Chip backup

Chip-off recovery – the last resort for mobiles

Data recovery can happen in several ways. In simpler cases, deploying suitable software is enough for data recovery; other times, hardware intervention is needed on the device.

A typical case is water damage. During this, moisture causes micro-short circuits in the phone's circuits. In such cases, the motherboard either starts to malfunction (e.g., only starts in emergency mode) or becomes completely shorted and responds to nothing.

Standard repair for motherboard-defective devices starts with motherboard replacement, which guarantees all data is lost... but there is a lifeline.

All information stored on the device is kept in a special, multiply secured memory, the chip. (contacts, images saved to internal memory, videos, call logs, chat conversations)

This chip can be read with a special tool, meaning data believed to be lost forever can be restored.

However, this is by no means a simple operation. Besides being multiply secured against short circuits, the chip is soldered onto the motherboard. So, as a first step, it must be desoldered from there to be placed into the target machine.

Like other electrotechnical components, the chip is heat-sensitive, so this process can be carried out with slow heating, which sometimes means hours of assembly work.

And once the eMMC chip is out, fingers crossed that it's not damaged and to see what encryption is on it.

Currently, the method works with almost 100% reliability up to Android 14 systems; newer operating systems encrypt the partition containing personal data with more complex algorithms, precisely against this kind of intrusion.

Unfortunately, the chip cannot decide whether you want your data back or a thief wants to get your passwords, bank card details, photos, so developers equipped newer Android types with extra protection functions.

If you have a system newer than version 5, the situation is a bit trickier. This extra encryption had to be set manually on systems, so it might be that you haven't done it on the device yet. In this case, there is a chance we can save data from it, but the success rate is significantly lower here because often encryption setting doesn't happen consciously but is approved by an update.

We constantly develop our tools, software, and are in contact with developers too, so in more and more cases we can successfully perform chip recovery by entering through vulnerable points of individual chips.

For successful recovery, it is important that the chip is intact because if there is even a single bad sector in it, we cannot decode the read raw data file.

When should you almost certainly expect chip recovery?

• if the device does not start at all after water damage
• at the loading screen, the phone constantly throws you into the developer (so-called recovery) menu – this is primarily a Samsung characteristic, but other Androids might do it too
• sudden death, the device went dark from one moment to the next and hasn't responded to anything since
• the phone suffered damage where the motherboard broke, e.g., from a fall or from sitting down in too tight jeans and bending into a frisbee shape in your back pocket (if the chip is also damaged, there is not much chance)

Desoldered memory and motherboard

How much does chip recovery cost?

Since this involves a complicated, complex process requiring specifically extremely expensive tools and software, the recovery fee is more expensive than normal data recovery.

The task is further complicated by the fact that there may be bad sectors in the chip as well, so it cannot be saved one-to-one, but must be read file by file and saved individually, which can take several days.

Prices depending on memory size:

What you definitely need to know:

• After recovery, we do not solder the memory back onto the motherboard, you get it back in two pieces in every case, so you certainly won't be able to use the device.
• With software recovery, if your phone is in a bootloop, for example, it happens that during data recovery we manage to jolt the phone out of the infinite cycle and you can use it again as if we had repaired it. This certainly does not happen with eMMC recovery, this is not a repair procedure, merely a target hardware data recovery method.
• Chip recovery results in loss of warranty in 90% of cases, as it involves dismantling the device and the motherboard. (Exception is Huawei, with whom we already have a partner cooperation, and with our certification, they still accept the device under warranty.) Definitely weigh if you have another device, whether the data stored on the phone is more valuable or the amount creditable with the warranty. (It might be worth running a round with the authorized service center; their policy regarding chip recovery in warranty conditions may change at any time.)
• Just because you think only chip recovery can help you, it's not certain that's the case! It's worth bringing the device in for an inspection, when the data recovery colleague checks what method can get your lost information back.

If your phone is smashed, water-damaged, or simply dead, don't give up on it immediately!

Chip recovery might be the solution to get back half your life stored on your mobile!

Do you have a question? Ask it here!