Update Fairphone 3 to latest Android 12.1 with LineageOS 19.1 ROM – Tutorial

A smooth and stable version of Android 12 is now available for Fairphone 3. All thanks to LineageOS 19.1 ROM developer team. Read through the guide below to learn the step-by-step installation process along with required files. 

 

As you know, Android 12 comes with improved features and better security than earlier Android versions. Fairphone 3 comes with good hardware inside that can run Android 12 smoothly. Hence it’s a great idea to flash a custom ROM like LineageOS 19.1 to enjoy maximum hardware capabilities. This ROM is based on the latest Android 12 AOSP and comes with various customization that you can’t just avoid.

Android 12.1 comes with some of the newest ways to control your privacy, customise your phone, and get things done. You will experience – Silky Home, Scrolling Screenshots, Customisable system colours, all-new conversation widget, Private Compute Core, and many more.

If all this excites you then you can follow this guide to update your Fairphone 3 to the latest Android 12.1 via custom ROM LineageOS 19.1.

Warning! We at TrueAndroid produce tutorial to help out fellow Android users but all this guide are educational purpose only. You should try this guide at your own risk. Neither we nor the developer should be responsible if your Android device experience damage after following this tutorial. Also remember, this guide is only applicable for Fairphone 3. Don’t try this guide in any other Android device. It may hard brick your device.

Prerequisite:

1. Installing custom ROM risk you mobile existing data, hence we recommend a backup before proceeding. You may follow our Android backup guide.

2. Make sure your device have at least 30% battery power.

3. You already have USB Driver installed for Fairphone 3 in your PC. Windows OS usually download and install USB driver automatically when you connect your device first time. You can always manually download USB driver from our latest USB driver download page.

4. Make sure USB Debugging is enabled otherwise you won’t able to transfer file between PC and mobile. You can follow our USB Debugging enable guide.

5. You have TWRP Recovery 3.6.2 or higher installed or any Android 12 compatible custom recovery installed. 

 

If you did everything that we mentioned above then you are ready to follow step-by-step guide on how to install Android 12.1 based LineageOS 19.1 ROM on Fairphone 3.

Step 3: Create a Backup using TWRP Backup Option.

Step 4: Perform a Factory Reset (this will delete all apps and their settings and game progress). To do this, Tap on Wipe, then at the bottom of the screen do a Swipe on the ‘Swipe to factory reset‘ option.

Step 5: Finally, its time to flash the ROM file. Tap on Install, then browse to the location where you saved the files and tap on the LineageOS 19.1 zip file. Then tap on Add More Zips, and add Gapps zip. Now at the bottom of the screen, do a swipe on the Swipe to confirm flash option to begin flashing.

Step 6: When the installation is completed, go back to the main recovery menu and tap on Reboot and then, tap on System to reboot your Fairphone 3 and boot up into Android 12.1 ROM LineageOS 19.1. The first boot will take some time.

Returning to Previous ROM: To go back to your previous ROM, boot into recovery, select Backup then through Restore option, restore your previous ROM by selecting it from the list.

That’s it! You now have the latest Android 12.1 based custom ROM LineageOS 19.1 installed on your Fairphone 3.