Hi Wardd,
Could you send us a support ticket @ www.fairphone.com/asksupport? Then we can help you one on one. Please let us know which steps you have performed, if you updated through the updater or manually with files from the site. Sorry for the hassle!
Hello,
I don’t see a real big problem here. The Bigger Icons are just a question of taste you might like it or not but visual changes like this are normal at every update of every device manufacturer. I got cosmetic changes like that even after updates on my last phone a HTC Desire S.
Loosing the Homescreen setup of cause is a fail of the Fairphone Team. Even if they use a completely new launcher they should implement a way to migrate the configuration of the old one to the new one and it is a shame they havened. But setting up your Homescreens again is not a act of god it should be done in a manageable amount of time. Irksomely for sure but not a disaster.
I for my point do not like the Faiphone launcher at all (not the old one and not the new one) but that is not the problem of Fairphone it is just my personal taste and I have variegated options to change it. The launcher is just a App like every other, and I replace it like every other that not stands my demands.
This Update was frustrating for me, too. I hat some problems with installing the Playstore and solved them by factory reseting my phone. But Fairphone OS 1.8 looks good for me. The Touchscreen works better for me and this is a great advantage in my eyes I will checkout the GPS with was a disaster on 1.5 (I skipped 1.6) the next days and keep an eye on the battery usage before I judge the Version finally but until now everything (except the Update process) looks good.
I hope the Fairphoners will take there lessons from this Update and will improve the Update process itself but they are a small company of idealists, not technicians, they have to learn and I believe they do.
For me they made a good job with the product Fairphone at all. I expected much more trouble with the device when I ordered it (and I was not brave enough to oder the first bunch) so I’m positive surprised of the product. But I never expected a absolute perfect device from a 20 (currently 30) person company but I also never get one from the big players like Sony or HTC.
I don’t say that the current update covered the Fairphone Team with glory, but I still believe they make a good job.
regards,
Shiny
One of the first reasonable posts I’ve read today. You have the exact same vision on launchers (on other ‘visual’ implementations) as I do. 
Thank you for your reply but we tried this, we’re not too good with technology but this far we did get Apperently he had to do an older update first which erased his memory. Probably nothing we can do than.
You are right in asking this, for there are thousands of FP owners and only some dozens coming here, with almost all the same issues. FP must keep count of the # of downloads…
In addition you also have here guys that talk and didn’t run the upgrade, like me 
Now, I must say, personally I tend to side with jempix: I use my phone professionally, and I just cannot afford any glitch that’d send me into hours of readjustment (which is why I’m patiently waiting for now…)
After a bit turbulent update I feel extremely positive about the kola nut. I think the home screen icons have become bigger. There is now less room (I feel), but it looks so much better. Bigget icons = Great!
I agree - I had issues with installation. I was getting android asop keyboard failing to initialise (or something like that) for a good time. At some point though they disappeared… and then the phone could not detect the camera… and then couldn’t find any panels…
I sympathise with the people that had problems with the upgrade, but I would like to add that it all worked flawlessly for me. A difference may be that I use the Nova launcher? Nothing has changed, so no need to set up new screens etc.
Cheers!
I ended up moving icons to panels 3, 4 and 5, then moved everything from what became panel 1 to panel 3, In this way I managed to get my home panel as 3 and swipe left and right. Proper faff though…
And then it couldn’t connect to the gallery… and then once i found the panels I had to rebuild all my shortcuts… which didn’t fit as the icons are too big…
At the risk of being banned for questioning a moderator…
What you actually say here, Robin, is that we who have vented frustration over the update experience (and apparently not completely without cause since the update is temporarily postponed) ought to have kept silent since our complaints haven’t been ‘reasonable’.
Yes, there are a lot of posts simply stating, again, what has already been said before and therefore pointless or superfluous. But it is a web forum, for God’s sake, and this is only to be expected. And there are a few posts verging on the impolite/insulting (but very few).
I’ve noticed that many of the critical posts actually have received ‘likes’ from members of the FP team who obviously have seen that a few nuggets of gold were to be found among a huge load of maybe not to well voiced disappointment. This has impressed me and also made me think a bit more of what I’ve written myself before hitting the 'reply’button. Probably much more efficient for keeping up a decent forum climate than rapping people’s knuckles.
Not at all, questioning is the foundation for discussion. Notice how I say ‘reasonable’ not ‘right’ The fact that there are flaws in this update is undeniable, possibly more flaws than features. I, personally, much more appreciate people who balance good facts with the lesser ones. I do not judge people who tend to express their regards, negative or positve. Ofcourse, and this is undeniably typical for us, human beings, commenting on someones failures is a lot easier than -once again- balancing your thoughts.
As I’m not a native English speaker, perhaps I shoudl’ve chosen my words more carefully. What I meant by ‘reasonable’ is calm (yes written text can be calm or aggressive), critical yet polite and more or less ‘neutral’.
I agree completely with how you say that the forum is being bombed with negativity, perhaps this ‘clouds’ my judgement, can’t argue with that. I was just trying to express how for us, moderators (but I may speak for myself here), it is nice to see a post which is not completely negative yet balanced and constructive.
But, for the time being, I’ll stop complaining as I understand all frustrations and issues, yet on the other hand: I see what the Fairphone team tries to do, and I’m just imagining how they’re feeling at the moment as well, and we can all imagine and possibly agree that that won’t be a pleasant feeling.
Let’s just keep in mind that we’re all human beings and humans make mistakes (‘errare humanus est’).
To finish, as a community moderator I’m obliged to keep the thread going one way and not diverting in (possibly for some) useless directions, so I’ll stop going down the philosophical/ethical road
If you have any comments regarding my judgement and replies, please feel free to PM me, I’m very open to criticism if directed to me personally.
EDIT:
By the way, do we come over as such unreasonable moderators? :’( I don’t think anyone has ever been banned for questioning a moderator? The only reason users have been banned on this forum was for posting spam 
Thanks, Robin, for taking the time to give a most reasonable reply! English is but a second language for me as well, so maybe it’s all about interpretation really.
Friends?
Uhr, wow, I don’t know how this talk of Marx got in here, that’s a really wide swing for sure.
Improvements can be just that. Sometimes things work in a erratic or inconsistent way, or they may not work properly at all. Fixing those issues are an improvement when viewed objectively. However, they may still be met with resistance because people are used to working in some way and have a hard time accepting that the new way ultimately is more efficient. It’s this transition period where people are negative about the new and long for the old. It’s basically people getting sentimental about what they’re used to.
It’s always difficult with software development. It’s often hard to make changes in the way software works without people getting up in arms about it. I see it regularly at my own job. For exame, there’s this piece of functionality that’s really hard to use and understand for new users because it works in a really unpredictable way (buttons and settings don’t have the effect you’d expect them to have). Even our own developers have to dive into the programming code to refresh their memory on how it worked again. I’ve tried to change this functionality on more than one occasion. The same things could be done before, but in a more obvious way. Every time though, experienced users complained about the changes and demanded them to be rolled back because suddenly it no longer worked like they expected to. Instead of reading the release notes or the accompanying manual to get acquainted with the new (and honestly, not that different) functionality, they did nothing but complain.
We’re making changes though, but in much smaller steps so the transition isn’t as big of a leap and less scary for end users.
Hi,
Tried to update today. Result: most widgets gone, but it says Can’t open file when I check the update. No idea why it doesn’t open, I have over 14 GB free dataspace.
Can’t work the google updater b/c of the failed download.
Help?
I really think it´s a good idea you postponed the update!
Maybe next time you should not have techies in a developer forum test the whole thing. They do stuff like this every day and maybe do not mind spending some time readjusting things. I do!
Yes, you told us that the icons will be removed. What you did not tell us is that they till be bigger and look like from ten years ago.
@keesj it would be nice to have the new launcher soon from Fairphone itself in the play store, soon.
I like the “Fairyphone”!! 
I agree that there should have been an official announcement here in the forum. But with a big warning that it is only for experienced users. It’s because of the difference between Xda and the Fairphone Forum: On xda you expect users to be experienced, on the FP Forum you cannot make such an assumption.
I also reported this in another thread. It is highly annoying to me.
I’m done reading through over 80 posts in this thread, which have amounted today, and 85% were posts from people, who did not search for a solution, which has already been posted, or, it was from people writing before thinking, and not being constructive. It is a good exercise, to read through a post before hitting “reply” and evaluating, if you would also write your post as it is, when being in a calmer temper.
I agree partly. However, it sounds to me that you are saying that people are not able to learn. A solution against all the useless stuff posted here in the last afternoon and today would be to put up an admin revision, on the days an update is issued. So moderators could avoid threads stuffed with all sorts of rubbish questions, and refer people to the answers, which have already been approved of. Then, I believe, the next time people will consider searching around first.
I think when you announce a BETA version most of people know what this means. Please don’t underestimate the users.
It was not a beta version, but a release candidate. Terminology matters in these situations. Also I think that not everyone knows what a beta version means. Many of the FP community are first-smartphone-users and not experienced in software affairs.