# recover "phone" contacts and emails through computer



## mbsengineer (Nov 19, 2012)

Hello! I'm really hoping someone can help me out here. I have searched online for an answer, but can't seem to find one.

The LCD recently broke on my wife's Stratosphere. She has all her contacts saved to her phone only. The digitizer still works, and through some trial and error, I'm able to connect the phone to my computer via the USB cable. I'm able to access the memory card to get the pictures and video she had stored. However, I can't find anything relating to contacts. I'm wondering where they are stored, and what's the best way for me to get them "moved" to her new Stratosphere (that she already purchased)? She also had some very important email drafts on her phone that don't seem to be backed up to her gmail account online. Is there any way to access those to read the text contained in them? They don't need to be sent out, we just want to see the emails so we can copy info out of them.

Thanks in advance for any help!!


----------



## daventodd (Nov 29, 2011)

All of my contacts (if backed up with the default contacts app) are stored in "external_sd" folder on the SD card with a file named "001.vcf" (which I believe stands for Verizon Contacts File). If you copy the file there, you can place it on your new Strat (if you get a new one).

About the Gmail problem, I don't believe that Gmail stores any email info on your SD card. You might just be out of luck there


----------



## NUNsLAUGHTER92 (Jun 18, 2011)

For gmail you might be able to use adb to pull /data/data/com.android.gm from her phone and should be able to just replace it with the one on your phone. You should be logged in and see everything she had then. I'm sure that's what titanium backup does and when I restore that apps data I'm automatically logged in.

"You know, a long time ago being crazy meant something. Nowadays everybody's crazy."


----------



## mbsengineer (Nov 19, 2012)

Sorry, but what is "adb"? I figured there was a way to access the phone's device storage (like where it stores contacts), is that possible? I read a little about having to activate the "USB Debugging" option in the phone ... I thought perhaps that would allow me to access that, but haven't had a chance to try it yet. Any details or knowledge on that?


----------



## NUNsLAUGHTER92 (Jun 18, 2011)

mbsengineer said:


> Sorry, but what is "adb"? I figured there was a way to access the phone's device storage (like where it stores contacts), is that possible? I read a little about having to activate the "USB Debugging" option in the phone ... I thought perhaps that would allow me to access that, but haven't had a chance to try it yet. Any details or knowledge on that?


Adb stands for Android Debug Bridge (it might be debugging, not sure.) 
And yes you can access anything from that, I don't think you can write to /system without root but you don't need that to pull files.
Contacts, at least on my phone and ROM, are stored in /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts
It could be different on hers though. You could always pull /data/data and delete everything but the contacts and gmail data.
You will need to somehow enable USB debugging though and if you want to restore that data onto yours or another phone you will have to root it, at least I think you have to be rooted. I've never tried while not being rooted before.
Just Googled and found this guide. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=879701
I'd read it a bit.

"You know, a long time ago being crazy meant something. Nowadays everybody's crazy."


----------

