Man, read here Quickstep keeps stopping
The problem is exactly the same, the cause I have no idea. After the issue being reported (and solved) for FP5, I would have at least taken one FP4 beta tester with the quickstep app installed. Not sure why you are defending this.
Because there are a million reasons why Quickstep could crash and as long as nobody provides logs that show that Quickstep crashes at the same location in the code, your statement is pure speculation.
It’s even worse, two FP4 beta testers reported the issue to FP with error logs and the problem was not addressed in the release, see post in this thread. The error logs are public. FP4 Quickstep keeps stopping after A15 upgrade - - #71 by dahaupt
It is just embarrassingly bad.
Ok, yes. It really seems that this is the same for FP4 and FP5. And yes, this is embarassing.
My apologies.
But… I will still keep opposing the tone of accusations here, since it is not helpful. Fairphone is not the only company making mistakes.
By the way, I am a developer myself and I have seen the business. Software is always(!!!) shipped with know bugs and shipping new versions and updates takes a lot of time.
All sound advice, except the less technically oriented users will fall for the strong signals coming from Fairphone themselves, thinking “they must know”: Every day my phone is telling me to upgrade, I even got a panegyric email celebrating Fairphone’s commitment to their users and urging me to update and how easy it is.
My point is that you can’t blame the user for following official advice. Not all people are as jaded and wouldn’t trust Fairphone further than they can throw them, some still believe in what they’re told. 
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Besides, there is an other issue: Errors are human. Let’s forget about the quality of Fairphone’s quality control and such, the fact is “excrements happen”, even to the best.
What isn’t forgivable though, is insisting in your error, damaging as many users as possible, instead of doing some basic damage control and (at least) immediately informing people that there is a potential issue which might affect them, and people relying on their phones should postpone the upgrade till Fairphone has done something about it. (And don’t try to tell me they aren’t able to do it: The Fairphone app is spamming me, I receive marketing emails from Fairphone, this forum is there 24/7, there are many ways to get a message through.)
Alerting users would had been the responsible thing to do, but marketing wouldn’t allow admitting they might have made a blunder, would they… They’d rather try to sweep it under the carpet (“Problems? What problems? There are no problems, only naysayers and haters!”). 
To get back to topic (ranting is relieving but changes nothing), since as far as I have understood the FP5 had the same problem with Orange and apparently it has been solved, one can hope the fix for the FP4 is coming soon. If they don’t decide to wait 2 months to include it in the next Security Update… 
Is that really an excuse?…
Yes, it is. You said yourself that humans make mistakes. And yes, not communicating about this is a real bummer, but here again you realise, that marketing might intervene. And here we come to the point why I am defending Fairphone:
Many people come here ranting, but they refuse to realise the complexity of software development, of hardware development, of release cycles, of certification, of the network providers of anticapitalistic approaches and on and on …
Thank you, I also see your point. Many of us believe in this and we are all here to help each other, so thank you for that. @KurtF raises an important point in my opinion. They could send an email, with the link to this forum, to alert users who could get ready for a potential issue.
We can certainly agree on that Fairphone should do better, as well as, more abstract, software vendors overall should do better, as Fairphone is not alone in this by far.
With any issue escaping into the open, somebody as a user is destined to stumble upon it without prior sources pointing it out, so they can’t do much to avoid getting hit. Commiserations to them.
But this particular issue here is now known.
If you are getting hit right now, curse the heavens in futility, if you must, try the known workaround linked to in the first post of the topic, complain here, by all means, as there’s much to complain about, but please spare us any exaggerated outrage about how outlandish this all is, because it isn’t, and you at least at this point in time could have done better, too. But commiserations to you, too, nonetheless.
This is the way.
You’re right, and I totally agree with you on this point. Where we differ is that you conflate two IMHO very different things: 1. The understanding of how the industry works, and 2. the everyday user experience.
On #1 we both agree, but normal people (= who don’t work in IT) don’t care about that, a phone is an everyday appliance and should just work: Forget about phones, imagine you’ve bought a fridge which randomly breaks down, would you care about the problems of the fridge industry? No, the only thing which is important for users is #2, being able to use the product they bought as advertised.
Also, and very important, what makes people really angry is the total lack of empathy from the company who released it. If Fairphone just said something like “Oops, sorry guys, we’ll fix it ASAP” people wouldn’t be filling the internet with angry posts. At worst they would grumble a little and that’s that.
It’s like somebody stepping on your foot: He says “sorry”, you’ll reply “no problem” - he says nothing, you will be angry.
And this is why I dislike those ‘normal people’. It is their ignorance and egoism.
Sorry, but sticking the head in the sand does not work in this world. Not with Apple and MS, not with OpenAI, not with the climate, not with Putin, not with Trump. And not even with a smartphone, sorry.
That is definitely not an excuse. (IMHO, YMMV and all that.)
Sure, but there are several issues, and the random reboots is apparently the most dangerous: I can’t check my phone all the time in case I need to re-enter the two (long) SIM passwords for people to be able to call me again. Not to mention it is supposed to constantly remind me things, which it suddenly won’t if it’s stuck in boot. Apparently (from what I’ve read) changing the launcher doesn’t fix that.
Now I wouldn’t voluntarily update it before I get a clear sign that the issue is fixed, but I know the phone will eventually decide to update itself without asking me (and no, disconnecting data is not an option…). 
Ok, so let’s agree to disagree…
It’s not only Orange that is affected, it is also Drillisch/1 & 1 from Germany. There are reports in this forum and a friend of mine is also affected with a Fairphone 4 and with this provider. Hoping for a fix soon.
And I’m saying it again, I’m in France with Free, and I have nothing to do with Orange and never did.
So even if there’s mainly Orange users having the problem, it is also happening to users on other networks.
Maxbe the issue can be triggered by roaming into the Orange network.
Same problem here with Qickstep App crashing repeately, switching between apps not always possible, Apps in background will be terminated sometimes without notice (Google Maps navigation in car → really annoying !). The phone is not reliable at all with theses bugs. I am located in Germany and using provider e-Sim SIM24. We have 3 Fairphones in family, but I am really thinking of quitting with FP, bebause it is not the first time we had issues after doing system updates. We are dissapointed !
I’ve the same problem since the update made this morning. I can’t use my phone anymore. Quickstep crash each time, so I can’t reach to the applications any more ! What a clever idea this update ! My operator is Free !
I experienced the same issue with Simyo from Spain. Directly after upgrade, quickstep keeps stopping. The rest of the phone works fine. I can access the apps via notifications pulling down from the top. Home screen keeps blinking but sometimes, I’m fast enough to select the google bar and type something there or I’m able to select any other app. Clearing cache and memory from quickstep doesn’t solve it but reduces the blinking frequency. Phone is usable but it’s quite annoying. I just tried the fossify work around and I like it very much. Thank you yvmuell! It’s not ideal and there should be better solution from FP but anyway. I guess FP is not for people who wants to have a reliable phone but for those who are willing to spend time and challenge their patience in favour of sustainability principles…
For those joing this topic and especially newcomers to the forum (welcome to you), this topic has been provisionally marked as solved 
(though in fact it’s a work-around), so that you can more easily find a temporary solution.
To find the solution of a solved topic, just always go to the first post.
If the work-around doesn’t help please give any details that you think might be relevant.