Fairphone 6 OEM bootloader soft bricked

Discuss The Products
, , , ,
1

I tried to install iode-7.5-20260506-FP6-fastboot on a new FP6.
I got the software from:

And tried to open the OEM bootloader lock with the help of

Sadly someone @ASOP (&& Google) decided to repel usual users from unlocking their bootloader with the user of most frustrating, most obfuscate GUI dialog box I ever had the misfortune to deal with in my lifetime.
TLDR;
You are seeing something like a “AB1CF846” as an unlock code but you can’t enter uppercase characters only numbers and you don’t see where the input box is. Also you have to enter first the PIN and then then the unlock number.
My advice:
If you go to “OEM unlock” in developer options rotate your FP6 to the side and adjust the screen.
Search and find “OEM unlock” again and then input your PIN and afterwards the lowercase unlock number.
So “AB1CF846” converts to “ab1cf846” and those lowercase characters are accepted.
(Who ever programmed that website should think the design over - as in the source code the lowercase characters are present…)
Before I found out how I had been tricked, I unfortunately did something which is required with the unlocking of Motorola devices - I updated the FP6 to the latest Android version from the software updater (Very bad idea as it turned out later.),
But not knowing that I did the usual:
$ adb reboot bootloader
$ fastboot flashing unlock

Then reconfigured Android, become developer and activated usb-debugging again.
adb reboot bootloader
$ fastboot flashing unlock_critical

unlocked the last hurdle - I thought…

So I started flash-all.sh form the unpacked zip and installed iodeOS quick.
I was so happy and convinced of my success that I answered the final question on

Lock bootloader optional

With “YES” (by selecting the line with Vol +).
Bad mistake!

The FP6 went into a bootloop.
Probably the version of the Android “security firmware part” of the ROM from the latest Google infested FairphoneOS Android was younger than the corresponding bootloader part of iode-7.5-20260506. As a result the phone started and restarted and …

Lucky escape - solution:

Fortunately the brain dead FP6 device could be booted into recovery.
(Vol - && Power)
After navigating into boot fastboot
I checked for unlock_ability

$ fastboot flashing get_unlock_ability
(bootloader) get_unlock_ability: 1
OKAY [ 0.000s]
Finished. Total time: 0.000s

This was looking very good to me. (I had to do this several times as the fastboot environment was not stable at every reboot. Check with $ fastboot devices beforehand - if empty reboot your phone)
After doing that I tried a last attempt to save me from sending in the new FP6:

$ fastboot flashing unlock
OKAY [ 0.035s]
Finished. Total time: 0.035s

The FP6 now boots into a standstill. No iodeOS - nothing else but no bootloop any more.
After bringing the unlocked FP6 into fastboot again.
I run flash-all.sh again and it worked out of the box.
Now I was wise enough not to relock the OEM bootloader lock.
I run the phone now with iodeOS with open bootloader which can be closed in a half a year or so after getting newer updates with contain newer firmware bootloader security blobs…

That was my experience on June 2026 with FP6 and iodeOS.

2

You’ll probably be happy to hear, that since FP6.QREL.16.69, the unlock code is no longer required and the process has been simplified:

I know it doesn’t help your case, but it will probably make life easier for people like you in the future.

3

It was the other way round: FPOS SPL was newer than Iode, thus you could not relock the bootloader after installing Iode.

you dont need to wait half a year but only till the next OTA with newer SPL.

4

Dear kwasow that sounds nice to me!
I am sure the existing support for alternate Boot-ROMs yields a lot of frustration and anger with the people trying to live with repairable hardware running privacy focused software on it.
For many years I owned an FP2, which was (at least when I recall my memory) a lot easier to flash with non-Stock-Androids-ROMs than the FP6s I recently was able to rent/buy.
Does this feature resolve the issue with the firmware lock in in the boot code of Android?
So whenever you go back from an “newer” boot firmware to an older version of it you end up in a boot loop?
I am not the greatest fan of digital restrictions management (DRM) systems - which pretend to do “good things” for the “costumer” - in this particular case “provide security” by the means of secret proprietary code blobs. In fact I dislike many aspects of Android which seem to be programmed to separate the user from his hardware and insert secret code or reliance of remote provided “digital services”.
The “OEM-unlock” function is a wonderful example of that kind of “security”.

Why do I have to ask some service on the internet for permission to unlock the boot loader of my hardware?

Why is that “unlock” process with many other Androids such a hustle? (If provided at all?)

What is the “benefit” for me ?
I’d rather prefer a stock OSS BSD or Linux on the same hardware over Android :smiley:.
(Which does not run due to secret hardware device specifications which serve as gate keepers for proprietary OS distributions.)

5

I installed iode-7.5-20260506-FP6-fastboot on a new FP6.
I got the software from:

And opened the OEM bootloader lock with the help of

unlike my first attempt

I strictly avoided to update the FPOS.
So anytime I had to reconfigure it - I tried to minimize the time exposing it to the WiFi and avoided installing a SIM at all.
So I configured Android, (with some WiFi time) became developer and activated usb-debugging and unlocked OEM bootloader lock.

$ adb reboot bootloader
$ fastboot flashing unlock

Then reconfigured Android -, become developer and activated usb-debugging again.
$ adb reboot bootloader
$ fastboot flashing unlock_critical

unlocked the last hurdle.

So I started flash-all.sh form the unpacked zip and installed iodeOS quick.
I was so happy and convinced of my success that I answered the final question on

Lock bootloader optional

With “YES” (by selecting the line with Vol +).
The following reboot gave me some visual feedback of a lineage script doing some maintenance and rebooted the device again - to a clean slate IodeOS.
In that I was able to relock the OEM unlocked bootloader.
After the next reboot IodeOS was running with a closed bootloader on FP6.

TLDR;
Do not update the new FP6 and install the latest IodeOS and you can relock the bootloader on FP6 hardware with ease.>
My daughter is delighted with her new phone.

6

You cant generalise this conclusion it always depends on the SPL date, and it must be same or newer to be able to lock the bootloader.