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Apparently the SD-card in my phone was a fake. It reports 32Gb, but it only seems to store 16Gb.

Now, I had that thing in my phone for a couple years now, it worked great, but this morning my smartphone reported that the SD-card was missing and I should put it back in. I'm on a non-rooted device, and according to this answer I need the decryption key if I want to get my data back. Now I'm stuck with half an SD-card, unable to get that key.

Any ideas?

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Distjubo
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  • Without root, no way I'm afraid. Good research on you end, you point to the correct answer which has all the details. Unfortunately, that won't help you out unless you can root your device. – Izzy Jan 08 '17 at 11:24
  • But rooting will wipe all the data I could try brute forcing that thing or copying the card onto a different 32Gb card. Do you think that could work? – Distjubo Jan 08 '17 at 11:27
  • Rooting usually doesn't wipe data (unlocking the bootloader does), but that might depend on available methods. You could try duplicating the card (I'd use a different brand of card then, just in case, as at least in the past there were some combinations of "device brand" vs "card brand" which caused trouble) and check whether the new one is accepted. There's a slight change it might be, but less than 50:50 IMHO. Worth a try, though. – Izzy Jan 08 '17 at 11:31
  • @Izzy so what you are saying is that when I flash my device with a custom rom I might be able to read that key? Because I can flash stuff to it, it seems to be unlocked. That'd be awesome! – Distjubo Jan 08 '17 at 13:08
  • I didn't say that (I referred to duplicating the SD card). But with a dirty flash (no wipes, as otherwise the key is lost) you might succeed as well in obtaining the key. But you also might end up with a broken/unstable OS. I'd try the SD duplication first. – Izzy Jan 08 '17 at 13:12
  • This is really odd. A moment ago it seemed like everything beyond 16GB was not readable, and now I can read it just fine using my laptop. I don't get it. – Distjubo Jan 08 '17 at 14:44
  • What the heck, I'm just gonna smash the damn thing to pieces so tiny I don't even have to sweep them off the floor. Holy crap. – Distjubo Jan 08 '17 at 14:50
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    @Izzy yup, that sd card is just dead. IO-errors everywhere, its not writable, gonna throw that thing away. – Distjubo Jan 08 '17 at 15:13
  • So were you able to at least create an image of it (to write to another card)? When using adoptable storage, it seems one should do so regularly (so one has something to recover from), and if possible, also export the key to a backup. – Izzy Jan 08 '17 at 15:16
  • Yea, I got an image. But still, its a bit disappointing. I don't really like the way smartphones and SD-cards work together with that cheap quality storage that can fail within a few months... – Distjubo Jan 08 '17 at 15:27
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    Then better don't use adoptable storage. IMHO the disadvantages are bigger than its pros. I don't use it at all because of that, and consider it nothing but a "last resort" when one has no other choices left. – Izzy Jan 08 '17 at 18:53

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