Retrieving photos from my phone with a broken screen?

Post date: 2022-08-10 05:17:55

Is there a way to get my files/photos off my Pixel 3 phone with a recently-broken screen and a very iffy USB-C port? The screen responds to touch to answer calls, and the phone is functional (will vibrate and receive calls), but has no display at all. Luckily I do have my photos auto-uploading to Google Photos already but only in storage saver quality - is there a way to pull the original quality versions off my phone through Google Photos, or some other way?

The screen repair cost is high enough that considering the phone's age and other issues it makes more sense to get a new phone, but I'm sad about losing all the original quality photos. I don't care much about whatever other files are on the phone, though bonus if I could get those too somehow.

I can't get them through the cable because 1) I can't see to enable the file transfer and 2) the connection doesn't work well at all and I always have to fiddle with the cord forever before I see the charging symbol showing that it's connected. (I've been using a wireless charger for a long time because the charging port is so finicky). I've ordered a newer pixel with the "transfer cable" thing but my understanding is that this won't work either, for the same reasons.

I tried to screencast to the TV (chromecast) by tapping the screen in what should have been the right sequence based on my partner's phone (conveniently also a pixel 3), but it didn't work. Also, the phone has now managed to call 9-1-1 twice without even touching anything (!!!) so I'm reluctant to mess around too much with tapping on the screen randomly.

I feel like there should be a way to access the photos remotely through my Google account (via my desktop) or otherwise maybe remotely install an app that can do it, but I can't figure out how to do it. Is this possible?

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