[Sony Xperia M] Bradmd_96:
Hi all, read many threads here and finally posting.

I have an xperia M (C1905 I think)

Short story:

As soon as I turn on this device within a few seconds I get the "Unfortunately, xxxx has stopped". I hit okay and within a second something else is stopped. This is repeated constantly for as long as I could tolerate waiting for. The odd occasion I have managed to get maybe 5 seconds between app crashing to navigate into the settings to try something out or check the album.

I am asking for help on what to do in order to access the files on the device. I really really want to save the images. I since has moved on to a Z and now a Z3 but at this moment I want to get the images. (Factory reset is thus out of the question). I rather leave the phone intact for years to pass until some technology makes it possible to retrieve the files.

Longer story:

I think this issue started occurring after an android update - which leads me to my conspiracy at the end of the post. Basically after an update I started noticing random apps being stopped/crashing without warning. Apps that weren't even being used. This happened maybe once a week, then a couple times a week. Seemed pretty random at first. Thus why I never took a moment to see the exponential trend and act fast to back up data. Over the course of a month probably, this just got worse to the point where an app of some sort is constantly crashing. It could be facebook, then gmail, then google, then a service, then homescreen blah blah anything and everything is crashing just so it can fill the screen. Multiple at a time. I hit ok and another appears or 5 more appear. Then I might get a glorious 4/5 seconds to browse the contents of the phone then boom another batch of crashes. The phone is completely useless right now, no way to navigate. Also, even with the phone turned on in safe mode or not, I cannot access the files whilst connected to my computer. The charging indicator shows up, computer recognises the device but on the odd occasion it does show up in "my computer" the folder does not open and the file explorer/documents just crashes. Xperia companion doesn't work either.

There was also an issue with charging/transferring media with the charge port. Bad connections but it was made better using the Sony original cable I have now. It charges alright now (instead of needing "the right" angle). Still, as far as I can remember data was hard to trasnfer, maybe I got 10 songs copied over before it stopped responding and had to cancel. All the files on the SD card I saved of course but the ones on internal storage are still there. I browsed the album for a few seconds and I just want to get them on my pc. I tried to copy to SD card but I can't perform that with the constant bombarding of crashing app error notifications that fill the screen. Also it seems like once the phone is on, I can navigate around (with the bombardment of crashing) but once the screen is allowed to time out it doesn't wake back with the power button. To mess with it again I have to pull the battery and put it back in. I have booted in safe mode to no avail, apps still keep crashing.

Please please help. I have USB debugging enabled if that helps? I just want to drag and drop my images and then the phone can sit in a draw. I am sure a factory reset would have it working back to normal but I can't lose the files.

Btw I think SONY is purposefully killing off these older devices. The phone worked flawlessly, yes it's older and not as fast but there was not a single issue (besides maybe the charge port wear). This issue with crashing is completely software related after an android update.

The phone is not rooted and no random software was installed (just social media and the like).

THANK you for any help!

Brad