Fastboot mode - Mac

Help Fairphone 2
,
1

Hello,

I don’t know one thing about programming but I am abroad and absolutely need to downgrade the latest upgrade of the operating system as I cannot access any wifi network (which is absolutely unworkable since I’m traveling and need wifi access in certain situations).

Now I have a mac, a data cable (usb-c to micro usb) and developer options enabled on my fp2. I have downloaded the zip file for the previous OS (19/05/3) and the platform tools where there’s a file called fastboot. However there seems to be a missing link somewhere and for the life of me, I can’t figure out where, so if anyone can help me to solve this issue, please react. Here are the details:

When I open the flash-for-mac.command file this is the result:
Last login: Wed Nov 20 12:06:49 on ttys001
/Users/tessaxxxx/Downloads/fp2-gms-19.05.3-manual/flash-for-mac.command ; exit;
tessaxxxx@MacBook-van-Tessa ~ % /Users/tessaxxxx/Downloads/fp2-gms-19.05.3-manual/flash-for-mac.command ; exit;
** Fairphone OS 19.05.3 Manual Flashing Script **

/Users/tessaxxxx/Downloads/fp2-gms-19.05.3-manual/bin-darwin/fastboot
ERROR: The ‘fastboot’ command is not available.
ERROR: Please install the ‘fastboot’ tool from your package manager.

Aborting now (press Enter to terminate).

So naturally I assume this has something to do with the fastboot command, which when I open it gives the following message:
Last login: Wed Nov 20 12:07:18 on ttys002
/Users/tessaxxxx/Downloads/platform-tools/fastboot ; exit;
tessaxxxx@MacBook-van-Tessa ~ % /Users/tessaxxxx/Downloads/platform-tools/fastboot ; exit;
fastboot: usage: no command

[Proces voltooid]

In the guidelines they say to ‘insert’ some kind of command line thing but I can’t figure out where or how to do this…

If anyone with some advanced knowledge on this is available and can help me solve this over skype or some other way of communication, feel free to send me a pm :slight_smile:

Thanks and hopefully I can get this shitty thing over with and back on wifi before I completely destroy my fp or just buy a new smartphone :frowning:

Kind regards and have a nice day!

2

Type in a terminal the following command

brew install android-platform-tools

If you don’t have (Home)brew, the most popular package manager for macOS, installed:

Visit https://brew.sh and follow the instructions there.

After you installed Homebrew you’ll likely need to install XCode.

[EDIT]Reread your post. The fastboot command you executed above does not work, I don’t know why. Perhaps not in your $PATH variable. The above mentioned solution is easier.[/EDIT]

2 Likes
3

It seems you extracted the ZIP archive to /Users/tessaxxxx/Downloads/fp2-gms-19.05.3-manual

What files exist in that folder? Is there a sub-folder named bin-darwin and does it contain a file named fastboot?
If not, maybe the ZIP file wasn’t downloaded properly or something went wrong while extracting the archive. In that case I’d try re-downloading and extracting the ZIP again.

1 Like
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Hi Ingo, the bin-darwin subfolder exist but it does not contain a file named fastboot, only has copying.txt in it…

I will try to download the file again and see if that is what went wrong!

1 Like
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Okay so I downloaded it again and now there is a fastboot file there, YEEEY

But next issue props up:
WARNING: No Fairphone 2 found in fastboot mode.
WARNING: Make sure that a Fairphone 2 is connected.
WARNING: To check for devices, type ‘/Users/tessaxxxx/Downloads/fp2-gms-19.05.3-manual 2/bin-darwin/fastboot devices’.

And when I type this thing into a command line it gives the following message:
/Users/tessaxxxx/Downloads/fp2-gms-19.05.3-manual 2/bin-darwin/fastboot devices ; exit;
tessabogers@MacBook-van-Tessa ~ % /Users/tessaxxxx/Downloads/fp2-gms-19.05.3-manual 2/bin-darwin/fastboot devices ; exit;
zsh: permission denied: /Users/tessaxxxx/Downloads/fp2-gms-19.05.3-manual

[Proces voltooid]

Not sure what I’m doing wrong now, the cable I have is definitely a data cable (it’s the only one that worked for my e-reader as well since I had some issues with that too :’)).

Thanks for the help!

6

Two things

  • extracting a second time created a folder named fp2-gms-19.05.3-manual 2 and I think the space before the “2” is the problem, so you could try again after renaming that folder to fp2-gms-19.05.3-manual2 (without space)
  • is the FP2 in fastboot mode? When booting while pressing volume down the phone should vibrate a couple of times and have a blinking blue light while the screen just shows that standard “Fairphone - Powered by Android” boot image
1 Like
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Thank you so much for the quick reply! I deleted the space and now something seems to be up and running :smiley:

First error seemed to be caused because you need to give permission everytime for the ‘security breach’ of unknown software it seems!

Anyway Ingo, thanks a lot and if I can ever do anything in return for you, please let me know :smiley:

Fingers crossed to have working wifi again when restarting ^^ and have a nice day!

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8

Make sure to make a backup of your OS in TWRP (on an SD card) so you can restore it without a computer in the future. :slight_smile:

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9

What you mean with ‘TWRP’?

10

Oh … sorry. I thought you were familiar with TWRP and the like. Can’t explain in a brief line, I’m afraid. Maybe another volunteer will step up here.

11

Well, if the update process was already started, it would have been too late anyway. And if it went through withouth problems there’s probably no need to do it now :wink:

1 Like
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