Android 15 update: Bricking Fairphone 5 due to faulty biometrics?

07/29/2025 Mobile

As someone who always looks forward to the newest OS updates, I know it can be a mixed bag. Sometimes, things don't go as planned. Right now, there are reports popping up about the Android 15 update causing some Fairphone 5 devices to become completely unusable, or "bricked". However, it seems like this is only happening to phones that already had a problem with their fingerprint sensor.

From what I'm seeing, users on the Fairphone Community Forum are saying their phones are freezing on the boot screen after the update. It just gets stuck showing a green "I" during the boot animation, and won't go any further. The only solution seems to be either going back to the previous Android version or completely wiping the phone, which is a pain.

A Fairphone representative confirmed that the issue is related to broken fingerprint sensors. Apparently, Android 15 has stricter checks for hardware during startup. So, if your fingerprint sensor isn't working right, the phone simply won't boot. It makes sense, because many users who had this problem said their fingerprint sensor was already broken before they tried to update. Some people were even hoping the update would fix the sensor, which is not a good idea!

The good news is that Fairphone is working on a fix. This update would allow Android 15 to boot even if the fingerprint sensor is broken, although the sensor itself would still not work. If you're affected, you can either send your phone in to get the fingerprint sensor fixed, or just stick with Android 14 for now, at least until the fix is released.

So, if your Fairphone 5's fingerprint sensor is on the fritz, I wouldn't risk updating to Android 15 just yet. Fairphone suggests sending your device for repair or repeatedly force-rebooting it to get back into Android. If that doesn't work, contacting customer support is your best bet.