A friend gave me their A41 to see if I could recover some photos from it for them. They dropped it and the screen just doesn't work anymore. The phone seems OK but when connected to my Windows 10 PC it just shows up in File Explorer as "Fred's A41" and I can't browse the storage. I know the PIN code for the phone and tried to submit that using adb shell commands but all I get returned is "error: closed". The owner didn't use a Samsung or Google account on it.
I've tried getting the phone display on to a monitor and also my TV using two different USB-C to HDMI hubs (with mouse & keyboard attached) and umpteen different HDMI cables but both monitor and TV just state that they can't pick up an HDMI signal. Maybe that can't be done with this model? I've no idea to be honest as I don't use Samsung myself.
I've also tried various bits of trial software which claim to do what I want to do but they either presume that debugging mode is on or instruct me to enable it on the phone. If I could see the display to do that then I wouldn't need their software!!
The photos are of sentimental value and I'm trying my best but I work in IT - not phones - but anything vaguely technical seems to head my way.
Can anyone offer any suggestions for things to try?
Many thanks
