Custom ROMs have declined in popularity in recent years. The modding community now primarily focuses on adding a new lease of life to older devices, instead of releasing custom ROMs for new flagship phones. The first step to root or mod any phone requires unlocking its bootloader, a step that many companies have made unnecessarily complex in recent years.
Samsung is now joining that list by removing the OEM bootloader unlocking toggle from the hidden Developer options menu in One UI 8 altogether.
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Samsung stopped offering the bootloader unlock option on its devices sold in the US a few years ago. However, in other markets, the OEM unlock option was still accessible through the Developer options menu. But it now seems that starting with One UI 8, the company will disable bootloader unlocking on its devices altogether.
As many Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 users have noticed, the hidden OEM Unlocking toggle is not showing up on their units — even for ones purchased outside the US (via @SammyGuru). The option is also missing on Galaxy S25 units running the One UI 8 beta, even though the toggle is present in the stable One UI 7 firmware.
A deep dive from recognized contributor salvo_giangri on XDA forums paints a grim picture, indicating this is an intentional move by Samsung.
Skipping past the technicalities, below is the most notable part of Giangri’s findings:
This not only means that the OEM Unlock toggle is not visible at all inside the Settings app, it also means that the whole code which controls the bootloader unlocking has probably been entirely stripped off in the bootloader itself, meaning that a workaround to this is not possible in the worst case.
Samsung will likely remove the bootloader unlock option from all its recent flagship devices with the stable One UI 8 update.
No more custom ROMs and kernels for Samsung devices
The inability to unlock the bootloader on Samsung devices effectively shuts the door on custom ROM and kernel development.
While Galaxy devices were never the top choice among modding enthusiasts due to Samsung’s locked-down approach, it at least provided a way for power users to extend the life of their aging phones. One UI 8 will seemingly put an end to this for good.
