Fairphone Suppport is non-existant

[Shelbyatemyliver]

       I emailed support for my fairphone 5 on the 28th of March this year and have still not received an email to my request to fix my phone. It's my fault as I bricked it immediately trying to install e/os, but I have not had a working phone for almost 3 months now. The only response from them I received was to not create multiple requests on April 7th and it was an automated one. Most repair shops can not help me as it is a soldering job and no one has experience on this particular phone. I all but know how to repair it by myself at this point but I've only de-soldered a display from a clock. I've given repair shops all the information but they stop responding. Maybe I'm giving them too much information at one time and they think the job will be harder than it is. I don't know.

 

     This sucks and I'm stuck here. I would not buy the phone if you are in the U.S. because if you get damage to the motherboard, no one will fix it for you. Fairphone will also basically not respond, so you can not get it fixed through them. This behavior will cause you to need specific board repair, which most repair shops will not do on devices they do not know, even if I show them the schematics.

 

     TLDR Don't buy a fairphone in the U.S. unless they fix their support. You will not get help through their support. If you try to repair it yourself and it's a motherboard issue, you can not replace it on your own. My phone is bricked and no one I've tried can fix it.

[whispous]

18 minutes ago, Shelbyatemyliver said:

I would not buy the phone if you are in the U.S. because if you get damage to the motherboard, no one will fix it for you.

Wow, what a revelation!

Can you tell me which other manufacturers will fix a motherboard you broke? Apple, right? Nope. They get you to buy a new one.

18 minutes ago, Shelbyatemyliver said:

so you can not get it fixed through them.

You're meant to fix fairphones yourself, though not if you've royally mashed the actual mainboard. I'm really not sure what you expect, given the information you've given us. You broke the core part of the phone yourself. If they were going to offer to fix it, it would be them asking you to buy a new phone. You could save yourself a lot of time by just doing so.

[OddOod]

How did this

1 hour ago, Shelbyatemyliver said:

trying to install e/os

damage the mainboard?

[jaslion]

13 minutes ago, OddOod said:

How did this

damage the mainboard?

Probably bricked the bootloader or something like that.(Which isnt supported under warranty)

 

 

 

 

[OhYou_]

this is like buying a car and driving it into a pond, then towing it out and taking it back to the dealer and asking them to fix it.
you've destroyed it beyond reasonable cost of repair.

 

[Potatoes2241]

No offence OP but if you described your issue the same way you did here ("need the mainboard fixed after a botched custom ROM flash") they don't respond either because the issue and your request to them is not clear, or it is not their responsibility. As someone who used to work in a tech support dept., if you want your issue to be addressed fast you should either be 100% sure in your assumptions on what went wrong and what needs to be fixed or don't make those assumptions at all and let them investigate the issue themselves, otherwise you'll just confuse the hell out of everyone.

 

IF you are sure that your mainboard is toast I think replacing it would be easier than "fixing" it in case you'll need a broken memory module reflashed or replaced. After some reading, seems like mainboards can't be sold separately as spares due to some IMEI stuff so mainboard replacement can be done only by Fairphone authorized repair centers, so I suppose you'll need to find one of those.

 

Maybe tell us what actually happened with the phone? Hopefully it's not hard-bricked and can be recovered without involving their support.

[Needfuldoer]

Why is soldering necessary? What exactly happened to the phone?

 

Sounds like all they'd be willing to do is sell you a replacement device or a replacement motherboard. Warranties generally cover workmanship and parts failures, not damage caused by intentional modificaion.

 

They sell their device with e/os preinstalled now:

https://shop.fairphone.com/fairphone-5-e-operating-system

[whispous]

45 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

replacement motherboard.

Out of interest, I was looking earlier - they don't sell motherboards specifically because of rules around IMEI stuff.

[Shelbyatemyliver]

8 hours ago, OddOod said:

How did this

damage the mainboard?

I followed a tutorial on how to install it but I accidentally installed the actual android version first instead of e/os itself. I had checked to make sure I had the right version of software and firmware before this happened and didn't think to check afterwards. One of the final steps in the tutorial is to lock the boot-loader and because I had updated the version of android by accident it completely corrupted and bricked the bootloader. It both locked bootloader and corrupted the os. I tried various fixes online but nothing helped. The combined storage ram chip either needs to be replaced and software installed or somehow re-flashed. I would have bought one with e/os preinstalled, but the only ones for sale in the U.S. are Fairphone 4s. I bought my phone through clove technology to get the shipping to the U.S. I know now, that I could have gotten a postal forwarding address and shipped the phone from Murena in a different country like England.

[Shelbyatemyliver]

8 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Why is soldering necessary? What exactly happened to the phone?

 

Sounds like all they'd be willing to do is sell you a replacement device or a replacement motherboard. Warranties generally cover workmanship and parts failures, not damage caused by intentional modificaion.

 

They sell their device with e/os preinstalled now:

https://shop.fairphone.com/fairphone-5-e-operating-system

It's that the combined storage ram chip has to be replaced because I can't install the os anymore, the bootloader is locked and there's no software. I haven't gotten any reply to be able to fix it, even with a charge which I assume they would do. 

[Shelbyatemyliver]

8 hours ago, OhYou_ said:

this is like buying a car and driving it into a pond, then towing it out and taking it back to the dealer and asking them to fix it.
you've destroyed it beyond reasonable cost of repair.

 

No, it's like destroying a particular part of your engine doing something stupid, like modding with a turbo. Sending a message off to the manufacturer, them never getting back to you. You researching the part and how to fix it yourself only to realize, you know the part, what to fix, the schematics, but you don't have the tools or expertise to fix it yourself. When you bring it to a mechanic, you tell him everything about the car, but he's never seen it before because it's European and he refuses to fix it. You go to another mechanic and they say the same thing, either because you have given them too much information and they think it will be hard or because they also don't want to work on a car they don't know. 

 

I know it doesn't cost them that much because I can see on forums they charge people not that much. 35 euros plus shipping cost, so for me it's going to cost another $70 to ship it there and back, making it like $110 usd or something like that total. 

 

I don't want them to give me a free warranty. I'm just tired of others saying it's completely 100% repairable in when if you get water damage on the motherboard, you will not be able to replace it or get it fixed by anyone in the U.S. No one knows that phone and the motherboard is not available openly. Support doesn't get back to most people as well for months. 

[Shelbyatemyliver]

9 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Why is soldering necessary? What exactly happened to the phone?

 

Sounds like all they'd be willing to do is sell you a replacement device or a replacement motherboard. Warranties generally cover workmanship and parts failures, not damage caused by intentional modificaion.

 

They sell their device with e/os preinstalled now:

https://shop.fairphone.com/fairphone-5-e-operating-system

I bricked the bootloader by locking it and corrupting the os at the same time. I need a new combined storage and ram package. I think it should be easy for a repair shop to solder it if they have the tools and expertise, I've just not had very much luck finding one that will do it. I know I could eventually figure out how to install the firmware to the new chip if I spent the time and maybe messed up once.

 

I think I just need to submit a new ticket with better phrasing and hopefully they can charge me to fix it relatively quickly like they have done with others in my same situation. 

[jaslion]

6 hours ago, Shelbyatemyliver said:

I followed a tutorial on how to install it but I accidentally installed the actual android version first instead of e/os itself. I had checked to make sure I had the right version of software and firmware before this happened and didn't think to check afterwards. One of the final steps in the tutorial is to lock the boot-loader and because I had updated the version of android by accident it completely corrupted and bricked the bootloader. It both locked bootloader and corrupted the os. I tried various fixes online but nothing helped. The combined storage ram chip either needs to be replaced and software installed or somehow re-flashed. I would have bought one with e/os preinstalled, but the only ones for sale in the U.S. are Fairphone 4s. I bought my phone through clove technology to get the shipping to the U.S. I know now, that I could have gotten a postal forwarding address and shipped the phone from Murena in a different country like England.

Then tell them that! Tell them you messed up doing a install and seem to have bricked the bootloader. Ask if they could fix it if you send back the device and pay for the work hours it would cost.

 

Thats all you need to do. Nothing else. The hardware is fine. The firmware is just fucked and fairphone themselves can unfuck it as they have all the tools. Theyve done that before and will do it again.

 

Dont ask for soldering stuff or whatever thats not needed they have all the tools needed to reflash bricked hardware.

[Potatoes2241]

@Shelbyatemyliver You've mentioned that you already tried some some fixes but none worked, but just in case I'll share this link too: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/fairphone-5-unbrick-w-bootloader-locked-android-14-bootloader-only/114750/6

 

There's also a linked XDA thread, both seem to be informative and sound kinda sorta exactly like your case, and people managed to unbrick their phones. Essentially, as long as your phone is detected as fastboot device, seems like you can flash stuff onto it even if your bootloader is locked and broken.

 

Also sheesh flashing this thing seems much more complicated than how it used to be back when I played with custom Android ROMs on nexuses and stuff.

[OhYou_]

does this phone seriously not have TWRP?

[OddOod]

On 6/24/2025 at 8:02 PM, Shelbyatemyliver said:

It's that the combined storage ram chip has to be replaced

OOOOOF. If that's really the case, unless you're in a major metro area which has HIGH tier specialty repair shops, you're kinda hosed. A good BGA rework station is a few thousand bucks and even the less good ones are half a grand. Both require not insignificant expertise to operate correctly. Louis Rossman (rant videos notwithstanding) has some great vids on the complexities of messing with BGA stuff. 
Be aware that even if you do everything correctly, it's possible that it just won't work for any of a myriad of reasons. 

That being said, others in this thread have forwarded very good options

Best of luck!

[jaslion]

23 hours ago, OhYou_ said:

does this phone seriously not have TWRP?

Not by default it seems

[OhYou_]

17 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Not by default it seems

well i think that should be like step 1 of any os install, because the odds of someone breaking it after twrp is very low

[Shelbyatemyliver]

On 6/26/2025 at 3:14 PM, OhYou_ said:

well i think that should be like step 1 of any os install, because the odds of someone breaking it after twrp is very low

I agree. Anything that makes it easier for the less techie outlier to not mess up is better for all users and guide followers. 

[Shelbyatemyliver]

On 6/25/2025 at 12:21 PM, Potatoes2241 said:

@Shelbyatemyliver You've mentioned that you already tried some some fixes but none worked, but just in case I'll share this link too: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/fairphone-5-unbrick-w-bootloader-locked-android-14-bootloader-only/114750/6

 

There's also a linked XDA thread, both seem to be informative and sound kinda sorta exactly like your case, and people managed to unbrick their phones. Essentially, as long as your phone is detected as fastboot device, seems like you can flash stuff onto it even if your bootloader is locked and broken.

 

Also sheesh flashing this thing seems much more complicated than how it used to be back when I played with custom Android ROMs on nexuses and stuff.

When I get the device back in my hands, (I'm currently traveling) I'll try these fastboot commands and another one from this forum post. https://community.e.foundation/t/fairphone-5-locking-bootloader/64476