the HDMI display.
You will be able to move the pointer, right click and drag as you would normally do with your fingers on the screen.
Then, input your PIN and unlock the screen.
After that you will be able to access your Internal Memory contents with the File Manager app of your preference.
Copy anything you need to the micro SD.
And finally - if needed, delete from the internal memory any of your contents you would rather not leave there (e.g: in case you are sending your Droid for Repair)

It worked really nice for me.

I hope this helps you too!

 

[marino454]

Has anyone else tried this method? I just ordered the cables to try this out as I'm desperate for my files as well. Just a quick note though, the reason that the drives are showing up blank for most people is that they likely have encryption enabled in their security settings. My issue is that I can't access any of the files on my SD card because it's encrypted....I sure hope this works!

Mine got broken as well, both touchscreen and digitizer - it's a RAZR HD (XT925) - and PIN protected.

Back in the days where Android used to support the Mass Storage Mode, solving this would have been as easy as plugging the phone to a PC with the USB cable.
But latest Android releases no longer support the Mass Storage Mode - replaced with MTP, and this is when media contents are not displayed on PCs until the PIN is entered.

I was about to give up searching for a solution to retrieve the contents of the internal memory when I thought that I was actually needing another pointing device.

Then I remember having read that within each of our Droids is a full featured Linux core, in most cases, containing many drivers for several devices.
So I decided to try the following:

These elements are needed:
- the wrecked Droid: it must support USB Host Mode (this comes right out of the box in stock version of the latest devices)
- HDMI capable external display
- micro HDMI cable
- USB On the Go cable
- micro SD
- USB mouse!

An these are the steps:
- insert the micro SD into your Droid's external card slot
- plug your Droid to the HDMI display using the micro HDMI cable
- turn your Droid On
- plug your USB On the Go cable to your Droid
- plug your USB Mouse to the other End of the USB On the Go cable

After a few seconds, you will find a mouse pointer showing on the HDMI display.
You will be able to move the pointer, right click and drag as you would normally do with your fingers on the screen.
Then, input your PIN and unlock the screen.
After that you will be able to access your Internal Memory contents with the File Manager app of your preference.
Copy anything you need to the micro SD.
And finally - if needed, delete from the internal memory any of your contents you would rather not leave there (e.g: in case you are sending your Droid for Repair)

It worked really nice for me.

I hope this helps you too!

 

[ccervantes]

lcd? just screen?

Actually, if the "display" glass is cracked, but the front "digitizer" glass is still intact, you may be able to use HDMI output to a monitor and have complete touch screen control. Connecting to a computer should give you file transfer capability, but I don't understand why it's asking you to insert a card, since the cards are already there. The Internal SD Card is hard-soldered to the board, and the External SD Card is the one in the slot on the side of the phone.

Sent from my A210 using Tapatalk HD

My razr hd happened to crack in the middle of the screen and had the black inky spots on it an now it's the whole screen where it won't show anything , although! The touch still works I can unlock it and move around it because I know my phone , even with the cracks screen making the whole screen black , I was wondering if this is just the glass screen I can get way cheaper or if its the lcd screen?

 

[nattylite]

Has anyone else tried this method? I just ordered the cables to try this out as I'm desperate for my files as well. Just a quick note though, the reason that the drives are showing up blank for most people is that they likely have encryption enabled in their security settings. My issue is that I can't access any of the files on my SD card because it's encrypted....I sure hope this works!

Hey, I'm having the same problem as everyone else here - like this user, I'm about to buy all the cables for the method outlined above because my screen is cracked and I can't do or see anything. (I know the phone works however because I see the green light blinking on the top of the phone.)

I'm just curious if anyone else tried it and it worked. Let us know!

 

[marino454]

Hey, I'm having the same problem as everyone else here - like this user, I'm about to buy all the cables for the method outlined above because my screen is cracked and I can't do or see anything. (I know the phone works however because I see the green light blinking on the top of the phone.)

I'm just curious if anyone else tried it and it worked. Let us know!

I ended up using a different method. I bought a motorola lapdock and was able to access everything on my phone.

this is the one I bought, and consequently sol, to do what I needed to do:

Motorola Lapdock 100 for Motorola Smartphones Bionic RAZR Maxx Atrix 2 DROID4 | eBay

 

[FoxKat]

Great suggestion. Sometimes the most obvious solution is the hardest to see. Monitor broke... Try another monitor!

On second thought... I may have to get one for myself. Oh damn... My MAXX doesn't have HDMI out. I guess Chromecast is an option for that.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

[JonnyCage]

I have read almost every post on this wonderful site to help me with a similar problem. I cracked the LCD and the screen went black. Digitizer dead. Pictures of the kids held hostage by a pattern lock. :-( After scowering the interwebs, I stumbled upon a FREE file viewer that ignores the passlock!!!

Check this out!

MyMobiler Android Keyboard & Display

 

[nattylite]

MyMobiler not working,

I have read almost every post on this wonderful site to help me with a similar problem. I cracked the LCD and the screen went black. Digitizer dead. Pictures of the kids held hostage by a pattern lock. :-( After scowering the interwebs, I stumbled upon a FREE file viewer that ignores the passlock!!!

Check this out!

MyMobiler Android Keyboard & Display

Hey - I posted earlier, but I haven't had time to come back and investigate my phone situation until now.

In any case, I tried this method of using "MyMobiler", but it didn't work. I downloaded the program and opened it, but when I connect the cracked phone to the computer with a USB cable, and I click on the icon in the right-hand desktop tray, it keeps popping up and saying, "Unable to connect to your device (USB)" Did you get this message? If so, how were you able to overcome it?

I looked at the option to buy a lapdock - hmm, it looks expensive and I'm still worried my phone is just completely wonky. It seems like you were able to get a good deal for $33 bucks. Sigh.

Also, can someone please translate this statement? "My MAXX doesn't have HDMI out. I guess Chromecast is an option for that."

Thx. I don't know what to do....

 

[FoxKat]

Chromecast is a new wireless video output that works in conjunction with a dongle that plugs into the HDMI input of a TV or monitor and received the video broadcast from your phone via WiFi. See http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromecast/?gclid=CJfHusW5jrsCFSHNOgodHWQAIA for more information or to purchase Google's version of the dongle.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk