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Help AT&T Note II froze, and then factory reset its self with 10gb of misc files

C

C Mac

Lurker
My Note II froze on start up, so I took the battery out and re tried. When it did boot It was like an unused phone however my Misc files were over 10GB. That size matches up pretty well with how much space I had used. I'm hoping it's my data. How do I get to it? It is running 4.4.2 un-rooted.
 
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Oh, and when I go to view the misc files in the storage settings nothing in it comes anywhere close to being the size its says its taking up. Its like they are hidden.
 
I'm going to worry about why this all happened later. I didn't know a phone can factory reset its self after a freeze.. I just want my files that weren't backed up by Google.
 
C Mac said:
I'm going to worry about why this all happened later. I didn't know a phone can factory reset its self after a freeze.. I just want my files that weren't backed up by Google.
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I've had that happen with two phones plugged in to charge when lightning hit before I could get to them.

Hardware was fine but the data was gone - a perfect data reset while the phones protected themselves.

You can root and try one of the root-only file recovery apps.

Gotta warn you - most of them are snake oil and I wouldn't know which to recommend.

Of the ones I've read here about that did seem to work, they were far from 100%.

Just because it couldn't hurt, boot your phone into recovery, clear cache, and pull your battery for at least 60 seconds - see if it helps any.
 
EarlyMon said:
I've had that happen with two phones plugged in to charge when lightning hit before I could get to them.

Hardware was fine but the data was gone - a perfect data reset while the phones protected themselves.

You can root and try one of the root-only file recovery apps.

Gotta warn you - most of them are snake oil and I wouldn't know which to recommend.

Of the ones I've read here about that did seem to work, they were far from 100%.

Just because it couldn't hurt, boot your phone into recovery, clear cache, and pull your battery for at least 60 seconds - see if it helps any.
Click to expand...
EarlyMon said:
I've had that happen with two phones plugged in to charge when lightning hit before I could get to them.

Hardware was fine but the data was gone - a perfect data reset while the phones protected themselves.

You can root and try one of the root-only file recovery apps.

Gotta warn you - most of them are snake oil and I wouldn't know which to recommend.

Of the ones I've read here about that did seem to work, they were far from 100%.

Just because it couldn't hurt, boot your phone into recovery, clear cache, and pull your battery for at least 60 seconds - see if it helps any.
Click to expand...
Alright. I'm glad I'm not the only one at least. It's the 10gb of misc data taking up the space that is so confusing. If it had just rest, and cleared everything it wouldn't be a big deal. I didn't have much that wasn't backed up on it, but that 10gb is giving me hope I can get everything. How do I boot into recovery? What will booting into recovery help me do?
 
Samsungs are pretty standard, see paragraph 1.3 -

http://androidforums.com/threads/s5-lollipop-update-problems-dummies-guide.892800/

Android runs off of its own cache.

You can't use Android to clear Android.

Think of recovery just like a little operating system made just to help service Android.

Every time you've taken an OTA update where your phone rebooted, that was recovery at work doing the actual update during the reboot.

Just clear cache, reboot, and pull battery.

On a normally running phone, you'd lose nothing.

If your 10 GB misc goes away, it was already lost for good - the cache is on a completely different partition than any other data.

Otoh - your data just might come back.
 
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EarlyMon said:
Samsungs are pretty standard, see paragraph 1.3 -

http://androidforums.com/threads/s5-lollipop-update-problems-dummies-guide.892800/

Android runs off of its own cache.

You can't use Android to clear Android.

Think of recovery just like a little operating system made just to help service Android.

Every time you've taken an OTA update where your phone rebooted, that was recovery at work doing the actual update during the reboot.

Just clear cache, reboot, and pull battery.

On a normally running phone, you'd lose nothing.

If your 10 GB misc goes away, it was already lost for good - the cache is on a completely different partition than any other data.

Otoh - your data just might come back.
Click to expand...

OK done. Nothing changed really.
 
Wish I had more to offer.

Are you interested in rooting?

Mind you, I'm not endorsing that as a path to solution beyond a very low probability, but you do have a choice to try if it's that important.

If so, I can move this to the root forum where you might talk to others experienced with your phone.

Let me know.

If not, then it's a factory data reset including storage to clear out the ghosts so far as I know.

Definitely don't try non-root solutions - we censor those as known snake oil, save your money.

Best luck!
 
Did an actual reset and the 10gb is gone. Apps aren't getting there data back. I guess I miss understood how app back ups worked. Annoyed about the data that has no backup option. How do you back up things in the downloads or doc folder?
 
Yeah the standard app backup doesn't include app data but the next android version "M" aparently will :thumbsupdroid:
Other folders I would just drag n drop onto a PC unless you have an sd card to move them to
 
Best unrooted backup is Helium Backup.

You still have to sync your calendars and contacts with that and drag and drop storage and sd card to your pc.
 
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