If this was a question about the “choose network” issue: I personally have not yet contacted support since I wanted to first try to find out whether this is a Fairphone-specific problem or whether this is just a problem with Android 13 in general. I’ll probably open a ticket later today.
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Thanks! I don’t remember how I formatted the card, but I did follow recommendations here.
I received the update notification about 15 minutes after posting the above. Talk about timing! 
Will install the update later today and report…
Update - I have installed the update, and while the lost photos haven’t (yet? 
) returned, at least I can now save to the SD card again. So that’s a win.
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Just to add - I think the update has erased loads of data (=photos) from my SD card. I’m talking about around 20GB worth of photos. They were all (I think! 
) backed up to the Google cloud, so I didn’t notice it at first. But the local copy that I had is now gone. Weirdly it’s not all the photos, but seems to be a random selection of photos survived the upgrade. I’m wondering if I also lost things from the phone’s core memory, as about 2GB less of it’s memory is in use than it was before the update. Initially I thought it was just memory being more efficiently used etc, but now - after realising what happened to the SD card - I’m not so sure…
Did it erase data or did it ask you to format the SD card (making you believe that it’s corrupt and then format it)?
No request to format or anything. Just much less data on it all of a sudden 
Please check if your SD card is set to portable. It should look like this example of portable storage. With thanks to @yvmuell
It looks a little differently now, after the update, but it did look like that before then. Now, with the new look for the storage management tool, it is listed under ‘storage’ you can choose either ‘this device’ or ‘SD card’
When I am at Storage and I choose the SD card I can tap on the three dot in the right upoer corner of the screen. Doing so I can see
Is that like yours?
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Yes, except I don’t have the ‘format as internal’ bit. So I guess it is formatted as internal…
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Then you can be in trouble. I honestly hope that it is possible to move all your files on the SD card to your ‘normal’ internel storage and format your SD card as portable. To prevent further trouble.
So the update just randomly formatted my card as internal? 
(because it was definitely portable before).
I guess I can transfer all the files currently on the card to my computer, right?
I doubt if an update can change your SD card. But I have a Fairphone 4, so it could look a little different on your phone. The only way to be certain is to format your SD card after a back-up,
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Blockquote But I have a Fairphone 4, so it could look a little different on your phone.
Does anyone with a FP3 and an SD card formatted as portable mind checking what theirs look like?
FP3/Sandisk 128GB (formatted as portable, readable by Win10 when inserted in FP or via card reader/adapter) does not show “format as internal”. So your card could/should be formatted correctly.
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Your frustration is clearly visible (like for instance your username), but this comment gives some context:
without any real experience with smartphones whatsoever
In that case, I can very well understand your frustration. Sadly, smartphones are not as reliable as so-called ‘dumbphones’ like good old Nokias. Prior to owning a Fairphone, I’ve had my deal of tinkering and troubleshooting with Samsung phones. Maybe Fairphone has had an unfair deal of unwanted trouble so that they suffer more from the challenges and quirks involved when you are a small player in the big world of chip manufacturers and OS providers. As sad as it is, smartphones can have more issues than ‘dumbphones’ and unfortunately for you (and for Fairphone) it is now influencing you.
Anyway, I’m totally not with you when you write
Truly wondering if FP is simply just another greenwashing exercise
As far as I see it now, your (understandable) frustration should then better be projected upon ‘smartphone industry’ as a whole, and not to Fairphone who are (at least IMHO) really trying to become as ‘green’ as business-wise reasonably possible. I don’t see any proof of the contrary (and yes, there is the thread on ‘planned obsolesence’, which I also don’t concur with).
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You cannot install another OS on your phone without losing all the data (technically not completely true since you could back them up before and then restore them).
Since you are ready to delete all the content of your phone in installing /e/OS, why don’t you try first a factory reset (go to Settings > System > Reset options > Erase all data (fatory reset)) ? It worked for bg14001 (see FP3+: Issues with Android 13 update - #271 by bg14001). If it doesn’t solve the bugs, then you install /e/OS if you think it is a good idea.
Note that you should make a backup before the factory reset.
If, from the computer, you see the SD card as storage separate from internal storage, then the SD card is formated as portable. Otherwise you’d just see one storage space instead of two.
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Yes, of course! Thank you for pointing that out. And thank you @RMW as well - between both your replies I can see that my card is indeed (still) formatted as portable 
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So there seem to be a lot of problems with the Android 13 update, right? Then I will skip it till there comes a better one.
Well, it depends on who you ask to. For me (and many others), it was really nice. However, it’s true that (besides other issues you could read in this actual post) the fingerprint sensor “problem” is an important issue for a lot of people.
The decision is yours.
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