Lost contacts and pictures after Factory Reset

[Gilbertd]

My partners Z3 came up with a message saying in needed a factory reset. I have virtually zero experience with Android but had a look at it and realised that her data needed to be backed up to SD card first.  There was no SD card in it so I put one in, found the back up command and backed everything up.  Or so I thought, no error messages and the backup appeared to have worked.  Did the factory reset, set up wifi and everything else that needed and went to restore the data from the SD card.  It said there wasn't any.  Took it out to look at it on my laptop and noticed I'd used a 128Gb card which I know some devices don't like but it had appeared to backup correctly with no error messages.  Files had been copied to the card but there were just two small files and a couple of empty folders.

So, I need to try to get the data back but so far have failed dismally.  I've tried Wondershare Dr Fone for Android, which fails at 90% scanning and tells me I need to root the phone.  However, as the phone is running Android 6.0.1 I have been unable to find anything that is compatible with anything later than 5.1 so have failed there too.  I tried Jihosoft Android Phone Recovery which only claims to be able to recover deleted files and not ones deleted by a factory reset.  That scans the phone and shows me folders for contacts, pictures, videos, messages, phone logs, etc but shows all of these folders as empty (presumably because the files haven't been simply deleted but the internal memory has effectively been formatted).

Is there an unformat type app that will let me get the contacts and at least some of the photos back?

[Uliwooly]

By any chance was the backup made with a different Android version? 

[Gilbertd]

Not unless a factory reset changes the Android version.  All I did was put the SD card in the phone, told it to backup everything to the card (which it appeared to do), factory reset the phone and then tried to restore the backup and there was nothing there.  When I put the SD card in a computer and looked at the files, there was two folders (called android and android something else) but both were empty and two very small files.  Nothing that looked like a backup.

[Uliwooly]

How did you reset the phone? by any chance was it done with XC?

Xperia Companion (XC)

Software Repair Guide

Alternatives on How to backup Xperias

http://talk.sonymobile.com/thread/36355

[Gilbertd]

No, just by using the command on the phone.  Reset to factory default.  I think the reason why the SD card has nothing on it was that I used a 128GB card which uses an odd FAT (not FAT16 or FAT 32) but as that has nothing on it, I'm trying to recover it from the phone memory.  Effectively doing an undelete, which I can do on a PC hard drive or SD card, but this is the first time I've ever done anything with Android.

[Gilbertd]

Following a lack of replies, or maybe a lack of understanding of the problem, here http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xperia-Z3/Lost-contacts-and-pictures-after-Factory-Reset/td-p/1175324 I'm looking at the problem from a different angle.  I'm assuming that the restore to factory defaults has effectively formatted the phone's internal storage resulting in the loss of personal data including contacts and photos.  So, I'm thinking that if I connect to a PC with unformat software installed, I should be able to use that software to find everything.  But in order to do that, I need the phone to appear as a USB drive to the computer.  During my failed attempts at odd times it would come up with a menu where I could select how I wanted it to appear to a computer but don't seem to be able to find that menu.  Where is it?  How do I make the phone appear as a USB drive to the computer so I can get the software to do the business on the data?

The software (bought, not freeware) initally copies the entire drive to the computer bit by bit so the original is untouched and then works on the copy so no danger of overwriting what is still there just not accessible.

[Uliwooly]

It can't be done unless you have root access (recover deleted files on a phone's internal storage), and rooting the phone might delete this data, also, if you use the phone/memory, it will delete the deleted files. 

[Gilbertd]

 So how do I get root access?  As long as nothing is written to the internal storage then everything is still there and the Unformat software will be able to recover it (it's worked in the past on an external hard drive that had been formatted and an SD card that had been formatted with 100% success).

All I'm trying to do is get the phone to appear as a Mass Storage Device although I'm a bit surprised that contacts and photos aren't automatically backed up, they are on every phone I've ever owned although I've always regarded Sony as a camcorder manufacturer (I own and use 4 of them and wouldn't consider anything else) rather than a phone manufacturer.  Or maybe it's a Android thing.....

[Uliwooly]

Actually contacts, wifi, etc do get backed up BUT you have to accept the setting when you are prompted, that happens when you first set up the phone, also, you could've done so by going to 

settings > backup & reset

automatic backup (it should be on) 

also

back up my data (with google) 

So again, this part it's NOT accurate

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@Gilbertd wrote:

they are on every phone I've ever owned although I've always regarded Sony as a camcorder manufacturer (I own and use 4 of them and wouldn't consider anything else) rather than a phone manufacturer.  Or maybe it's a Android thing.....

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[Gilbertd]

Backup was on but one thing that isn't avaailable as an option is to back up photos.  It looks like it's possible to backup the call log, wifi networks, device settings, applications and the android home layout, all things that are easy enough to reset anyway (or, in the case of call logs, aren't that important) but no option to backup the 2 years worth of photos that I'm trying to recover.

However, back to the problem in hand.  I've managed to find the USB configuration menu.  Currently set at MTP, which I would have assumed would let me see the storage but it doesn't and the other options are PTP, RNDIS, Audio Source and Midi, none of which would seem to be relevant to me.

If I need to root it, which of the numerous different methods I've managed to find online will work with an Xperia Z3 running Android 6.0.1?