Post #2075664

2026-05-04 19:47 UTC

@oddtail @aoanla hohoo, you'd think. The problem is that phone companies do whatever they can so you don't actually own your device. Most people have the idea that they buy a phone and they fully own it, like they own a computer, but that's far from the truth. If a computer is bricked (in software), you can always fix it; just pop a USB stick, boot into a recovery environment, and fix the problem. Worst case, you have to reformat your entire OS. Try doing that on a smartphone. You can't, cause even though there is a USB port, the firmware will simply not recognize the USB drive. But even if it could recognize the drive, you still would be unable to boot because the bootloader is locked. Locked means the system will not let you boot into any other OS other than the one that came pre-installed on the device. 1/?

Replies (1)

@flafflar@tech.lgbt 2026-05-04 19:52

@oddtail @aoanla Of course, there is a way to unlock it. You simply have to: 1. Go to Settings > About device 2. Tap 7 times on the field called "Build number" to open the secret Developer Options menu. 3. Go to said Developer Options menu, and enable "OEM Unlock". (This option is deceptively named Unlock, as it does not unlock the bootloader, but it unlocks the ability to unlock the bootloader :3) 4. Reboot your phone 5. Reboot your phone again into Fastboot mode, by holding down a specific set of keys during powerup (which differ by manufacturer) 6. Connect your phone to a PC using a USB cable 7. Download the adb tool on your PC 8. Run the adb command to unlock your phone. Simple, isn't it? And yet, this is still not enough. This is the standard way in the AOSP (Android Open Source Project), which is the base OS for all Android phones. But, many manufacturers change that OS to add extra protections. Some require you to enter an extra code to unlock the bootloader, (which you might have to pay) 2/?

Open ##2075665