FP4: Phone won't boot, stuck with green bar

[fonefairy]

Hi,

this is about my wifes phone which won’t boot. FP4, stock Android, no hardware modifications.

She may have FP4.QREL.15.16.1 installed since she remembers installing an update with the “Fixed an issue where the device would no boot on Android 15.” message. The phone worked after that for some days (without further booting).

Then she took a photo while beeing low on memory and battery. The phone went off. Now it won’t boot with the symptoms of these threads:

FP4: After Android 15 update, phone wont boot, stuck with green bar

Hi everyone, I tried the update to Android 15 this morning but, after updating, I get the same error as FP 5 users earlier this year. Except I am on FP4. I know how to get back to Android 13, and there it tells me the update didnt finish. Problem is, i would wait until its fixed, but after the failed update, every sound output is stuttering every 10 seconds. So the failed update messed up something. I tried to Reinstall, even in Safe Mode and there is enough space. But it doesn’t work. It so…

FP5 not booting after update to Android 15

Hi all, today I noticed that Android 15 was rolled out to the FP5. I downloaded and updated the Phone. After the update it started, first with a Green “fairphone” text. After that the whole background became green and there was a light green text “fairphone”. I assume that is the boot animation, but after the text collapsed into only a green l in the middle of the screen nothing is working. I cannot do anything with it. The only thing the phone can do is: Enter fastboot (after foceshutdown…

In particular:

• Stuck with green bar after the Fairphone text collapses.
• Vibrates in short intervals after pressing some button combination.
• Can enter bootloader menu and recovery menu.
• Battery fully charged now.
• Status of fingerprint sensor is unclear. Had it’s problems, but wasn’t completly broken.

Trying to boot 7+ times didn’t change anything.

Recovery menu prints:
Fairphone/FP4eea/FP4eea/FP4
11/FP4.QREL.14.28.3/14.28.3

I cannot find much about this “FP4.QREL.14.28.3” version (a thread in this forum that doesn’t help me).

“Reboot system now” printed (now it doesn’t anymore):
“WARNING: Previous installation has failed. Your device may fail to boot if you reboot now.”

“View recovery logs” provides no clues for me as a layperson.

Didn’t try anything ADB since this is new for me.

Any suggestion how to get the user data or troubleshoot further?

This problem gets associated with a broken fingerprint sensor. However, that shouldn’t be the problem after the latest update? Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be a module available with the power button, so it’s not possible to try changing it?

Edit: Is it possible to delete some data in case full memory is preventing a reboot or get around this any other way?

Is it possible to downgrade back without losing data? It is mentioned in the second thread, but is the only possibility the repeated forced reboot mentioned there (since I think this does not work on the device)? Edit2: This doesn’t seem to be an option: “If your device already started once under android 15, the “recovery” boot under android 14 will no longer work.”

Best,
fonefairy

[OldRoutard]

Hi and welcome to the community forum.

@fonefairy

a module available with the power button

No, but the phone can be repaired, under warranty if applicable. A repair would lead to loss of all user data.

Have you tried to start the phone in “Safe mode”? This is usually employed to track down apps and settings that are causing problems, and allows you to use the phone with default settings, temporarily without any of the apps or changes to settings you may have made. It would not delete your data. If it works, I think it would at least allow you to save any important data, delete data to free up storage, and also to check the OS version.

To start in Safe mode, with the phone off,

1. Press and hold the Power button to turn on your Fairphone.
2. As soon as the green “switch” animation starts, press and hold the Volume down button.
3. Release the Volume down button when you see the lock screen.

Unfortunately it’s likely that you’ll have to send the phone in for repair or at least take some action which would delete all your data, so saving your data, if possible, should be your first priority especially if you don’t have automatic back-ups.

I advise you to use the Fairphone “Diagnosis and repair” service.

[fonefairy]

Hi OldRoutard,

thanks for your effort, tipps and assessment of the situation.

Good news. As I wanted to try the safe mode plan I pushed the button - and the SIM pin screen was there! Must have happend at some point during the day when the phone was lying there all by itself. Now it runs again. The version now is FP4.SREL.15.14.4 und update FP4.QREL.15.16.1 wants to be installed.

So - either the update was not installed in the first place and the finger print sensor was temporarily broken and came back to life later and thus the phone booted again.

Or the update was installed and rolled back.

Or maybe the phone needed just an insane amount of time to get past this part in the boot process for whatever reason. Which we never gave it - only today unsupervised. I remember the phone getting hot at first while beeing stuck, so I turned it off.

Anyway, thanks, saving some pictures, will maybe give an update what happens when the update strikes again. Also, it seems the phone memory wasn’t full, showed 33GB of 102GB left.

Best,
fonefairy

[fonefairy]

Hi,

Update was successfully installed, phone works without problems, thanks everyone!

Not much be learned from this, maybe only sometimes not only to try restarting, but also giving it some hours time when it hangs. Don’t know if that is helpful.

Best,
fonefairy