PrimitiveScrewhead
Newbie
Hello, I have an old 2017 Moto E4 Plus (running Nougat 7.1.1) whose carrier I've since left that I recently turned on to discover tons of old family photos & videos on an old MicroSD card, only a handful of which ever got backed up/texted/emailed etc (I mean hell, I have photos/videos of a small concert I went to where influential dub musician/legend Lee “Scratch” Perry performed, & the guy’s now dead, so regardless of their quality, I’d like to think that’s worth preserving...).
Anyway I’d really like to get these files off, but 2 things have been preventing that:
1) Try as I might, I cannot get this phone to connect to my home Wifi. While I have similar, even older phones that do, I’ve tried adjusting the settings, default networks, proxy, IP settings as in DHCP vs Static etc, typing the IP/Gateway of other phones in manually, and though the Wifi will show “Saved,” as soon as I go to a different screen it’ll come up as “Disconnected,” Disabled,” and will not be able to pull up a website, email, the Play store, etc.
Now, maybe I need to just try resetting/typing some things into either my modem or Wifi (granted, I don’t wanna lose internet for the whole house), maybe I can just try buying a MicroUSB-to-Ethernet adapter and connect it directly into the modem, I dunno (but then if its setting aren’t compatible, hardwiring may not work either, I’m no IT guy.
That leads me to the next option/problem:
2) Apparently, the MicroSD in question NOT formatted as Portable... as in, I’ve removed it and tried plugging it into at least FOUR other old Android phones that CAN get on the internet, and THREE laptops, and it comes up as either not supported or unreadable (I assume because it’s not portable?).
I’ve also plugged the phone itself into 2 Mac computers & 1 PC via MicroUSB to USB cable to attempt a direct transfer, only to get messages like “Can’t access device storage, make sure your device is unlocked & File Transfer/MTP mode is selected,” "No Android device found," "Can't connect to device storage," etc (on Mac, the 3 programs I used were Android File Transfer, Handshaker, & OpenMTP; I hesitate to invest in a program if I’m only going to get the same warning). I assume this is because the MSD wasn’t formatted as portable.
The CLOSEST I’ve had to ANY computer recognizing it was my wife’s old 2009 Windows 7 Gateway laptop, which lists the make & model and gives an Autoplay popup of Device Options to “Open Device to View Files,” “Import Pictures and Videos” using either Windows or Windows Live Photo Gallery, Download images using Adobe Bridge. However when I try importing anything, I just get a “No photos or Videos were Found” notice, and when I try to Browse Files, it shows zero Items (again, I’m not sure if that's due to the MSD not being portable...).
All that said, I can nonetheless see a few thousand pics and vids when I go into this phone's Photos app, and I WAS able to email and/or text them in the past, so I'd like to think there’s a way to get them off of here, even if this phone no longer has phone service.
The question is, in light of all the other warnings that I’ve received trying to access this phone (or at least, its MSD) on the desktop level, should I assume that I’ll continue to be unable to get them off by using any USB-based file transfer programs, and that I’ll just have to figure out how to get this phone back online??
(I have spoken to 1-2 data transfer places that they suggested they can do it, and while you are starting at an $80 bare minimum there, with the amount of time I’ve been spending troubleshooting this issue, I’m almost starting to think that it may be worth it…
Anyway, thanks!!
Anyway I’d really like to get these files off, but 2 things have been preventing that:
1) Try as I might, I cannot get this phone to connect to my home Wifi. While I have similar, even older phones that do, I’ve tried adjusting the settings, default networks, proxy, IP settings as in DHCP vs Static etc, typing the IP/Gateway of other phones in manually, and though the Wifi will show “Saved,” as soon as I go to a different screen it’ll come up as “Disconnected,” Disabled,” and will not be able to pull up a website, email, the Play store, etc.
Now, maybe I need to just try resetting/typing some things into either my modem or Wifi (granted, I don’t wanna lose internet for the whole house), maybe I can just try buying a MicroUSB-to-Ethernet adapter and connect it directly into the modem, I dunno (but then if its setting aren’t compatible, hardwiring may not work either, I’m no IT guy.
That leads me to the next option/problem:
2) Apparently, the MicroSD in question NOT formatted as Portable... as in, I’ve removed it and tried plugging it into at least FOUR other old Android phones that CAN get on the internet, and THREE laptops, and it comes up as either not supported or unreadable (I assume because it’s not portable?).
I’ve also plugged the phone itself into 2 Mac computers & 1 PC via MicroUSB to USB cable to attempt a direct transfer, only to get messages like “Can’t access device storage, make sure your device is unlocked & File Transfer/MTP mode is selected,” "No Android device found," "Can't connect to device storage," etc (on Mac, the 3 programs I used were Android File Transfer, Handshaker, & OpenMTP; I hesitate to invest in a program if I’m only going to get the same warning). I assume this is because the MSD wasn’t formatted as portable.
The CLOSEST I’ve had to ANY computer recognizing it was my wife’s old 2009 Windows 7 Gateway laptop, which lists the make & model and gives an Autoplay popup of Device Options to “Open Device to View Files,” “Import Pictures and Videos” using either Windows or Windows Live Photo Gallery, Download images using Adobe Bridge. However when I try importing anything, I just get a “No photos or Videos were Found” notice, and when I try to Browse Files, it shows zero Items (again, I’m not sure if that's due to the MSD not being portable...).
All that said, I can nonetheless see a few thousand pics and vids when I go into this phone's Photos app, and I WAS able to email and/or text them in the past, so I'd like to think there’s a way to get them off of here, even if this phone no longer has phone service.
The question is, in light of all the other warnings that I’ve received trying to access this phone (or at least, its MSD) on the desktop level, should I assume that I’ll continue to be unable to get them off by using any USB-based file transfer programs, and that I’ll just have to figure out how to get this phone back online??
(I have spoken to 1-2 data transfer places that they suggested they can do it, and while you are starting at an $80 bare minimum there, with the amount of time I’ve been spending troubleshooting this issue, I’m almost starting to think that it may be worth it…
Anyway, thanks!!