Hi there!
I have problems with ghost inputs since a few weeks, and the problem seems to intensify. Is there an overview over the potential solutions to this problem, and whether they really helped? Or should we just wait until FP developers eventually come up with a solution?
Thanks in advance!
Sonja
Welcome to the Fairphone community,
Possible remedies of users are collected in this thread, a software solution -however it will handle that- is supposed to come in one of the next updates, probably in August already.
Thanks for your prompt response! Then I will wait for the new update.
I sympathize with those who have had this issue for a long time and kept their phone. I will bumb this issue in the wiki as 
since this issue makes my phone unusable.
hope you speak about August 2023
Hello, Fairer Phones 
I received a replacement phone, after my first Fairphone 4 became unusable with ‘ghost input’.
It has only been two weeks - and I have already started experiencing ‘ghost input’ on this new Fairphone 4.
Has there been any official response from Fairphone?
Their customer service has been exceptional - but I’m worried at how much of an this issue appears to be.
For what it’s worth, I had some ghost input issues and reset the screen yesterday with a little bit of padded tape on the connector, and it’s working fine since then.
Eagerly awaiting the update. I thought this was because I cracked my screen. But seeing as that’s working fine otherwise I am keeping my fingers crossed, hoping this updat will fix this issue anyway.
So I finally got fed up with my phone and tore it completely to bits. I had previously added some tape behind the screen connector which didn’t really help. Now I think I have found the plausible root cause to this. Or if not this issue then at least a future problem that’s going to happen eventually.
The screen flex cable rubs against the very sharp edge of the case itself. My cable had copper showing through the coating. I took some pictures but they didn’t really come out very detailed. Anyway. I put a piece of tape on the cable to fix the insulation and scraped the edge of the case a little bit smoother. If this is in fact the root cause of our ghost touch problem then I would be very interested to see how a “software fix” would fix it. My brothers FP4 had the exact same issue.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WuqabWEoRVwn1Zea8 - pictures. Edit: added a few more macroish shots.
Why doubt? Where and how would they release this “update”, if not for the OS?
Every ROM is affected, because base Android is, which everything uses. They’ll be updating their specific FP OS ROM, nothing upstream. Hardware drivers are not installable on their own in Android, are they? I’ve never come across anything like that, please correct me if I’m wrong there.
And sure, other ROMs absolutely could integrate that code into their OS. But will they? That’s work. For who? The - at best - 1% of FP4 users they don’t even know they have? We’ll first have to 1) rally to make the maintainers aware this exists. 2) have enough people to justify the integration. 3), think of all the testing not just with FPs, but rather all the other, non-FP devices, that nothing got broken there after integration.
But no. I honestly doubt any random ROM is just gonna integrate these changes if it comes to that possibility even. If we want to stay degoogled, at best, we have to learn how to code for Android, take the ROM and fork it ourselves to integrate these changes and then continuously merge all the other new updates that ROM might get in the future.
Call me pessimistic but I don’t see another way here. And that’ll mean many (“very few” in the grand scheme, but hi, including me) will have to either switch to FP OS and live with Google (over my dead body), or ditch the FP going forward. I’m looking for alternative devices already. Maybe something foldable, if custom ROMs allow for that… but even that stupid gimmick is not even in the same league as fair and repairable devices.
Everyone in my circle knows all about FP and repairability by now. They’ll notice as soon as “the techie” ditches it. And that’s something I’m not looking forward to, because that’ll damage their perception of repairability in phones as a whole which really is gonna stink.
“Why doubt?” - Because you can’t really fix broken cables with software that’s all.
I’ll hold off on further speculations until I can use the device for a while and possibly confirm the fix. Maybe some other users will try it as well. We’ll see.
For themselves as they want to use their phone? Have you ever had a look at the Forum Topics around here to see that they care and do this work? I have and therefore in case thats software/firmware related I think we will see the patch in Custom ROM as well
I was replying to someone, not related to your post at all.
Sorry, my first day on this forum.
Really? If the Venn diagram of FP enthusiasts and degoogled ROM maintainers really shows enough overlap, that’ll be the single piece of most happy news I’ve had in a while. I’m using e/OS/ on my device, and I’ve had massive doubts any of these guys just happened to use a FP of all things which they’d want to hang on to that bad. Really hope that’s true.
e/OS is surely a different story, however they have a cooperation with Fairphone and will therefore surely implement such
Who is “they”? e/OS/ is a fork of LineageOS, with MicroG for Google API replacement. So I’d assume first, it’s gotta have to go through LineageOS, then the next patch of e/OS/ could possibly pick it up as well, sort of unintentionally. I don’t know how tightly related they still are as of today.
Going over your post, where exactly is the damage on the cable? Could you highlight in red or show where the tape has to be placed exactly? I’ll definitely do that in a few minutes because I’m really damn desperate to get my FP to behave right now…
I added some more pictures to the album. I just placed quite a liberal piece of tape over the cable where it touches the case and scraped the edge of the case lightly to soften the edge a bit. Let me know if it’s any help. I have myself still only had it for a day so no guarantee if it’s a real fix.
Great finding, that could exactly explain a lot of issues the other useres have reported. I just checked my cable as well. It was not that bad as yours (could not see a clear copper spot) but the solder mask already started to get rubbed away. For me it looks like there are two sharp edges and the cable rubbs against both of them.
I applied a tabe on the cable and on the sharp edges of the aluminium housing. I will report in a week if this solved the ghost inputs for me.
Thanks guits, I disassambled the phone several times but never had a look at the flex cable.