My Fairphone 4 got totally crashed (never leave your phone on your Ikea bed when you open it up, it might launch your phone…).
Is there still a way to access the internal storage of my FP4 so I can retrieve files there? Or can I like, remove the internal storage part from my FP4 and place it in a ‘reader’ or another device of some sorts?
I already tried to connect to the USB-C port with a hub or usb-cable but no reaction, no projecting the phonescreen on my external screen via the hub or my laptop does not see it as an external drive. (It does work on my new Fairphone 5, I was able to check.)
Well if you don’t happen to have set up your phone such that any USB connection will grant you access to your phone’s data (which seems to be the case with your FP5), then it’s gonna be a very difficult, if not impossible, task.
That is, provided your phone’s still working at all.
I also understand that you don’t use an external SD card on which you’ve stored all your data.
The internal storage is also directly soldered onto the main board and cannot be accessed (realistically) in any other way other than via (a working phone with) USB.
But you could just get yourself another display… a very cheap second-hand one (even with scratches) would already do, if you only want to restore your data or just change the USB setting, right?
Another way would be to have someone who would borrow you a FP4 in which you would put your (still working?) main board temporarily to transfer your data to your PC.
I did use an external micro SD card. Problem is not all my data was put on there, it’s also partly on the internal storage.
I should add that the FP4 is also bend a bit, so I don’t think putting a new display in it is workable?
Indeed it’s not looking very promissing but (thin) pcb boards are quite flexible these days. connectors not so much but you might be still in luck with regard to a working main board… It’s definitely going to be very difficult to get the (new) display and the rest of the phone stay together due to the broken display bezel.
At first, I bought a new Fairphone 4 display screen to see if I could place it on the wrecked Fairphone 4. This was hard, the screws wouldn’t come loose from the wrecked Fairphone 4-screen.
Then, the ‘borrow a FP4 in which you would put the main board temporarily’ tip inspired me to order a new FP4 to see if that could work. Thanks to the Fairphone design it was relatively easy to get all the parts out of the wrecked FP4 including the main board, and to get all the parts out of the new FP4 + put the old main board in the new FP4 + place all the other parts back in the new FP4 as well.
Now, the new FP4 motor would vibrate when I pushed the on-button but nothing else would happen: The screen would remain dark.
Decided to take a look at the screen as well, interestingly enough it looked like the screenconnector was already loose when I opened it up. That could explain why the screen remained black. Decided to place the new FP4 screen I bought already earlier on. That was HARD to do. The connector just wouldn’t click and remain where it should. Until it finally did after several tries. Turns out that this did the trick, now I got an actually working display and actual access to the old internal storage via this new FP4!
-Always backup your internal Fairphone storage.
-I love the Fairphone design and how relatively easy it is to replace the parts or place the parts in another Fairphone. Including the main board.
