Getting data off 950XL with no screen

[bglazebrook]

I hope someone can help me with this. I bought the 950XL when it first came out and loved it and only had problems six months ago when I cracked the glass. It was still usable until my puppy decided it would be fun to chew on it, which crushed the LCD. I bought a replacement screen and installed it, and everything was fine for a month until got dropped and the new LCD shattered as well. It wasn't much of a drop, so either the LCD wasn't well made or I didn't install it solidly enough (likely). Anyway, with a replacement screen for >$200, I decided the best option was to buy a new phone as a replacement.
My problem is that I have images and other files on the 950XL that I can't transfer to my PC, since I can't use the screen to unlock it. Does anyone know how I can access my phone and unlock it without having to install a new screen?
TL;DR - broke my screen on my 950XL and need to know how to access the phone without having to buy a new LCD.

 

[Zachary Boddy]

That's a tough predicament, considering the phone is locked. Do you have any files stored on the microSD card? Did you back anything up to your OneDrive?
Your apps will automatically save to your Microsoft Account if they support the feature and the Store records what apps you install so you can always go back and find them.
Any photos you took should automatically upload to OneDrive.
Any documents you created using Microsoft Office should also automatically upload to OneDrive.
Your email should sync with Outlook.com.
Most files on your phone should be easily accessible through another device or from OneDrive. Now if you've opted out of this, or for exceptions that don't automatically save to the cloud, I'm not certain how to help you. Did you use Windows Hello? If you did, it's still possible to unlock the phone without touching the screen.

 

[sd4f]

Someone may be able to chime in, maybe using continuum may be able to get around this. Not sure if you can unlock the phone with continuum, or whether you can just plug it in an let it work without setting it up.

Last alternative, is look for a broken second hand phone to get the screen, should be able to find one for not a lot of money now.

 

[bglazebrook]

Thanks for your responses - it sounds like I'm going to have to get a broken screen to deal with it. I did have a device backup, but don't know that there is any way I can any useful data out of the file (like my text history, etc.) without having another Windows phone. I was saving all my photos and docs to my SD card, but I got a write error a few months ago and changed the save location to internal storage before backing up and reformatted the card. I forgot to change things back and so I'm missing a few months of data. I don't plan on making that mistake again.