Ideas on how to recover data from a screenless/headless Android device? I have an unrooted Nexus 5—big mistake, I should have rooted it—due to some unfortunate circumstances my phone screen ripped off from the phone leaving the phone functional but “headless.”

I want to scrape off (download) my data and move off things from my phone. I do have backups on but the last backup was taken half a month ago since when I have only been travelling with 2G data on



It clearly has no screen.

The solution I tried.

I have an AirDroid account and using that am able to perform basic phone stuff make calls, read reply to SMS message. With screen mirror there is a possiblity that I can use the phone normally remotely and move my data and be happy. The dead-end: AirMirror requires root.

I tried to root the phone purely via ADB shell but the step will require flashing a templated image, which will destroy all the data on the phone.

The other solution is if I can turn on Wi-Fi via ADB shell, I can copy most of its contents I need via AirDroid. It won’t be feasible enough on mobile data.

Any suggestions?
do you have developer options enabled?

If yes try to backup using adb. you will not have to access Adb shell. just 'adb backup' command will do it. use appropriate options to backup your shared storage. (just type adb and hit enteryou will see the Adb backup options)

go to following link try the options in answer to access Adb backup. do not encrypt the backup.

If u do not have developer access, just replace the device screen, and u should get your device as is.