That’s what I said about the need for a better Recovery like CWM. To my knowledge 3e recovery simply can’t handle the external SD. Only if such a recovery becomes an option and we can the flash gapps using recovery will you be spared another setup from scratch.
@dave,
thank you for your help!i’m gonna try it now although i don’t feel comfortable at all with the flasher software. Maybe the good thing is that i absolutely have no idea what this software does and therefore what can go wrong.I’ll keep you informed if it worked fine for me or not.
best,Marijke
@MDP It’s a piece of software that forces your phone to reinstall itself by telling it where to store what data, while it is sending that data over the cable. You can visualize this as multiple recovery flashes in one go, with a repartion on top. You will end up with a almost factory-like 1.6 FP1U in a matter of minutes.
The only thing that can go wrong is if your pc crashes during flashing or if you disconnect battery or cable while flashing. That would be bad… (although I am not sure if you could just retry if that happened, and I am not volunteering to try…)
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Maybe this is a completely stupid idea, but as I mentioned earlier, I’m not a techie.
Can’t I just go back to factory settings and then do an official fairphone update?
I have the fealing that I have to recustomize my fairphone anyway
Good idea or not?
Marijke
I had the problem that the file was not found.
I kept the screen active and it worked out!
- strange
Steffen
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Error: “Unfortunately, Android keyboard (AOSP) has stopped.” - After updating to 1.8.5 from 1.6 via the pre-update-solution. What to do?
I got the notification for the update. I tapped on the notification and the app told me I was on Kola Nut 1.8 and could upgrade to 1.8.5. (I did read the words pre-update solution, I didn’t think that applied to me, being on 1.8 already.) I tapped Upgrade. Within 10 seconds I was told to restart the phone for the next step. I tapped the Restart button. Phone was restarted, I saw the upgrade icon and process, and the regular boot sequence screen. This went very fast! I saw a notification for upgrading the app store, which I ignored because I don’t want the app store.
But how can I see which version I am on? The upgrade went very fast and I don’t see any difference. I don’t remember how the previous launcher looked (I do remember a lot of talk about the new design). My icons were still in the same place on the home screens. I don’t remember installing a different launcher… How can I check?
Thanks!
Still a very happy FP (2nd batch) user!
Edit: when I started the FP Updater process manually, it said I am still on 1.8 and now I can update. It’s downloading now, taking more time than the first step. So the first step was really a pre-update solution. OK, slightly confusing, but it’s updating now… And yes, now I have to put all the icons back on the home screen. Not a big deal. But how can I check my version?
You can just open the updater app again. It should tell you which version you have installed right now.
Hi, I was installing the update yesterday evening. Had to restart the phone twice, after the second restart I got the screen saying “Kola nut 1.8.5 successfully downloaded” (i think it was that, not installed) and then there was a button to restart the phone again… not sure if this was the step for installing google apps? Anyway… I left my phone to get on with the installing on its own and when I looked at it next it was in recovery mode… Then I stupidly clicked on “update device with adb sideload” - now all I see is the das android image and the message "Now send the package you want to apply to the device with "adb sideload “…”.
Is there any way I can get back to main menu? Volume Up/Down buttons do nothing, and the Power button only makes message dissappear and then appear when I click it again. Is there something else I can do to save my files? When I connect the phone to my computer it doesn’t recognize it…
I’m not particularly tech-savy but think I could handle it if I get clear instructions of what to do!
Hope somebody can help!
I think I updated my phone for the 7th time now since yesterday. The Fairphone updater keeps telling me there is a new update. I have connection with wivi and get no error message.
Did you re-install Google yet? (If you had it before)
If you open the Updater App again it should tell you your current OS version.
There is a Guide on how to Navigate Recovery Mode here, but if you say Volume up and down do nothing I’m afraid it won’t help much.
Maybe you can do a hard reset by clicking volume up and power at the same time for a few seconds?
Try to plug in your phone while updating and leave the “kepp screen op” option ticked (in system settings > developer options)
Actually there is: Unofficial Clockworkmod for repartitioned FP1.
Works like a charm (installed the automatic OTA-zip to 1.8.5 for me)! 
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I’d just take out the battery. I think you can’t go back from sideload mode because it waits for a file from your PC (which apparently you did not intend to send).
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I had no problems with updating my FP1U from 1.7 to 1.8.5. I skipped the Googley thing because I don’t need it, and had to reinstall some apps like Xposed and Busybox, and also the settings of Apex were gone, but all other things are fine like before. Thank you.
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Thanks, taking out the battery did the trick! The phone is now updated and running normally.
Still don’t understand how it got into that mode in the first place but doesn’t matter now that it’s working again…
Thanks again!
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It’s the time taken to do this rather than using the flasher itself, although the MT65 drivers refuse to install my machine so I can’t do it anyway. Not sure if we have a process for a Mac, the only other machine I have?
Okay, plugged it in a few more times and the drivers seemed to load one of the times. Not sure how that worked but it did and it’s flashed. We’ll see how the next bit works 
Hmm the update ERASED my calender??? watch out!!!
Okay, I seem to be back in business after flashing the phone. Whoop!
Cheers everyone, particularly @daveboschma