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I've had a look at other questions but can't seem to find an answer. I'm trying to pull all the files (especially /data) from my android phone but can't seem to due to permission issues.

I am only able to get into download mode and system recovery mode on the phone (a Samsung Galaxy s3) and nothing else (installed a wrong custom rom :( hense the very limited use ). I need to backup all the data before applying a factory reset.

I've tried: 

adb root 
adb cannot run as root in production builds

adb pull /data ~/Desktop/backupfolder
pull: building file list...
0 files pulled. 0 files skipped.

Also adb shell doesn't allow me to pull (it says device not found even though outside the shell the device is detected). So running su from adb shell is useless if the data can't be pulled. Moving the data doesnt help.

Please help! Apart from download mode and system recovery mode, the phone is dead so solutions requiring apps don't apply.

geek_girl
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2 Answers2

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The most probable cause might be that your phone is not rooted, so you will not be able to remount the partition for read/write access. There is a particular stack overflow page for remounting a rooted device into RW mode. link

Remounting is basically reloading your file system so you may read or write into the file system like any other file systems.

You may need to root your phone (please note that rooting will void your warranty). Rooting lets all user-installed applications run privileged commands typically unavailable to the devices in the stock configuration. Rooting is required for more advanced and potentially dangerous operations including modifying or deleting system files, etc.

In normal production builds root is disabled by default, so you need to install a third party rooting software to get access to this privileged mode.

The entire process of rooting is beyond explanation in this post, but you can check this post from XDA You need to be very careful while rooting coz it may brickyour phone.

Similar XDA posts are available on google if you search with your exact device name.

Community
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Odin
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  • thanks. unfortunately the reason the phone stopped working was after i tried rooting it. it never restarted :( – geek_girl Oct 22 '14 at 10:40
  • Sorry to hear that...but actually there are some ways you can use to repair a bricked phone.http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2492192 – Odin Oct 22 '14 at 16:03
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I managed to fix the problem!

Downloaded and installed Kies, which also installs the appropriate Samsung drivers. Then ran a firmware installation from there (Tools > Firmware Upgrade and Initialization). Make sure you have the model number and S/N handy (written on inside of phone).

geek_girl
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