The app lounge has been non-functional for me for a few weeks now and I’ve recently had a chance to look into the issue.
As I was researching, I noticed that my FairPhone4 is on /e/OS version 1.18 while I believe the latest version is 2.5. I’m guessing that might be the root cause of my issue with app lounge, so I tap the refresh button but it says ‘No new updates found’.
Any advice on updating the operating system? I’m not as technical as a lot of people on here, so apologies if I’m missing something very obvious.
You have used the hashtag fp4 with your title. Please click the tag to see all FP4 threads. (I have pasted selected threads at the foot of this post.) Since about the start of October there have been a number of threads on the same subject as yours. Perhaps you could read one or two which seem similar to your situation.
There are a few things to take account of, I think importantly:
Notice how designation of Build types have changed; official=stable, community=dev.
You may have a locked bootloader. This is revealed by looking at the bootloader screen. This is significant. If you cause a locked bootloader to unlock all data will be wiped.
Without knowing your exact situation I suggest your priority should be to ensure you have a sound backup of things you feel essential.
If you face an Android version upgrade which I think is likely, the safest thing to do is to treat this as a “new install” (all data is lost) as per the install page Install /e/OS on a Fairphone FP4 - “FP4”. However some advice has been given in the threads referenced to try to perform the Android version upgrade as if it was only an /e/OS version update.
Great thank you both. I’ve looked through some of the links posted above and will return to them later. In the meantime, here’s some more information about my situation:
FP4 purchased new through the murena shop
Android version: Android 12
/e/ OS version: 1.18-s-20231207360611-stable-FP4
I believe I have a locked bootloader. Here are the steps I took to verify this:
Rebooted FP4 to Fastboot Mode (power + volume down)
The text on screen included this statement: “device state - locked”
Does this help narrow down the options available to me?
Also, assuming I don’t mind losing all data, would a clean install be better than a dirty upgrade for the performance of the phone? Just asking hypothetically to help me decide in case I have a choice between the two options.
We don’t know why your updates stopped … with a stable build you should have been offered an Android version upgrade to Android 13 (T) as well as all the security updates you have missed for a year. This alone would be quite a good reason to have a clean install.
I imagine you will want to stay with the official=stable build. The locked bootloader is fine, now you are aware of it.
Hi, I hope everyone had a good Christmas. I’ve had some time to look into this again and I seem to be getting stuck on unlocking the bootloader. Any suggestions would be very welcome.
(I’ve not yet downloaded the build downloads because I wanted to check if I could unlock the bootloader first.)
For Unlocking the bootloader - I have:
Entered adb devices. The correct serial number appears with ‘device’ under ‘attached’.
Rebooted on fastboot by running the command in the PC console adb reboot bootloader. This boots my phone into bootloader mode.
Entered fastboot flashing unlock. This is where I’m currently stuck.
After doing the final step above, the command prompt displays <waiting for any device> and the phone doesn’t do anything (it remains in bootloader mode). This doesn’t look promising, but I attempt to proceed with the instructions, which say Approve with volume + then power. I’m not sure which option to select in order to approve, so I’ve tried all options except for recovery mode. They all just behave as expected (i.e. power off turns the phone off, start turns it on, and restart bootloader restarts the bootloader). So I’m assuming I’m missing something.
As a test, I turned the phone on and tried running adb reboot bootloader and then adb devices and fastboot devices. The adb devices command displays my serial number but the fastboot devices command does nothing. So I’m guessing there is a problem with fastboot (and not adb). I’ve checked my FP4 in the device manager and it displays there as ‘Fairphone4 5G’ under ‘Universal Serial Bus Devices’ and there is no yellow warning against it, so I’m assuming the Universal ADB Drivers were installed properly.
Hi @aibd, thank you so much for the rapid response here.
Your final sentence on fastboot drivers was the issue. I used the support topic you linked to and I’ve now been able to follow the rest of the instructions and have 2.6.3 installed! You were correct that I hadn’t checked the device manager with the phone in fastboot mode (when I did, the driver issue was indeed flagged).
I still have a lingering issue with the eBay app, but I think that is best raised in a separate thread. Thanks again - it’s much appreciated.
