@kugiigi Last time I used UT the camera would need to ponder the meaning of life for a moment, or I would have to toggle between front and rear facing cameras before it worked. Its clear someone has put in some work here to make this function better. Also I noticed the quality of the photos had improved, but was not sure if it was my imagination. Thanks for confirming!

@diardaoin I am using the international version of the FP5 (GSM). I am in the US and using TMobile's network with an MVNO (US Mobile). I have used a few phones either international or made for markets that are not the one that I live in. I would make sure you are on the same type of network supported by the device, and make sure the phone you are looking at uses a few of the bands that your provider does for a good experience with it. Also I have seen some markets (Australia comes to mind) that have essentially a white list of devices that will activate and work on the providers services, it may be worth a phone call to check if you are in one of these markets and or the FP5 is supported.
Otherwise its fairly straightforward, I would test everything in Android 13 before flashing and as I discovered make sure you go in settings and enable 4g calling in the cell options of android prior to flashing UT.

Just wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone who helps contribute in any way.

The camera fires right up, VOLTE worked with no messing around, system performance everything feels snappier, bunch of new applications, cheeky little tweak for the the time from another post here, best keyboard mods I have ever found in there as well, and so much more.

Big thanks to everyone who helped make it happen!

@oldbutndy
Glad its helpful to someone.

To quote Murina directly:
"Regarding the re-flash service, it is currently only available in the EU. In the US, it is only offered for Fairphone 6 devices purchased from Murena. I understand that this device is a Fairphone 5 model, and Murena has never sold the Fairphone 5 in the US. If the device can be shipped to the original purchaser, or if you are located in the EU, I may be able to arrange the re-flash service for a fee of €99. All shipping costs would need to be covered by the customer. The 99 Euro fee will still apply even if the reflash does not restores the device's state to its original one."

So essentially, if you own a Fairphone 5 in the US, or didnt buy it directly from them, they are not helping you. In addition if they do help you, they are charging more than Fairphone themselves for the exact same service.

Following up with everyone here, Fairphone email support did get back to me. It took emailing them every day for two weeks and then verbally telling them "I will continue to email until I get a responce."
The goal was not to pressure them into saying yes, but rather to even respond. No response is far worse than something to effects of "We are sorry but our policy is .... and we can not help you".

I will be adding a TLDR edit to my original post with some facts to hopefully help any other North American Fairphone owners.
And my quest is FAR from over of finding the Firehose files for the Qualcomm QCM6490. WHEN not if myself or someone else comes across this, I will be posting about it here.

If you are wondering how this saga ends, Cordon who does the RMA process is kind enough to send you a shipping label, and packing instructions. The thing is this shipping label is assuming its coming from within the EU (where if you like me needed to setup a postal forwarding service).

I am assuming the quote I got to ship it outright to said facility is high right now due to the suboptimal geoploitical implications of where I live is imposing on the rest of the world.
That said this task would consist of the cost of shipping the device to France (North of $300 USD as of 3/28/26), then dealing with the RMA process (which is daunting regardless of the company its with), then dealing with the postal forwarding service - which accoding to some reviews is known to disappear packages, then paying the insanely high shipping price back to me.
All in financially and mentally outweighs just buying another device, so I did, my new Fairphone 5 will arrive next week and my old one will be parts. If you buy this device, and live in the US, you better have access to parts.

• Is this device repairable? Yes, to some degree.. Just because it comes apart doesnt mean you can replace it.

• Will Fairphone help you with yours? Yes, to some degree.. I had assumed getting it there would be the hard part, and it was. But so was getting an initial response.

• Will Murena help you with your Fairphone 5 in the USA? NO, even though they make the os that bricked my device, and they are the "north american distributor" they absolutely will not help you with a fairphone 5, maybe a 6 if your lucky.

• Should you try the /e/OS web installer? F*** NO! If I could go back and read the fourms of people who had their device bricked by this, and the repair process I would have never attempted it.

Happy telephoning with UT all! I'll see you again next week flashing my new device.

Update: Day 23

I have FINALLY got a response from Fairphone support, who claim the IMEI number I had initially given to them via chat and they used to look my device and tell me the previous owner had mainboard issues is suddenly not found in the system and they can not start a repair with it.

Responding with a photo of my IMEI's on the box, lets see how long it takes to get a response and if they will have another excuse to not help this time.

20 Day Update:

I can not even get a response from Fairphone support at this point.

Email support is non-existant, and chat will not talk to you at all about it if you have a seperate ticket open and claims they will "email you that day" which is a flat out lie.

If you are thinking about a Fairphone and assuming they are a good company that will support end users, you may want to reconsider.

Due to the fact that this is essentially an IOT chip there are basically no firehose files out there to re-flash the firmware and unbrick my device without Fairphone doing it. One single file is all it would take to fix this, it looks like the firmware blobs are on github.

Update:
I set-up a postal forwarding service so I have an address in the EU. Responded to the email that was sent out after my chat where I was informed that it would not be possible to assist me in any capacity without an address in the EU.
Mind you I am paying for this and not trying to scam a warranty policy.

The do not respond, I wait a few days and send a follow up email in the same email thread, no response again, I follow up again in a few more days....

Today I receive a response, do you think they opened a repair ticket or did anything at all to assist with facilitating this process? Nope, they responded with the following.

"We apologize for our delay in responding to your message.
With this message we want to assure you that your request has been received, and we are doing our best to get back to you as soon as possible.
To prevent further delay, we would like to ask you to not create multiple requests. If your request is urgent, then please reach out to our support team via Live Chat.
We also have an Online troubleshooting tool and useful Support articles to help guide you at home.
We appreciate your patience and value your continued support.
Your Fairphone Support Team"

@sixwheeledbeast
Not to nitpick here but the Toyota Tacoma had 2 recalls to swap the chassis that did just that. You might have got a new vehicle if they agreed to buy it back.

@sixwheeledbeast
Ebay will not hear it, and there is no way that I can find to modify my initial review and warn other potential buyers to look elsewhere.
I am hoping at best this post can save someone else the headache and money wasted by that seller. I still think you may be able to find an honest seller out there on ebay but I am not certain I would trust someone else given my experience.

The fact that you can not send your device in and get a new mainboard from Fairphone was fairly alarming though. In no other product does replacing a main component equal replacing the entire thing, and I think suggesting it greatly discounts the devices repeatability and the right to repair in general.

Here is an example: If the engine in your car dies, you can have it replaced with a used or re-manufactured engine. The serial numbers on those components will not match the rest of your car similar to an IEMI number. But by no circumstances do you now have a new car.
The same goes for any components for a PC that have embedded addresses like a mac address.

Regardless of your view, if you offer to pay the manufacturer who assembled the device and sold it to you with an IEMI that you did not own before (even if its considered a new device now) there is no reason you cant do that again.

On a side note, I reached out to Murena as their os installer bricked my phone and they sell the devices with the OS pre-installed. They were much less helpful, did not want to re-flash my device sighting that it was not initially sold with /e/OS (like the ones they sell have some different hardware). But they do offer a re-flash service for EU residents only for 99 euros which is 50 more than Fiairphone will charge.

I am pushing on with the mail forwarding service and having the phone re flashed by Fiarphone I doubt this will be a quick process, but I will keep you updated here.

@MrT10001 said:

@Futura Doing a bit of research, Fairphone seem to have been strangled by Qualcomm with the use of EDL, unfortunately you have to send it back to them to repair - another reason I won't buy a Fairphone as that part is just not "fair" - you should be able to repair your own device!

I could not agree more with you there! I even said to a rep "well that is not very fair" after they told me I cant just buy a replacement part that would fix all of my current problems. And really the main reason I wanted to make this post. Things I wish that I knew before I spent a lot of money on a device that is now a paperweight.

@MrT10001
Setup a w10 install on a spare drive and repeated the steps above.

Currently using "EDL utility" from here https://www.temblast.com/edl.htm
The device is detected but I keep getting a can not open device

Completely open to suggestions if anyone has any please lmk!
Going to continue troubleshooting

@kugiigi
Right, this is the reality of living outside of the serviceable area, I had not anticipated the parts to not be sold at all though.

Yes, they have to comply with EU law with IMEI thing, I don't see how buying a device with a new IMEI differs at all from buying a part with a new IMEI can they not just register it the exact same way. Its activated and registered that way with my mobile carrier.

Thanks, I am looking into a parcel forwarding service, I had fully accepted the fact that I am outside of the service area and my warranty would be void. That is not at all what my issue is with this situation. Its the whole we are not going to supply the part that has CPU/RAM/Storage soldered to it and is the common failure point of internal electronics.

@gpatel-fr
I went down the rabbit hole as far as setting up a Win10 VM, UBS pass through, installing the qualcomm drivers, booting windows into test mode and having the device (qualcomm low level firmware) fully recognized via type-c to type-c cable.
Main issue is, as you said figuring out how to use that tool, and needing the files to flash onto the device which Fairphone does not supply to anyone aside from the repair facility. At least from what I have read with anyone posing about their FP5 stuck in EDL mode.

Basically the /e/OS corrupted the bootloader and recovery partitions on the device and its stuck in a low level emergency flash state from my rough understanding.

@wgarcia
Thanks, glad to hear something might be repairable. Were you able to buy the replacement parts direct from fairphone?

I can hire a post redirection service, thing is I can get a refurb oneplus n10 or similiar device for less it would likely cost in shipping, plus whatever is going on with this tariff nonsense would hit me again.

Even if I went through with all that, I would still have a device that has a mainboard issue that FP will not replace or sell me a new one.

TLDR:

• Owning a Fairphone 5 in the US is a non warranty situation, including Murena who is the supplier for North America. Flat out they will not help you.
• If you brick your Fairphone 5, there is NO options for you to recover without sending it to Fairphone and running into the previous point.
• If you are thinking of testing /e/OS do not use the web installer. Search "bricked fairphone 5" you will find the majority happen due to this installation method.
• Not all parts for this device are sold by Fairphone or any official repair facility, specifically the mainboard.
• If you do need to reach Fairphone customer support, your best bet is using the chat on their website, the hours are limited but it will save you weeks vs email.

Its not all gloom and doom, this is a brilliant phone and currently the only one on the market with what I am looking for in a device at a somewhat reasonable price point.

I did buy another phone from another 3rd party marketplace, which is absolutely something you should use extreme caution when doing.

If you own this device and have a moment keep a eye out on the internet for the "Firehose File" it will likely be a .edl and is essentially our only hope to un-brick our own phones without an address in the EU.

Hope this helps someone else out there!

---

Original Post:

As a member who resides in the USA I had no choice to purchase my device on an alternative market as the supplier refuses to even ship to the USA even when you offer to pay adequately for it. This is a key part of my story that we will circle back to...

Flashing the device is straightforward as any other unlocked android phone that does not require some propiatary nonsense as some do. After testing several operating systems I decided I was going to test /e/OS as these devices are sold with the OS from Murena I assumed that it would be well supported. This was a fatal error on my part.

My /e/OS installer completely froze during the install process and it appeared to happen after the recovery images were flashed and the device rebooted to them. No problem, I'll reboot to the bootloader and just re-flash. I powered the device off and that was the last time my 3 month old Fairphone 5 operated in any capacity.

My device is now stuck in what is called EDL mode, this requires a special cable and possibly connecting to pins on the mainboard to reflash. If I lived in the EU, and purchased it from Fairphone this would likely be covered under warranty, that is far from the case.

This is where the bigger issues with Fairphone come into play:
This device is marketed as "easy to disassemble and repair with just a screwdriver" or something to that affect. The problem is Fairphone will not sell a new mainboard, and say its due to IMEI number changes.
What good is a device you can easily repair if you can not purchase the parts to do so?

One would also think that you can buy this cable it is from qualcomm due to the chipset of the phone and just restore it yourself. That is another issue that goes back to Fairphone as well. They will not release the "firehose" files that could restore my phone back to a working state. Not very "fair" if you ask me.

If something breaks on your phone there is one facility in France that you need to send the device to (that is if you have a EU address) to get it repaired. That is no better than any other device that you can not take apart.

As a technician that has worked primarily in the PC market but also cell repairs for 30 years these seem like company policies are not very repair friendly when we look at customer facing repairs. Supplying parts is a bare minimum requirement to repair anything.

Where does that leave my device? The rep that I chatted with this morning said their system will not even process a repair unless you have a EU address as its apparently "tied togther". The repair itself (mind you this is connecting a cable to my device and flashing a file) were talking 5 mins TOPS is in the ballpark of $46 USD. That hinges entirely on me having a EU address though.

I honestly thing Fairphone is a step in the right direction, but if your thinking of getting into one assuming its actually a repairable device, think again.

EDIT: I forgot my favourite part!

I bought my device on Ebay from the seller "macromart_uk" and the device was listed as new. My guess is macromart_uk repacks these because during my chat with the fairphone rep they informed me that the previous owner of the device I bought "new" had it diagnosed as an issue with the mainboard. I had them verify the IMEI again and it looks like my new device that I paid a premium for was indeed not new at all.

Word of caution to anyone out there thinking no returns is fine because the device is new, its probably not ok.

Hopefully this will helps someone else here.

This has been my experience with 24.04-01

Stable: Fingerprint sensor broken
Daily: Audio Broken (did not test BT)
RC: Everything is working

@t12392n
Less about the geopolitical aspect, FOSS phone OS state, and more of just offering some talented people who are likely already making FOSS applications a place to be welcomed and bring their talent and applications etc.

I am not sure if this is the right place for this, and even then it comes from a high level of ignorance to software development on my part.

I am sure some of you folks have seen the news about Google's impending removal of the ability to side-load any applications starting September 2026 and rolling out through 2027, as well as requiring any app developers who wish to publish apps to android in any capacity to register with them and upload a government ID.

In a recent interview F-Droid has warned that it could effectively kill alternative app stores entirely. While no one can know the exact ramifications of something like this it's easy to imagine this will likely have a negative impact and possibly leave some developers of open source apps on a platform like fdroid without a platform at all.

I am sure that porting an android application to run on UT is not a simple switch that can be toggled.
However is there a guide, roadmap, or toolkit in any capacity to do so at this point?
If not it may be worth putting something together and possibly welcoming impacted developers to an open store with a community that I am sure would be happy to welcome and see them there.

@gpatel-fr Can confirm Fairphone 5 VOLTE works as expected on 24.04.
Battery life has been great, SMS works, MMS (I have not tested with the final release of 24.04 only a RC) worked but only with WiFi off AS OF 9/16/25.
Otherwise I think its fairly solid device and works well with UT.

@domubpkm Thanks for the info! calls are my biggest issue, they just keep calling all day every day.

Thanks to @kristatos and @Vlad-Nirky I'll be flashing 24.04 beta 2 again tonight and installing this straight away!
I Appreciate you taking a moment to respond, hopefully it helps someone else as well.