# Fairphone 6 bootloader relocking gone wrong **URL:** \ **Category:** Installation Help\ **Created:** [7 January 2026 18:19 UTC](https://community.iode.tech/t/fairphone-6-bootloader-relocking-gone-wrong/7502 "2026-01-07T18:19:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![r4i](https://community.iode.tech/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@r4i](https://community.iode.tech/u/r4i)\ **Post date:** [7 January 2026 18:19 UTC](https://community.iode.tech/t/fairphone-6-bootloader-relocking-gone-wrong/7502/1 "2026-01-07T18:19:09Z")
Hello guys, installing IodeOS with adb and fastboot was going well, i had the fairphone rebooting and the prompt for bootloader relocking showing… i did’nt want to lock it right now but i got confused with the button and i did what i did not want : relocking right away and now i have seen a corrupt screen showing and the bootloader is in locked mode… so did i bricked it ? Is there a way to unbrick it since i have the bootloader looping and i can’t even start fast boot or recovery mode … What i don’t understand is that security patch from iode seems to be fairly newer than the factory one from fairphone OS, how could this happen ? 😢 Rzi ---
**Author:** ![dwainzwerg](https://community.iode.tech/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/c67d28/32.png) [@dwainzwerg](https://community.iode.tech/u/dwainzwerg)\ **Post date:** [8 January 2026 17:07 UTC](https://community.iode.tech/t/fairphone-6-bootloader-relocking-gone-wrong/7502/2 "2026-01-08T17:07:41Z")
> [@r4i](#): > > i had the fairphone rebooting and the prompt for bootloader relocking showing Where the dialog appeared? How that dialog looks like? OEM-Lock is another thing than bootloader unlock. > [@r4i](#): > > What i don’t understand is that security patch from iode seems to be fairly newer than the factory one from fairphone OS, how could this happen ? The vendor patch was newer? Are you sure you haven’t confused the patch with the platform patch? ---
**Author:** ![r4i](https://community.iode.tech/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@r4i](https://community.iode.tech/u/r4i)\ **Post date:** [8 January 2026 18:33 UTC](https://community.iode.tech/t/fairphone-6-bootloader-relocking-gone-wrong/7502/3 "2026-01-08T18:33:58Z")
Hello Dwainzwerg thank you for your reply > [@dwainzwerg](#): > > Where the dialog appeared? How that dialog looks like? OEM-Lock is another thing than bootloader unlock. Just right after the OS install, the FP6 rebooted, then i saw a dialog with the same aspect than the bootloader (something like this [https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecustomdroid.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F10%2FUnlock-Bootloader-OnePlus-8T-Confirmation.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=cb78cdcc010bf4d72cee4ae9dadee2ca634aee6fc3adb957807d1185be715dad](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thecustomdroid.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F10%2FUnlock-Bootloader-OnePlus-8T-Confirmation.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=cb78cdcc010bf4d72cee4ae9dadee2ca634aee6fc3adb957807d1185be715dad) ) > [@dwainzwerg](#): > > The vendor patch was newer? Are you sure you haven’t confused the patch with the platform patch? i’m sorry but it’s possible, i thought that the default fairphone OS could only be older than the iode OS 7.1 which was released few weeks ago .. ---
**Author:** ![r4i](https://community.iode.tech/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@r4i](https://community.iode.tech/u/r4i)\ **Post date:** [8 January 2026 18:39 UTC](https://community.iode.tech/t/fairphone-6-bootloader-relocking-gone-wrong/7502/4 "2026-01-08T18:39:04Z")
Also i figured that my phone is in deed in fastboot mode (like this [https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdroidwin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2023%2F10%2Ffastboot-mode-Your-Device-is-Corrupt.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=94c65ff24458ff363eb1eabbff5ec8cc20ea1ee8feb2cc6d275a596880be34c1](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdroidwin.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2023%2F10%2Ffastboot-mode-Your-Device-is-Corrupt.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=94c65ff24458ff363eb1eabbff5ec8cc20ea1ee8feb2cc6d275a596880be34c1) ) So i unlocked the bootloader again, but i don’t know what to do next ☹ ---
**Author:** ![r4i](https://community.iode.tech/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@r4i](https://community.iode.tech/u/r4i)\ **Post date:** [8 January 2026 18:41 UTC](https://community.iode.tech/t/fairphone-6-bootloader-relocking-gone-wrong/7502/5 "2026-01-08T18:41:37Z")
Also if it helps i got this : .\fastboot.exe flashing get\_unlock\_ability (bootloader) get\_unlock\_ability: 1 OKAY [0.001s] Finished. Total time: 0.001s ---
**Author:** ![rik](https://community.iode.tech/user_avatar/community.iode.tech/rik/32/1437_2.png) [@rik](https://community.iode.tech/u/rik)\ **Post date:** [8 January 2026 19:59 UTC](https://community.iode.tech/t/fairphone-6-bootloader-relocking-gone-wrong/7502/6 "2026-01-08T19:59:41Z")
> [@r4i](#): > > (bootloader) get\_unlock\_ability: 1 Good news. If you can unlock it again (and did) then there is no brick here. If you can start `Recovery` from the bootloader, then go in and do a factory reset. If that doesn’t give you a booting phone, then I suggest a re-attempt at flashing and post back any output you get. ---
**Author:** ![r4i](https://community.iode.tech/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@r4i](https://community.iode.tech/u/r4i)\ **Post date:** [10 January 2026 10:53 UTC](https://community.iode.tech/t/fairphone-6-bootloader-relocking-gone-wrong/7502/7 "2026-01-10T10:53:35Z")
unfortunatly, there is something i don’t understand here : even if i try to reboot from a command “fastboot reboot recovery” I still land on fastboot home page ([https://xiaomitime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Fastboot-mode-OnePlus.jpg](https://xiaomitime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Fastboot-mode-OnePlus.jpg)) Also i can launch the flash-all script but it’s stuck at the very beginning : .\flash-all.bat Erasing ‘avb\_custom\_key’ OKAY [0.009s] Finished. Total time: 0.015s Warning: skip copying avb\_custom\_key image avb footer (avb\_custom\_key partition size: 0, avb\_custom\_key image size: 1032). Sending ‘avb\_custom\_key’ (1 KB) and it idles for ages and ages … thank’s again for your help 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rik](https://community.iode.tech/user_avatar/community.iode.tech/rik/32/1437_2.png) [@rik](https://community.iode.tech/u/rik)\ **Post date:** [12 January 2026 20:37 UTC](https://community.iode.tech/t/fairphone-6-bootloader-relocking-gone-wrong/7502/8 "2026-01-12T20:37:49Z")
> [@r4i](#): > > I still land on fastboot home page I think this just indicates that your recovery image is not installed correctly. About the main issue, I would suggest [reflashing to FairphoneOS](https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/18896094650513-How-to-manually-install-Android-on-your-Fairphone) and then re-trying. Notes: - _To be safe_ flash the November build (our newest images should match the SPL but just to make it safe let’s get a “not quite the newest” release from Fairphone). - After install FPOS, _to be safe_ make sure that “Allow OEM Unlocking” is enabled in Developer Options before installing iodéOS. - _To be safe_, do not relock bootloader with FPOS or iodéOS install. After iodéOS install, make sure everything works, then lock it with `fastboot flashing lock` from fastboot (this will wipe out any custom setup so don’t spent any time configuring it). You can see a _lot_ of “belt and suspenders” approach to this guidance. It normally isn’t all necessary but since you have faced some issues let’s make sure your end result is a usable iodéOS install! ---
**Author:** ![r4i](https://community.iode.tech/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@r4i](https://community.iode.tech/u/r4i)\ **Post date:** [14 January 2026 20:15 UTC](https://community.iode.tech/t/fairphone-6-bootloader-relocking-gone-wrong/7502/9 "2026-01-14T20:15:11Z")
Thank’s Rik, i think this is the right things to do indeed. However, I now struggle with the fairphone OS manual install since the fairphone software give us to install FPOS is crashing 90% of the time and the last 10% it does not detect my FP6 even if i know it’s detectable because i have a powershell windows on the side and `fastboot devices` works. I’ll take it to the fairphone forums since i’m already so thankfull of your help i don’t want to bother you this much x) I’ll link the fairphone forum topic here if it’s ok though we will make it work somehow, i’m sure ! ---
**Author:** ![rik](https://community.iode.tech/user_avatar/community.iode.tech/rik/32/1437_2.png) [@rik](https://community.iode.tech/u/rik)\ **Post date:** [15 January 2026 18:07 UTC](https://community.iode.tech/t/fairphone-6-bootloader-relocking-gone-wrong/7502/10 "2026-01-15T18:07:14Z")
> [@r4i](#): > > I’ll link the fairphone forum topic here if it’s ok though Please do. I am sure others will benefit to understand this better as there have been different issues on FP4, FP5, and FP6 to get things installed and running well. ---
**Author:** ![r4i](https://community.iode.tech/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@r4i](https://community.iode.tech/u/r4i)\ **Post date:** [18 January 2026 17:51 UTC](https://community.iode.tech/t/fairphone-6-bootloader-relocking-gone-wrong/7502/11 "2026-01-18T17:51:42Z")
It was a long journey but i’m know back on FPOS @rik ! > **[Issues with custom ROM and rollback to FPos with the manual install software](https://forum.fairphone.com/t/issues-with-custom-rom-and-rollback-to-fpos-with-the-manual-install-software/129099/18)** > > Ok ! Progress ! I did try to go back and forth in fastboot then fastbootd Then BOOP ! It was working fine until Sending ‘vbmeta\_b’ (12 KB) i don’t know why the phone kinda stopped listenning INFO: One The Fairphone (Gen. 6) in fastboot mode... So now i can proceed to not screw it this time, i’ll update on the second iodeOS install, just so you know i installed FP6.QREL.15.151.0 the fairphone november build ! ---
**Author:** ![r4i](https://community.iode.tech/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@r4i](https://community.iode.tech/u/r4i)\ **Post date:** [18 January 2026 18:14 UTC](https://community.iode.tech/t/fairphone-6-bootloader-relocking-gone-wrong/7502/12 "2026-01-18T18:14:32Z")
So the issue persist, i’m glad i could install iodeOS and make it work without bootloader locking, but even if i make sure that i check “Allow OEM Unlocking” and “USB debugging” the phone still land in untrusted mode when i reboot on fastboot and do `fastboot flashing lock` I used FP6.QREL.15.151.0 (November Build) and on Iode OS i downloaded iode-7.1-20260116-FP6-fastboot.zip from one day ago I think i’m still missing something about the SPL you mentionned