As there’s so many complaints in the thread I just wanted to mention that the update was virtually flawless for me, one minor problem with having to enter and exit the updater before installing google apps and that was it. Is there anyone having a problem who did follow the instructions and installed google apps immediately after the update?
I’m very happy with the update process and that it fixes the problem with the over sensitive touch screen which was making the phone a pain to use.
thanks Marco!! would be great if there would be a solution! 
Updating was pretty smooth for me too.
Unfortunately it seems a lot of people post angry kneejerk reactions here, mostly regarding issues for which a solution has already been posted in this very thread. It’s true FairPhone could’ve done a better job explaining all possible scenarios but it’s not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be.
Setting up my home screens again was a matter of 10 minutes, not “hours”, as some people imply. The only thing I’m not a fan of is the larger icons, but I can get used to that I guess.
@Annemieke The update should not have done this. Can you please double check it is not only the home screen that is empty by for example starting the gallery application?
@Frederik_Zimmermann We will look at also providing the old launcher be seriously we can’t both do updates and keep everything the same all the time. We will provide an official APK for you.
@gamlao upon demand we have 3 different versions available of 1.8 (Stock Android , 1.8 1G/13G and the 1.8 FUSE/ unified partition). Switching between the original partition and the unified partition need to happen by the conscious user because it will wipe all your data. so No the storage upgrader is not included in 1.8 but we might create a 1.6 -> 1.8 FUSE is there is demand for it.
@Tom_Praet Given the popularity of this request we will change the setting to get smaller icons
We made a small change to the updater configuration. The 1.8 update it still
online but people should no longer see the there is an update available. We want better understand how we can help people with the given problems. keep posting!
The update from 1.6 to 1.8 runs smoothly on my device and takes about 20 minutes.
Re-Installation of Gaps takes 10 minutes.
The only annoying thing was the home-screen-setting-up. Takes another 10 minutes.
Congratulation, everything works fine.
The download link is now fixed.
Thanks, best regards
Bobby
No, it’s not a coincidence. It worked for me too.
Tom, do as you pleased but… to me it’s not worth the value downgrading just because of the icons… the benefits are really so much …
The fact you can’t put home screens to the left is really annoying to me. I want to have a screen either side so I just swipe once. Moreover it completely screws up my background wallpaper. Now the homescreen just shows the far left of the picture so I have to centre it on the far right to get the image I want in my home screen.
Along with bigger icons == less apps on each screen to use, can someone tell me what Kola Nut has added to my UX? It seems to have only downgraded things.
Thanks - I’m really looking forward to the old icon size. The bigger ones really break my arrangement. That’s also why the second most annoying thing to me is the panel-on-demand idea. I want to be able to have emty panels! It now feels like somebody is cropping my desk, every time I tidy it up!
The little dots at the bottom (indicating which panel I’m on), are irritating and of no use at all (to me), but I’ll get used to them.
That beeing said, apart from the disappearing-icon-surprise, the update went flawlessly, as allways. (I’m not using any google stuff at all.)
I’m very glad I own a Fairphone, and I wouldn’t ever want to replace it! I’m sorry you guys are getting so much negative feedback. Keep up the good work!
Hello, update went well. Now I tried to reinstall Google apps installer, but once dragged to the homescreen it says ‘Google apps already installed, please uninstall’. I tried to switch on/off wifi, rebooted, but problem remains.
I don’t think the icons look bad personally, but I don’t like the loss of ‘real estate’ on the screen as a result. I think having the option to set a grid size is far nicer, if possible.
jempix, I feel fully in line with you. Even if you leave the FP community, my general advice for the future is: when an update is announced, WAIT a couple of days at least to see how people react to it…
I for one didn’t update, and am extremely happy since I understand this morning basically my device wouldn’t work, because I had no time to spend hours re-setting everything. And indeed this would have been a memorable catastrophy.
Think about it even if you switch to Samsung!
IMHO, what a part of us (where I don’t belong, and have been almost insulted for this) is asking, is a real upgrade to the real Kitkat.
I’m almost certain nobody here asked for look and feel, but for real kitkat features allowing new bluetooth gadgets to be used etc.
I’m not sure these persons will be delighted with just a look and feel.
-and, just to be clear, I may be the single one here, but I never asked for changing look, feel or kitkat altogether.
If there is something I expect from an upgrade it’s some real improvement, for instance a faster switch between addressbook and phone in presence of 200 contacts, or faster reactivity in general. Not “look”…
Thinking about it, the only reason I see for a ‘look&feel’ upgrade is a wish to seduce new customers. Which is totally without purpose, since there are almost no more phones to sell at this time, and the next generation will presumably be based on a more recent OS version.
Wrong timing, wrong reason, IMHO.
I did the manual upgrade (i use the cwm recovery) and this worked without any problems in about half an hour. I spent another half an hour playing with the icon size (app settings module in Xposed). I actually like the new launcher. the overall performance of the new version seems smoother. Nice to know that the software for the FP is still being developed.
I agree - whilst I can appreciate these might be useful for some people, it would be much better if we could customise the size. I’ve only had the update one day and its already annoying me!
I really liked the Most Used and Recently used boxes on the previous version. Will they reappear?
I never had problems with a senstive touch screen before, however, I have now after the update. Jumping icons and icons that get lost halfway while dragging them to the screens last night weren’t exactly what I needed additionally to the trouble with the new launcher. I tested the option with Xposed but didn’t get satisfactory results. Now I’m back to the old launcher which meant that I had to rearrange all the apps and widgets twice yesterday night. 
However, the touchiness of the touch screen is driving me (kola) nuts! (Matching name for a nut update by the way. )
What? The icons are not only bigger in the app screen but also on the home screens? If this means that I can put less items on the home screen(s), then I’m seriously considering not updating. Why can’t these things be optional?
Also, I read of many things going wrong with the updating process. I thought after many software update iterations FP would have smoothed this proces out more (by testing more before rolling the update out).