6 yr old son somehow erased phone

[Schroeder09]

My wife has a PIN on her phone. She told our 6 yr old to put the phone down as she put my our other children to bed, and when she came back the phone was erased and reset. He couldn't have got in to the phone and through the menus. Does the phone reset and wipe everything after too many failed attempts at the PIN? Is there anyway out of this? I am familiar with rooting phones. Is there any back entry and restore through ADB? The phone was not previously rooted.

 

[blackhawk]

Doesn't take long to navigate to settings and do a factory reset.
Data is likely lost but you can try... I hope you backed up critical data. Even if you do manage to retrieve it the file structure has been lost.
A sea of random files and no way to recreate the file structure or associations except by memory.

 

[Schroeder09]

Doesn't take long to navigate to settings and do a factory reset.
Data is likely lost but you can try... I hope you backed up critical data. Even if you do manage to retrieve it the file structure has been lost.
A sea of random files and no way to recreate the file structure or associations except by memory.

So pictures and everything are gone?

He doesn't know the PIN. Is there something that comes up that's says the phone will be wiped after so many bad attempts that he could have pressed?

 

[blackhawk]

So pictures and everything are gone?

He doesn't know the PIN. Is there something that comes up that's says the phone will be wiped after so many bad attempts that he could have pressed?

Jpeg files if recoverable will be separated from their exif files, no order, original time stamp or number. Even 100 jpegs are a small nightmare to try and sort.
You start to get the depth of the problem.

Not sure but I think you're correct.
I never use screen locks or encryption; security is purely physical. Meh, wysiwyg

"Kids do the darndest things..."
My cousin once "waxed" the whole kitchen floor with a bottle of baby oil.
My mother exclaimed:"Who did this?!"
Danny replied:"I doed it!"
He was quite proud of his achievement. The floor really did shine... clean up took a bit longer then the wax job.

Somebody may have a better plan than my call it a wash. If backed up on cloud you have another option. Personally I use hard backups.

 

[Schroeder09]

Jpeg files if recoverable will be separated from their exif files, no order, original time stamp or number. Even 100 jpegs are a small nightmare to try and sort.
You start to get the depth of the problem.

Not sure but I think you're correct.
I never use screen locks or encryption; security is purely physical. Meh, wysiwyg

"Kids do the darndest things..."
My cousin once "waxed" the whole kitchen floor with a bottle of baby oil.
My mother exclaimed:"Who did this?!"
Danny replied:"I doed it!"
He was quite proud of his achievement. The floor really did shine... clean up took a bit longer then the wax job.

Somebody may have a better plan than my call it a wash. If backed up on cloud you have another option. Personally I use hard backups.

How do I try to see what is left on the phone? Is there an ADB process for this?

I've never understood backing stuff up on a phone. The restoring part seems to be more the problem for me. I did used to do multiple backups with titanium backup, but never once was successful restoring from the backup. How are you backing up and how are you restoring from it? Especially on a NON-ROOTED device? The latter will be more important. When I pick up my next phone (probably an s22. Currently have rooted 2xl running A10 yet) I will not be rooting. It's too much of a time-consuming PITA, and while the gains are noticeable; they're not worth the effort.

 

[blackhawk]

Not sure what if anything adb can do for you. I never use that to restore as I run stock devices and assume the file decryption keys are already lost as well as file structure after a factory reset!

For backup first identify all critical data that can be backed up. DCIM folder, Documents, contacts, all needed accounts/passwords written or as text files etc, music, vids and so on.
Apps that allow backup of settings like Poweramp and Color Note (can be used for bookmarks rather than the browser). I use ApkExport to make installable copies of all my apps and updates. On reload no Playstore needed.

Copy, paste, verify size and if readable to 2 or more hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. A OTG flashstick can be used for quick backups but don't use as the only backup; hdds are more reliable. Work out a sync folder for media, etc.
SmartSwitch can be used to backuo homepage but never rely on it to backup critical data! It may or may not work!!!

If you have an SD card slot use an SD card as a data drive; all critical data goes here. There can be only DCIM folder so periodically backup the DCIM folder to the SD card but name something without DCIM in the name. Only apps and the download folder go on internal memory. Then backup the SD card redundantly and regularly to the hdd backups. That gives you multiple backups should one fail. NEVER encrypt backup data drives!!!

You have to methodically plan this to do backup this way but it's pretty foolproof and has built in redundantcy. Once you get used to it, it's not hard to do.
I have over a dozen backup hdds in various locations. I may lose some data but never all my data. Syncing data is the biggest headache with this method.

 

[Schroeder09]

Jpeg files if recoverable will be separated from their exif files, no order, original time stamp or number. Even 100 jpegs are a small nightmare to try and sort.
You start to get the depth of the problem.

Not sure but I think you're correct.
I never use screen locks or encryption; security is purely physical. Meh, wysiwyg

"Kids do the darndest things..."
My cousin once "waxed" the whole kitchen floor with a bottle of baby oil.
My mother exclaimed:"Who did this?!"
Danny replied:"I doed it!"
He was quite proud of his achievement. The floor really did shine... clean up took a bit longer then the wax job.

Somebody may have a better plan than my call it a wash. If backed up on cloud you have another option. Personally I use hard backups.

how could I attempt to recover these JPEG files?

 

[blackhawk]

how could I attempt to recover these JPEG files?

What OS version? Not rooted?
I don't think you got a prayer but it depends on if the old data is encrypted which I assume it is because of the screen lock.

Full-Disk Encryption | Android Open Source Project

source.android.com

Of you're really hell bent on recovering some of the data a data recovery service that specializes in Samsung's is probably your best shot.
I could be wrong... do some Google searches, to search XDA simply add "XDA" to the end of the Google search parameter. XDA's search engine leaves something to be desired... and misses a lot that the all seeing Google web crawlers don't.

Leave the phone powered down until you decide what to do as any activity can now overwrite those old files.

 

[Schroeder09]

Is this droidkit a gimic or will it work? the note 8 is on android 8 or 9.

Get Data Recovery, Screen Unlock, and FRP Bypass with DroidKit

www.xda-developers.com

 

[V0latyle]

Is this droidkit a gimic or will it work? the note 8 is on android 8 or 9.

Get Data Recovery, Screen Unlock, and FRP Bypass with DroidKit

www.xda-developers.com

Most likely a gimmick if not malware. AFAIK a factory wipe doesn't actually erase or overwrite the storage, it just removes the file structure and pointers, so a forensic data recovery tool could potentially help. Unfortunately, doing this on a smartphone is even harder to do, especially considering that most newer Samsung devices use encryption, and since a new key is generated when the device is reset, it won't be able to read the old data.

 

[blackhawk]

Most likely a gimmick if not malware. AFAIK a factory wipe doesn't actually erase or overwrite the storage, it just removes the file structure and pointers, so a forensic data recovery tool could potentially help. Unfortunately, doing this on a smartphone is even harder to do, especially considering that most newer Samsung devices use encryption, and since a new key is generated when the device is reset, it won't be able to read the old data.

Brute forced decryption be the only way as it uses random encryption. Folders are encrypted vs full disk encryption on the newer OS's if I recall correctly. The folder association with the files is already gone, lost with the factory reset. How the effects the encryption, no clue.
It's a mess.

 

[Schroeder09]

Brute forced decryption be the only way as it uses random encryption. Folders are encrypted vs full disk encryption on the newer OS's if I recall correctly. The folder association with the files is already gone, lost with the factory reset. How the effects the encryption, no clue.
It's a mess.

is there a service that can recover the pictures? my wife already restarted the phone and has started downloading stuff (if that matters). I told her it would have been best to not even have restarted it and hand it to someone so they could recover from recovery mode prior to any new data being installed.

 

[Schroeder09]

Most likely a gimmick if not malware. AFAIK a factory wipe doesn't actually erase or overwrite the storage, it just removes the file structure and pointers, so a forensic data recovery tool could potentially help. Unfortunately, doing this on a smartphone is even harder to do, especially considering that most newer Samsung devices use encryption, and since a new key is generated when the device is reset, it won't be able to read the old data.

Is there any company or service who aren't criminals that I can send it to to recover the pictures?

 

[blackhawk]

I think it's a dead horse especially if you're wife keeps using it!
Found this one. Do some searches and research.
Keep the phone powered off until you decide.