I have so many problems with my phone that I don’t have the energy to post in all different parts of the forum (really sorry, but it’s quite an energy draining situation). I’m also curious if some of them might be related so now I’m posting them all together here and hope that someone might be able to help me with solutions. I also sent this to the support since my battery might be bloating. The problems:
####Battery related(?):
Battery drops from 15%-0% in seconds.
Battery can be fully consumed in 4 hours one day, even if I don’t use it, and work almost normally the next (~8 h). I usually get up at 7, after half an hour not using it it can be down to 87% and by lunch under 20%. I always have to charge it before leaving work.
My BF and I experimented a day when we both where at home and switched battery over the day. His phone experienced the same problems as mine do but mine was fine on his battery. When we don’t change
Battery life apps do not detect any serious battery eating apps.
This thread suggests my battery might soon be bloating and that seems quite serious, but already this is a quite annoying issue that not make me trust my phone.
####Other problems:
My front camera have problems with exposure. In slightly dim conditions (still normal light) the camera first drops colors and then further tune the exposure down until it gets completely dark. If it’s bright it starts overexposing the pictures instead. Tried many camera apps but that doesn’t help. Makes it impossible to do skype video calls etc.
My phone gets stuck in booting, showing a blue screen without the logo for at least 20 minutes until I take out the battery. Usually works the second try.
Phone restarts without any warning. Happens once a week so it’s not a very big problem.
I lose data connectivity when I move around. My signal drops from H+ to H, but the arrows showing data up and down won’t be there for ~10 seconds. Happens when walking, biking or commuting inside and between towns. Makes me drop ip-phonecalls once every minute and is really annoying. Tried different carriers. It can also lose all connectivity until I restart my SIM (drops to the H without the white arrows and won’t start until I do something manually). When in areas with only H-connectivity and not H+ it works perfectly. Tried all types of settings with Network modes (auto and WCDMA only) but nothing helps.
My proximity sensor is not working very well. Had to install “Call Screen Locker” as 90% of my phone calls where hung up by my face. When trying to look at my screen during a call it an take up to a minute for it to wake up.
GPS is almost unusable and haven’t found a workaround that works for me.
+A lot of problems from running 1.8, like the updater running a lot, but those I suppose will be solved as soon as the new version is rolled out.
Do you think that these problems can be solved or should I give up on this phone and try to find another FP? I really like the concept but this is so much hustle…
Did you contact support yet? I think your list of problems is too long to be ignored, a replacement of your phone could be the only solution…
Good luck!
sounds not good for me. The only Problem I can find on my phone (FP1U OS 1.8) too are the random reboots. I don’t have one of the other problems. Have you tried to reset your phone to factory settings (warning: you will lose the data on your phone)? Maybe there is one software issue in a very basic component causing the problems. Resetting might fix that. But it will make a lot of work because you have to setup your phone again.
Sounds like contacting support is the best solution because of the battery issues. But from your other problems there might be issues with your phone as well, so definitely worthwhile
When you used the other battery and didn’t have those problems, did you still experience all of the issues you mentioned in the “other problems” section of your post? Particularly thinking about the booting/restarting/data connectivity issues?
The updater issue will be fixed for sure, the FP team are trying to work out the best way to get this updated for everyone without causing too much disruption.
On Fairphone OS 1.8 this is not required anymore because the bug was fixed.
@Lovisan Which issues exactly are you experiencing with GPS? You didn’t specify in your original post.
About the battery: At FP they told me that the battery has its own software inside, which sometimes needs to be reset. (This would explain why your bf had problems with your battery and you didn’t with his. Apparently it’s the battery itself which is causing problems.) Since you are in an experimental mood, I might as well share what they told me to solve the issue (I did not have the time to try it yet, I hope it solves my issues too):
Use the battery up until it is below 0% (until the phone dies).
Take the battery out of the phone.
Plug your charger into the phone (still without battery).
Insert your battery. (This will give the battery a kick)
Charge your phone in one go until 100%. Do not boot.
If you try it, please share your experience!
PS.: Thanks you @Sietse for the troubleshooting tips!
What @Stefan said about the battery might indeed solve some issues, though if the battery is indeed bloated it needs to be replaced. @Lovisan I am going to see if your mail isn’t yet answered by one of my colleagues, otherwise I will get in contact with you.
I cause same problems with my battery. Using my FP1 since approx Feb. 2014. The problem appears suddenly. I just orderd a new battery now and hope that the problem is solved.
I have a similar battery consumption (your second screenshot) when the wi-fi is on, this is not the best way to avoid battery drain
Try switching wifi off when not using to see the difference or set the wifi to low consumption mode
My normal use profile (connecting to wifi-3g only when needed and about 20 SMSes, 30 mins calling per day) let me use the phone for about 2 days without charging (during night I use Peace Of Mind+ to enable flight mode for about 8 hours)
Bye!
I think there was a bit of a misunderstanding @DjDas. I’m really satisfied with my battery lifetime going up from 5-6 hours to more than I can use in a full day (~14 hours). And I managed that by @Stefan’s reprogramming tips
I think my consumption patterns are a bit different with 1-2 hours of ip-videocalls, Spotify and ~70 text messages, but I will continue to try to track down hogs like the wifi.
There are some really nice tricks to bring down battery usage. For example you can use Greenify and Gravity Box (though you will need Xposed Installer and that’s some quite advanced stuff). Greenify puts apps into hibernation when the screen is black and Gravitybox has an option to change the screen brightness, which you can make much darker for the darkest option (warning: this means you can also set it so dark that you can’t see anything anymore, I use 6 or 7 and that’s really dark).
(Second warning: with Gravity Box you can edit really a lot on your phone, even so much that you won’t be able to properly use it…my recommendation: if you install it be careful with the various settings.)
I managed to extend my battery lifetime quite a bit and you can imagine that the Fairphone is used a lot here at the office while delivering support.
Did an extra har reset of the phone. The connectivity issue is gone, the phone restarts only half as many times as before and the GPS better. The front camera and proximity sensor are still not good.
And, haha, my battery issues are back with added features, like not being fully charged even after a full night of charging (no, nothing wrong with the charging device).
I got a ticket so I can send the phone in, and tonight I will get a used spare phone so I actually can do it. Fingers crossed that my problems won’t go away on the way there
Thank you for this tip, I tried it and my battery life improve very significantly ! It had decrease to less than a day, now I can wait almost 2 days before charging.
)
I hope you can have your FP fixed soon!
