Help UI Crash - I can only access my phone through Airdroid - Need Messages

[LarryW]

I made a big mistake. I was trying to find a way to reverse the display on my phone so that I could use it for a heads up unit in my car, and I hit the Force RTL option that (I now see) is notorious for crashing Android 5.1 UI.

Here's the thing: I can access the internal storage through USB so I have all of my media saved. I can access my phone remotely through Airdroid, so I can see contacts and messages, but I can't find a way to save them before I do a hard reset. I'm not even too worried about contacts, I can write them all down if I need to, but my mother passed away a few months ago and all of our messages are on my phone. Is there any way to save those?

I would be so appreciative of anyone that can help!

My phone is a stock Droid Turbo (unrooted)

 

[Hadron]

There are lots of message backup apps, but I guess the problem is that you can't see what you are doing to run one.

I don't suppose you have USB debugging enabled? I'm guessing that if you haven't you can't enable it now, but if you have there may be a way using the "adb backup" command (or if you are rooted you could copy the message database directly - I don't think you'll be able to see it without root).

 

[LarryW]

There are lots of message backup apps, but I guess the problem is that you can't see what you are doing to run one.

I don't suppose you have USB debugging enabled? I'm guessing that if you haven't you can't enable it now, but if you have there may be a way using the "adb backup" command (or if you are rooted you could copy the message database directly - I don't think you'll be able to see it without root).

Correct, I can see the data file through Airdroid, but I can't access it without root. I'm looking into adb now.