Help Bootloader Unlock?

[ArPharazon]

I just got my S20 Ultra from Verizon and want to, at least, unlock the bootloader. SM-G988U.

I was able to OEM/Boot Unlock my previous phone, an S8+ and root it.

I'm just trying to boot unlock the S20 Ultra right now. I've activated Developer Options, but cannot get "OEM Unlock" to appear under Developer Options.

Am I doing something wrong? Did Verizon do something new to "their" phones to prevent this?

Also, can I get it to use Titanium Backup without rooting? I had problems after rooting the S8+ (charge only showed 80% max, visual voicemail never worked).

 

[ocnbrze]

Never buy a Samsung Verizon phone if you wish to root it. They have the snapdragon chip and the bootloader is locked. You can't unlock it. There might be a way to root it, but most of time they come with a price. Something's don't work, you have to be on a certain os, or it might trip KNOX are some of them.

Head on over to xda. If there is a way to root your device, the developers there will find a way. But give them time to find a root exploit. Your phone just came out recently. And snapdragon sammy's are not easy to root.

 

[ArPharazon]

Thanks for the reply. I'd prefer not to root if I can get Titanium to work without doing so.

And a mystery why I can't get OEM Unlock to show. All the examples I saw didn't require anything special to make that work.

I also tried changing the date to 2 weeks in the future, since that was something that might have been an issue, not having the phone 10 days, etc, etc.

 

[mikedt]

Thanks for the reply. I'd prefer not to root if I can get Titanium to work without doing so.

And a mystery why I can't get OEM Unlock to show. All the examples I saw didn't require anything special to make that work.

I also tried changing the date to 2 weeks in the future, since that was something that might have been an issue, not having the phone 10 days, etc, etc.

I suspect the examples youssaw are for the Exynos variants. Those are usually much easier to work on, than the Snapdragon variants sold in the US.

 

[ocnbrze]

yes the exynos chip sammy phones come with an unlocked bootloader. this is why you do not see that option in the developer options.

just curious why do you want to use titanium backup?

 

[ArPharazon]

Titanium allows me to completely shut down the software updates, which I also can't do within the phone settings the way tutorials say I can. Plus freeze any other process or app I want.

I wish those tutorials were clearer. They're don't mention anything about sub-models, just "S20 Ultra". I've gotten pretty sick of the U.S. models not having the freedom other ones do.

 

[ocnbrze]

yeah if you want to root a phone here in the US, get a pixel phone. those are easy to root.

 

[mikedt]

Titanium allows me to completely shut down the software updates, which I also can't do within the phone settings the way tutorials say I can. Plus freeze any other process or app I want.

I wish those tutorials were clearer. They're don't mention anything about sub-models, just "S20 Ultra". I've gotten pretty sick of the U.S. models not having the freedom other ones do.

FWIW they often refer to the Exynos "F" & "FD"(dual-SIM) variants, which are the most common around the world, except in the US, China and Japan.

CDMA bites again.

 

[Hadron]

The reason you can't get OEM unlock to show is that US carriers remove it.

One question, in case anyone knows: the usual story is that Snapdragon-based Galaxy S phones can't be unlocked, but up until this year "Snapdragon" and "North American" were synonymous. With the s20 only Europe gets the inferior Exynos SoC. So are Snapdragon models from other parts of the world locked down like the US ones? There's no reason they should be: it's nothing to do with the SoC (easily unlocked phones like Pixels or OnePlus use the same Snapdragons), it was something that US carriers asked them to do.

 

[mikedt]

The reason you can't get OEM unlock to show is that US carriers remove it.

One question, in case anyone knows: the usual story is that Snapdragon-based Galaxy S phones can't be unlocked, but up until this year "Snapdragon" and "North American" were synonymous. With the s20 only Europe gets the inferior Exynos SoC. So are Snapdragon models from other parts of the world locked down like the US ones? There's no reason they should be: it's nothing to do with the SoC (easily unlocked phones like Pixels or OnePlus use the same Snapdragons), it was something that US carriers asked them to do.

It still is actually, and it's only really China, Japan, and Korea that also gets Snapdragon S20s, because of CDMA. I'm pretty sure Snapdragon Samsungs here in China can be bootloader unlocked.

Here's a list of S20 variants around the world.
https://galaxys20userguide.com/galaxy-s20-model-number-details/

 

[Hadron]

I'm pretty sure Korea doesn't use CDMA (after all, they had Exynos until this year).

 

[ninjasinabag]

Any device that would be covered under the lifespan policy (2 major OS updates) has shipped without an oem toggle in the developer options from my experiences. Low end up in to the flagships.