how to copy and wipe phone with dead screen

[mister_bludgeon]

I've got a Galaxy J3 (2016) that was exposed to heavy perspiration, and the screen is mostly black. It can still receive calls, but I can only answer them when the phone is paired with a Bluetooth thing like my car. In other words, the user interface is pretty well crippled, but otherwise it seems like the phone is intact. I tried mounting it on a desktop computer as I've done before, and that doesn't work.

I have already received a replacement phone courtesy of the insurer Asurion. I believe I can get the contact database back from the cloud-based backup or whatever -- I confess I wasn't paying close attention. But I want to do a couple things: copy some photos and videos that I had yet to back up, and wipe all my text messages before returning this device per the terms of the insurance.

I know I can go to a Verizon store and beg them to try to copy my stuff to the new phone. But the wiping clean is another matter. Therefore, at last, my question: is there a way to take the phone apart, remove the physical storage device (whatever kind it is), and somehow mount it on a computer, perhaps with some sort of adapter I'd have to acquire? Or: is there another solution that hasn't occurred to me?

Thanks!

 

[andMego]

Install an app onto the phone by going to the play store on your computer which will let you mirror the phone screen onto the computer. Aren't your pictures and contacts backed up by Google?

 

[loonycgb2]

Try going into recovery and see if you get a connection via mtp.

After that format via recovery or use Odin to restore stock.

 

[mister_bludgeon]

Sorry, I don't know how I would "install an app" or "try going into recovery" if there's no way of interacting with the dead screen.

As for backup, truth to tell, I don't know/remember the exact story with that. I think I had at some point the defaults that came with the phone and the defaults that come with the Gmail app installation. I know I did affirmatively disable/deny a lot of stuff for privacy's sake. I do recall getting a really annoying autosuggestion thing where Gmail (I presume) would try to fill in email addresses drawn from the thousands I (foolishly) have still sitting on their servers.

I tried getting an mtp connection, with no luck. The my Ubuntu machine apparently saw the phone but could not read from its filesystem. But that was simply plugging it in; no recovery mode. I'm not familiar with that, and again, the screen is dead.

UPDATE: I am reading https://www.android-recovery.net/recover-samsung-data-with-blank-screen.html but so far all I see is that they suggest a utility that requires Mac or Windows (thanks a lot)... wait, UPDATE #2 I see there's a combination of buttons to press on startup yadda yadda, I will stop being so hysterical and helpless and try helping myself now Thanks!