{"id":98547,"date":"2025-07-28T05:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T05:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/98547\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T05:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T05:13:10","slug":"samsung-may-be-killing-bootloader-unlocking-on-all-phones-with-one-ui-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/98547\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung may be killing bootloader unlocking on all phones with One UI 8"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img class=\"e_eh\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  title=\"one ui 8 beta samsung downloading hero\"  alt=\"A Galaxy S25 downloading the One UI 8 beta.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/one-ui-8-beta-samsung-downloading-hero-scaled.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Joe Maring \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n<p>TL;DR<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Samsung appears to be disabling bootloader unlocking in One UI 8 on more devices than before.<\/li>\n<li>Previously, only US models lacked the OEM Unlock toggle, but the restriction now seems to be spreading to global models as well.<\/li>\n<li>A contributor on XDA Developers discovered that Samsung is likely stripping out the necessary code to unlock bootloaders entirely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Samsung might be quietly locking down its phones even more tightly with the One UI 8 update. A new report from <a href=\"https:\/\/xdaforums.com\/t\/bootloader-unlocking-option-removed-from-one-ui-8-0.4751904\/#post-90208099\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">an XDA Developers contributor<\/a> reveals that Samsung appears to be removing the ability to unlock the bootloader on more devices, including international versions that previously supported it.<\/p>\n<p>Samsung phones in the US already lack the \u2018OEM Unlocking\u2019 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.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s changed?<\/p>\n<p>The contributor, salvo_giangri, discovered that Samsung has added a line to the device\u2019s bootloader configuration: <strong>androidboot.other.locked=1<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This line tells the Android system whether the device is allowed to unlock the bootloader. If it\u2019s set to 1, the Settings app won\u2019t even show the OEM Unlock option, which is the first step in unlocking a phone.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Samsung may be killing bootloader unlocking with One UI 8. Do you care?<\/p>\n<p>86 votes<\/p>\n<p>Yes, this is not good.<\/p>\n<p>66%<\/p>\n<p>No, I don&#8217;t really care.<\/p>\n<p>28%<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m indifferent.<\/p>\n<p>6%<\/p>\n<p>We checked and can confirm that our non-US <a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/samsung-galaxy-z-fold-7-newbie-experience-3578294\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Galaxy Z Fold 7<\/a> does not have the \u2018OEM Unlocking\u2019 toggle in Developer Options. Some folks think this could be a mistake on Samsung\u2019s part. However, those running the One UI 8 beta build also report that the option is missing from their devices.<\/p>\n<p>Unlocking the bootloader is essential for enthusiasts and developers who want to install custom ROMs or kernels, gain full root access to their devices, or further customize their phones.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re someone who loves customizing your phone or values the freedom to tinker with Android, then this is a significant step back from Samsung. Anyone planning to update to One UI 8 or buy a new Samsung device running <a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-16-features-3484159\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Android 16<\/a> should know that this restriction may apply to their devices. That said, we\u2019ll reach out to Samsung for an official confirmation on the matter.<\/p>\n<p>For now, the bootloader on your current Samsung devices that are not running One UI 8 should still be unlockable, but with new updates and devices, that may no longer be the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Maring \/ Android Authority TL;DR Samsung appears to be disabling bootloader unlocking in One UI 8 on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[611,2161,3874,4602,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-98547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-samsung","10":"tag-samsung-galaxy","11":"tag-samsung-one-ui","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114929153010731688","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}