Joe Maring / Android Authority
TL;DR Samsung appears to be disabling bootloader unlocking in One UI 8 on more devices than before.
Previously, only US models lacked the OEM Unlock toggle, but the restriction now seems to be spreading to global models as well.
A contributor on XDA Developers discovered that Samsung is likely stripping out the necessary code to unlock bootloaders entirely.
Samsung might be quietly locking down its phones even more tightly with the One UI 8 update. A new report from an XDA Developers contributor reveals that Samsung appears to be removing the ability to unlock the bootloader on more devices, including international versions that previously supported it.
Samsung phones in the US already lack the ‘OEM Unlocking’ toggle in Developer Options, effectively preventing users from unlocking the bootloader and installing custom ROMs. But now, it looks like that restriction could apply globally.
What’s changed? The contributor, salvo_giangri, discovered that Samsung has added a line to the device’s bootloader configuration: androidboot.other.locked=1
This line tells the Android system whether the device is allowed to unlock the bootloader. If it’s set to 1, the Settings app won’t even show the OEM Unlock option, which is the first step in unlocking a phone.
In the latest One UI 8 firmware, this line is present even on non-US devices, indicating that the restriction is no longer region-specific.
Samsung may be killing bootloader unlocking with One UI 8. Do you care? 210 votes Yes, this is not good. 69 % No, I don't really care. 24 % I'm indifferent. 7 %
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