One thing to know first
Don't let anything repair it. That prompt is the danger, not the fault.
The device is visible, which means the hardware is talking. What has failed is the filesystem, the index describing where each file begins and ends. Your files are almost always still sitting on the media untouched. The damage in this scenario is nearly always self-inflicted afterwards: chkdsk, Disk Utility's First Aid, or a format writes new structures over the damaged ones, and in doing so overwrites the information a recovery would have used to reassemble your files.
Often fixable yourself
Phone shows up but won't open
A phone in this state is very often something you can resolve yourself, at no cost, and this page tells you how before it tells you anything about us. Where that doesn't work, the rest explains what the fault usually is and what recovery involves.
What this usually turns out to be
A phone whose storage cannot be read is a fundamentally different problem from every other device on this list, because the storage is encrypted at rest by default and the key is bound to the hardware and unlocked by the passcode. When the filesystem underneath becomes corrupt the phone typically responds by refusing to boot past the logo, or by offering to erase and start again. There is no equivalent of connecting the disk to another machine and reading around the problem: without the phone's own security hardware and the passcode, the flash contains nothing but noise.
Storage is soldered to the board and encrypted by default. That makes the passcode half of every phone recovery, and a factory reset instantly permanent.
Corrupt filesystem metadatabetter news
The master file table or catalogue is damaged. The file content is intact and reachable; the map to it is not.
Interrupted write or unsafe removalbetter news
Power lost or the device pulled mid-write, leaving the filesystem in an inconsistent state. Usually very recoverable.
Bad sectors in the metadata region
The drive is degrading and the unreadable areas happen to be the ones holding the index. This case does have a clock on it.
Encryption without the key
BitLocker, FileVault or a NAS volume password. The data is intact but mathematically unreachable without the key or password.
What to check first on a phone
- Check whether the phone reaches the lock screen at all, because being able to enter the passcode is the difference between a difficult job and an impossible one.
- Check what is already backed up elsewhere before anything invasive: iCloud, Google One, and photo sync services frequently hold most of what matters.
- Note the exact wording of any on-screen message rather than acting on it.
What not to do
Do not accept the offer to erase, reset or restore the phone in order to make it start, and do not work through passcode attempts if you are unsure of the code. Erasing discards the encryption keys, which ends the matter permanently, and repeated wrong attempts can trigger the same outcome automatically.
Try this before you pay anyone
The free checks worth making, and why recovery software cannot help here
- Check what is already backed up before touching the phone: iCloud, Google One, Google Photos, and any messaging app with its own cloud backup. On a phone this is where these are usually resolved.
- Check whether the phone still reaches the lock screen and accepts your passcode, because that is the difference between a difficult job and an impossible one.
- Write down the exact wording of any message the phone shows rather than acting on it.
Carving software cannot help here and it is worth knowing why rather than spending money finding out. Phone storage is encrypted at rest, soldered to the board, and unlocked by security hardware tied to your passcode. There is no way to connect it to a computer and read around the fault, and nothing to carve without the key. Do not accept an offer to erase, reset or restore the phone to get it starting again, because that discards the key and ends the matter permanently.
How recoverable this is
Usually good, and often very good, because the media is intact and the fault is in the description of the data rather than in the data. The main determinant is not the original fault at all. It is whether a repair tool has already been run. Cases that arrive untouched tend to go well. Cases where chkdsk has already rewritten the structures are meaningfully harder, and sometimes that is what decides the outcome.
What moves it, for your device specifically:
- Whether a repair, format or chkdsk has already been run against it
- Whether the controller is still answering, or the translation layer has collapsed under it
- Whether the volume is encrypted, and whether the key or password is available
- How much has been written to the device since the problem appeared
We will not give you a percentage for your device, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Nobody can know what is recoverable until the media has been imaged and read. What is above describes this class of failure; your drive gets its own answer after an assessment, in writing, at no cost.
What it costs
from $249
USB sticks and memory cards
Cameras, dashcams, drones, phones. Includes carving for cards that no longer present a filesystem.
What moves a job within its band: capacity, how much of the media is unstable, whether the filesystem is encrypted, and how much of the drive has to be read before the files you need are reachable. You get one fixed figure after the assessment and it does not move afterwards. If we can’t recover what matters to you, there is no recovery fee.
Other faults on a phone
Detected but unreadable on other devices
Next step
Tell us what failed.
Free assessment. Fixed quote before recovery starts. No recovery, no fee. Sydney drop-off or Australia-wide by tracked post.