How to extract data from an Android phone with a broken screen

Almost everyone has been through situations like cracked screens, water-damaged phones, and blank screens that won’t respond. When these inevitable events occur, it’s usually not the phone itself that causes the most panic, it’s the thought of losing what is stored on the device. Fortunately, if the underlying hardware is still intact, it may be possible to extract your precious data even if the screen is broken.

Extracting the data from an Android device with a broken screen is simple enough if the data is stored on an SD card. You can simply eject the card and slot it into a computer. However, the list of phones with expandable storage has shrunk in recent years. Android also doesn’t use external storage for many critical files, including contacts, messages, call logs, app data, pictures, and audio files. This leaves you with no recourse but to find a way to access your phone’s interface. Here’s what you can do to access data from a phone with a blank screen.

Extract data with a USB-C dongle and external display

If your Android phone only has a damaged screen, you can try accessing it via an external display, like a monitor or television. This will allow you to completely bypass a broken display. However, keep in mind that this solution might not work with all devices. Some lower-end smartphones still use USB 2.1, which does not have enough bandwidth to support video output.

The good news is that many mid-range and high-end Android smartphones and tablets are starting to support display-out over USB-C. A handful of manufacturers, including Samsung, HUAWEI, and Motorola, also offer a full-fledged desktop mode when you connect your phone to an external display. But even among those brands that don’t offer this feature, many will clone your smartphone’s display to an external monitor or TV when plugged in.

Assuming your phone is one of the many compatible with USB video-out, you’ll simply need a USB-C to HDMI adapter along with an HDMI cable. On top of that, if your Android’s touchscreen functionality is also broken, you’ll need to connect a keyboard and mouse. In that case, pick up a multi-port USB-C dongle that includes both HDMI and full-sized USB ports. Once you have everything, follow these steps:

• Connect the USB-C end of the dongle or adapter to your damaged Android device.
• Connect one end of an HDMI cable to the adapter and the other end to a display. Your phone’s interface should show up on the external display.
• Plug-in any other peripherals to the adapter’s USB port, if needed. You can also connect a USB flash drive if you’d like to offload your files to it.
• Now, it’s only a matter of unlocking the device and either copying the files to an external storage or uploading them to a cloud service like Google Drive.

If you own a Samsung device, you may see a gray lock symbol when you connect your device to an external display. This prevents you from entering your lockscreen pattern or PIN. If you use a PIN to unlock your device, you’ll have to connect an external keyboard, press the Spacebar key, enter your PIN, and finally press Enter. Unlocking with a pattern is a bit more complicated. You can try double-clicking the phone’s power button to open the camera app. Then, pull down the notification shade and tap the Settings icon. This should prompt you for a pattern on the external display, which you can input via an external mouse.

Unfortunately, if your phone doesn’t support video output over USB-C, you have no choice but to repair it. In the future, consider setting up timely and automated backups on your Android phone.