[Samsung Galaxy Core Prime Questions & Answers] Hypexed:
Hello experts! ;)

First off I do admit I have cross posted some information here. Perhaps I should have just asked here first. As a lot of research I have been doing lead me here. I am also aware of the XY problem. So I am giving what information I have on my problem and what I have done to resolve it. In a nutshell I need to recover app data from internal storage.

So here is yet another story of a dropped Samsung Galaxy BSOD. The broken screen of death! :-o

So I dropped my phone and the screen broke, fixed it then put on a screen protector that fractured the new screen in my pocket, of all things. Through that it spiraled out and it needed a new LCD as well as screen which failed to repair as LCD remains blank now. I suspect the display controller has somehow fried. Decided to give up and buy a new phone.

My broken phone is a Core Prime G360G. The digitizer doesn't respond. The LCD is blank. The side buttons, volume, power and home, work fine.

The good news. It turns on and technically still works. It has no screen lock. I can plug it in to computer via USB and it mounts over MTP. I can also install apps remotely (so to speak) from another computer from the Play site. I've installed Samsung Switch this way. Switch does work and I managed to back up files from the Windows program which is good but in my case it isn't smart enough as it doesn't back up app data which I need. I also have AirDroid installed and can reach it that way I but didn't enable mirroring before the incident. Trying to use that to download an app (~10MB in my case) just results in the browser stalling.

The bad news. It is not rooted. It has stock standard firmware. USB debugging is not enabled. Last time I tested OTG wasn't supported. At least not for OTG USB sticks.

So in effect it's rooted without being rooted! :D Yes, i know, I know, Android rule of thumb; before you accidentally drop your phone, even without planning it, and not being a seer, enable USB debugging for no apparent reason! It all makes sense now. :P

I've spent the last two weeks reading forums all over the place, blogs and watching videos about how to recover data with a broken screen. And in almost all cases they tell you to enable USB debugging. Well that's nice advice and about as useful as advising someone with a broken toilet to sit down, do their business and then flush it! And is met with equally crappy commentary pointing the conundrum out. ;)

My computer has Windows (Vista) and Linux (Mint 64). I read all about ADB and installed this on both Windows and Linux. And tried to talk to it that way with adb and fastboot which failed. I then read of Samsung devices being different, with a download mode, and using this Odin or Heimdall program. So I could "see" the process I tested with my new phone (a J5 Prime as it happens) and learned I needed to use download mode and how to enter it on boot. Recovery mode didn't work as expected. Heimdall was the only program that would work. I managed to view the PIT on my J5. Odin did see my phone but I found the interface harder to work with at first.

I tried on my Core. Blindly got it into download mode. Heimdall could see it. But the transport was buggy as I kept getting USB errors. I ended up removing it then compiling Heimdall v1.4.2 from source. This worked better, even though it was giving empty bulk transfer warnings, but it managed to download the PIT file. So at this point I can blindly get my Core into download mode and am able to communicate with it using Heimdall.

This is where I am at. I would prefer it if a screen mirroring app could be installed that would load up and activate remotely when a client run on my computer is loaded up. I don't care if it is VNC or how it connects. But it would need to load itself up on the phone and work without needing intervention on the phone and without USB debugging. If there is an emergency mirroring app on the Play store or even an APK that can be installed remotely, using AirDroid or any other means, I would be happy to test it. I'd write one myself if knew how to write an app! LOL. :)

If USB debugging could be enabled by any remote means then I am welcome to hear how. It opens a window to possibility. But a window that is hard to open if it's locked.

So I would prefer to keep this at the app level if possible. Since apps can help. But if need be as long as it doesn't destroy data I am willing to install a custom recovery image. It looks like I will need to do this as I have exhausted all other possibilities. At least, when I read of the latest broken screen mirroring app, there is always a catch of it needing debugging or activating on the phone.

Although there is support for other Core Prime variants, support for my specific G360G model seems to be lacking. The information I read looks vague at best. I read about CWM and TWRP. But on the TWRP site, although there is Core Prime images, nothing is listed for exactly a G360G. There is no point to me flashing TWRP recover image only to find it doesn't work and I have bricked recovery mode. I'd look like a right twerp! :eek:

So guys, after all the info I have given you, what's the next step? Thanks. :)