I bought a new Fairphone 6 with pre-installed Android 15 and installed e/OS version 3.3 (official build) by following this guide. I did not do anything with the pre-installed Android 15 and I did not log in there with my Google account. Everything worked except for the fact that I cannot set a password and that I’m not able to attach files to text messages as described in this thread. It seems that I have to roll back to Android 15 and reinstall e/OS to get this issue fixed. I have the following questions:
Is there any other option? Would it maybe be possible to wait? I mean is this a bug that will be fixed with one of the next releases of e/OS?
If I go back to Android 15 by following this guide, what exactly would I have to do there? After I read some threads I understood that I have to log in to my Google account, disable any screen lock and log out from my Google account again. Anything else that I have to do? In some threads they say “remove Google account”. Can it really be removed or does it just mean to log out?
Do I have to relock and reunlock the bootloader after going back to Android 15 before reinstalling e/OS?
The security patch level is only of interest for the reinstallation of e/OS, not for rolling back to Android 15, right? I mean my currently installed e-3.3 has patch level 2025-12-05 and I will flash Android 15 with patch level 2025-11-05 and reinstall e-3.3 again?
So none of the following should apply … but the troublesome a15 variant of Factory Reset Protection seems to be triggered by anything that amounts to a “personal secret”. This will include passwords, a screenlock PIN, Google presence and anything which could feature in Settings > Accounts of the original install.
It will include an account with password eg perhaps Telegram (??); Google is the assumed culprit (but conceivably a user installs a secured app with password, carried out Factory Reset but the password remains as it is not in userdata). Anything which could fit this description is problematic. Removal is required of a Google account, consider also that it might have been transferred to the device during the (Google / Android) original First Start Wizard.
In rollback to Fairphone’s OS you don’t need to consider locking or anti-rollback all unlocked activity is ignored by the final main Lock action later. (Assuming you have used /e/OS I guess you should do the same removal of accounts and passwords and PINs before reset.)
Well, I rolled back to Android 15, disabled the screen lock and removed the Google account. I started into bootloader mode in order to flash e-3.3 and noticed that the unlock ability is 0. Is this something that I should worry about? Or can I start the flashing script?
Okay, thank you! I’m sorry, one maybe stupid question just to make sure:
I flashed e-3.3 and it seems to boot properly and I’d like to lock the bootloader now before I set up the phone. The unlock ability is still 0. Proceed nevertheless?
I’m sorry, what is the registered SPL date? I unlocked one hour ago to be able to roll back to Android 15. Installed at that point of time was e-3.3-a15 official build.
