FP2 Screen can't be reactivated during/after calls - See first post for Workarounds

I haven’t read this whole endless thread and apologize if this suggestion had already been made. I have been using a nice little pouch, be it leather or canvas, for all of my phones so far and fortunately my FP2 (3 months) doesn’t suffer from proximity sensor pollution - yet :slight_smile:

Hi there, I have the same problem with each call for a while now. I cannot use the “power” button to come back to my screen I have to take off the battery when I reach a combox, or when nobody answers a whatsup call.
what can I do?

I moved you post to this topic, because the other one was about FP1 and your profile says that you own a FP2. I hope you can find a workaround here.

Hi you should try to use the powerbutton to end calls (settings - system - Bedienungshilfen (dont knwo the word :wink: its the second with the man).
but this wont work with wattsapp calls. hope i could help a bit

I took my FP2 apart & cleaned it as well. But when putting together I realised/found out that the screen itself has to be placed very precise over the sensor. If the fit isn’t 100% accurate (and watch out when putting backt the cover as well) the problem returns quite fast.
Now putting it as seamless as possible together did work out on my FP2 for sofar.

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I have a somewhat related problem: Like for all the others, my screen turns black when I try to call someone or when I answer somebody else’s call. The touch screen then does not react anymore to anything. This is particularly annoying when I call somebody who has not activated the answering machine - then, the phone would keep ringing forever (until I remove the back cover and the battery…).

However, the touchscreen works again if I plug in headphones (also during the call). Does this also mean that there is a hardware problem with the proximity sensor (I tried to clean it, but it does not change anything) or is there maybe also a software problem?

Many thanks for your help in advance.

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This fucking pisses me off, seriously!! Whenever I make a phonecall and the reciever does not reply or goes towards the answering-machine I can’t get back to the phone to end it myself. The only option is to remove the battery. Very stressful!! Please help

I moved you topic to this one. I hope you can find a workaround in here.

Ok, nice that we can at least end the call with the power button.

BUT: it is rather standard for helpdesk to ask for an option and you have to return a number. With a black screen i can not give a number. Anyone got a solution for that?

This issue is really frustrating :frowning: The fairphone 2 can not be used as a complete (smart)phone with this issue :frowning:

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So after one month, what do you think about you workaround to disable the proximity sensor? Are you more or less happy or is it worse?

Hi Irina,
The aluminium foil workaround works perfectly well. I got used to press the power button to shut off the screen when I make a call. And press it again if I need access to the touchscreen. I’m totally happy :smile:

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That’s great to hear! Maybe this solution could be included in the first post of @Simone_Ricotta?

Just edited the first post :slight_smile:

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Finally the App proximity Sensor fixiermittel helped me out. Might try it out? I would Call me a Hardcore fp Fan and even i thought about giving (throwkng :wink: it away. This is a not accepebale Problem for normal Users. Nevertheless thank you Forum and fp Team you are great!

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I installed Call Screen Lock wich is a good workaround.

I had the same problem, i cleaned the sensor and now the screen is working again. The only problem is: i damaged the speaker on the top-module somehow while cleaning and now when i call someone the sound is distorted…
I probably have to change my top-module if i find no way to fix this.
Does anyone have experience with distorted sounds while calling?

I have experience with distorted sound since delivery in February. Initially I thought this was normal. I asked helpdesk but the answers were quite generic. I think I will have to hand it in for warranty repair.

I also have the failure of the screen not being activated after a call.

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Regarding the screen reactivation/proximity sensor and for your statistics:

I experience this problem as well. I have followed the recommendation and cleaned the proximity sensor window on the inside. I also noticed a lot of dust and foam on the inside. Afterwards it worked shortly for one or two calls but then it failed again.

I understand that this is an infant desease caused by the not too robust design that is not easy to solve and you have my sympathy in communicating about it. I am also impressed by the community’s creativity in developing workarounds. However, I would expect a commercially acceptable solution: either this problem occurs only for a minority of phones and then I would expect a warranty repair/replacement, or it occurs for a large share of all phones and then you should find the root cause and offer a structural bugfix.

What is the decision of Fairphone’s management here?

As mentioned by others, for a €500+ phone a minimum quality and service level may be expected. In the meantime, I will discourage anyone who’s asking from buying a Fairphone.

Thanks for your consideration,
Achim

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The problem as I have analysed it, is that too much IR light gets reflected between the inside proximity window of the screen and the IR receptor. Dust particles and grease (like from a fingerprint) on the inside display proximity window are the main cause. When I encountered this problem, I cleaned the inside proximity display window with a cotton swab and a little bit of alcohol and blew some air into the proximity sensor (gently!). This solved the problem right away. The bridge between the IR led and the receptor is fairly low so when the problem re-ocurred, I decided to void warranty and removed the rubber bridge between the led and sensor and glued a thin black plastic bridge in place that is just as high as the rubber surrounding of the sensor, so it reaches almost to the display itself. This solved the problem completely up to now, but a disadvantage is that the activation point of the sensor has decreased somewhat in distance, effectively making the proximity sensor less sensitive. In my opinion there are 2 ways to really solve this problem:

  • Avoid dust getting where it shouldn’t come.

  • A software update that provides a tool to adjust sensitivity so a bit of dust doesn’t trigger the sensor.

Probably a software solution will get rid of this problem easily.

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I’m sorry I don’t have the time to read through all the posts here, but for me the problem definitely seems to be on the software side:

I have no protection foil, and the sensor seems to be working (when checking with sensor readout, there is a reliable signal for each time I hold my finger over/ close to the sensor).
But sometimes (just had the problem with a self-initiated call, where I got into the mailbox), the screen still just won’t reactivate.

The power button workaround is a feasible though not ideal solution for me…