At least I got my phone contacts back
By Koalemos
@Asylum (47893)
Manchester, England
September 30, 2015 1:42pm CST
As some members may recollect, my mobile phone touch screen ceased to work 5 days ago as a result of an android upgrade. My first action was to reboot the mobile to no avail, so my next was to overwrite the installation via the PC companion program downloaded from Sony.
This is where my problems began to multiply. Before erasing all data via an overwrite, I backed up my mobile phone data via the PC companion program. After having real issues trying to correct my mobile’s problem, I decided to use an old Sony Ericsson W995 that I have as a spare.
However, when I tried to restore the phone contacts I was informed that the data file and mobile were not compatible. I did try returning the data to my inoperative mobile so that I could export it to Microsoft Outlook, but I was unable to boot the mobile fully without the touch screen because it was asking to set the language, time and date and several other settings first.
Today I managed to buy an OTG cable, which is a micro USB to female USB, with which I could connect external USB devices to the mobile. I could not find a USB mouse, but did connect a USB keyboard instead. Navigating a mobile phone interface with a keyboard is outrageous, but I finally completed all setup screens.
This enabled me to run the data back onto the mobile and export it to Outlook, from where I imported it to my Sony Ericsson W995. This has to be one of the most ridiculous things that I have ever attempted and my mobile still does not work, but at least I have got my precious contacts list back.
4 people like this
3 responses
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
1 Oct 15
As a general rule I always tend to store important data on a secure drive, but this did not seem necessary for my phone contacts. It would have been far easier with a mouse, but I was quite prepared to struggle with a keyboard as an alternative.
1 person likes this
@cahaya1983 (11116)
• Malaysia
1 Oct 15
Wow that was a smart thing to do but yeah sounds very tedious! Good to know that you didn't lose your phone contacts, that would be even more frustrating.
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
30 Sep 15
You are persistent, I grant you! I'd never have thought of hooking a keyboard to my phone, brilliant idea (even if way out in left-field!). I had a very similar problem with a Palm Pilot many years ago, where the touchscreen calibration drifted down the screen so the menu-buttons were unusable... can't remember how I resolved that issue, pretty sure it was not by connecting a keyboard to it though.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
30 Sep 15
It seemed quite likely that my mobile would not be usable again, although the loss of all my contacts would have been a major catastrophe.
Using a keyboard on a mobile is unorthodox almost to the point of being quite insane, although I was determined that I would retrieve the contacts at all costs. Since the backup file that I created was not accessible by either my old mobile or any program on my computer, gaining access sufficient to return it to my mobile and transfer it to Outlook seemed the only option.
My original intention was to purchase the cable and attach a mouse, but discovering that I had no USB made a keyboard a necessary alternative.
1 person likes this
