Fairphone 6 unbrick: Trapped in fastboot mode with locked bootloader and corrupted stock ROM

I carefully checked both SPL versions before proceeding, like others in this thread.

1 Like

@Fairphone_CM it would be good if FP could look into this and explain the bug and inform people how to prevent and as a gesture of goodwill accept the costs.

5 Likes

I seem to have also bricked my device in this way. Went from stock fw it ships with to murena e/os IMG-e-3.1.4-a15-20250915526528-official-FP6 (listed on website with SPL 1st of September) to play around with eos for a bit. Locking bootloader worked fine. Then decided to go back to stock
FW FP6.QREL.15.148.0.20250913182929_VS1O-factory (listed with SPL 5th of September).

fastboot flashing lock_critical - phone factory resets, went through reboot and initial setup again, reenable usb debugging again.

fastboot flashing lock - “phone is corrupted.”

fastboot flashing get_unlock_ability returns 0.

Seems to to be the issue here where the full restart after factory reset locks it in this state where you cannot unlock anymore and locking corrupts it. Already wrote support (the system where you have to go through preselected faq issues is kinda unnecessary) and will try to get live support on monday.

FP6 is not yet on SPL 5th Sep, where is this stated? If officially on any FP side make a Screenshot!

This would always reset get unlock abilitiy to 0, so avoid rebooting and check before locking.

In your case still the SPL would have mostlikely def caused a brick

Edit I see SPL is still wrong in the release notes

So, I purposely waited for a Fairphone Android 15 version with 05 Sept security updates so I could flash back to Fairphone’s Android from /e/OS, relocked bootloader, now can’t boot.

Great.

Now what, bin it?

Fairphone ROM

/e/OS ROM

Screenshot 2025-10-12 at 16.59.18

5th September, later than /e/OS, not a rollback, why did it fail.
Annoyed isn’t the word.

See above current FPOS has SPL 5th Aug

Amazing.

Given the rollback protection it’d be a really good idea if Fairphone didn’t mess up their Android images page.

Yep that would be great, however see further above, even if it would have been 5th Sep the FP might have bricked.

There’s no good reason for that to be the case.

I flashed between /e/OS and Fairphone’s Android a couple of times, including re-locking without issue before updating /e/OS to the latest.

In any case, it’s not my fault, so I’m expecting Fairphone to foot the bill to reflash it for me…

I’m confused. Does this mean it’s impossible to lock your device after you’ve booted into a new OS?

I’m a filthy american who bought their FP6 from murena. After playing with /e/OS I decided it wasn’t for me, and installed official FPOS. I locked the critical bootloader and bricked the device.

murena has offered to re-flash the device (but only with /e/OS), so I’m wondering if I can go through the whole process again, only re-locking after FP has had time to update the operating system past the stock /e/OS’s version.

The fact that this bricking is even possible is completely disgusting, but that’s another conversation :frowning:

Well that is clearly always possible with all devices.

Otherwise kindly read above, you should find supporting details.

I apologize, I should have been more clear. I meant the way that Android Rollback “protection” works is disgusting. When you try to lock an “old” OS, it intentionally puts the device in a (user) unrecoverable state. Why can’t it just prevent you from locking, or erase the phone and send you back to the “install an OS” state?

I am in no way blaming fairphone or any other particular manufacturer for this behaviour, but it is nonetheless gross.

Imagine if downgrading from Windows 11 to Windows 10 bricked your computer; in a way you can’t recover from by re-installing Windows or trying to install Linux. People would be so upset.

If I could solve my mistake myself by either re-installing /e/OS or waiting for FPOS to have a new enough version to bypass the rollback, I would have no complaints.


In any case, thank you for the response. I will try to comb through the thread again and see if I can get a confident answer to my question.

Read a bit more detailed about get unlock ability, also in other topics as this is beside the SPL date, the key.

1 Like

That exactly the point of checking that get_unlock_ability = 1 BEFORE any locking attempt :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Is there any updates from Fairphone regarding its latest image having the wrong SPL date?

I would like to switch from Murena to fairphoneOS but I always get a corrupted state due to older SPL. When locking the boot loader

When can I expect a new image?

Hi everyone, I’ve had the same issue and opened a ticket with Fairphone support about two weeks ago, explaining everything in detail. Unfortunately, I haven’t received a reply yet, which is a real shame — because those of us who choose to try Fairphone do it to support the project, even though the hardware is (for obvious reasons) below that of other brands or models. Do you know what I could do next? Is the support team also active on the forum?

No.

You can try the online chat, check business hours on the webpage

1 Like

Thanks for flagging @yvmuell , let me look into this.

1 Like

I’ve had a fairly frustrating reply from support claiming that a third party OS did this, when it’s clearly a direct result of flashing a rom with older security patches, which would not have happened to most of us if the listing wasn’t incorrectly stating 5th September (I notice it has now been corrected).

1 Like