Hello,
First of all thanks a lot for this thread, it is full of useful advice and hope to me 
I have the black screen problem, in the past I installed LOS but then I went back to FPOS an locked the bootloader again.
Following the comments, I tried two different USB-C docks with the following results.
I am able to see the four blue points dancing until the screen with a clock and a lock appears, but unfortunately no mouse or keyboard inputs looks to have any effect, ofc I tried the sequence space - pin - enter but without luck.
During the tries it happened that the lock screen turned black and pressing the space it came back, because of this I guess the keyboard is working. But no way I can enter the home screen…
I am still resisting to do a factory reset because I have the hope to be able to make a backup of my data…
Any ideas or help would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
Hello @Txor ,
What is your keyboard layout ? and what touch did you use ? (num pad ?).
For me, I use a french keyboard (AZERTY) and I notice that the keyboard is by default in QWERTY. I use num pad without problems. If you use numerical touch above letters it can be difficult if you don’t use qwerty.
Keep in mind that you see nothing when you type your pin code.
The mouse is working after enter your pin code and after your phone is unlock.
I hoppe you will resolve your issue.
Julien
Hi all,
I want to share my experience and my thoughts about this issue.
(Sorry for my bad english)
First, I use to have IODE OS before I re install the official rom Android 12 FPOS in september. I went to foreign countries for my hollidays and need the google stack to travel. I take many pictures during my trip and one day I received the notification to upgrade to android 13…
I did it and cannot use my phone anymore for the last week of my hollidays.
My mystakes :
- I didn’t take time to backup. At the beginning of my hollidays I did not have internet but when I applied the upgrade I had so…
- I didn’t reboot the phone before the upgrade.
Fairphone positives things :
- They answer to my support ticket
- They have a community forum (thankfully)
Fairphone things that irritates me.
- When they answer to me, they give me the possibility to send them my phone to restore android but they will erase my datas because of RGPD. I am agree with that procedure but…
- They didn’t give me other option, they just give me basic informations (you have to backup your phone, but I cann’t anymore… You can use a recovery compagny to get back your datas).
I’m a little annoyed and disappointed by the fairphone compagny because they have engineers, they can give me the informations I found in this thread ! They can give other informations about what is going on and how I can try to recover my datas (photos and videos of my trip). They were not helpfull at all about that in the offcial reply. Perhaps there are some fairphone engineers in this forum who give us helpfull informations but the offcial answer to my ticket has to be accurate and more than just an “erase datas” and “use recovery compagny” (IMHO).
Anyway, thanks to all of you for your informations and good tips. It worked for me. I was able to retrieve my data and flash the official ROM android 13 to my FP4.
Thanks
Julien
Received my FP4 from repairs again. Tried the upgrade and receive this error now:
The only thing I can do is reset and then start again from A12
Have you tried again multiple times already?
However, why would you start with A12 after a factory reset? From the yellow part it shows the A13 version, so with the factory reset you can start from scratch with A13.
What have they done at Cordon?
So at Cordon, the have done some “software repairs” and then send the device back. Started it today and it was A12. The update was provided to A13, which I did. After the reboot it gives this screen in recovery. Try again gives me the same issue. Factory reset brings me back to A12 once I restart.
Did you test, because I dont think so. Factory reset does not touch the system it only erases your data and settings.
And thats really without words, why dont they just do the upgrade to check it works this time?
weird, so you did you end up in the other slot with A12 and did you try to update again? If so, I guess easiest would be to unlock the bootloader and do a manual install and tell support what bad work Cordon did.
I guess this will be the way to go… I just hope that once I hand this FP4 to my mother, that this won’t happen with the next big upgrade… Oh man…
Just as a heads up…
I have now proceeded to manually install the A13 Update for the FP4
-
enabling developer options
-
enabling usb-debugging
-
enabling oem-unlock
-
then unlocked the bootloader (normal and critical)
-
changed the Toggles of the flash_fp4_factory.command to the following:
AUTO_REBOOT=“true”
DATA_WIPE=“true”
DRY_RUN=“false”
FRP_WIPE=“true”
INTEGRITY_CHECK=“false”
REBOOT_TO_BOOTLOADER=“true” -
Executed the flash_fp4_factory.cmd and then due to the change of the toggles rebooted into bootloader.
-
Checked again in fastboot mode the current status with fastboot oem device-info (to see that device is still unlocked) and with fastboot flashing get_unlock_ability (to see if it delivers get_unlock_ability=1. Unlock ability was 1 so I relocked the bootloader accordingly.
I am now with Android 13 but I do not know what the heck that repair from Cordon was…
Hi all, thanks for all your helpful comments.
I am in bit of a pickle.
My FP4 screen has been damaged a while back (say 5 weeks ago or so) but it still functioned all right. I figured I would replace it the next time I dropped it if it got worse. Did not happen so far.
Recently, I kept ignoring the update my FP proposed. On the 12th of october, I started facing blackscreen. I do not recall really actively pushing the install update, but it could have happened by an erronous prompt in the touch perhaps. I was however not charging so this is not super likely (unless it can it start installing updates when battery is charged at high percentage but not charging actively).
All of a sudden, the screen does not work anymore. When restarting, the only thing i get is a faint black screen (somewhat lighted). I can shut off the phone by 30sec power button, but in restarting, i get the same black screen (somewhat lighted), no FP logo or blue dot, just but one vibration. Then it is stuck and backlighting goes off. Tricks to go to recovery mode also do not work, nothing on the screen. After that it seems stuck.
-I’ve tried opening the phone, tightening all screws, but also disconnecting and reconnecting the display specifically. Does not change.
-plugging it in the pc generates a “tudohduhtu sound” but no fairphone shows up in ‘this pc’ and thus no change of downloading my data/pics.
The pickle is this:
did
- I accidently push the update to go ahead and i am now facing the “black screen/booting issue”
- my screen stopped working actively because of hardware and only has a bit of black backlighting as a last dance so to speak.
Option 1 Seems a bit unlikely since I had no idea what a “custom ROM” was until today; so i assume i did not have it. 2) Seems unlikely because there was no physical recent trigger at that time and the backlighting gives the idea that the screen still the nondamaged hardware but the software steering it is wrong (so 1).
Tomorrow i will try to connect to the Dock at work which could display something. I am worried the phone will not be generating a VGA output (or whatever output it needs to show stuff on an external screen) before i am logged in with the pin…
PS: also today, it started vibrating obsessively (15 times or so, untill i pushed the power button briefly) as if someone called me. But if i call it myself: voicemail…
Sorry for my lament.
I will keep you posted as to the external screen trials tomorrow.
At the end nothing worked to get past the lock screen.
So I assumed to loose the data and did a factory reset, with this I was able to enter into the Android setup and managed to unlock the bootloader using my USB-C dock, then I installed A13 as explained in the official guide, and now the phone works again.
Well, I like the phone and the company, but loosing time and data because their fault is not acceptable at all…
Hope everyone can get their phones working back.
Thanks a lot for this great thread!
Hi everyone,
Thank you for being so active on this topic and helping each other out. I read all your comments and shared a summary with the relevant teams. We’ll look into why after upgrading to Android 13, some Fairphone 4 devices experience a black display during/after boot.
It seems there is a connection between this issue and a previous installation of a custom ROM. The exact cause is still unknown so we can’t say if this affects every device with a custom ROM (or even devices that never had one).
Most importantly, what can you do if you encounter this issue after the upgrade? There are two options.
Option 1 - Try to fix it at home
Some users above had luck with the following steps:
- Connect a USB-C dock to your Fairphone. The dock must support HDMI output as well as input from a keyboard (and optionally a mouse).
- Connect an external monitor and keyboard to the dock. If all goes well, your Fairphone’s screen should appear on the monitor, even if the phone itself has a black display.
- Using the keyboard and mouse, first make sure all your data is backed up.
- Follow the instructions in the article Installing Fairphone OS Manually to unlock your bootloader and install a fresh copy of Fairphone OS with Android 13.
This will wipe your data.
This option can be great because it lets you back up your data and in most cases will take less than an hour. If you encounter any obstacles, feel free to ask for help in this topic.
If you are not comfortable with manually re-installing Fairphone OS or you don’t have access to the necessary devices (dock, monitor, etc.), consider the next option.
Option 2 - Contact our Support team and request a repair
Follow this link to fill out our contact form. Our Support team will help you send your device to our repair center.
As I am writing this, the reply time to new requests is 3-4 working days. To help speed up the process, make sure to upload your proof of purchase in the contact form.
We are aware of one instance where the performed repair was unsuccessful. This has been escalated to the relevant team and shouldn’t happen again.
I’d just like to add some hints for people that want to fix the phone themselves:
- I connected a monitor to my docking station via VGA and it worked as well (so HDMI is not a requirement. I used a Lenovo USB-C Travel Hub)
- it only worked if no power cable was connected to the hub. Otherwise the external display turned black after a second.
- I had to wait for a few seconds after the phone started before typing space + pin + enter on the lock screen. The backlight of the black screen of the phone changes it’s intensity. After that it seems to be ready to accept the pin.
- Everytime I left the phone for some minutes, the external display turned black and won’t wake up again. The phone continued to run for a few minutes and then it died(?) (I could ping it via WiFi for a few minutes).
Hum, maybe i am having some understanding issues here… please help, if you can:
I do now have a USB-Dock from a friend and i was able to backup all my precious data 
That is the good part.
But now i am struggling with the install process at a very early stage. I did unlock USB debugging and i also enabled the OEM unlock.
But now i cant go on. In the process for unlocking the boot loader, it is now desired to connect a USB cable to the phone and connect via adb. To do that, i have to disconnect my docking station, at least i did not get it running with it connected. And when i try to connect it, it states:
./adb devices
List of devices attached
3ef1b6d9 no permissions (missing udev rules? user is in the plugdev group); see [http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html]
I think i need to confirm the connection on the smartphone, but i cannot, as the display, mouse and keyboard are no longer connected.
I have installed Fairphone OS in the beginning of this year, so i should know how to do this, but i have no idea, how to circumvent this :-/
Can anyone help?
Now that you’ve saved all your data I’d recommend to reinstall FPOS using the “Flashing with fastboot” method on
resp. for unlocking the bootloader start fastboot mode on the device using Vol Down + Power, connect the USB cable and use fastboot flashing unlock on the connected computer.
Yeah, i am following the instructions from that page. and there it is stated, that i shall do the following:
Type
adb devicesand press Enter. You will see a pop-up on your Fairphone asking if you allow USB debugging on this computer. Tap **Allow
Next, type
adb reboot bootloaderand press EnterWhile in fastboot mode, type
fastboot flashing unlockand press Enter
I can enter the fastboot mode using Vol Down + Power, but i cannot use fastboot as it seems. It states:
./fastboot flashing unlock
< waiting for any device >
I will try to bring my adb key to the phone via sd card. That might help.