A moment when you totally wished the Nexus 4 supported USB OTG out of the box

[G+_Joseph Cappellino]

A moment when you totally wished the Nexus 4 supported USB OTG out of the box...

 

One of my best friends' Nexus 4 recently suffered a "Nokia Test" mishap and his digitizer is broken. (the screen still functions though) He unfortunately didn't unlock and root.

 

My first inkling was to use USB OTG to connect a mouse to use the unlock screen to still use the phone with the digitizer broken, but NOPE. Google removed OTG support for the Nexus 4 SPECIFICALLY so that's not a solution. Rooting also wipes all data so that completely goes against what we're trying to accomplish.

 

He knows about ADB commands, so he can easily pull the /SDCARD/ data off, but because he didn't root, there's a likelyhood he'll lose all his SMS messages. (which he could potentially have business correspondences for records.)

 

Without a rooted phone, there's no easy way to get everything off... Shareware is a BIG NO NO and freeware you have to install into Windows carry so many malware risks. (AKA, the utility has to have no installer, extract from a ZIP or 7Z, and go, preferably open source.)

 

I know we can swap the hardware, but can it be done without doing that since he's likely to trash the phone for a new one anyways?

[G+_Lauren Glenn]

OK, but if your friend is storing business correspondence for records as SMS.....  that's a lesson to learn.  Don't those just back up when you link to Google account?  If not, use Google Voice since all SMS get stored in your GMail account and stop using SMS for business contacts.

[G+_Jack Zhang]

Lauren Glenn

I can't confirm if he had any important correspondence on his phone. He's a programmer from the UK living in Canada, and his N4 was purchased in the UK initially.