I’m coming up to my 5 years with my FP2 and I’m reaching the end of my patience level. My phone now lags and reboots and apps crash ALL the time. Are there any clever fixes out there?
My options are to persevere with it and try some fixes. Ditch the FP and Switch to a Motorola G7. Or take a chance on the FP3+
I love all that Fairphone stands for but I’m tired of the problems, would FP3 be any better?
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How full is your phone storage? You can look it up in Settings > Storage .
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Just have a little patience. Android 9 for the FP2 is almost there.
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Pretty full!
27.53GB of 29.12GB
I think that is quite likely to slow down the device. I’d recommend to free up some space (esp. videos, photos, audio), ideally down to 20 GB.
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If clearing up some space does not help you still could do a #dic:factorydatareset and start to setup from scratch. This would be needed anyway if you changed to another phone. So you might give it a try
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And if you start cleaning up your phone I would also recommend to disassemble it to clean the contacts of the modules. Since the phone is in no way sealed due to its modularity, you’ll be surprised how much dust is inside after 5 years of use.
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Are there any good instructions/videos for cleaning the phone?
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Sorry, I don’t know any. Just take the screen of, and disassemble the modules. I usually wipe everything carefully with a dry micro-fibre, than I do the same for the contacts of the modules.
For the disassembly please have a lock here: Fairphone 2 Reparatur - iFixit
@Lidwien: I think I read somewhere that you cleaned the contacts of the modules with pure alcohol, right?
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Yes, but that was more then a year ago. Perhaps I should do it again.
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Thanks. I did wonder if the power switched had become damaged after dropping it recently a couple of times. Can you replace that part?
I have reduced the storage down to almost 20GB but still have constant lagging and restarts.
I will attempt to clean the modules too. But now I’ve started looking at the FP3+ I am being drawn to it’s fab camera and NFC. Maybe an FP2 to sell in the future - or I see Fairphone will be offering a recycling service soon.
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I don’t have a solution but I can tell my story, you may be find some ideas for yours.
I had a first FP2 from January 2016 until September 2016 (I was one of the early backer in July 2015), after that Fairphone changed the whole phone after changing several modules (“a Failphone” was their own terms) and never asked to send it back. I also have to say that I’ve been a kind of lucky because my brother also had a Fairphone too (he was the one who convince me to back one and we backed them together) and when its boot button dies after 3 years I got his phone for parts (battery, modules and screen). So since 2 or 3 years, when one of the modules or screen have issues, I didn’t have to order them at Fairphone, I used parts of the two other ones.
It has been 18 months since I call Fairphone to know about how to do with all the reboots, crashes and very slow reactions on my FP (1 or 2 crashes a day, slow-down to 1 or 2 minutes without possibility to do anything) and wifi issues.
The second one (actual) has begun to have issues end of 2018, slow-down, crashes, wifi issues. They told me about a software solution coming soon after one update in Android 7 in May or June 2019, it gets worse and they adviced me to do a clean install and and that wifi was probably a hardware issue.
It get a little better for the summer and definitely better again when I changed the battery in November 2019 for some months.
I regularly dismantle it, clean it with isopropyl alcohol, clean the SIM card and SD card sockets. Always keeping at least 20Gb on the phone (I have a 32Gb SD Card on it).
Last time I called them, they told me it was probably an issue with the motherboard, the wifi chip and its change will cost me 250€ or so as the warranty period has expired. It has been a very long time since Fairphone didn’t provide any security updates (7.1.2/19.11.2).
I decide to keep the phone, as I work at home and I can use my landline and don’t have money to buy another one (I’m not sure if I choose the FP3 or go back to Apple, Android is a pain in the neck to use with a Mac).
Since January 2020, I call it “my zombie phone” (very slow, lot of crashes -it freezes then it comes back with the basic wallpaper after 3 or 4 minutes- reboots and now, some artefacts with the screen, flickering and pixelate, various issues with the microphone, need to do calls with a headset, etc.), sure it won’t last and decide to not worry anymore, waiting for the zombie to die. I was strong enough not send him through the window several times.
I don’t know if you have the same issues on your phone, but I’m not really optimistic if yours is old and if it crashes regularly. I just wait for mine to die.
It has been a kind of adventure, I really like the Fairphone concept, the modules which are amazingly easy and quick to change, their fairer policy, but I’m fed up with the issues and the bad quality of the camera (I had the first module and I bought the second one and it didn’t really improved, it is also very slow (7 to 10s to launch is definitely bad), images burned when sunny and dreadfull in low light, my old iPhone 4s camera is better).
I can’t say I regret the adventure, because Fairphone is the only company to try to do something on the matter and I understand now that smartphones are one of the worst kind of equipment we use daily and Fairphone is probably the less worst of all.
At least, I guess my FP didn’t need slaves to be built as cheaper or more expensive ones.
It also made me think about my “relation with the device” and I understand better how we are hooked with phones as a junkie on dope. I only use phones I buy since 2010: I’m more careful when it is “really” mine.
I’m just hoping my experience with Failphones is only bad luck and that there are happy customers for which the experience is better and that you can find quickly a solution to your crashes and reboots !
Good luck @Ange 
Olivier
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Thanks Oliver. That’s a really interesting tale of life with a Fairphone, and not too dissimilar to mine. I had almost forgotten that I got sent a replacement handset very early on after multiple problems. And since that time this forum has been a great place to hang out for advice, and I’ve managed to solve most problems, and keep my sanity! 
24 hours after giving the insides a good clean with alcohol (I’ve not considered this before) I’ve had no reboots and no crashes. Fingers crossed. 
However since looking I have been taken by the spec of the FP3+ and have placed an order. Yes the niggles far out weigh the benefits of knowing this phone is is one of the least evil ones out there.
I will monitor how the FP2 continues to perform after its spring clean and will prob post for sale on here sometime soon to continue its life elsewhere.
Thanks everyone for your advice. 
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I have the same experience as you. I removed the faulty SD card and changed the charging cable which gave me more autonomy.
I still have reboots though. Factory reset didn’t help and now I hope the next OS upgrade will help.
Hey aloxe, I changend from Fairphone OS to Lineage OS last year and everything is working now fine. I recommend to change instead of waiting for the upgrade of the Fairphone OS. For the lineage OS shift you have to clear up your phone… but then everything is working fine and security relevant updates are back again
After increasing frustration with my FP2 (purchased before the phone was available) and countless bottom modules (mostly replaced under guarantee) due to non-operation of the microphone (I used the phone using a bluetooth earpiece headset) as well as similar problems with spontaneous crashes and restarts, I finally replaced it with a FP3+ in August last year. This is a much better phone - the whole (internal) design is much more robust and I have had zero problems/issues with both the hardware and the software. You won’t regret it if you decide to change!
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I am surprised cleaning helped. You always lear, I guess. You might want to consider dumping your Android Operating System altogether and replace it with /e/-OS or even with Lineage. You quite possibly will see a much more stable phonr. Plus you ditch google which means you will not be tracked as much.
Now. If you get the FP3+ you might want to get it over the /e/ - Store. This means /e/ will be already installed on your phone and you get around google on your new phone altogether.
Even if you get the new phone, consider installing /e/ on the FP2 and resell it over this Forum. That way you help reduce waste and someone with less materialistic means than you gets their high level monkey tool.
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/e/ and LineageOS are Android OSes, too, you don’t need Google Apps and services to be an Android OS 
.
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/e/ and LineageOS are Android OSes,
You might say this is true. But Lineage and /e/ are forks from the original Android-Master-Branch. So There is some original Android inside, but is it then an Android System? When you use a Mercedes-engine and put it into a Ferrari, is it then a Mercedes-Car?
All official stock OSes from all Android smartphone vendors out there are forks from the original Android-Master-Branch (see here). Following your logic, these are not Android OSes then, too. They are not different in that aspect, and the only Android OS out there would then be AOSP itself, which nobody uses in that form.
The difference is that most smartphone vendor stock Android OSes go through the process of Google certification, so that they can be bundled and shipped with Google Apps and services preinstalled.
Custom ROMs obviously can’t and don’t do that.
In your car analogy, every Android OS user basically is driving the same car, just with different customisations and with more or less additional parts.
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