Keeping track of companies that "care about your data 🥺"
Over the past few years, a suspicious number of companies have started to "take care of your data", aka block/strictly limit your ability to unlock the bootloader on your own devices.
While this may not affect you directly, it sets a bad precedent. You never know what will get the axe next: Shizuku? ADB? Sideloading? I thought it might be a good idea to keep track of bad companies and workarounds.
If you know of specific details/unlocking methods, please PR them or drop them in the discussions
Caution
Reminder that no matter how nice a company is,
you should not trust them unless their unlock process is 100% offline!
The following manufacturers have made it completely impossible to unlock their devices without a workaround.
Note
Phone brands handle carrier locks differently, so check your device manual or contact support.
Carrier locked devices are the ones you get after making a commitment with a carrier of your choice. This is quite common in North America and (supposedly) allows you to save some money on your device.
As a rule, almost all carrier locked devices do not allow the bootloader to be unlocked. This usually makes sense, as it would allow you to completely bypass the contract. The problem is that many devices still do not allow you to unlock the bootloader even after the carrier lock has been lifted.
The following manufacturers allow unlocking under certain conditions, such as region, model, SOC, etc., or require a sacrifice to unlock.
The following manufacturers require an online account and/or a waiting period before unlocking.
Custom Android Verified Boot keys is a feature which allows you to run a custom OS with a locked bootloader.
It's rare to see a device which supports custom AVB keys, but some devices can be found here.
Kirin 620, 650, 655, 658, 659, 925, 935, 950, 960:
It's possible to unlock using testpoints and PotatoNV (Read the readme)
If you own a MediaTek device exploitable by mtkclient you can unlock the bootloader using that.
If it also happens to be an OPPO/Realme device and you need to access fastboot: lkpatcher (web version)
If you own a phone with the Unisoc ud710 or ums512 SOCs you can look into this exploit: CVE-2022-38694_unlock_bootloader
Otherwise, you can also look into this: Spectrum_UnlockBL_Tool
This: xdaforums.com
Or this: subut
There's no Universal Qualcomm method, unfortunately.
Although some of these might work for you:
The general exploit:
alephsecurity.com the bootloader unlock section.
Xiaomi Mi A1 and maybe all MSM89** manufactured before 2018:
EDLUnlock
