Factory Mode/Turning on Fairphone without on/off button

Hi Fairphone owners,

Unfortunately the on/off button of my Fairphone 1 stopped working. I know there is a tric to turn it on without using the on off button. I now came as far as the Factory Mode (see picture) but I can’t select any of the options in any combination of pressing buttons (volume, home etc). I am however able to scroll the menu. Has anyone ever been in the same situation?

Soft buttons (like the home button) don’t work in Testing Mode. Since you state that your on/off-button doesn’t work, I’m afraid you cannot select anything.

You should contact Fairphone support and ask them for the best way to proceed.

Hi Stefan,

Thanks a lot for your prompt reply. I did contact Fairphone support. They gave me the option to send it to repairs but as a solution is not guaranteed I don’t want to risk spending a lot of money. Anyway, maybe it’s time for the Fairphone 2 :)…

I looked at your picture more closely again. It seems that your phone got pretty battered in the region of the power button.

If you’re giving your FP1 away anyway, you could take it apart, using the guide on iFixit.com. In step 13, you’ll see this picture:

https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/GOlFZLPjbdAQ4XAK

Maybe it’s just enough to replace the power button with a new one for 2,30€ (opposed to 118€ for a new motherboard).

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Mario, how were/are you able to scroll through the menu when you say the volume button is not responsive either? Through touching the screen?

Well, the volume button is working perfectly fine and with the ‘back’ touchbutton on the screen I was able to scroll the menu.

So how about selecting an item using the volume button? I seem to remember you can both scroll and select using it.

Maybe you are looking for this info?
https://forum.fairphone.com/t/pencil2-fairphone-forum-dictionary/5309/22?u=therob

@Mario_de_Vries : how you came INTO this mode as you have to use the power button also?
I guess your power button now is in a permanent-pressed-state, could this be?
But I don’t know what the consquences of this are.

I would try to open it up and see if the power button only is clamped and maybe you can temporarly un-stuck it…?

Cheers, Robert

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Well, I came in while sticking in the USB cable, then shortly pressing volume button-up followed by a combination of volume button-down and home button (on the touchscreen). But apparently I’m still nowhere since I can’t select any option in factory mode without the on/off button. Time for a new phone I guess…
But thanks a lot for all your suggestion gentlemen. Great to have a working forum at my disposal :slightly_smiling:

You will not give open-up the phone a try and have a look at the power button?
Suggestions you can find here and here

If you will not sent it back for repair and don’t want to repair yourself, I am sure you can give it to happy hands to somebody active in the forum…

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