To whomever has not multiple GB of storage left, I would not recommend updating from Android 7 to 9 to fix this issue. I tried this earlier this year and because I didn’t have enough disk space I got stuck in TWRP. I got out of it without updating but with a lot of hassle and it was not worth it.
It seems this is hitting a lot of people still using Android 7.
The only thing I can think of to happen on Monday was the NL Alert test here in the Netherlands - perhaps there’s a chance that the alert really messes up older systems? Seems unlikely but I can’t imagine what else happened that could affect multiple phones. If this also affects people outside of the Netherlands, I have no idea what it could be.
I’m based in Switzerland, so there you go…
I have the same problems, started yesterday (6 dec-monday) . I wanted to back up the data, I could not make the data transfer possible to my mac, because the notification data/or charge is not popping up. Running the phone on safe mode and airplane mode on resolved the continuous rebooting problem, however, the main buttins on the screen stioll do not work. The problem with my phone started before the NL -alert.
the phone was also overheating meanwhile, perhaps due to continuous rebooting
Hi @GeeDee I needed to install manually, since my Updater couldn’t download the update (I wasn’t able to update any other app either).
I had to update the device driver first, after that it went smooth. The best instruction for a manual update I found in Fairphone 2 FPOS manual update (using Windows 10)
Update: I just charged my phone overnight to 100% while it was off. Then I took the SD card out and restarted the phone. It seems a lot more stable now. I’ve been using my phone for 15 minutes straight without any reboots. This has not happened since monday night 03:15 AM or yesterday midday. However I still cannot use the home button nor the app list button on the right. For some reason the phone seems a bit more responsive and fast than before all these problems started on monday.
Questions:
- can anybody with the same problem replicate this result?
- what should I do now that I dont have the SD card in and I can’t use 2 of the screen buttons?
- how do I make the buttons usable again, and use my SD card for storage again?
Let’s get paranoid: are we the target of some weird cyberattack?
(more serious post later)
As I stated here already:
I never heard about a different solution than reverting the phone to factory setting. I was waiting for a better solution too a while ago, but it didn’t come.
The weird thing here is that it seems to be happening to multiple users all at the same time. I’m glad that a reset seems to fix it, but still, I wonder what caused it in the first place. Could this be a case of naughty users being punished by Sinterklaas?
I have the same problem since yesterday and today my FP2 also overheated and shut off from all the reboots. It’s charging now… I managed to turn off the buzzing on the lower buttons in between the reboots, at least.
I see, thank you. Not a great prospect but could be worse I assume.
I have to write another update unfortunately. The phone has started to, well, restart itself again. And I did not re-insert the SD card. First it restarted when I was using my banking app, twice in a row. Then I started doing something else and left the phone on my desk. It’s now restarted 7 times in a row, with a very predictable 3 minute window in between restarts. I’ve been timing it. Give or take a few secs.
Start timing 00:01:33
Split 2 00:03:57
Split 3 00:07:12
Split 4 00:10:25
Split 5 00:13:48
Split 6 00:16:57
Split 7 00:19:26
Mein Fairphone 2 schaltet sich seit heute nach ein paar Minuten von selbst aus und startet dann gleich wieder neu. Das passiert bei Anwendung pausenlos.
Vorher ging es eigentlich noch gut, war nur oft langsam und hängte sich immer wieder für kurze Zeit auf. Den Akku habe ich vor kurzem ausgetauscht. Daran liegt es wohl nicht.
Habt ihr Ideen, an was das liegen könnte?
It seems this issue occured to multiple users at the same time, including me. (Android 7.1.2, Build number 19.11.2) What is your version?
See the English post of today: FP2 reboots and home screen issues
What would you say it is a reasonable storage? Or how much did you have that was not enough? I have almost 4Gb, I think.
I think I’m not the right person to advise on that specifically. I don’t know what the size of the update is. At the time that I did it I probably had less than 1 GB left, and I was not aware of that when I started the update. I got stuck in TWRP because the update could not be installed because of too little storage space.
So if I sum up:
- This affects multiple users regardless of their country, but not everybody (having an emptier phone memory prevents it from starting; cleaning memory does not solve the issue)
- Some of the common problems look like hardware (non-functional buttons)
- All of us had Android 7 when it started (does anybody know if this happens to people with A7 in other phones?)
- Upgrading to A9 does not solve the issue with the home- and app list buttons
- It started across the world on Dec 6th (this is the creepy part)
- safe mode, removing cards or flight mode reduce frequency but do not solve the problem fully (so although it may not be an app thing, some app[s] may make things worse)
- notifications have disappeared
- some settings are not working, e.g. not direct access to flight mode.
Now seriously, this looks lousy. Can’t be random. Programmed obsolescence is not an option, I assume. Any ideas?
Why can’t we see the app list? Is there a way to see whether there is an app working on the background and messing things up?
Has anybody tried the factory settings specifically after this issue? If so, did it solve the problem?
Let me know if I forgot anything important…
So far, I have managed to save my documents into G-drive using safe mode. Haven’t managed to save data from apps (yet)
thanks to sum up, i confirm that i also have the same issues and no solution till now and it started on 6th. my boyfriend has the an FP2 too, but he doesn’t encounter thoses problems till now.
@andreea are there any differences in usage between your phone and your boyfriend’s that could be relevant? e.g. difference in memory use, apps, changed modules…
Not sure it will be relevant, but so far, I have changed the top module and the battery.
Maybe the current outbreak, but the problem is waaaaaaaay older, for example:
Yes, as far as I know it always solves the problem. At least it did for me.