/e/OS 1.10 installation resulted in factory reset and data erased

Using /e/OS Troubleshooting
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1

Fairphone FP4
1.10-s-20230412278810-stable-FP4

Hi there,
Installation of 1.10 version worked fine a few days ago, I did not even pay much attention. But this morning my phone was in factory reset and the phone memory says it is empty (16% used) when yesterday it was almost totally full (maybe a part of the problem ?).
I did not get any warning yesterday (just the one saying almost no more empty space, but I already had had this message and I could transfer data with no problem to get more space).

Details of what happened this morning :
First I had to enter my sim card code (5 hours before, I just put the plane mode on) then I could not slide to unlock or to use the shortcuts.
So I tried restarting the phone and after entering my sim code again, it showed the initial user setup (language, time zone etc.) which I followed.
I checked : no backup kept. Nothing left. Real factory reset, totally unsupervised by me. And I did not register on Murena. Only backup on the phone. No SD card used either.

I came to the conclusion that the os update was the cause of the problem as untill yesterday i had the 3 bottom buttons and this morning I have the sliding version (do you see what I’m talking about ?) which I had to choose with a small tutorial after entering my sim code (or during the process of initial user setup, I can’t remember);

Is it possible to downgrade to an older version of /e/ ? Would there be a chance to get my data back ? (I have all my life on it)
Can you help me ?
Thank you !

2

Even if the memory manager shows an empty disc, is there any possibility to enter the old folders and to copy some precious ones on another device ?

…and of course it arrives at the moment I’m supposed to live with no electicity nor computer for 5 days…

3

what a bummer, a “silent factory reset” is a new one.

Did you confirm at any point a dialog? Is there a second person who could’ve used your phone and triggered this unintentionally?

I only know Android can offer a factory reset after repeated reboots (they call that function “rescueparty”).

Getting back data… seems hard: you can image the whole disk and run extundelete on it, but I’m unsure if this will work with file based encryption that the modern devices use, this answer only covers older full disk encryption: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/208106/how-to-recover-a-deleted-file-from-data-partition

4

I did not confirm at any time. I just found my phone with a lock background screen that i did not recognize when I woke up
I can assure nobody could touch my phone during these 5 hours.
Thank you for your link, I will try when I come back to electricity and a computer in 3 or 4 days. Until then, I try not to use any memory of my phone…

5

here’s a report of “disk full → goes into recovery” - but without doing the reset automatically, that would need active confirmation - Fairphone shuts down after entering pin and goes into recovery mode

I’m still flabbergasted how an involuntary reset happened to you, but let my disbelief not irritate you

6

Hello,
Same for me. I went to bed - everything fine - and then woke up to my phone in recovery mode. The only thing I did was to set the alarm clock.
The days before I had very high battery use as well, now that you mention it. Battery lasted only half a day with moderate use.
I am still trying to find a way to go without factory reset…
Best,
Wiebke

7

I linked your thread for the “disk full” issue in general, but the detail with automatic factory reset in this thread is a hefty one, so your cases should be different

8

Yes, in my case I could not even choose between recovery mode and factory reset…
I did not yet try the solution you suggested but I will (I just don’t know when as I don’t have access to electricity easily these times).
Meanwhile, I carefully try not to use my phone to avoid overwriting data.

9

Guys we all understand that our E team is releasing all builds that require heavy testing and user involvement. We strongly recommend not storing anything sensitive or in every case use nextcloud or murena cloud to back all data up wutomatically. It is true for many devices that an update deletes all files, happened to me 3 times as i was testing on a few devices. Nextcloud backup always saves the trouble

10

What kind of an alarmist, generalised statement is that supposed to be?
It is true that updates can go wrong theoretically, and sometimes do go wrong in practice. It is true that a backup can not be recommended highly enough to be prepared for the possibility of this resulting in data loss, which doesn’t necessarily occur even with an update going wrong.

But updates deleting all files on many devices without any more detailed context? No. What exactly are you talking about?

11

What do you mean when yku say updates? Isnt 1.10 and prior version can only be installed as a standalone which overwrites existing files rather than updates your files? Is there any source code to show it is actually leaving personal files untouched?

12

Why would that be the case? /e/OS provides OTA updates (= via the updater in the Settings) to supported devices running supported /e/OS versions.
And even doing Android updates manually will not affect user data (= the data partition) by default, only system partitions need an update, the data partition can stay as it is.

However, if you (or a tool you use to automate a fresh OS install) execute install instructions which will wipe/ format data or do a factory reset … then your user data will be deleted. Manual upgrades of the base Android version tend to require this, if those upgrades are not available OTA (= via the updater in the Settings).

And, as said, updates might go wrong and do things they are not supposed to do …
it’s software :man_shrugging:.

Android works this way since eons.
What exactly do you do when you update a device, and which device(s) are we talking about?

13

All your personal files are stored in either the data partition or external SD card if present. Flashing any custom ROM does not touch either the data partition or the external SD card. Formatting or wiping the data partition either before or after flashing a custom ROM will remove all personal files, but that is not part of installing a ROM, either from a recovery or through the updater app (though it may be necessary if the ROM being installed is a different Android version from the existing ROM)