On Wednesday, the 17th of February (9 days after my request) I called Fairphone. The guy was very friendly, I could speak german with him and he explained me the next steps.
As Trufflemuffin already told, you’ll normally get a new phone (at the moment it will take around 14 days for the change). Fairphone told me, that for the future, it is mentioned to change only the module and not the whole phone, but the individual spare modules are not on storage yet.
The steps for the returning process are;
Create an account in the Fairphone Return Portal (return.fairphone.com), or log in if you already have an account there;Create your return request by following the instructions on the portal;After your request was registered, fairphone will check and approve it within 48 hours (during working days);Once your request is approved you will receive further instructions by e-mail.
Because of my call to fairphone just before, the request was known already and fairphone approved my request immediately.
After approval by fairphone you’ll receive the details for the shipping process.
Yesterday the guy from DHL came and took the parcel. So I will see, when I’ll get my phone back!
Hello,
I Have se same problem to.
in french “impossible d’établir une connexion avec la camera”.
Perhaps is it a bad contact.
j’ai essayé de démonter et remonter la camera (c’est vraiment facile, bravo)
Nothing to do.
I want realy to be constructive. But I wrote 3 weeks ago (Request #89874). until today, I have not received a reply.
What did I do ?
Thank you for your help.
Jean-Marc Sutterlet
I would suggest to call them. They’re very busy at the moment, so a call might speed things up…
Hello again,
short update from my side: 2 weeks after sending my defect phone to fairphone I received a new phone back. Everythings allright now and all fairphone kept their promise to send the new phone within two weeks. So I can assume, that the fairphone support did a really good job after I called them. The thing that they should improve immediate is the time for a response after a request by mail. More than one week without a response is quite bad. So when Fairphone get this thing under control, everything is allright. The product is already a good one!
I’m having this issue with the replacement I’ve been sent. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to send it back again as this will be my 4th phone and it costs me.£27 pounds to courier it to Fairphone.
If I push hard on the camera it sems to work, but the screws are as tight as they can be. Did anyone try and disassemble the camera module?
I have the same problem ,I tried to disassemble the camera and tighten the screws but it didn’t work.
A technician who tried to solve the problem told me in his opinion the problem isn’t in the camera module but in the pogo pins that connect the camera to the display.
I contacted the support but they haven’t replied yet
Hi guys,
I’m overall very happy with my fairphone and am quite a fan of the whole idea. However, over the last few weeks my camera has not been working.It started with phases where it didn’t used to and I got a notification saying ‘can’t connect to camera.’ I firstly assumed it’s the software, but at one point when it did work the screen became weirdly pixelated in all sorts of colours and the camera immediately stopped working. It hasn’t worked since, I get the error message every time now. I’m quite disappointed because I only received the phone in January. I’ve contacted Fairphone twice about this but haven’t received an answer yet. Do you think I’m right in thinking that the problem will still fall under the warranty? I know a camera module doesn’t cost the world, but I read somewhere (sorry, can’t remember where…) that other people have had similar problems and were told to send the phone back to Fairphone. I would like to do that, but am not sure if it’s worth it as I haven’t yet received a confirmation that they will fix this for me under warranty.
I’d be really greatful for any tips and information - has anybody else had a similar problem?
Sarah
I’ve moved your post to a topic where people have reported similar problems, I hope there’s some useful info for you here.
I would think so that is a warranty case if the camera module is broken, though since it worked at some point, I’d suggest to try disassembling and reassembling the phone/camera module, as maybe just the contacts aren’t working properly.
As for the support: It seems they are overloaded with work, so that may just take its time until you get a response.
I have the same problem with the main camera. He said that he can’t connect to the camera.I I Turned the phone on and off, taken out the battery but it doesn’t work. No even with other app. Just complete black. Do I have to out the camera out its content?
I also have the same problem with my phone. The camera worked well for 2 weeks but now it’s not working anymore.
Have you tried taking out the camera module, cleaning it carefully and putting it back in?
No I haven’t. But I read that some people had the same problem and tried to do that with no success
If you say “had” the problem, then how did they fix it?
I’d still try dissassembling first.
I have the same problem, after, IDK, 2 months, I got a reply from the support with some ideas for troubleshooting. All of them didn’t work, so now I have to send my phone in for repair. I really hope, this won’t take too long. My old phone, which I will use then, is pretty slow…
I’m not sure I want to disassemble the phone and camera. I will be afraid to damage it.
I tried to phone them but no answer.
I must confess that I’m very disappointed of my purchase. The service after you bought the phone is absolutely aweful. I will never recommend to buy the phone.
That’s a pity because I was keen on the idea.
Hello,
When trying to load the built-in app for the camera, there’s this message: “camera error: can’t connect to the camera”. I tried it on another app, but the screen still is black. I tried to reboot it, but it still doesn’t work. Sometimes, surprisingly, it does work sometimes but very sporadically. It does it since I received it, the first day.
Does anyone knows how to fix it?
Thank you very much!
Hello, I had the same problem: I got a brand new fairphone 2, and the camera was not working, it said, could not connect.
But then i pressed pretty hard on the camera with my thumb, and since then it works fine. It might be worth a try 
What you should do is try to reassemble your phone and check if the camera module is properly connected.
If this does not work you should probably contact support. They have loads to do and will reply as quickly as they can. Giving a call helped me, and it felt easier that I had written an email through support first with everything I’ve tried and describing the issue because when I called it was easy for them to find all the info they needed.
I had to send my phone back and it was quick. You get a ticket to print. Put it in a box and go to your postoffice. I had a new phone in less than a work week. All along support was great.