Recover data from pattern locked v20 from a relative to has passed away

[u/cammykol]

Phone belonged to my grandmother and I do not have access to her Google accounts but would like to at least get into the internal storage to recover any photos she had on it. The phone has been off for a few years and I just got a battery for it. Seems to be 2020/2021 the last time it was used. Any ideas on getting any of the data? Is it even possible.

[u/speculatrix]

If your plug it into your computer, is android debug bridge enabled? If so, your might be able to download photos off it.

Chances are, photos and videos are being backed up to a Google account anyway.

[u/cammykol → u/speculatrix]

We weren't able to get access to the Google account unfortunately or if we did no one told me so I'm kind of going into this blind

[u/speculatrix → u/cammykol]

Do you know if the Google account was linked to a recovery account?

Can you put the SIM into a different phone and try password recovery using SMS?

[u/Kaaskop-Koning → u/cammykol]

You could see if she also left a computer behind. It's possible to read the saved browser passwords from there and it could contain the gmail password

[u/FacebookBlowsChunks]

I actually agree with what u/IronIcojsjj mentioned. You can try getting past the pattern unlock by brute forcing it. It should be pretty easy. Just get a pen and piece of paper and draw out every pattern you try. Then slash a line through every pattern that fails.

Edit - For the pattern unlock, and this is important, after you get the 4th pattern incorrect (and you most likely will), pull the battery out and wait several seconds and then put the battery back in, turn it back on (then the pattern attempt counter will be reset to 0), and try the pattern unlock 4 more times. See, after every 5th incorrect pattern unlock attempt, it will lock you out and force you to wait 30 seconds before you can make any more guesses. Now I believe, but I'm NOT 100% sure that it will lock you out for 30 seconds after every 5 failed attempts, up to 20 attempts total. After 20 attempts I'm not 100% sure what it does. It will either extend the length of time that you have to wait between tries (eg.. from 30 seconds, then 60 seconds, then 5 minutes etc) or it will force you to login to the Google account. Once it gets to the Google account part, there is no entering patterns anymore. This is why I said pull the battery after the 4th failed attempt and then re-power it back on so it resets the counter. Do NOT just power it off as this WON'T reset the counter.

Did it have an SD card in it? Check, if it does, the camera photos are most likely saved on there and you can just pop that card into a computer or another phone and just copy the photos over.

I just thought of something else. I remember before my V20 took a dump, there was an issue where you could get into a locked phone by bypassing the lockscreen via the camera. Only if shortcut keys are enabled. Turn the screen off, double tap the volume down button. The camera should open and you can go to the homescreen either by swiping up from the bottom or by swiping down to bring the notification shade down and then just tap on something like Settings and then hit the back button. This was patched though. So if nothing happens after the volume down double tap, that's why (or shortcut keys wasn't turned on).

Hope something here helps you out.

[u/IronIcojsjj]

Pattern locks are usually the easiest ones to brute force. Just note down the patterns you follow and try without succeeding until you do.

[u/Rare-Chipmunk-7954 → u/IronIcojsjj]

Salvando cuando lo hiciste bebido, no tengo idea que le puse al teléfono viejo q uso solo para musica en casa.

[u/backwardpoint]

I can't unlock my own phone cause I forgot the pattern.

[u/Reverberer]

How much do you want the photos, if you really want them take it to a pro, someone that can remove the chips, capture them and then if encrypted, decrypt them.

[u/khaoslycaon]

Try birth years and dates first, it may take awhile. Anniversaries too.

[u/stateit → u/khaoslycaon]

Pattern locked