Last Updated or created 2025-06-10

A friend came with a locked phone.
His son had changed the swipe lock thingy, and forgot what it was,

How I recovered Pictures and Movies:

ADB was turned off, and MTP doesn’t work when locked.
Phone was one of the below.
MT6781, MT6789, MT6855, MT6886, MT6895, MT6983, MT8985

git clone https://github.com/bkerler/mtkclient
cd mtkclient
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
./python3 mtk.py rl test

Press Volume up and volume down and keep pressed.
Now connect the USB cable.

Partitions are downloading, we need userdata.bin
This takes a while!

Next: Extract data

Install Guestfish

sudo guestfish --ro -a userdata.bin
<fs> 
run
list-filesystems
mount /dev/sda /
ls /
glob copy-out /media/0/DCIM/Camera/* .

Data extracted and phone was still locked.
That’s all that was needed, factory reset was next.