Samsung is apparently removing the option to unlock your bootloader from Galaxy devices with its One UI 8 update, at least in places where that was still available.
For Galaxy owners in the US, bootloader unlocking hasn’t been available for quite some time, really almost never at all. But in other parts of the world, Samsung left the option open. That’s apparently changing with the One UI 8 update.
SammyGuru gathered reports and evidence from One UI 8 that shows that, like in the US, bootloader unlock is no longer available. Specifically, the “OEM Unlocking” developer option has vanished. This has been observed both in beta builds on Galaxy S25 Ultra, as well as on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Fold 7 which ship with One UI 8 pre-installed. A code snippet from Samsung’s firmware shows this, as does further user findings.
For the bulk of Samsung buyers, this change won’t really have an impact.
The vast majority of smartphone buyers never touch half of the advanced options on their phone, with far fewer doing anything that would require an unlocked bootloader. As SammyGuru points out, though, it’s certainly a shame for enthusiasts who enjoy custom ROMs, kernels, or even just rooting their device for expanded functionality.
There will still be a way to unlock the bootloader, though, it just won’t be user-accessible. Samsung will still have a way to do it when needed, but the user won’t, which is what’s changing here.
It’s still unclear if the One UI 8 update will make this change on devices that are already on the market, but it’s entirely possible. In recent years, it’s become more common for Android manufacturers to disable this ability. In China, for example, Xiaomi disabled the ability to unlock your bootloader a while back, with users taking pretty drastic actions to get around the limitation.
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