How to install TWRP before easy installer

  1. You can use the Easy Installer to install /e/.

  2. You would need to unlock the bootloader to be able to use TWRP, because the Easy Installer process locks it.
    This will force a factory reset for security reasons, so your user data will be deleted.
    Having an unlocked bootloader has security implications you need to assess for your situation. Your data on the phone is encrypted by default, but you should set up a screen lock PIN or password (pattern is possible, too, but a bit impractical for TWRP usage, TWRP can’t prompt you for inputting a pattern yet, it would need a number converted out of the pattern). This would then serve as the decryption key needed to access your data and nobody simply stealing or finding your phone could access your data without knowing this key.
    You could still be targeted personally, however, by bad guys snatching your phone unnoticed by you, installing malware thanks to the unlocked bootloader, returning it to you still unnoticed, then waiting for you to unlock the screen to then do whatever with your unlock method or your data. How realistic or risky this is depends on your circumstances and mindset and can only be assessed by you.

  3. Then you would be able to use TWRP by temporarily booting it with fastboot, see https://twrp.me/fairphone/fairphone3.html.
    Installing TWRP is possible, but it makes not much sense on the Fairphone 3, because due to the lack of a recovery partition (because the Fairphone 3 is a so-called A/B device) TWRP would get embedded in the boot partition, and every /e/ update will overwrite the boot partition with its own one again, restoring the /e/ recovery.

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