FP1U regularly crashing

Help Fairphone 1
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Hello! I’m hoping someone may be able to help or point me in the right direction if it has been dealt with elsewhere and I’ve missed it.

My FP1U has been crashing several times a day, and I don’t know what causes it. It just goes dead and I have to take the battery out before it will turn back on again. I’m often streaming audio when it happens (I stream a lot of audio), and the audio keeps playing, I just get a black screen and no control - even the power button doesn’t work.

When it does turn back on, it always tell me I have 3 new text messages (which I don’t), so I’m wondering if it is reverting back to a time when it was happier and I did happen to have 3 text messages?

If anyone has any clues about what I could try I’d really appreciate it! Thanks

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Can you post a logcat? What OS version/software are you using? Can you still log in using adb?

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Hi! Thanks for your response.

I have now googled both ‘logcat’ and ‘adb’ and it seems I need to ‘enable USB debugging’, is that right? I wanted to check because the way the page I’ve found says to do it is by clicking the build number item seven times - then I will become a developer. I’m hesitating to do this because a) tapping a secret button 7 times seems weirdly masonic and b) I have zero understanding of how my phones works and becoming a developer sounds like a serious responsibility… :wink:

Please can I just check that I am on the right track, and that I should do this in order to be able to ‘post a logcat’?!

I’m on android version 4.2.2, Kernel version 3.4.5

Thanks again!

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Here are a few things you could try (in that order. stop as soon as the problem disappears.):

  • make a backup
  • clear the cache of all apps that are involved (audio-streaming, messaging, …). To do so go to Settings > Apps > All.
  • clear data for those apps too.
  • Go to Safe Mode and spend some time there. If you don’t have the problem there then it’s probably caused by an app you installed.
    • Try to find the app that caused the problem and un/(+re)install it.
  • If nothing else helps or you just want to speed up the process perform a hard reset. It will erase all your data and usually gets rid of all software related issues, so if this doesn’t do the trick it might be a hardware issue.
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Great thanks - I’ll give it a go! :slight_smile:

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I was very brief, but there are a lot of descriptions here and elsewhere. But I can tell you that the seven times is just a joke to trigger the message. But a confusing one. It’s not necessary at all. No sure who put that in.

Update: The seven times is sadly valid for the FP2, but not for the FP1. Source.

The problem is that your crash can have a lot of different reasons. To somehow sort out that could be the reason (is Android/the kernel crashing? Your streaming software? The wireless?) you have to ‘watch’ what the phone is doing in real time. The only way to do this easily is using adb logcat.

Else we can only guess. So maybe it’s best if you try a reinstall, like Paul suggests.

What software do you use for ‘streaming audio’? Can you explain this a bit more?

I know this all does not sound very user friendly. But even with a logfile, it’s still very difficult to find the cause.

So in the end, maybe a backup of your data and a reinstall, maybe even using the unofficial Android 4.4.4 could be better.

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Don’t be afraid of the Developer Options. As long as you don’t play around with settings you don’t unterstand what they’re doing, you’re safe. Just use them to enable USB debugging…

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