Two weeks ago I have decided to deGoogle my Fairphone 5. I have not had any major issue so far, I am quite happy, and I am able to do everything I did when I was using stock Android, so I think it’s worth writing up a little summary of what I did, in case it is useful for others.
I have a Fairphone 5 and I am really happy with it. It is my main driver (also my only phone actually), and I bought it specifically because I want it to last long and replace its components if I need to.
I bought this phone a year ago and I have been really happy with it so far, but I was growing annoyed by the latest Android updates in which Google was pushing AI and Gemini more an more. I also wanted to be able to remove apps I am not using and I don’t care about like Chrome, Gmail, and the Google app itself.
My first choice of OS was CalyxOS, which I had been eyeing for a while as a good candidate. However, unfortunately, its releases went on pause recently, so I had to find something else. After some research, I picked iodé and e/OS/, and ended up settling with e/OS/ due to a weird bug with the Aurora store with iodé (more on that later).
I am usually quite impulsive when I decide to change/format/update my devices, and I didn’t necessarily care about backing up my data, and I have all my important information / backups of individual apps synced on a NextCloud server (TheGoodCloud), so my preparation was minimal:
My first attempt went with iodé. I could use their online installer, and installation was really smooth and did not take a long time at all.
I immediately notice that I could not set a lock screen or biometric login, but I thought it would be some weird quirk that could be resolved (spoiler alert, it wasn’t).
I could install my f-droid apps (like AuthPass and the NextCloud client) no problem, but when I went to get apps from the Aurora store, I quickly realised I could not install anything – installs would continuously fail.
I am 100% sure this is a solvable problem that affected me specifically (there are many posts on the internet of people who installed iodé on their Fairphone with no issue), but I could not find a solution, so I decided to try a different OS and went with e/OS/.
Their live install tool was unfortunately not connecting with my phone, so I used the command line install, which was really easy and really smooth.
Note: I am not an engineer, or a programmer. Don’t let the words “command line” scare you: if I could do it, anyone can. You just need to read and follow instructions carefully, but it’s really, really easy. Take a look at the FP5 install guide, you will see it is really clear and complete.
The installation was smooth and fast, but I noticed again that I could not set up a lock screen or biometric login. At this point it was clear I should look into it, so I did a quick search and found out that this feature is actually connected to your Google account, so in order for it to be reset, I should have removed it and logged out of my Google account before flashing my phone. This is allegedly to prevent stolen phones from being used, but my personal conspiracy theory is that it’s been implemented to deter people from deGoogling their phones.
Armed with a lot of patience, I installed stock Google back, logged into my google account, removed lock screen protection, logged out, and repeated the command line installation.
Finally now everything worked perfectly and I could just move on to install and test out all the apps I use. The App Lounge works beautifully and so far I only had small compatibility issues (though just as I write this I noticed that my Garmin Connect App is not loading correctly with the latest update, so I will have to figure it out).
I had only one paid app which I could not get from the App Lounge using an anonymous account – so I quicky logged in with my google account to grab it and install it. (This the Animal Crossing Pocket Camp C, by the way, I love that game).
I did change the e/OS/ launcher to the Fossify launcher, and I replaced some of the pre-installed apps (weather, browser, email client) with others I prefer, and I have to say it is kind of strange that I had to remove some of these using adb tools and not right from the OS. The process however was really easy, quick, and well documented so not too much of a bother.
I am sure deGoogling was a bit easier for me as FairPhone supports degoogling and flashing your phone (other brands like Samsung are a lot less permissive). Also it helped that I have been using FOSS apps for a long time already, so most of the apps I need and use in my workflow are just the same as before. However, it is absolutely amazing how degoogling your phone is easy and accessible, with different OS flavours being available that work just as fine, if not better than the Google version of Android.
I am really happy overall, and I’ll certainly be talking about to my friends and family, at least to show them that there are alternatives that are just as easy to use and as functional.
---
© Melyanna. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Subscribe to my feed (web / gemini)
Subscribe to my feed on gopher