Samsung seems prepared to place severe restrictions on who can unlock the bootloader of Galaxy devices. Originally released with the Galaxy Z Flip 7, Z Fold 7, and beta versions of the Galaxy S25 models, the Android 16-based Samsung’s One UI 8 purportedly deletes the ‘OEM Unlocking’ choice from Developer Options. Rather, it presents a setting value, androidboot.other. locked=1, that guarantees a permanently locked condition.
Previously, outside the United States, one could open bootloaders and get root access, allowing power users to flash bespoke ROMs, change kernels, or get root access. But Samsung’s One UI 8 has lost that agility, even for international versions that previously allowed it.
For the average user, this limit is unlikely to have an immediate effect. For Android fans, developers, and those wanting to prolong the life of older hardware, this shift represents a significant loss, however. Many consumers kept older Samsung phones current long beyond the official support periods by means of custom ROMs like LineageOS or GrapheneOS. Access to the bootloader was the foundation of that ecology.
The opportunity for such changes may now be permanently closed as Samsung’s One UI 8 locks bootloaders on devices that were once eligible for unlocking. Some even worry that upgrading a device currently unlocked to Samsung’s One UI 8 would automatically re-lock its bootloader, hence reversing prior customization efforts.
Official statements from Samsung have not yet been made. Speculators believe this move may be driven by a wish to improve device security—making phones more difficult to compromise or reuse if stolen—and to discourage the use of unsanctioned software. Moreover, Samsung’s recent promise to give certain models like Samsung Galaxy A53 5G six or seven years of software upgrades could be seen as justification: long-term support lessens the need for community-driven firmware solutions. For the lively modding community, Samsung’s One UI 8 change feels like the end of an age, nonetheless.
