Android data recovery for photos and contacts on a dead phone.

Signs you need this repair

Sound familiar? The diagnosis is always free.

• The phone won’t turn on and the photos weren’t backed up
• The screen is broken so badly you can’t unlock it
• The phone got wet and now won’t boot
• Stuck on the logo or restarting in a loop
• Google Photos or Samsung backup was turned off
• Contacts and messages that were only ever saved on the phone

Check your backups before you pay for recovery

It’s worth five minutes to see if your data is already safe. From a computer or another phone, sign in to your Google account and check:

• Google Photos for photos and videos that were backing up.
• Google Contacts for contacts saved to your Google account.
• Google Drive for phone backups and WhatsApp chat backups.
• Samsung account and OneDrive, if you used Samsung Cloud. Galaxy gallery sync moved to Microsoft OneDrive a few years ago.
• Your microSD card, if your phone has one (many Galaxy A models do). Take it out and try it in a card reader.

Android’s own backup to your Google account can also include text messages and call history, if it was turned on. If everything you need is there, you may only need a regular repair, or a new phone.

Why Android data recovery works differently

Modern Android phones encrypt everything on their storage. The keys are tied to that phone’s own hardware and your lock screen PIN, pattern or password. Pulling the memory chip and reading it in another device, which worked years ago, doesn’t give you usable files today.

So recovery means repairing the original phone until it boots, unlocking it, and copying your data off. That might mean a temporary screen, board-level repair, or cleaning corrosion from a water-damaged phone. It also means your passcode is needed. You can unlock the phone yourself or share the passcode. We never bypass lock screens or Google account locks.

What we can recover from, and what we can’t

• Usually recoverable: broken screens, water damage, phones that won’t turn on because of a board fault, boot loops, and phones with a failed charging port.
• Not recoverable: phones that have been factory reset, phones where the passcode is lost, phones locked to someone else’s Google account, and phones where the storage chip itself is destroyed.

We tell you honestly after the free diagnosis which side your phone is on.

How recovery works and what it costs

We diagnose the phone free and tell you what it will take to get it running, and the price, before any work. Once it boots, you unlock it or give us the passcode, and we copy your photos, videos, contacts and other accessible files. We agree with you beforehand how you want the data returned.

Data recovery starts from $149. A phone that only needs a working screen to unlock costs less than one with a corroded board or several failed parts. No fix, no fee: if we can’t get your data, you don’t pay for the recovery. Book on the booking page; for a dead phone, also see board repair.

Many recoveries end with a fully repaired phone. Sometimes the phone only needs to run long enough to copy everything off. We’ll explain which applies, and you decide whether to repair it fully.

Broken screen, but the phone still works?

If the phone rings and buzzes but the screen is black or won’t respond to touch, your data is probably intact. Getting it off is the hard part. Android won’t share files with a computer until the phone is unlocked and you allow the connection on screen. If the picture works but touch doesn’t, a USB-C mouse can sometimes get you through unlocking and backing up.

If the screen shows nothing at all, the quickest route is usually a screen repair. Then you back up the phone yourself. That often costs less than a data recovery.

Don’t make it harder to recover

• Don’t factory reset the phone from the recovery menu. That erases your data permanently.
• Don’t keep plugging in a water-damaged phone to see if it wakes up.
• Don’t let anyone run unlock tools on it or open it to swap chips.
• Keep the phone, its microSD card and its SIM together and send them in as they are.

Mail it in from anywhere in the US

No repair store near you? Book online and we'll email a free, prepaid, insured shipping label. We diagnose it within 24h of arrival, repair it once you approve the price, and ship it back insured. How mail-in works.

Questions

Written and checked by the repair team at Charlotte Tech Repair, repairing devices in Charlotte since 2013. Updated November 2026.