My Fairphone 3 does not start anymore. It switched off and when I want to restart it, it boots into recovery mode. When I click “Try again”, it does go to the start screen. But whenever I unlock the phone, it shuts down.
Once I could briefly see “Protokolldatei konnte nicht erstellt werden” (protocol file could not be written). I get like 0.5 seconds to click something before it shuts down. Before entering the pin code to unlock the phone it is fully operational. The error only occurs when I enter the code.
I suspect that the storage is full, as the phone has warned that the storage space is getting low, but cannot access the phone to verify this.
Is there a possibility to secure the data, delete part of the data (to free up some space) or reinstall the latest update?
I have tried accessing the data via ADB or installing the latest update (which should already be installed), but always get the errors:
127|FP3:/ # storage
/system/bin/sh: storage: inaccessible or not found
and when trying to install the update via sideload, I get this message:
Failed to find update binary META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary
I am not surprised that I cannot access the data since the phone is not unlocked. Is there any workaround?
I don’t want to do a factory reset and loose all my data.
I am very grateful if you could help me please.
Thanks a lot in advance!
Best,
Wiebke
Hello,
My Fairphone 3 does not start anymore. It switched off and when I want to restart it, it boots into recovery mode. When I click “Try again”, it does go to the start screen. But whenever I unlock the phone, it shuts down.
Once I could briefly see “Protokolldatei kommte nicht erstellt werden”.
I suspect that the storage is full, but cannot access the phone to verify this.
Is there a possibility to secure the data, delete part of the data (to free up some space) or reinstall the latest update?
I have tried accessing the data via ADB or installing the latest update (which should already be installed), but always get the errors:
127|FP3:/ # storage
/system/bin/sh: storage: inaccessible or not found
and when trying to install the update via sideload, I get this message:
Failed to find update binary META-INF/com/google/android/update-binary
I am not surprised that I cannot access the data since the phone is not unlocked. Is there any workaround?
I tried unlocking it with bootloader but get only failed - I guess I have remote manipulation switched off…
I don’t want to do a factory reset and loose all my data.
I am very grateful if you could help me please.
Thanks a lot in advance!
Best,
Wiebke
from a recovery you should be able to delete data on the userdata partition. Even with enabled file based encryption you can gauge the size. twrp can decrypt the partition on recovery start though, so that’s only a bump with the /e/ recovery. Deleting some longer video recording is probably easiest or some App data in Android/ - “du -cs * | sort -n” can tell you where’s low hanging fruit.
Thank you for the answer.
The problem is though that the phone turns off immediately as soon as I enter my code to unlock it. And without unlocking I cannot access the data.
Any recommendations how I can access the data without unlocking the phone?
it shouldn’t turn off within the recovery mode. Work from the recovery mode, /e/ recovery does speak adb too (after being enabled). If you have the device bootloader-unlocked, just boot twrp temporarily from within early boot menu (“fastboot boot path/to/twrp.img”) to get easy mount and decryption.
Thank you for your reply.
Unfortunately, I am not very proficient in coding or command line. I spent all night googling to get to the point where I can find my device in the fastboot menu. However, then it appears that I cannot do anything, since my phone is locked. I do not manage to get it to device state - unlocked. It’s always in device - locked. I see the folder list with ls in the adb shell view, but as soon as I try to access it, I can’t.
Could you please help me with a more step by step guide on how to do the proposed steps? That would help me immensely, as I am learning by myself from the very beginning here…
Thank you very much in advance!
if you read it to the end, the user looked at file size and group ownership - by seeing “media_video” inside /mnt/userdata/media/0/… it was a sure bet to be a video file.
I did this and got this:
FP3:/ # dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata
/system/bin/sh: dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata: can’t execute: Permission denied
I did not find in the thread how to unlock the phone.
What command do I need to use for that?
achievement unlocked.
If this happens more often, /e/ recovery probably will need a mount + file browser as TWRP has to help users that don’t bring along adb and persistence. Enforcing user cleanup earlier after storage warning would be another option.
I have the same problem on FP3 (Signal messenger created local backup file overnight, which clogged memory to 100%). Upon starting the phone, there is a 3-second window to use it, then the system shuts down. Going into safe mode doesn’t help.
FP3 at least can mount userdata, that is one step ahead FP4 users do not have the benefit of. You won’t see meaningful files, but by file group its type can be inferred. One big video would have to go. Can you post your last step where you think things end?
I am able to start the OS. It asks for my PIN, and before doing so, I can access the pull down menu with flashlight etc… I can also access the restart menu for accessing the safe mode.
Android File Transfer opens automatically on my computer, but cannot access the files.
UPON ENTERING THE PIN. The phone “opens” normally. I am able to pull down the warning of low storage and click on it (!). In the meantime, lots of pop-ups informing me that MicroG and other system apps are being closed. Tried this several times, and sometimes I get close to clicking on “free space”, but not enough time to confirm. The phone shuts down before.
Anything I can do with that?
Using ADB:
I can access the phone using ADB
I can mount ‘system’ using e.os recovery mode
Android File Transfer opens when connecting the phone in ADB, but quits as “Could not connect to device”
adb shell
ls /mnt:
`androidwritable installer product shell staging system user vendor`
ls -al /mnt/user
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 40 1970-01-03 01:45 .
drwxrwxr-x 10 root system 200 1970-01-03 01:45 ..
The largest folder in recovery mode appears to be /sepolicy
EDIT: I understand I should be able to mount userdata. But not sure how so.
Thank you so much tcecyk! I somehow didn’t manage to understand the previous thread without your help here. This worked, even though I don’t know yet what exactly I deleted.
For others:
I went into
adb shell
Then within the shell:
mkdir -p /mnt/userdata
mount /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata /mnt/userdata/
du -cs /mnt/userdata/* | sort -n | tail -n10
Which provided me the ten largest folders. The largest one was /mnt/userdata/media.
I then navigated to that folder and searched for large files (here more than 1GB):
cd /mnt/userdata/media
find . -type f -size +1000M
Which in my case gave me ./0/T3v4Na4hkTmqSli9AIJ7ZB/bKvEMKvUUUfY0JGb,vlMtD/_Yi8+Zdqu2NqHh0xo,jTkN5hHNBHS+YrA
which I deleted using
I was able to start the phone again, so glad. First step was to delete the Signal messenger backups and deactive creation of backup files in Signal messenger. I don’t know yet which file I deleted. Will write in case I find out.
