Hi,
I had an issue with NFC which kept me stuck in a final phase of /e/OS booting.
I got that issue solved, but wanted to check out backup and recovery options, so I just booted into recovery via the boot menu, while holding power button on the switched on phone (no the default, the option to directly boot into recovery needs to be configured in the system settings).
Please don’t tell me my data was wiped now, because my Fairphone 4 just started the initial assistant to configure language and time zone settings as if my phone was freshly bought
Is there anyone to help me? or just tell me, my data was wiped with this single little button?
Thanks for your reply, but I DO NOT want to wipe my data or run any recovery - I just wanted to check out options available. I wonder if can turn back to my already configured phone with my data and my apps installed, because now - as I booted into recovery - it seems that I have wiped phone…
edit: additionally I have never seen those Screenshots you’ve posted - it just booted into the installation wizard starting with “welcome” and “which language do you prefer”.
What I did in detail:
preconditions:
settings → system → buttons/keys → section “on/off-button” → On/Off menu → “advanced restart” activated
I hold On/Off Button to enter advanced restart menu, which offer “restart” and after selecting “recovery”.
the phone rebooted and started without showing me any of your screens, directly into the initial configuration wizard…
okay, thanks, thats working as it should. I can enter bootloader, fastbootd and recovery mode.
but the fastboot command won’t run, because the device is locked
FAILED (remote: 'set_active command is not allowed on locked devices')
My OEM is unlocked, USB-Debugging is active, too
As I tumble through the internet searching for help, I found fastboot flashing unlock but they always say something about “factory reset” - which I’m really afraid of.
I would really appreciate your help
have a good night
Nils
i personally can’t more sorry, as i don’t have experience with those “fastboot devices”, i only well know samsung that are very differents and a few pixel.
I asked ChatGPT3.5 about this issue and started a dialogue in every direction and repeating my questions “are you sure?” ChatGPT says
unlocking the bootloader SHOULD allow you to access the inactive slot (A) without affecting its data
just to retell the situation:
I booted to recovery mode via the advanced restart menu.
Somehow I directly entered the initial phone setup wizard/guide as if my phone was factory resetted. @piero basicly guesses to switch the active partition slot from B to A could help regain access to my data.
I would like to try this, but the difficulty is, that I can’t switch the active partition with the bootloader still being locked. And every guide to unlock the bootloader shows in big red letters “unlocking the bootloader will imply a factory reset” - while ChatGPT guesses this will only wipe the active slot
Hi @AnotherElk , thanks for your reply!
I guess what you’re saying is, that a factory reset will always wipe both partition slots, right?
And using ChatGPT is… to say kindly: at your own risk
So you’d confirm I don’t have any options to recover my data?
The so-called factory reset in the Android realm as far as I’ve seen consistently over the years will wipe/format the data partition and the cache partition and will leave the installed OS as is.
The data partition holds your user data as well as Apps you installed and their data. Also, the data partition is shared (there’s only one) and not concerned by slots.
The slots are there to hold two states of the OS partitions, so that you can continue to use the phone while the OS gets updated on the other slot in the background.
This has two major advantages:
The pre-update state of the OS is still there to fall back to in case an update ends with the freshly updated slot being immediately unbootable.
And the time you can’t use your phone during an OS update gets reduced to the simple reboot into the freshly updated OS slot (as compared to earlier phones being inoperable for the time of the whole update procedure).
All the while the data partition stays the same and should not be affected at all.
I don’t have a technical idea how this happened to you, but ending up in the Android initial user setup usually should indicate that the user data got wiped.
I don’t have a Fairphone 4 or any newer phone than my Fairphone 3, so I would still wait a bit and be happy to learn otherwise.
ChatGPT says
I’ll try it now