When connecting my fp5 to an external screen, with the desktop mode on, the external screen shows up as shown below. There is a lot of white noise on the screen which makes it unusable. I’ll report it to support if others can reproduce this too. Can someone else reproduce this? I was able to reproduce it on 2 different external monitors. I may factory reset my phone this month, not because of this issue, just as a general step after a major upgrade.
I used the desktop mode just fine about a week ago (Android 13).
Thanks for checking! I also checked with my USB-Dock and then connected it with HDMI to my TV. Then I had a normal desktop mode. I tried the same thing on the 2 monitors, there it also only works when using HDMI through USB-C. Native USB-C doesn’t seem to work anymore.
I don’t have my USB-C dock at hand, nor my portable USB-C monitor, but my PC monitor is thunderbolt 3 with an USB3 hub and PD2.0 (Benq PD2720U)… everything is working fine.
The image is rendered at 4k@30Hz, the phone charges and the mouse and keyboard work fine.
I also tested some applications to see if something more demanding would cause problems, but everything worked reasonably well, the only glitches I got were related with desktop mode issues that were present in earlier Android versions (ex: 3D games that don’t get to fullscreen properly and VLC doesn’t display videos properly in desktop mode).
I wasn’t checking for it, so I might be wrong, but I didn’t notice the audio latency issues I used to have in the previous version.
Maybe check the cable, specially if you used the same for the 2 monitors, sometimes it is the issue even when it was previously working and it looks prestine. Also, I assume you restarted the phone and retried already…
Strange. Now it works, same setup, no reboot since last test failed. Let’s see if it remains stable and works with my other screens I used for testing.
Edit: Okay, so it only works if I connect the USB-C after the phone was locked for about 10 seconds. Then when I connect, while the phone is locked, the display is normal. When I then unlock the phone the desktop can be used without issues.
However, if the screen is already unlocked and I connect it to the USB-C monitor, everything becomes like the picture in the first post.
Can some people test this too? I consistently get the buggy desktop when I plug in the USB cable when the phone is already unlocked. And consistently no issues when connecting a locked phone.
Hey if you happen to have a wi-fi compatible TV. Do you notice when screen mirroring; and also happen to use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard connected as well. If anything like random disconnects happen or are really laggy responses. This could also be a problem for me when typing or playing Roller Coaster tycoon Classic. I do admit after discovering another bug a while ago. Going through Fairphone support about it. They considered it a low priority. This made me take a break from using desktop mode for the last year. I can tell you that manually typing with fingers is a lot slower then just using an ordinary keyboard. It also causes a lot of typos that I would normally not miss while typing. This has been an issue with ipad OS with disconnects and very long lag responses as of the latest release on that system. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is indeed an issue here as well. Since you clearly use this feature. I would kindly like to know your experience with desktop mode. Since something I do use very often. Even after taking a year break from this feature. I really miss this mode. Its like a portable laptop in your pocket after all. Sometimes I miss the 2,000 style of phones with a slide out keyboard. They clearly don’t make things like that anymore. Being nostalgic about past tech can be a good thing when discussing a mode like this in current technology. Anyway i would love to hear your opinion on this. If you don’t mind my asking…
I’m sorry, but I don’t yet have such a fancy TV. I also don’t use this feature much by the way, only on holidays. But I sometimes charge my phone with my monitor, then desktop mode shows up. Since the Android 14 update it became a bit buggy. I don’t find the desktop mode usable yet. Window management isn’t great, refresh rate is I think about 30Hz, multi tasking is a bit mehh. But that’s on Google, not Fairphone.
I think you should create a new topic for the issue you’re describing. Then people can try to reproduce it there.
I’ll create this week an issue in the FP support ticket queue, since I’ve now found a way to replicate it.
This just means i can’t use it still. But the issue was already created as a topic. This issue on ipads made me wonder if this was also an issue for Android. The thing is i don’t know if its an issue on fairphone. The topic i created was about numbers lock casing issues with bluetooth keyboards not working as expected. I also noticed bluetooth mice may not pair properly asking fir some type of pairing key. I found the mode so buggy on Android 13 that i already took a year waiting for the new operating system to fix this bug. I guess I’m going to have to have to wait for Android 15 for a fix. Here is the topic i have created. Still no replies yet. Mouse and keyboard settings still not working
Like i said before i haven’t used this mode for a long time so i don’t know if the ipad issue is related. Here is the video i watched a while ago said that this was an issue. 3 minutes in he describes his mouse doesn’t work right. At 4 minutes and 14 seconds into the video he is having the same problem with the keyboard. Link to the video below.
It may not be the same issue im having but its very noticeable and with lag on Android 13 while typing. That is why i stopped using this mode hoping for a fix. Hope this brings this to your attention
I just tested some monitors at the office, it works fine there. So it might be very specific to the monitors I have at home. I’ll see if I can create a logcat, because the logging should actually already occur before connecting anything via USB-C. Not sure if logcat is feasible in that case, will check once I have time.
Latency is the most important factor for network quality. Wifi 6 really isn’t bad in terms of latency. Also Playstation controllers are using WiFi if I’m not mistaken. But you’re discussing again a different issue, best is to create a separate topic for that.
Looks like it uses Bluetooth and WiFi. The WiFi is used for input. Just like the Stadia controller and gaming headsets such as the Razor Black Shark. WiFi is pretty fine. But it depends on where you have your access point and the quality of that.
Its about desktop mode not working. As a sign of respect i removed the two comments. I still believe the one with the video and link is important enough to not remove. Even if it has to be moved to a separate topic. I still stand by that statement and the importance for desktop mode itself. Its the main reason why i haven’t resumed daily use of using desktop mode. I hope you agree with that. Have a nice day.
Yeah I reckoned that was the issue, I fine tuned the title to be more scoped. It would not be useful to put all kind of different issues in one topic. Because one issue might get more attention than the other. For example in this case the original issue reported in the top post is not discussed anymore, while that was the reason I created this, to track and troubleshoot just that. It’s best to create a separate topic for the issue you’re describing. If that topic already exists, as you mentioned, then please just resume the conversation there.
It also works fine with my laptop, so the cables don’t seem to be the issue.