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Unlocking bootloader in u.s. samsung devices

andriodadmirer

andriodadmirer

Android Enthusiast
I have an idea what if this could work
1.get carrier unlocked
2. Download other countries firmware for our phone.
Install it using Odin

3 because it's from another country oem unlocking should be available in developer settings
Then I should be able to unlock bootloader through traditional way of adb ?
Does this sound like it could work
I acually think it would !
By the way I found out through metro that if you want to unlock your phone to any carrier and you for example ,bought it at Walmart for metro pcs ,you actually have to go back to Walmart and they unlock it there.
 
sorry but firmwares do not have bootloaders.....so flashing a firmware from a different country would not work on a US samsung device. if that was possible, xda would have been all over that. i wish it was that simple.

the service @Dannydet linked is the only way that i know that a US variant's bootloader can be unlocked.

edit: also flashing a firmware that was not made for your device could seriously damage your phone. firmwares are very device specific....so...if you flash a frimware designed for the exynos chip onto another phone with a snapdragon processor things could go terribly wrong. i would seriously advice you to not do this.
 
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Unlocking the bootloader will immediately void any warranty; and rooted phones will not run any financial apps (payment or banking). I began modding and ROMming Android phones in 2009 with the original Motorola Droid... and only gave it up when all the reasons to do so were part of the OS. Now, I can't imagine a reason that improves operations and doesn't degrade it. My 2c
 
kevinglen said:
By the way I found out through metro that if you want to unlock your phone to any carrier and you for example ,bought it at Walmart for metro pcs ,you actually have to go back to Walmart and they unlock it there.
Click to expand...
You do know that's an entirely different type of unlocking, and that there is no relation at all between carrier unlocking and bootloader unlocking?

I hope you do know that, but we've had plenty of people in the past who don't, so I thought I should clarify to be sure.
 
The_Chief said:
Yep - I totally missed that whole bit! Sorta makes my reply irrelevant, huh? I'd delete it but I'm man enough to fess up when I mess up...
Click to expand...
not really. the op goes back and forth with carrier unlocking and unlocking the bootloader. so your post still makes sense as do mine. they are two different things.

but the point is that unlocking a us variant samsung device via oem unlocking is not feasible. sure yes there is a service that does this, but it is not free and how its done is secret. and the idea of flashing a firmware update from another country with a exynos chip so that oem is allowed is very dangerous and most likely will ruin the phone doing so.
 
Yep - I don't even know if Qualcomm firmware would even install on an Exynos device, or vice versa. The validation would likely fail at the hardware level: at best, it would generate an error and halt the process. At worst, as you said, it would permanently brick the phone.
 
lebigmac said:
Wait what? No bootloader unlock allowed on next-generation Samsung Galaxy flagship devices only in North America ? Why does this remind me of geo-blocking ? That's so 2000 !

Geo-blocking - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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yeah it sucks, but i do not equate geo-blocking to samsung locking bootloaders here in the US. geo blocking, blocks the internet and effects everyone, but having a blocked bootloader on only US samsung phones only effects a small percentage of Americans. plus rooting is not as needed on most devices these days, especially on flagship phones.
 
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ocnbrze said:
yeah it sucks, but i do not equate geo-blocking to samsung locking bootloaders here in the US. geo blocking, blocks the internet and effects everyone, whole but having a blocked bootloader on only US samsung phones only effects a small percentage of Americans. plus rooting is not as needed on most devices these days, especially on flagship phones.
Click to expand...

Have you seen the amount of useless bloatware on the next-generation Samsung S23 Ultra flagship ? I've never seen a phone with such a huge list of useless bloatware pre-installed by the manufacturer by default. And I've seen quite a few phones lately...
Only a thorough debloat can fix that! Sure you can debloat your phone without it being rooted but with root or even better, DOUBLE ROOT, you can do with your phone whatever your heart desires. Only your imagination is the limit <3
... your bootloader must be unlocked for my brand new Magiskless Systemfull ADB ROOT ( AKA DOUBLE ROOT ) feature to work though which brings us back to square one... I can't believe Samsung didn't allow you guys to unlock your own phone's bootloader! That's so sad :(
Go with Xiaomi next time and you won't regret it ;) Xiaomi always allows bootloader unlock. No matter where in the world you are located :D

GREAT NEWS! This week my new Universal ADB ROOT update should be ready ;)👍
And then next week I can fully focus on the F2FS-RW experiments. Can't wait. :D
 
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lebigmac said:
Have you seen the amount of useless bloatware on the next-generation Samsung S23 Ultra flagship ? I've never seen a phone with such a huge list of useless bloatware pre-installed by the manufacturer by default. And I've seen quite a few phones lately...
Only a thorough debloat can fix that! Sure you can debloat your phone without it being rooted but with root or even better, DOUBLE ROOT, you can do with your phone whatever your heart desires. Only your imagination is the limit <3
... your bootloader must be unlocked for my brand new Magiskless Systemfull ADB ROOT ( AKA DOUBLE ROOT ) feature to work though.
This week my new Universal ADB ROOT update should be ready ;)👍
And then next week I can fully focus on the F2FS-RW experiments. Can't wait. :D
Click to expand...
ok bloatware.....i'll give you that.

www.sammobile.com

Galaxy S23 eats up your internal storage… depending on where you are

One of the best features of the Galaxy S23 series is that except on the base model, you get a ...
www.sammobile.com www.sammobile.com
 
when i get my z fold 5( it will depend if i like the upgrades), i might pay a service to unlock my bootloader. @lebigmac do you think your method for the s23 ultra might work for the z fold 4?
 
lebigmac said:
I can't believe Samsung didn't allow you guys to unlock your own phone's bootloader! That's so sad :(
Click to expand...
Samsung are just doing what their biggest customers want, i.e. the big service providers, who buy the vast majority of Samsungs in the US (and then resell them to their customers). It's not that Samsung are themselves opposed to bootloader unlocking, because if that were the case the models they sell in most of the world would also not be unlockable. But the biggest service providers in the US have always been hostile to users modifying their system software, and Samsung have always been happy to play along with their requests.

The bloatware is a multi-factor problem with Samsung: they are obliged to install many Google apps but also install their own version, so there's always redundancy (and if you are me you regard both versions as bloat!). They've always liked to throw apps in fairly indiscriminantly, presumably thinking that the extra features will add appeal to more people than the bloat puts off. And they are happy to pre-install apps if the developer pays them to do so (even protect them from being disabled in my experience). Plus of course service providers add junk of their own, and most Samsungs in North America are sold through service providers. Personally I'm happy enough if I can disable the crap, but the stuff they won't let you disable is more annoying. But I can disable enough, and hide the rest from my app drawer (I'm not daft enough to use Samsung's launcher), so it's not worth the effort of rooting to remove it (and I speak as someone who used to repartition the internal storage of phones).
 
ocnbrze said:
but if i get it unlocked, would @lebigmac's method work on a z fold 4?
Click to expand...
Wait which one of my tools are you talking about ?
The ROMmaker app itself (which includes most of my custom tools) should be compatible with all rooted Android phones running at least Android 10+
I'm about to drop an update to my program in the next few days with a more robust and universal ADB ROOT solution. Stay tuned ;)

Now there is a Boot Image Manager (BIM) built-in inside the PRO version :D👍
And a Pseudo Root Terminal (PRT) and much much more... (full list of ROMmaker PRO features coming soon ;))

The new free version will have Systemfull Python support as well as a quick demo of the BIM in action :D
It might even include the official F2FS-RW patch ?! Who knows really? It all depends on when exactly I release it...

lebigmac.sysrw.rommaker_PRO_BootIMG_Manager_WWW.SYSTEMRW.COM.jpg
 
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Are we really still talking about unlocking the bootloader and rooting U.S. Samsung phones, when it's already been established that U.S. Samsung phones have bootloaders that cannot be unlocked... and therefore cannot be rooted? Wow, not only is this conversation redundant, but we've said the same things over and over again

:p
 
The_Chief said:
Are we really still talking about unlocking the bootloader and rooting U.S. Samsung phones, when it's already been established that U.S. Samsung phones have bootloaders that cannot be unlocked... and therefore cannot be rooted? Wow, not only is this conversation redundant, but we've said the same things over and over again

:p
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i'm thinking that if i get the z fold 5, that i might pay to get my z fold 4's bootloader unlocked, so i can try rooting it.......why you ask? because i can........i think.....lol
 
www.thecustomdroid.com

PSA: Unlock Bootloader on Snapdragon Galaxy Devices with SamPWND (Paid Service)

SamPWND is a paid remote service that allows you to unlock the bootloader on Snapdragon Samsung Galaxy devices sold in the USA and Canada.
www.thecustomdroid.com www.thecustomdroid.com
forum.xda-developers.com

[Android][UNSAMLOCK] Bootloader Unlock for Samsung US/Canada Devices

Important notice: If you are already updated post February 2021, do not update to April 2023 security update (XXXXXXXXXXWCX) or later. Examples: G998USQS6EWCA, N986USQU4HWD1. Samsung has patched the bootloader unlock again on those updates...
forum.xda-developers.com forum.xda-developers.com

I think should work......I hope.
 
iBowToAndroid said:
I see that you haven't actually read anything from that thread
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not in its entirety yet.......lol. i know this one does say that if you are on one ui 3.1 bootloader or higher, it will not work. i was just showing that there are services out there that can unlock the bootloader on US samsung snap[dragon phones.
 
ocnbrze said:
sorry but firmwares do not have bootloaders.....so flashing a firmware from a different country would not work on a US samsung device. if that was possible, xda would have been all over that. i wish it was that simple.

the service @Dannydet linked is the only way that i know that a US variant's bootloader can be unlocked.

edit: also flashing a firmware that was not made for your device could seriously damage your phone. firmwares are very device specific....so...if you flash a frimware designed for the exynos chip onto another phone with a snapdragon processor things could go terribly wrong. i would seriously advice you to not do this.
Click to expand...
Which service is this?
 
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