FP Security Updates need to be more frequent

Accounts get anonymized, that’s the standard procedure if people want to get deleted.

Some people might not want to be tied to their former employers community, I just find it strange that they don’t get removed from the group …

5 Likes

Yeah, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen an employee’s account name get changed to ‘spam’ for no apparent reason. Typically, the accounts get a new password and access is revoked.

Anonymizing the accounts will make past messages by the user look weird. formerFP.Com.Manager doesn’t really scream official Fairphone business to me.

But I guess we’ll see when/if Android 12 releases.

anon is the default name that Discourse gives an account afaict. and why would they remove it from the employee group? it still likely reflects a company statement. You’d really rather they delete their past company statements? or make company statements look like any other user post?

it goes the other way, if they simply renamed/passed it onto another employee then some may mistake their new writings for those of the past author or vice versa.

3 Likes

I just found the change baffling, that’s all. I expected an update from Rae about the security update situation Soon ™ as we are approaching 3 months again and I suppose I expected FP to keep the account name as rae and just delete the photo of her. It’s not like most companies change/remove the names of whoever wrote blog posts just because the said person quit.

Well, I’m new(-ish) here and don’t really know who “Rae” actually was (“we hardly knew you”, as they say…), but in case she was some kind of official company spokesperson, she should had used an official, non-individual company account for posting such stuff.
Which doesn’t preclude also having and using a personal account, for personal posts. It’s the not very subtle difference between “I say”, and “Fairphone says”.
Just saying.

Just FYI (news about security updates on the end of the post):

1 Like

We are now 2 months behind again. Does anyone have any info on when we could get another security patch?

1 Like

Still wondering about the update policy.

I might’ve been naive but I thought a sustainable phone would include a reliable update scheme where I wouldn’t have to wonder if and when an update might arrive. I expect about 10 of 12 updates per year and let’s say 7 of those 10 arriving before the next update gets released.

In addition the standard OS (Fairphone OS) does not give the impression og being cared for very thoroughly. Camera app has a shutter lag between 4 and 5 seconds in the dark (didn’t expect that in 2022), the gallery isn’t accessible from the camera app if it’s not the Google gallery, a Files app that can’t be uninstalled or disabled but forgets its settings (sorting) every time, hotspot no longer 5G. List might be continued.
Seems to me that the sustainable part of the phone mostly is reduced to hardware / production and the OS including updates might anyway be neglected since most users will unlock the phone and install their own OS or love to fiddle with it since it’s a so very special phone?? OK, my fault that I just want to configure a phone once and then simply want to use it.

Could possibly live with either the update policy or the OS but both together don’t make this phone sustainable for me- I definitively don’t want to have it like this for the next 5 years.

(Coming from a Nokia 2.3, so really not used to a luxurious phone- but Android one without bloatware and 3 years update promise kept)
(The work done by Fairphone for a fairer production is still impressive, all honor to them for this effort and with this work changing the attitude of other vendors, too)

2 Likes

Best is to ask FP and #contactsupport, please do share their response :slight_smile: The updates were quite predictable before the development of Android 12 started. That’s why I sometimes posted the update sooner than FP. I wasn’t refreshing on a daily basis, I noticed a pattern. But it could also be just random of course. In any case, they usually lag behind one monthly update, which usually is released on the first or second Friday of the month. But this comes with a disclaimer that this is not official. Hopefully the updates will be monthly again from now on.

1 Like

Good timing! Software update: FP4.SP21.B.048.20230215

2 Likes

Received today in Switzerland with provider Swisscom A 12. SP February.

Received through Orange F.

1 Like

Well you can check the terms and conditions which where in place when you bought the phone.

If updates are mentioned but they don’t deliver as promised you should be able to cancel your purchase. I think that’s your best bet.

My current plan is to use this phone until it breaks and then I’m buying a Pixel 9a or whatever will be out at the time

3 Likes

If the FP5 will have a better design (not that huge and dramatic rounded corners and massive nodge), an LED screen with 90Hz that can go brighter, better vibration motor and better software quality overall… Then I’ll buy that this year. Otherwise it will be a Pixel again. FP has an awesome mission, but I don’t find it fair to the users with all these bugs and no real progress on improving that quality. I hope they will release the FP5 when it’s ready. And not too early and then they are overwhelmed again by complaints. Quality takes time and saves time in the end. So many issues are still present since launch.

1 Like

Not sure you really support the mission. You expect a Pixel like experience, what Fairphone never can provide. Look to the size of teams and background.

You cannot expect the same type of hardware nor a similar design - see repairability of Pixel.
Same for maybe not using the very latest technology - as such technologies maybe only available by companies not being compliant with fairphone values or using materials that were not available in a “fair” way.

For me currently it looks that Fairphone is back to a monthly release - after the Android 12 rollout - what seems to be logic.

I am still happy with my Fairphone 4. It is durable, working in all conditions. Have still some Bluetooth codec bugs since the Android 12 - but I am sure it gets resolved.

4 Likes

Do I? I don’t think I do. I find it strange that people immediately think you want a Pixel if you just want a phone that’s released without bugs you can find in the first 5 minutes using the phone and expect more modern and usable hardware in the next version. Is that really expecting a Pixel? Of course not. Then my list would be more demanding. I’m just asking for a phone that works. I don’t find it fair to the user to have anything else. Maybe read my comment again. The FP4 was released too lazy. They probably expected to fix the issues with sequential updates. But they couldn’t. So if they just spend some more time at bug squashing we shouldn’t be in this position of still complaining about 1.5 year old bugs. Bugs that even weren’t fixed when we got only one OS update every 3-4 months. That’s really not asking for Pixel quality.

7 Likes

Comparisons with Pixels apart, I think we all agree that Fairphone has a software issue. The good news are they lately seem to be genuinely trying to keep up with customer complaints: We see @Yasen_Tomov quite frequently lately, in the last couple weeks we’ve seen more Fairphone interventions than in all the months before. So there is hope they will do something about it, eventually. IMHO.

6 Likes

You idealise a bit too much Pixel phones since they are also concerned by bugs : Pixel 7 and 7 Pro problems and how to fix them - Android Authority

And the last one appeared with the last update. But at least they are corrected faster than what Fairphone does :roll_eyes:

1 Like

Really fun bugs too, like not being able to call emergency numbers (!)