Bootloop on Moto G5 Cedric XT1676 - Way to Save Data (Photos)?

[No-Pasaran]

Hello guys. I'd really appreciate any support on this - thank you for your efforts!

My Moto G5 XT1676 16 GB & 2 GB RAM (no root) is stuck in bootloop after shutdown due to low battery. Shortly before that, I got a "full storage" warning - maybe the bootloop problem has something to do with that.

Being a noob, I've read a lot in this forum and found some promising approaches, but they all failed. I know that the best way to solve this is a factory reset - but I don't want to lose the tons of photos I have on my phone.

What I've tried so far:

• removed the battery for a couple of minutes, wiped cache (in bootloader) and rebooted the phone
• downloaded & installed Motorola drivers, downloaded & installed ADB and fastboot
• Started phone in bootloader and flashed stock firmware (without erasing user data). I've tried a couple of firmware versions (from mirrors.lolinet.com/firmware/moto/cedric/official/TEFES and also a EU version)
• tried to access the phone via ADB (in order to use "pull files") - ADB says no device found, probably because "USB debugging" is inactive in the phone settings

Is there anything else I could try before I do a factory reset and lose the files on the phone?

Or maybe there is a promising way to recover files after factory reset?

Thank you very much for any advice on that!

 

[nift4]

Stock recovery only allows a ADB sideload connection and not a ADB device connection.

You won't be able to recover any files after a factory reset for two reasons:
1. internal storage is ext4 format and it's difficult enough to restore your data from it
2. int. storage is encrypted and can't be decrypted without the proper key, which was deleted during the factory reset

It's f2fs

 

[TheFixItMan]

Is the bootloader unlocked?

If yes flash twrp and you can mount the phone as mtp and pull the data off to your pc


If no then you're out of luck (unlocking bootloader for first time wipes data and you'd need the phone to boot anyway to enable adb)

 

[No-Pasaran]

Is the bootloader unlocked?

If yes flash twrp and you can mount the phone as mtp and pull the data off to your pc

If no then you're out of luck (unlocking bootloader for first time wipes data and you'd need the phone to boot anyway to enable adb)

I haven't unlocked the bootloader, so I suppose it's locked. But I will give it a try, thank you!

 

[TheFixItMan]

I haven't unlocked the bootloader, so I suppose it's locked. But I will give it a try, thank you!

You can't give it a try
As stated unlocking the bootloader for the first time requires a working phone & you need to wipe the device which will defeat the object you are trying to achieve

TWRP requires an unlocked bootloader

All other methods would require root access at least & data is usually encrypted so you would need a bootable device to access it anyway without twrp

 

[No-Pasaran]

OK, got it. So no chance for saving the data on the phone before factory reset. Is there at least some hope that I can rescue some files afterwards (with Recuva or MiniTool or similar software)?

 

[riyan65]

OK, got it. So no chance for saving the data on the phone before factory reset. Is there at least some hope that I can rescue some files afterwards (with Recuva or MiniTool or similar software)?

Did you install Motorola drivers in pc, so adb can detect the device?

 

[No-Pasaran]

Did you install Motorola drivers in pc, so adb can detect the device?

Yes, I did. But ADB doesn't detect the device (I suppose that's because USB debugging is not active in the phone settings).

 

[WoKoschekk]

Did you install Motorola drivers in pc, so adb can detect the device?

Stock recovery only allows a ADB sideload connection and not a ADB device connection.

You won't be able to recover any files after a factory reset for two reasons:
1. internal storage is ext4 format and it's difficult enough to restore your data from it
2. int. storage is encrypted and can't be decrypted without the proper key, which was deleted during the factory reset

 

[1lexxi]

Had the same thing happen to me about 6 months ago. I researched for a week. Turns out the minfree wasnt working and the device was completely full. Basically, you're MAYBE screwed. There is nothing on the device that you can do. Both accessing the memory and using Photorec isnt going to work, because the storage is encrypted. But if you didnt disable google photos, you photos might be in your google cloud, thats how i got all my photos back. You can check on photos.google.com if it was synchronized. Hope you get your photos back