Phone won't turn on???

[CousinEnby]

hey there! so full disclosure that I'm no expert, but most phones can be hooked to a computer using a compatible USB cable. unfortunately, many require you to authorize it with an on-screen message, but you might be able to play minesweeper with the phone and pinpoint the spot where that yes button is by a process of elimination. if the phone had data stored in an SD card, you could also put that boi into a converter (if you don't have one, they're usually about $8) and many laptops or other small electronics have ports for SD cards where you can load that data and back it up elsewhere.

if you have any other questions, i can certainly try my hand at answering them! I've had a few phones go down this way ;>>

edit: after rereading the thread, it DEFINITELY seems like a touch screen failure. my husband's touchscreen laptop screen went out recently, and sometimes fragments can be stuck pressed down, so it'll register taptic feedback but it's trying to process the extra info, all while you can't see anything because the screen itself isn't displaying data -_- my husband's laptop now has to be half-folded down while he uses an external monitor ^^; not really an option for a phone, but paying to replace the screen isn't as much of a hassle as it can seem. I'd suggest trying the Geek Squad or something like that where they give you a guarantee if it doesn't fix it.

[chisei]

Does anyone have tips for backing up files from a mostly-unresponsive phone?

take it to get the screen fixed. not a rocket scientist or anything but if you dropped it and now it wont show anything it's entirely possible something just got shaken up in the process/it's coming apart from the inside 😔 that tends to happen with androids i've noticed

[Kira C-137]

What you can try is to reset the phone if you can, the screen should give a boot manager (or boot startup) screen and you should be able to find where it says ¨Reset phone¨ or something along those lines of reset. I would try to use this before taking it somewhere and spending money for them to do the same thing that you can do at home.

This is straight from Google Support ↓↓

Press and hold the Power button. While you hold Power, press the Volume Up button and let go of both buttons quickly. Android Recovery options should be displayed. With the volume buttons, scroll to "Wipe data/factory reset" and press the Power button.

[CousinEnby]

What you can try is to reset the phone if you can, the screen should give a boot manager (or boot startup) screen and you should be able to find where it says ¨Reset phone¨ or something along those lines of reset. I would try to use this before taking it somewhere and spending money for them to do the same thing that you can do at home.

This is straight from Google Support ↓↓

Press and hold the Power button. While you hold Power, press the Volume Up button and let go of both buttons quickly. Android Recovery options should be displayed. With the volume buttons, scroll to "Wipe data/factory reset" and press the Power button.

just in case you don't know, RainyKitten, if you reset the phone then you will lose all data stored on the phone that is not backed up on the cloud or elsewhere and while it could certainly help the phone, you mentioned backing it up, so i would imagine you have things on there that you want to have before trying a reset.

also, if the screen is unresponsive completely, anything that directly involves scrolling to a particular setting will be really difficult! but, if you are able to figure out how many clicks up/down it might be, you could guess, but it's not gonna be easy.