My Playdate is bricked after an update - no response from support for warranty help

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1

I’m hoping @willco can come to my aid here. I submitted a support request early this month and still have not heard back yet. I have seen threads where users waited an excess of 30 days before getting @willco to respond here and prioritize, so i’m hoping that can be the case for me here as well.

Here is my support request email:

I updated my playdate, it was successful. i charged it up fully overnight as it had been some time since i used it. this morning i turned it on, went to catalog, and purchased season 2. i set it aside for some hours and returned back to it. On the screen it said charge battery and showed 10% which was odd as i had just charged it 100%...

then after plugging it in it went to a crumbling block screen showing that it couldn’t boot, a to try again, b to show error. The error shows "App loader not found"

i tried the instructions on the e2 page, went in to recovery mode, and tried repeatedly to recover. it goes in to "copying recovery firmware", then it ends in a "There was an issue applying the update" screen.

I tried this at least 20 times. It is not updating.

It is looking like i need a warranty replacement for this device, as it seems to be either a storage/flash memory defect or a battery defect (battery drained to 0% after full charge FAST, and attempting to restore firmware with the power + home button combo fails repeatedly, as though the memory is corrupt).

now when i charge it back up, its shows a screen with a telephone and broken cable. it has b to retry applying update (fails), and a + lock menu to copy recovery firmware which attempts to do this, flashes then returns me back to the broken phone screen.

I am unable to escape this screen now. even with the pin reset 10 second action. Everything takes me back to the broken phone screen. I literally can’t do anything with this now, so i doubt very much that a recovery iso can do anything for me now. Please help me.

Please provide instructions on how i can get this going again, be it by support or a postage paid return label so i can get this back to you for a working replacement.

My account is listed under Kevin H.
username 3168718705503273

Registered
2025-02-04
Last Sync
2025-11-06

2

I think this might be possible to fix with reinstalling the update from a computer using Playdate Utility, I think Playdate Support should be able to give you a .pdos and .pdkey file for your given device which you can use to reinstall the firmware. Maybe try explicitely asking for those?

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3

Hi @p64imp, the dev forum isn't an official support channel for Playdate hardware. Please email help@play.date to get in touch with our support team.

edit: I located your request to our support team and I'll follow up with them about your email. Sorry for the delay.

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4

excellent, thank you so much!