Wileyfox Swift won't boot, identifies as QHSUSB_BULK My most reliable device until now, this morning suddenly remained black: the screen didn't turn on. Long-pressing the power button didn't yield any reaction – nor did removing the battery (and SIM plus µSD card) for half an hour. Battery is at least half full, and the reaction is the same with a power cable connected. As at the other end of that cable currently is a Windows machine (not mine, so I cannot install anything on it), surprisingly that one was instantly searching for drivers – and the device identified is named QHSUSB_BULK. So something must be still working there.

Any idea what's going wrong there and how to fix it? As I wrote, that Windows machine isn't mine – so if a computer must be involved, it should work on Linux.

What I tried without success:


long pressing power button to provoke a restart/boot
at the same time, holding either vol-up or vol-down to see if it at least boots into fastboot/recovery. Nada.
pluggin into USB (just in case the battery suddenly discharged). Not even the LED lit up (which it normally does, indicating the device is charging)
removed battery, microSD and SIM for about half an hour, put it back – no change.
searched the web for possible solutions; only found that QHSUSB_BULK mentioned with solutions on some Nexus and/or LG devices, involving the install of very (LG) specific Windows software (not possible for me, and won't help anyway as in my case it's no Nexus or other LG device). Reading between those lines, it seems to indicate trouble with the bootloader. Confirmed by other findings of the problem (without solutions) involving devices from Huawei and a Moto G with a solution again not applicable to my case (similar thing for a Oneplus). Found one mention of the Wileyfox Swift on a Russian forum (4PDA) mentioning some special software (QFIL) again but no details, quote: "it is possible to try to flash through QFIL. In a personalized reply."


Device is a Wileyfox Swift (1st gen), still running its original CyanogenOS 12.1 (Android 5.1.1). Bought in 2015, so AFAIK warranty just run out (hm, suspicious).
We received your device and were also not able to get it back into normal boot, so we changed the PCB (mainboard). Your device will be returned today.

Though we strongly want to advice you to accepted the FOTA update to Android 7, as CyanogenOS (we flashed the latest CyanogenOS, Android 6 version, namely ZNH2KAS7EB on your device) is no longer supported and you are running an Android version with security patches from 2016. With this software, your device is vulnerable for several security issues like the Kracken WiFi (patch is coming) and the Blueborn Bluetooth (patch already available) vulnerabilities.

But besides that, some recently updated applications (Facebook, Spotify, Instagram) from the PlayStore are conflicting with CyanogenOS and causing the phone to freeze/crash and eventually the phone will get in a bootloop where you won't be able to get out of, unless you manually flash your device to Android 7 through the recovery.

If you decide to not accept the update to Android 7, we can no longer help you in the future in case of warranty claims.

With regards,

Team Wileyfox