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Probably unnecessary at this point. Nearly every phone today is sold with a USB C port. "But this phone is older than..." My Moto Z Play was released in 2016
by techrat 5y ago
Probably unnecessary at this point.
Nearly every phone today is sold with a USB C port.
"But this phone is older than..."
My Moto Z Play was released in 2016. That phone is now 5 years old. It came with Nougat... and I can mirror the screen with a USB C hub with Built in HDMI. Plug in a mouse and you're done.
No need to leave adb enabled, which is a security hole that can be exploited by unsafe USB ports and bad actors. (Also, police.)
- OJFord 5y agoCan you unlock it (pin/password I mean, not finger/face) with a keyboard and mouse though?
- wongarsu 5y agoOn my android I can enter pin/password per keyboard, or the swipe pattern per mouse. Some early android phones had slide-out keyboards (like a Blackberry), so good support for physical keyboards isn't that surprising. I wasn't expecting the mouse support tough.
- megous 5y agoIt's all standard HID interface these days.
- techrat 5y agoYep. Even did a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkh4oagFfb8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkh4oagFfb8 Got out my old Moto Z Play which was retired. Restarted the phone so I couldn't use fingerprint to unlock. Plugged in a mouse, clicked pin. Unlocked. Moto Z Play runs Nougat, stock but rooted. You don't need root to be able to do this nor do you need ADB to be enabled. Also confirmed to be working on Razer Phone (stock, 9/Pie) and Essential Phone (stock, 10). Also works with Keyboard instead of mouse. Just type in the pin and hit enter. Pattern unlock will have to be done with the mouse for obvious reasons. So if your digitizer is completely busted, you can still use a mouse and keyboard. If your display is completely busted, you likely will be able to get video alt mode with USB C out. I tried it on a few other devices that I had in my pile. Chances are, if it's Micro USB, you won't get video on boot, even with a proper MHL adapter. * Sony Xperia J (Jelly Bean): Nothing, Micro USB * Sony Xperia Play (Gingerbread): Nothing, Micro USB * Marshall London (Lollipop): Mouse and Keyboard Works, Micro USB * Asus Zenphone 3 Zoom (Nougat): Mouse and keyboard works, USB C IIRC, Displaylink and OTG support was officially added in Lollipop, so that kind of jives with my experience here. As always, YMMV.
- pmlnr 5y agoMoto E series doesn't have MHL. No, adb is still needed.
- silon42 5y agoAlso the Pixel ones don't have it (or DP alternate mode), I think. This is why Nexus 5 is still the best Google phone so far.
- techrat 5y agoMHL largely was for MicroUSB. Chances are what you need is a USB to DP or USB to HDMI adapter. Some work in one but not the other and vise versa. In the end however, Moto Es ARE designed to be the most cut down, least featured phone in the Moto line. You would still be able to use a mouse or keyboard to input a pin or passphrase if the screen was still semi readable.
- goda90 5y agoI had a double whammy of a corroded display connection and a loose usb-c port, meaning recovering data from the phone was a very sensitive and frustrating affair.
- fulafel 5y agoA lot of phones don't have video over the USB C port (eg Google Pixels).
- lkois 5y agoPixel 5 does. I tried with one recently and noted it only does mirroring, unlike Samsung and Huawei which launch some pseudo desktop OS when plugged in.
- comeonseriously 5y agoPixel 4a does not.
- nvllsvm 5y agoWait, you got video out working with the 2020 Pixel 5? First I'm hearing of this. Which adapter did you use?
- qkqk 5y agoWhy does a USB C port mean you don't need ADB or help with a cracked screen?
- techrat 5y agoIt's bad to leave ADB enabled in general. With a USB C port, there's a near absolute certainty that you can simply plug in a USB hub with HDMI built in to hook your phone up to a mouse and monitor to get around the cracked screen issue.
- ufmace 5y agoThe recent versions of Android seem to have gotten way better on ADB security. It seems to generate a keypair on every computer with ADB and require a user with the unlocked phone to authorize the keypair for each device manually. It also auto-revokes authorization if you haven't connected that device with ADB in 7 days by default.
- Evidlo 5y agoI think the implication is that video output is usually available on these devices.
- artificialLimbs 5y agoMy friends Moto Z Play 2 screen was cracked and stopped working after a hard fall. Phone still powers on and accepts touch input but no display. 2 different hubs do not push video at all, so we’re probably looking at replacing the screen to recover her pics.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]