@formerFP.Com.Manager … Why does the manual Fairphone OS install procedure require unlocking the bootloader? Will the procedure be the same with the upcoming Android 10?
The Fairphone OS manual install procedure for the current A.0134 version includes unlocking the bootloader in the instructions, which will force user data to be deleted as a security measure if the user didn’t unlock the bootloader earlier already.
As @urs_lesse pointed out here and as I seem to recall as well, unlocking the bootloader wasn’t included in the instructions at least with the A.0120 version of the manual install.
So in case the usual OTA updates might somehow fail to install or even fail to reach the phone in the first place, or in case of the OS gone awry and the phone only able to boot into Fastboot Mode, users with a locked bootloader can’t simply use the manual install without data loss anymore, which is a severe degradation of the usefulness of the manual install.
At least if the instructions are being followed thoroughly, which is always advisable. But did anybody try to install A.0134 manually without unlocking the bootloader?