Hi everyone,
A new software update based on Android 12 is now available to Fairphone 4 users.
Software Version: FP4.SP29.B.069.20230510
Security Patch Level: 5th of May, 2023
Update size: 66.71 MB
Got feedback or a question? Post it below.
It would be really great to know when some serious usability bugs will be addressed. It’s awesome that the release schedule is finally back on track with more timely updates. But since day one of the FP4 release there are some very annoying bugs. Some very small and are e.g. UI issues, but there are also issues that make the phone hard to use. Some were addressed, others are new and we’re still waiting for a fix. I’m contemplating buying the FP5 when it’s released, in the hope that one will be more usable. That’s not a great sign for a phone that’s made to last.
I’ve kind of given up to #contactsupport since they just combine all issues into one ticket and then sneaky close that one without any feedback. Happened a few times by now. It’s almost like the performance of the support team is measured by open tickets, not by how many issues are actually solved. Is the dev team by the way understaffed? I saw news articles where money is thrown at the support team. But wouldn’t it make more sense to throw money at the devs? Because if they make the phone work fine, then support has less complaints.
Another thing I sometimes wonder is if FP uses their own device. Since many times it takes a lot of effort to convince them that these issues are happening, while anyone could identify them by just using the phone for 5 minutes. I’m not just wondering about this in terms of the support team, but also the dev team. Because sometimes after installing an update issues are discovered within minutes. As if the devs don’t have a device themselves to test it but use some kind of emulator to develop on.
To anticipate the reactions from the community, yes, I know the dev team is outsourced and I know Fairphone is a small team.
fully agree, @UPPERCASE .
Does anybody have experience whether or not the release notes for Firmware updates are complete? or might they have fixed sth. silently without listing it in the release notes (for whatever reasons)?
The update went smoothly.
The beta update release notes had a different wording, but the meaning was probably the same. Nothing more shared to us. And I’ve noticed no improvements in the pain points from previous updated.
You should try to be a beta tester. I am and we don’t have all the same problems so it is not as easy as because I have a bug, other have it too.
I don’t think running the Beta release is as different as you describe it, especially when taking @peci1 comment into account. FP also mentioned their Beta is less stable and the quality may be worse (hence Beta), people shouldn’t be surprised if they have to factory reset their phone sometimes. You just get an early release that’s less tested, not a total different branch. Unless you’re already on Android 13 of course.
What’s your build number? I suppose it’s the same as FP4.SP29.B.069.20230510
Yes, it’s the same build number.
I don’t have an FP4 but an FP3.
You don’t need to believe me when I say we don’t all have the same bugs. I really think somebody like you could help a lot being a beta user and you could help to solve all the bugs you find important.
Beta is what it means. It is not alpha so it is not unstable.
Good morning,
The update worked well. However, I would be interested to know which background applications were removed. I use my FP4 with a work profile.
Thanks 
I don’t want to sound too negative all the time, but the stable releases feel sometimes like alpha releases. I need my phone for work and daily routines. FP needs to improve their internal quality control first before I will risk things being their beta tester.
The wording of the beta program is quite clear, be prepared to run into major issues.
We don’t all have the same issues, but most of them are reproducible. Please don’t make it sound like most issues don’t happen. Those topics are loaded with people complaining about them. Some people don’t run into them because they use their phone differently or for some reason don’t notice. E.g. “I don’t have” the Bluetooth bug because I use different codecs. But the issue is there. One of the outliers is the fingerprint scanner bug.
This time there is no boot image for the update in Fairphone 4 Kernel Source Code — FAIRPHONE open source documentation, yet. I thought they would handle this better since the last ota.
Meaning probably that it is a purely “Security” release, meaning only containing the Android security patches Google released in those last weeks (quite a lot IIRC).
Here’s the usual link to the ota.zip for those that need it, have fun 
I’ve uploaded a FPOS-B.069-boot.img (and a Magisk patched one) in case this takes a long time again …
Thanks! In the meantime I had to go through my usual procedure with re-rooting after the OTA and creating the boot images on my own. All in all it works well, now.
Smooth update, though I lost two shortcuts from the home screen: one app (Files) and one contact.
And home screen has mysteriously acquired an (empty) additional page, unless I unwittingly created that myself … 
That must be you, because mine has still the traditional 3 pages.
I didn’t know one can have additional pages, there is no mention of this in the (very succinct) “Home Settings”.
How did you (unwittingly) do it? 
Updated today, everything went as expected. I also cannot find any new home screen pages or other changes 
worry no more, after over a month since the original release date of the android security update, fp4 users receive the may update in june.
just so for the next day the june android announcement is out there, announcing some seriously worrying bluetooth attack vectors and arm gpu driver level trouble etc
any chance of saying when fp4 users will receive the major update from this month, june 2023? thanks.
In July?..
(Seriously, I agree it’s not as quick as one would like it to be, but think about those who only get security updates every 6 months or so…)