Stock fp3(+) (factory reset) boot loop (workarounds in first post)

[ajg]

Hi, thanks for the advice. Nevertheless although I manage to reach Settings > Security > Device admin apps and disable the location device app, phone still restarts and then the app is again enabled.
Any thoughts or suggestions on this?
Thanks in advance

[clabalde]

Are you having this issue with a fp4?

[yvmuell]

I guess thats a different root cause maybe causing the same bootloop issue, however the one and only report so far…

[JurgP]

yes, it is a fp4 where I had the problem.

[Jonibhoni]

@Yasen_Tomov

To fix this, go to Settings > Security > Device admin apps and disable the services there. After you deinstall the Google Play Services updates, you can go back and enable the Device admin apps again.

No, I think you can’t. As @Kommissarmartin already wrote: Switching this setting off doesn’t seem to be saved. When I suffered the problem, I had a fairly long 20 seconds window until reboot (plenty of time). But even if you reach this device admin setting (or the general “find my device” setting - there is another one but it behaves the same), upon switching it off, it just spins busy waiting (greyed appearance on switched off position, like “not yet done”) for another ten seconds until the phone reboots. To me, it makes the appearance it cannot switch off because it waits for Play services to start , while Play services starting triggers reboot .

So, I conclude if you suffer an error message on Googe Play services update uninstallation or deactivation, e.g. because you are using the “Find my device” functionality, you can only resort to the ADB procedure or factory reset (or the yet somehwat nebuluous “just do nothing for hours and it fixes itself” fix?). Deactivating “Find my device” does not work if you are already having the reboot issue.

[alexandre.will.69003]

Thanks so much for this thread! I’m glad to find it after 5 days of stress of not having the time nor the energy to look for a solution and having to use with my old and very slow fairphone 2.
It was a pleasure after a week of vacation to come to work at 10:30 instead of 7:30 forcing my colleague of the night to stay until the arrival of my next colleague later. I will learn to be more secure next time.

I uninstalled the Google services updates. Then, noticing that it worked, I installed the latest version of Google services from this morning, 22.44.17.
For now, ≈1h, everything works fine. At least if it happens again, I’ll know how to fix it.

Nightly updates though … can’t say I’m a fan.

[Jonibhoni]

@urs_lesse

Of course, there are other ways to enter Settings.

(Well, faster ones, that is. If you enter the settings via the quick settings drawer (-> swipe down on then locked screen and touch the small gear icon), you can trigger the unlock screen by touching the settings button. This way, the very first thing you see after unlock will not be the launcher but already the settings screen. Some people need those precious seconds.)

[ajg]

This is indeed my problem. I am a very basic user and I am not sure I can go through the ADB procedure that seems quite complex. But I don’t want to do the factory reset and lose all my data. Not sure of how to proceed

[Mulder]

thanks Pilo for your engagement.

The first two commands work, but the 3rd (adb install…) produces a failure:

Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_VERIFICATION_FAILURE]

(I tried different versions from the source you mentioned, and also one of those amoun mentioned in uptotown.com, the result is always the same)

the version command you listed below shows this:
versionName=22.44.15 (150400-487360192)
versionName=22.02.21 (150408-428111784)

The phone is still in the rebooting loop. The uninstall button in the settings failed also.

Do you have any other ideas?

[urs_lesse]

I’ve uploaded two screenshots showing what you and @yvmuell (elsewhere) have recommended (had to re-activate swipe screen lock first, it’s a community phone for testing etc.)

[Zab]

If like me, you don’t have time to uninstall the updates before your phone goes back into factory reset mode, the following solution worked for me:

adb shell am start -a android.settings.APPLICATION_DETAILS_SETTINGS package:com.google.android.gms

This command directly opens the settings screen of the Google play services. That gives you time to click on the three dots and uninstall the updates.

Hope that helps

[Mulder]

finally after hours of tries and failures I managed to solve the restart loop / uninstall problem:

adb shell am force-stop com.google.android.gms
adb shell pm clear com.google.android.gms
adb shell pm disable-user com.google.android.gms
adb shell pm uninstall-system-updates com.google.android.gms

many thanks especially to Pilo and all others who brought good ideas into the solution

[theos]

First of all, many thanks from my side to all who have been involved here for days and are working on a solution.

Nevertheless, I assume that not every user of a Fairphone is represented here in the forum.

For this reason, I would like to ask a question in the direction of Fairphone:

1. has anything already been done to inform the users of a Fairphone about the current problem (press, small information on the Internet page etc.) around possibly to avoid that these run into the same problems (after we have now apparently also already the first cases with a FP4)?

2. maybe there are several users who - like me - are not able to activate the workaround within 10 seconds or simply do not know yet how to fix the problem. Is there a solution being worked on by Fairphone / Google?

Sorry, but I do not understand the current behavior of Fairphone!

Thank you

[anon9989719]

@theos

Stock fp3(+) (factory reset) boot loop (workarounds in first post)

Hi everyone, Thanks to the tech savvy among you who have already been working on and sharing some workarounds. We are doing our best to have this resolved permanently as soon as possible. In the meantime though, the following workaround should resolve the issue in the short term: Deinstall recent Google Play Services updates Go to Settings > Apps & Notifications > See all XX apps Find Google Play Services Tap the 3-vertical-dot button in the top right corner Tap Uninstall Updates Tap OK …

[lexaloo97]

HOW TO INSTALL SPOTIFY AGAIN WITHOUT GOOGLE PLAY STORE ??!

Hi!
Thank you so much for the updated information!

My only problem is that I already disabled and deinstalled the Google Play Store App and my Spotify app because some people were saying that it might help before you came up with the “official” posts on Monday and Tuesday.

How can I reinstall Spotify without the Google Play Store (if this is the app you should use for the installation of apps in general) ?!

Thanks a lot for the help in advance!

[theos]

@anon9989719
Sorry, as I said - no information for all the users that are not registered here.

So it should be time to set a popup on the internet site of Fairphone or inform press like Chip or an international one.

Silence is not the answer here!

[anon9989719]

@theos

no information for all the users that are not registered here

Yes I have asked how users in general can be informed. Technically an email or text message could be sent to all the registered owners ~ I suppose

[theos]

There is a simple one - write a short not on the internet site.

Because this maybe the first point where a user is looking for.

[anon9989719]

@theos

write a short not on the internet site.

Yes probably most people with the problem come hear, also by time Fairphone have picked up the problems, with workarounds suggested by users here Google may, it seems has, found the issue and have sent a solution to those that have Google Play Store enabled to update.

Also this topic is only five days old and Google usually update that often.