Samsung's Quiet Decision Outraged the Community. The Bootloader Unlock Option Disappeared in One UI 8

The era when you could unlock your Samsung’s bootloader and install a custom ROM may be coming to an end. New evidence suggests that Samsung is removing the bootloader unlock option on its devices with the arrival of the One UI 8 overlay, even in regions where it was previously allowed. While this change means little to average users, it’s a step backward for tech enthusiasts and developers.

End of Bootloader Unlocking in All Markets

On Samsung devices in the USA, the bootloader unlock option was removed years ago. However, for users in other parts of the world, this option remained open – until now. According to evidence gathered from beta versions of One UI 8 for Galaxy S25 Ultra and stable versions for Galaxy Z Fold7 and Z Flip7, the “OEM unlocking” option has been completely removed from developer options.

A post on XDA Developers revealed that Samsung added a line of code to the bootloader configuration, androidboot.other.locked=1, which directly tells the system not to display the OEM unlocking option in settings. The presence of this code in the latest One UI 8 firmware, even on devices outside the USA, suggests that this restriction is no longer region-bound.

Why Is Samsung Closing the Door on Modifications?

While Samsung has not yet officially commented on the reasons for this step, there are several possible explanations. One is an effort to enhance security – an unlocked bootloader theoretically poses a security risk, although in practice it is primarily used by experienced users. Another motivation could be the protection of the Samsung ecosystem and its services, which can be bypassed or modified when using custom ROMs.

It also cannot be overlooked that Samsung now offers seven years of Android system update support for its newer models. This, to some extent, reduces one of the main reasons why users switched to custom ROMs – extending the device’s lifespan after official support ends.

Impact on the Enthusiast Community

For the average Samsung user, this change will be practically invisible – most will never use even half of their phone’s advanced features, let alone need to unlock the bootloader. However, for tech enthusiasts and developers, it is a significant loss.

Unlocking the bootloader is an essential first step for installing custom ROMs or gaining full root access to the device. And unfortunately, Samsung has now taken that away from us.

But as mentioned above, One UI is a system with long-term support and is also very well optimized. Therefore, there aren’t many reasons left to install alternative ROMs (such as LineageOS) on South Korean phones even today.

Did you use the bootloader unlock option?

Source: SamMobile, 9to5google