Hello Forum,
FP4 dropped into toilet. I rescued it within 5 seconds. Disassembled it. Dried every part. Put the whole bunch into a box with silica gel for 24 h. Cleaned all connectors with cotton stick and ethanol. Reassembled ….
FP4 shows initial screen: Your device loaded a different operating system … Press power key to continue
Then: Fairphone logo, it disappears, Iodé should now start
But it doesn’t. Screen remains black.
How can this be repaired? By whom?
UPDATE:
The phone seems to have started with a screen blackout. This is apparent because it bleeps when a Signal message is sent to it. So it has automatically connected to wifi (the telephone network chip has not been inserted yet).
Sorry for the bad luck! It is a bit of a strange problem, but if the phone display works during the FP boot splash it doesn’t seem the display itself. But it if won’t load the system then possibly something corrupted in the flash storage?
Curious if you can you boot into recovery?
Thanks Rik,
Please guide me here. How could I try to boot into recovery? (I do not do such things on a regular bases, last time like 6 years ago …).
Another thing, how about trying to access it through adb? When I connect the ‘started but blacked-out’ FP4 to my Win11 laptop via a cable. Laptop and phone bleep, but the phone does not occur in the so-called Explorer. Perhaps the phone thinks that the USB connection is in charging mode … But if that is the case, would it still be possible to access the phone through adb? Or is that precisely why you suggest to try ‘recovery’.
Please note that I definitely want to preserve the data stored on that phone.
UPDATE
Yes it is possible to enter recovery mode.
I measured the voltage given by the battery: 4.1 V. Seems therefore okay.
The screen displays the startup things (reboot, power off, recover mode, etc) very weekly
FP4 seems close to an ultimate bricked state. (who can be sure?).
I disassembles again, and cleaned each and every connector with “contact spray” (containing 2 ethyl alcohol). Upon reassemble still no screen at all, not even the usual start up screen anymore.
Upon connecting to PC I do hear a beep and it is recognised by ADB:
PS C:\platform-tools_r33.0.3-windows\platform-tools> adb devices
List of devices attached
108d628b unauthorized
Could anybody provide suggestions of how to copy the data residing on this phone?
On my phone, I have no fingerprint, but only PIN to unlock the phone. I set my settings to change the order of the number’s block after every use, that is: Zero is not always in the same position and so on. For me, it would be impossible to unlock my phone without the display, just by guessing where the numbers could be (behind the black screen).
If you did not activate this security feature, you could try to “guess” the PIN to unlock the phone. Only after unlock your data will be accessible (but I do not know anything about accessing it from a connected computer).
I have set my seedvault backup routine so that every time I connect my backup USB stick, seedvault runs an automatic backup onto the stick. That way I would be able to backup my data after overcoming the unlocking problem. I have gotten myself into the habit of doing this backup every Friday. But I guess you did not install such an automated “plug and play” backup?
Yes, there you are: a failing backup.
In this case, I did not put security pins. So that is not the problem.
The situation has worsened after my last cleaning action: the screen does not display anything at all anymore during start-up.
ADB does still recognise the device, albeit as “unauthorized”. So, yet no chances to get inside and pull my data.
Any advice appreciated!
This isn’t possible unless you are on a running system, as the data is only decrypted when you enter your PIN / password. ADB authorization also requires approval from the running system. It is these things that prevent thieves from getting your data so it is “feature not a bug” but in your case the only person being kept out is yourself 
So you don’t have a visible screen to load Recovery and then do anything in it anymore? This may need a replacement screen to interact with the phone and get the data out (but if you have working screen again then just keep carrying on).
Sorry sorry
Did you try connecting an external display via USB-C?
A new display did the trick.
Conclusion: I had been cleaning the connector of the old screen too roughly, thereby damaging the contact strip rather than only cleaning it from corrosion.
Never, ever, use a cotton swab for that purpose. A small brush should do it.
One further conclusion: The Fairphone company gives lousy service. None of my questions was properly considered. Their responses were totally inadequate besides the point.
Congrats! I don’t carry the smartphone in my pant pockets and thus never sent it to deep dive, but I would not dare to fumble it apart myself. Respect for taking this on yourself! I only tried to exchange the battery on my ebook reader. Result is that I do not have a power button anymore … 
Thank you for reporting back, this could be useful for future readers. Would you mark your thread solved, please?
I hope you have already installed a backup routine with Seedvault 
In do not know Seedvault.
However, I found a backup function in My Phone Explorer (www.wjsoft.at) (a super app for device-to-device synching without a cloud, and, apparently, for backup).
Backed FP4 up to laptop 
Seedvault is the in-built backup app in iodé (and other Custom ROM).
You can access it via settings → system → backup. I programmed it so that it will automatically start the backup every time I connect my little USB adapter. After the backup, you need to check which data has not been saved, since some apps will prevent seedvault from running a backup. Threema, for example. So after the automatic Seedvault backup, I open Threema and run their in-built data backup onto the same USB adapter. Both backups, Seedvault and Threema, are encrypted, so no security problem here, should I lose the USB adapter or the government seize it. 
EDIT: Seedvault backups will allow you to select which apps/data you want to restore. This is very convenient, I find. You can also backup the apk files. The backup of “my files” did not work for me, btw. So these are probably best stored on a computer via copy/paste.
On which data carrier does Seedvault store te backup?
You want a comparable fair and sustainable device? Have a look at shift.eco. I for one use a 6mq and I am completely content w/ their service.
