Data recovery and wipe on waterdamaged Pixel 6?

DeletedUser29

Hi peeps.

My Pixel 6 pooped itself two days ago when I moronically rinsed it of quickly under the tap and discovered that the IP68 rating didn't do what it was supposed to. Whether that's because I misunderstand what it does or that the "seal" degraded at some point I don't know, nor does it really matter, but feel free to let me know if you do.

Anyway, the point of my post--apart from being a lesson to others--is to clarify what my options are. With my assumption of the phone being waterproof, I did not turn it off and only noticed something was wrong when the touchscreen started acting wonky and it complained about overheating and shut down. It has since spent some 48 hours attempting to dry it out in a closed box with rice in a warm room. It sadly doesn't seem to have helped as the screen barely functions and it only gets to the unlock screen before it shuts down again.

So while I believe the answers are no, I just wants to make sure:

Is there any way to access any data through a computer with the password/recovery code?
Should I do anything before recycling it to make the data unrecoverable or is the encryption good as is?

Thanks in advance.

de0u

DeletedUser29 This might be within the abilities of a commercial recovery service. According to Forbes at least one handles phones (source). If you want to go that route, don't charge or turn on the device.

DeletedUser29

de0u Thank you, but most of the important data was backed-up fortunately, so there's nothing worth spending money on it. I'm mostly exploring whether I can save myself some headache getting my new phone set-up with all my stuff. And if I should take any precautions trying to wipe or destroy the harddrive before recycling.

de0u

DeletedUser29 If you are unconcerned about the data, you could try chilling the device a bit and then try a factory reset via Recovery.

DeletedUser29

de0u Well ideally I'd like to get at it, but if it's gone it's gone. Do you mean just leaving it be for some time or actually cooling it down?

de0u

DeletedUser29 If you want the data back, honestly I would suggest engaging a professional who knows how to do that. It may or may not be "gone", but clearly some hardware intervention by a skilled technician will be required.

If you don't want the data back but wish to reduce the likelihood anybody can ever get it (which might be appropriate if you'd been using a shorter PIN or passphrase), I would suggest literally chilling the device (refrigerator for several hours) in case what's causing it to shut down is a cooling problem, then quickly entering Recovery and triggering a factory reset. If that's not enough assurance, you might remove and incinerate the flash storage.

What to do depends on what you want to achieve. Based on the description, I am unaware of something simple that would improve the situation. If you do want the data, I would recommend against turning the device on except under the direction of a skilled technician.

DeletedUser29

de0u There's no irreplaceable data to get (only some hours work to replace) so if there isn't an easy way for me to access it, it's just not worth the effort. So thank you very much for the thorough answer and I'll see if I can manage to reset or destroy it instead :)

@Mods Feel free to go ahead and mark this as solved if there is no one else that know of a simple way to access the data even with password and recovery code.