My experience so far

[teagum]

This is my experience after four month /e/OS on FairPhone 6. I moved from iPhone SE (2nd Gen).

• I had a very frustrating issue importing my contacts. /e/OS could not correctly recognize the phone number format exported by iCloud, which forced me to manually edit all my contacts.

• All my banking apps work, but I cannot pay with the phone.

• From the start, the notification system did not work properly. Notifications were only ever received when opening the respective app. I was able to fix that for a while by tweaking microG and reinstalling apps. Since about a week ago, that behavior reappears from time to time.

• Different instant messenger apps seem to be handled differently. Threema Libre says it needs to display a constant silent notification in order to work correctly. Signal just works without it. For the layman in mobile notification systems, this looks arbitrary.

• I use MullvadVPN on all my devices without ever having any issue. Except for /e/OS on FP6: after configuring, the app could not connect to any of their servers and all network connections were blocked. I am aware of lockdown and killswitch mode. I had to uninstall the app and restart the phone to fix the network. And now the most privacy friendly device I own is the only one that is not protected by VPN.

• Since about 4 weeks, incoming calls do not start the dialer overlay. Instead the call rings in notifications and I have to accept/decline it via the controls in the notification. I found an alternative dialer app that shows up on incoming calls, but using it has further unpleasant implications. I filed an issue on github, which did not receive any attention so far.

• All camera apps (there are two out of the box) display only the one last take picture or video instead of all or redirecting the user to the gallery app. In one of the apps, I can’t even delete that last taken pic/video, the does not seem to read QR codes. I think it is a typical and fairly common use case to scroll through the last take pics from within the camera app. In the forum I was told otherwise, my workflow was bad, I should instead change to Gallery to edit photos. I think this is an awkward position. In all photo apps on all devices I owned during the last 16 years at least, it was possible scroll through the last taken pictures.

• I was interested in murena workspace for syncing my data with their cloud services. I registered and started syncing. Unfortunately the 2GB free plan was exhausted shortly. Then I started receiving notifications about the nearly full cloud storage. With 99% full, I received such a notification about all twenty minutes. However, disabling sync and logging out of workspace did not stop the spamming. I had to manually delete media files from the workspace vie the web interface to reduce the amount of notifications. Now, at 90% full, I still receive one such notification ever day. Despite completely disabled sync.

• some apps have excessive battery usage. For example FairMail, sometimes runs for hours with +50% battery usage. I do not know if that’s a problem with those apps or with the OS, however, the drain often completely discharges the phone over night. That unfortunately means that the alarm is not sounding in the morning. Another example: I just checked the current battery stats. During the past hour, the camera app was running a 7-minute background task with 30% battery impact.

• Listening to music with my Bluetooth headphones is only partially possible. After some time the phones shuts down. It shuts down completely, no reboot, it just switches off. Manual restart required.

• The FP6 itself has several issues: the size (I want to have a small phone), strange volume button placement, FP6 protective case obstructs the usage of the fingerprint sensor and lock button, during calls there is practically no audible difference between normal phone and loudspeaker, weird automatic brightness control that reacts on minor changes in support angel, etc…

I consider all the above issues as critical, since they directly affect common, every day tasks. However, the fact that I cannot easily accept incoming calls, the one and most basic use case of a cell phone, is a real dealbreaker.

Needles to say that I am frustrated and disappointed. What I expected was properly working mobile OS. What I got feels like work in progress with unclear focus.

[grzecel]

Hi Mate,

Regarding VPN, this discussion may help: https://community.e.foundation/t/advanced-privacy-and-protonvpn/46982/9 One of my posts re what helpful OBACHT had advised might give You the essence:

Basically, You have to get rid of ‘hide my ip’ in AP settings on e/OS, you can use kill switch of your own VPN as well.

I hope it helps with this problem.

[irrlicht]

@teagum

some apps have excessive battery usage. For example FairMail, sometimes runs for hours with +50% battery usage.

A very common reason is that FairEmail uses still cyclic polling of the mail servers (this is the default) and they have a lot of stuff in their inboxes which is then pumped again and again, every few minutes, which consumes of course both a lot of energy and a lot of network bandwith. You could use a network monitor like Glasswire to confirm that (you see a lot of ongoing traffic with your mail servers there, up to some ten MB per day). You must switch this off manually.

When you consequently configure your FairEmail mail accounts to stop the cyclic polling and to use the IMAP IDLE mechanism (also called Push) instead the energy consumption of FairEmail goes down to typically 1% or so. Benefit: you get your mails much faster.

[tcecyk]

I like long reviews of points of frustration. The complexity these handhelds brought in our lives is mind boggling.

There’s probably something said to each item, I checked where you had existing threads for context and the gitlab issues. Forum threads, and even gitlab issues only go so far - but if you feel a topic specific thread can help I’d open that separately.

[pob]

@teagum

Listening to music with my Bluetooth headphones is only partially possible. After some time the phones shuts down. It shuts down completely, no reboot, it just switches off. Manual restart required.

Weird, I have two sets of bluetooth headphones and they’ve both been pretty much flawless. Bose QC35s have never had a single problem and my Fairbuds are mostly fine, they just sometimes lose connection when I leave one earbud out for awhile and I have to put both back in the case to get them to connect again.

weird automatic brightness control that reacts on minor changes in support angel,

Yeah this resonates, and is very annoying. I find I have to be very careful about accidentally shading the front camera when holding the phone in landscape watching a video. I wonder if the phone needs to take ambient light from both cameras into account more. Apple has really made this seamless over the years and the step backwards is noticeable.

[Jets]

Did you export your iOS contacts in the *.vcf format? The vcf file system is universal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard

[ehrt74]

Before the fp6 on e/OS I’ve never has a problem with automatic screen brightness on an Android phone. The fp6 is the first Android phone I’ve owned where I’ve regularly had cause to manually adjust screen brightness.

[MaDalton]

@teagum

I had a very frustrating issue importing my contacts. /e/OS could not correctly recognize the phone number format exported by iCloud, which forced me to manually edit all my contacts.

There are several post here about that and how to….., easy with vcf file export/import, even if this is for Goosle/Android, I think it works anyhow:

[HOWTO] Move contacts from Google account to /e/ (export, import)

Let’s say you were using Google Android, having all your contacts on your google account, syncing with your gmail, etc… and you switch to /e/, and you want to transfer all your contacts to your new beautiful operating system. Here’s how to do it. 1. Export from Google On your computer, open your favourite browser and open this location: https://contacts.google.com/ Log in with the same google account you used on your old phone. On the left side, at bottom, you should see the “export” section…

Except, I just exported the contacts on my old phone, in Contacts, settings, export, save as vcf file….and then it is the same

[GabrielT]

3. this is probably because you tinkered with Micro G settings and deactivated device registration or push notifications.

Regarding FairMail, the OS cannot be held responsible for what an app does.

[otto.liljalaakso]

@teagum

• All my banking apps work, but I cannot pay with the phone

Have you tried Curve Pay? For me on Fairphone 4, it works great for payments. If you search the forums, you will discover that others have had worse experience for the sign-up phase. Worth a try anyhow!