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