Fairphone 6 suddenly stuck at the "I" during boot

[samp]

Hello, I have my Fairphone 6 since October 2025 and am on stock Android. Model was bought directly from Fairphone in EU. Last Update installed is FP6.QREL.15.178.0 a few days ago, which worked fine.

Today the phone turned off due to low battery because I forgot to charge it in time. I plugged it in, let it charge to 95% and then pressed the power button to boot it up again. However the phone just got stuck at the “I” after the “fairphone” animation with green background. I let it sit there for 5 Minutes before pressing the power button for a reboot. It started the reboot and again got stuck at the “I” after the fairpone animation. This time i let it sit in this state for half an hour, where it just stayed at the “I” with screen on for the whole time. I then unplugged the battery, waited a few minutes and tried another boot. It got stuck at the “I” again.

I can boot to the recovery menu “Volume up + Power button” and run the options displayed there. I also tried this: FP5 not booting after update to Android 15 - #102 by anon76468197 which did not help.

What else could I try? I would really like to avoid a factory reset before being able to back up my data. My last backup is a month old and I would really like to avoid loosing the last month in pictures and messages.

Thank you all in advance

[yvmuell]

@samp

. I also tried this: FP5 not booting after update to Android 15 - #102 by anon76468197 which did not help.

So you already tried at least 7 times? And you have tried the next reboot faster?

FP5 not booting after update to Android 15

Hello from Germany. I’ve finally managed to do it after 20 reboots. My problem was that I waited too long. I only restarted as soon as the “I” was displayed. Try this: Hold down the on/off switch until the screen goes black. As soon as the word “Fairphone” appears in green and the Android logo below it, hold down the on/off switch until the screen goes black again. You do this about 7-8 times. At some point I was suddenly back in. Good luck! Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

@anon76468197

If the device returns to the boot screen, continue to repeat this process until it fully boots into Android (can be up to 7-8 times)

If this doesnt work and the bootloader is locked, I dont think you will be able to fix this on your own.

I would just try to boot without SIM and SD card as last option.

[samp]

Yes I already tried that. I repeated the boot/reboot 8 times and started pressing as soon as the fairphone + android text lit up - as mentioned in the citation. Sadly that did not change anything for me. Will try without the SIM card.

[samp]

Without SIM/SD card did not change anything either, sadly.

Is there any way to rollback or reinstall the last software update through adb? Or debug possible errors/crashes at startup using adb?

[Meaghan]

@samp

I also tried this: FP5 not booting after update to Android 15 - #102 by anon76468197 which did not help.

that does sound silly but have you tried this?

@careless25

My latest hack to get back in is to wet your finger just slightly when the I comes up with the green screen and press the finger to the fingerprint sensor. Booted right up for me.

[samp]

I am all for silly solutions, so thanks for bringing this to my attention
Sadly no change here as well. This fix seems to only work for the Fairphone 5.

Meanwhile I tried my best tackling this situation with adb and fastboot, but no luck here as well. Via Adb I do not get access to /system nor was I able to retrieve logcat output. Fastboot did not help either, as my bootloader is locked (I intended to keep this phone as my stable daily driver so did not plan to tamper with it).

Kinda annoying that I now have to arrange myself with loosing a month worth of personal data. Never happened to me on any other phone.

[CoyaN]

Hi @samp, today I’m in your same boat: I restarted the FP6 using the Android menu, like usual. But now it is stucked at the “I” during the boot.

How did you manage to recover your phone? I don’t want to loose the data, only few things are not synced but I want them.

The only thing that works is the Recovery menu, there I can see that my version is 14/FP6.QREL.16.48.0/WS15. I think that is a problem with Android because the “Run graphics test” shows an Android robot with its head popped open and a warning triangle.