Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled
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Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled
#2The title of the article is misleading. The author says the phone cannot be bootloader unlocked without first connecting to the Internet. Once they have connected they are able to unlock the bootloader.
Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled
#3Yup, I am quite annoyed too with this practice. I have had 3 pixel phones and first thing i do is to unlock and flash calyxos or graphene. Since I always purchase used phones only, I just make it a practice to buy them in cash and unlock at a public WiFi.
Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled
#4> Request to Google: ungrey the “OEM unlocking” toggle in the factory, before shipping store.google.com devices to customers. Do not make your customers connect the device to the Internet before they are allowed to install the operating system they want.
That won't happen. I can think of two big reasons off the top of my head:
1. Supply-chain attacks, someone gets a hold of the phone before it gets to you and unlocks the bootloader and then proceeds to modify or install another OS.
2. Warranty reasons, very likely they want to have it phone back and send a record that it was unlocked so they can deny warranty in cases where user damaged the device through software.
Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled
#5> I bought a Pixel 7 Pro from store.google.com (Canada) ... being sold “unlocked” by Google
Carrier-locking is not permitted in Canada, so all the discussions about where the phone was bought and that the full price was paid are immaterial.
Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled
#6> Request to Google: ungrey the “OEM unlocking” toggle in the factory, before shipping store.google.com devices to customers. Do not make your customers connect the device to the Internet before they are allowed to install the operating system they want. That won't happen. I can think of two big reasons off the top of my head: 1. Supply-chain attacks, someone gets a hold of the phone before it gets to you and unlocks…
I swear it's been a clause in their phones since they were called Nexus instead of Pixel where you breach the warranty when you unlock the bootloader. I never bother anymore but when I used to swap the Android versions myself I recall running into something saying as much.
Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled
#7This does not make any sense. GrapheneOS supports all pixel phones. In fact, they support pixel phones only.
I am thinking of buying pixel just for this.
Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled
#8The title of the article is misleading. The author says the phone cannot be bootloader unlocked without first connecting to the Internet. Once they have connected they are able to unlock the bootloader.
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Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled
#9This does not make any sense. GrapheneOS supports all pixel phones. In fact, they support pixel phones only. I am thinking of buying pixel just for this.
Bootloader unlocking is disabled until you connect to the internet.
Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled
#10> Request to Google: ungrey the “OEM unlocking” toggle in the factory, before shipping store.google.com devices to customers. Do not make your customers connect the device to the Internet before they are allowed to install the operating system they want. That won't happen. I can think of two big reasons off the top of my head: 1. Supply-chain attacks, someone gets a hold of the phone before it gets to you and unlocks…
3. anti-theft. AFAIK the way that anti-theft features are implemented in android is that the owner's google account information is stored on a partition that survives a wipe, but the actual enforcement of the anti-theft feature is done by the OS itself. If you flash a third party os (eg. grapheneos), you can bypass it. Having phones being "unlocked" in the warehouse or during shipment increases their value to thieves, because they can easily bypass any anti-theft features.