Rescue data from broken phone?

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Hello,
on 15.05.2025 my phone Xperia 10 II was fallen down at beton stones. I had threaded my belt bag with phone onto my belt the wrong direction and it open in down direction :sob:.
It happened while I was walking to my car. :tired_face: I was shocked in the first moment. The protective glass was broken like a spider net but the most of the damage was blocked.
Unfortunately, the AMOLED display was broken in the middle. Now, the screen was black, and the touchscreen also donā€™t work.
What now? I tried to recover all the data via USB that evening. I was pretty successful, but unfortunately it took hours because the MTP mode.
Furthermore, only the main directories were visible, not the hidden ones like ā€˜.local, . config, .phonebook, .MeePassword_DefaultStorageā€™, etc.
I had also no access to the important directories like ā€˜/usr/share/patchmanagerā€™ or the working aliendalvik directory ā€˜/home/.appsupportā€™. I had modified some older patches, and it was a big work.
So I established an SSH connection. First I try it via USB, but that doesnā€™t work because you have to enable the USB developer mode on the display.
So I tried it via Wi-Fi. To do this, I checked and noted the IP address from the phone in the Wi-Fi router.
Then download the PuTTy program and fill it in as follows:
defaultuser@192.168.2.210 (its only my IP, please change it to your IP)
Then just enter the PIN in the open Terminal-window and use devel-su + password to gain full access.
This allowed me to copy various directories to ā€˜/home/defaultuserā€™.
Here are some commands for all interested user:
cp -r /home/defaultuser/.local /home/defaultuser/BackUp.local
cp -r /home/defaultuser/.config /home/defaultuser/BackUp.config
cp -r /home/.appsupport /home/defaultuser/BackUp.config
cp -r /home/.appsupport /home/defaultuser/BackUp.appsupport
cp -r /usr/share /home/defaultuser/BackUpusrshare
etcā€¦

Information: If you copy it at your new phone it could be you have to bring the owner rights back to defaultuser. This works so:
chown -R defaultuser:defaultuser /home/defaultuser/.local/share/
-R means all sub directory and sub filesā€¦

Unfortunately, the fingerprint sensor failed after a few attempts, and I couldnā€™t copy the files because they were encrypted. Also not via SSH!
I was frustrated. But then I had a brilliant idea. I connected a regular keyboard using a USB-C/USB-A adapter.
Then I rebooted, waited a bit, and then I input PIN + Enter several times. Now the phone was back online, and the fingerprint reader worked again. Perfect ā€“ I was happy!
Now I found a new Problem. The copied folders and files at /home/defaultuser had not the owner ā€œdefaultuserā€ and so I cannot see it via MTP.
Solution- I insert a sd card and with this commands:
1.first check how the name at the sd card with:
ls -d /run/media/defaultuser/*
2. then copy with this command:
cp -r /home/defaultuser/BackUp.local /run/media/defaultuser/F0E9-334E
cp -r /home/defaultuser/BackUp.config /run/media/defaultuser/F0E9-334E
etcā€¦
If you have the right card name you can also copy directly from the source to the card.
The best on it, this copy time are very quick. So I could copy many files and now I have all what I needed.

Now to the next difficult problem reinstall Whatsapp with all Chats:

Here are a short description how its on a Sailfish phone possible to new install with a local backup:

  1. save the folder /home/defaultuser/android_storage/Android/media/com.whatsapp from the old phone e.g. rename it to com.whatsappold
  2. install microG and make that the most flags are setted
  3. install whatsapp
  4. go to settings App and give all rights for files, camera, phone etc. (this is absolutly important)
  5. start whatsapp but close it after the start screen (so create WA the new folder)
  6. open with filemanager follw folder and look the owner and ownergroup (in my case 50036 and .appsupport-media_rw
  7. delete the folder com.whatsappe and replace it with your saved folder
  8. open the subfolder /whatsapp/Database and look which file msgstore-2025-04-24.1.db.crypt14 is the newest. rename it to "msgstore.db.crypt14 " (maybe you have to delete the exist file or the exist file is the newest)
  9. open the terminal and make follow commands to giv all files and dir the new ownerrights from Whatsapp:
    chown -R 510036:appsupport-media_rw /home/defaultuser/android_storage/Android/media/com.whatsapp
  10. open Whatspp and make all necessary steps.
  11. vola - you have back the chats
  12. now you can also activate the googledrive backup in WA - settings - chat ā€“ chat backup because the owner rights blocked it in the past

I hope it helps all phone damages.
Now my new Xperia 10III runs perfect and I am happy again.
Sorry for the long text, but so I have also a instruction for the next time. I hope not so quickly :rofl:

ā€¦and sorry for my bad English :sweat_smile:

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