I apologise for doing this, but I've got myself into a right old technological pickle, and it's important enough that I don't want to muck around and make matters worse, particularly in the middle of a general election campaign when I'm blogging constantly. I'm guessing Scot Goes Pop has got a big enough readership that there must be some knowledgeable person out there who can point me in the right direction and make sure I don't make any further missteps.
My laptop has been broken for ages, and I've been putting off replacing it because of the expense. I do have a desktop computer at home, but in practice I've been using my phone for blogging most of the time. A few months ago, the thin part of the phone containing the screen (maybe I should be just calling it "the screen" but I don't know if there's more to it than that) somehow became semi-detached from the rest of the phone, but strangely the phone and the screen were both still working. So I used sellotape to keep the thing in one piece, and that worked for quite a long time. But then typing on the phone started to become a major problem, and I assumed that was because the sellotape was interfering with the touchscreen. So in desperation I took the tape off a few days ago, and the typing problem was solved, but inevitably I eventually moved the phone in the wrong way, the detachment became worse, and the screen stopped working completely. In my frantic attempts to get it working again, I must have accidentally triggered some sort of emergency function. A siren went off, and the phone called 999 of its own accord. With the screen not working I had absolutely no way of ending the call or switching the phone off, so I just had to apologise and ask the person on the other end of the line to hang up.
Obviously at this point I'm on the brink of giving in to the inevitable and buying a new phone, but the problem doesn't end there. While all of this had been going on, the storage on the phone had run out, and me being me, I wasn't proactive enough in dealing with the issue. That's why anyone who has tried to contact me by WhatsApp over the last two weeks or so won't have had much luck. I should have just swapped the SD card so I could transfer files away from the internal storage, but there's so much on the SD card that I didn't really want to take it out and risk losing it. So I was thinking more in terms of transferring files onto a memory stick, but I found that when I tried to connect the phone to the desktop computer, the USB connection wasn't working properly (possibly because of the semi-detachment of the phone) and the computer told me there were no files on the phone at all. I then tried to use Bluetooth but I couldn't get it to connect. I then tried to transfer files to Google Drive so I could then put them on a memory stick, but the phone wouldn't let me transfer to Google Drive.
Because all the files were still there, I assumed I'd be able to sort something out at a later date, but now that the phone has conked out completely, that looks like a naive expectation. In order to cope with the storage problem, I had been swapping files back and forth between the SD card and the internal storage. That means there are a tonne of truly irreplaceable files on the internal storage only. Some of them may be backed up, but certainly not all of them. From what I've read, phones don't have a 'hard drive' from which files can be easily retrieved, so the only hope may be to get the phone itself repaired.
Unless someone can suggest a miracle technical fix, I suppose my question is: where can I take the phone where there might be a realistic chance of a successful repair, rather than a botched job that would finish it off for good? I live in Cumbernauld, but obviously I can go to Glasgow if needs be. If anyone has any sound advice (no trolling this time, please!) I'd be grateful if you leave a comment below or email me at: icehouse.250@gmail.com
Sorry to hear of your woes. If you have an android phone that defaults to charging only when connected by USB, then the only way you can view files is to have a screen to select the connection option to transfer files. There are ways around that, but the bad news is you need to have set something up in advance. Like putting the phone in developer mode, and installing the android software development kit on your PC. I have previously lost files this way.
ReplyDeleteWhen you come to buy a replacement, consider back market. Refurbished second hand phones are so much cheaper.
Some phones will allow connection of a monitor and keyboard via USB via an adapter. With luck that might be a way. Maybe worth looking at your phones spec to see if it supports this as adapters can be cheaply had on ebay. I'm in Stirling and recently used Computer Division here to sort a dead tablet screen. They were excellent and I'd recommend giving them a try.
ReplyDeleteJames, simply invert the ionic phase in the down pulse of the field margin.
ReplyDelete(Sorry, I haven't got any serious advice, I'm not a techie, but I'll give you my last Tunnock's tea cake if you know where that quote is from).
Well, I see it comes from Red Dwarf, although it almost certainly must be a nod to "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" from 1970s Doctor Who.
DeleteAll I can suggest is that it would help if you said whether it was an iPhone or Android, what model. For iPhone, itunes for Windows on a desktop might help bit. Problem is you'd need to allow the desktop to access your phone - via the phone screen.
ReplyDeleteIt's an Android, but when I attached it to the computer the other week I'm fairly sure it didn't ask for permission anyway, nothing registered at all. And the same problem would apply now - even if it tried to ask for permission, it can't because the screen doesn't work. It sounds like there isn't a workable solution I can try myself, so my main question is who should I take it to to attempt a repair? What sort of shop is most reliable?
DeleteIn case anyone is wondering, this is probably a reply to an abusive anonymous comment that I deleted earlier. The downsides of having pre-moderation switched off.
ReplyDeleteI may be misunderestimating how borked your phone is but pretty much any well established phone repair shop will quickly replace a duff screen. Once the screen is working you should then be able to access your files and establish a link with your pc.
ReplyDeleteOK, great. Someone else said something similar on Twitter, so that's encouraging. I just hope to goodness I didn't accidentally trigger a factory reset when I was prodding it last night, because the siren and the automatic 999 call suggests I must have done something pretty extreme.
DeleteReplacing the screen can be a problem if it's a Chinese phone, as they use a different standard of screws etc
DeleteSuperglue. From Poundsaver.
ReplyDeletePushing it back into place isn't making a difference anymore. A connection must be broken.
DeleteIs the usb cable wired to transfer data? Try a different cable.
ReplyDeleteFor Android, take the micro sd card out of the phone and put it in a SD adaptor, then plug into the SD apator into the SD Card slot on desktop pc. Mount the drive as an external usb drive and copy the contents to your pc.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I should be able to rescue the contents of the SD (touch wood), but it's the internal storage that's the problem.
DeleteHave you checked if it's a USB 3.0 port you are plugging it into on your computer. I'm no techy but my android only allows access to DCIM through the USB 3.00 port not the USB 2.00
DeleteI got a perfectly servicable all-in-one computer from the city dump.
ReplyDeleteJames, I've emailed you at icehouse...
ReplyDeletePhones have built in obsolesence
ReplyDeleteFact of life
Get a new one
Use it for txts and phone calls maybe a bit of web browsing when you don't have a PC or laptop available
Anything else is a waste of time, resources and sanity!
If you're going to blog use a PC
sent £20 quid for your android fund
ReplyDelete