2 questions cant unlock boot loader is the 32 GB Ver worth 110$?

raven.warsong

Senior Member
Apr 5, 2011
184
9
38
I got this phone on amazon for 110$ us then seen it on ebay for around 65$ only after I orded it.

regardless the oem boot loader is grayed out.

its a gsm unlocked works fine with my tmobel sim.
came with stock 7.1 tryed to unlock then upgraded to 8.1 still grayed out and now 10.0 still grayed out.

If the boot loader cant be unlocked I most likely will send it back thanks for you time
 

flash713

Senior Member
May 7, 2015
879
435
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Houston, Texas
Sounds like it is a Verizon/unlocked model and they indeed do have encrypted boatloaders. If you had stayed on the old version of android you were on when you got it I believe there's a Verizon unlock boatloader thread here on XDA but it has to be on an older version of Android to work.

I bought my XL off eBay for $135 new a few months ago. Its confusing because some people that aren't like us XDA peeps, they don't fully understand the whole unlocked deal and most don't know wth a bootloader is or if they have Verizon unlocked model or also over on pixel 2 and 2xl eveb the refurnished units from Google have encrypted boatloaders and the thing isn't even greyed out but it won't unlock because they're encrypted as well. I've seen several reports of this on here, reditt and on Google's own help site people tripping out because they received replacement devices that had the encrypted bootloaders. I'd be sooooooo pissed!! If you run some fastboot commands and it can't be unlocked, if you end up not being able to return it and want one that doesn't have the locked down bootloader od throw it on swappa and sell it and get one. Swappa is cool because many of the people there are here in the forums or have been and they known what they have. Good luck. Sorry that happened to you man. It gave me anxiety after I looked for a month for a decent deal and read all the reports all over the internet.

There are Verizon Pixel & XL that are carrier unlocked but still have the locked bootloader and work on some gsm carriers. This sounds like it may be the case with yours. I'd throw it on a cord and type in the unlock fastboot command anyway just to see.
 
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raven.warsong

Senior Member
Apr 5, 2011
184
9
38
Sounds like it is a Verizon/unlocked model and they indeed do have encrypted boatloaders. If you had stayed on the old version of android you were on when you got it I believe there's a Verizon unlock boatloader thread here on XDA but it has to be on an older version of Android to work.

I bought my XL off eBay for $135 new a few months ago. Its confusing because some people that aren't like us XDA peeps, they don't fully understand the whole unlocked deal and most don't know wth a bootloader is or if they have Verizon unlocked model or also over on pixel 2 and 2xl eveb the refurnished units from Google have encrypted boatloaders and the thing isn't even greyed out but it won't unlock because they're encrypted as well. I've seen several reports of this on here, reditt and on Google's own help site people tripping out because they received replacement devices that had the encrypted bootloaders. I'd be sooooooo pissed!! If you run some fastboot commands and it can't be unlocked, if you end up not being able to return it and want one that doesn't have the locked down bootloader od throw it on swappa and sell it and get one. Swappa is cool because many of the people there are here in the forums or have been and they known what they have. Good luck. Sorry that happened to you man. It gave me anxiety after I looked for a month for a decent deal and read all the reports all over the internet.
thanks for the update Im not longer getting phones that has the boot bootloader locked.
i figured something was up and all ready boxed the phone up about 30 mins ago and sending it back thanks
 

flash713

Senior Member
May 7, 2015
879
435
93
Houston, Texas
thanks for the update Im not longer getting phones that has the boot bootloader locked.
i figured something was up and all ready boxed the phone up about 30 mins ago and sending it back thanks
Np. All Android devices come with the bootloader locked and if the carrier that the device was sold on doesn't make their models to have the extra security, with an encrypted bootloader to where it's impossible to unlock the bootloader for anyone except the one who encrypted it, in this case the carrier.. I've never heard of a device that had the encrypted bootloader being unencrypted by request from user on whatever carrier the device came from. If they're encrypted, unless someone else finds a work around, and it would be here somewhere if they did,,, then they stay locked and can't be rooted.

Verizon devices that they sell CANNOT be bootloader unlocked because that's how they decided to sell their phones. Almost all Android's sold by USA carriers are that way these days with the exception of many Motorola/Lonovo devices and a few others in the mix here and there.

I had a moto g6 Play (Boost mobile) before my Pixel XL (which I named Jesus because it saved me ??) and my G6 Play had a quad core 1.4 GHz CPU while all other models of the same phone had an eight core chips Boost sold the runt and I was in a hurry the day I purchased it and the lady at Boost shook her head when I walked in the store and told her what I wanted she confirmed that it had an eight core CPU and me being in such a hurry that day grabbed it, paid and left only to find out later it was laggy and the lady in the store had no clue about what I said or wasn't paying attention just shook her head as I talked.. lol. So after I unlocked the BL and rooted it with good ole TWRP recovery & Magisk I was then able to debloat it and take off like 30-40 apps, all kinds of sales trash, then the lag almost went away and it made it at least usable thanks to the great work of PHH on GSI roms and everyone else who participates in the GSI development. So you gotta really watch for these CDMA USA carriers because they're the ones who have many phones with specs cut down in half like that.. I'll never buy anything but Pixel and OnePlus again! Too much headache and to me in my opinion those are the best devices.

It's become a real mission these days to purchase a good Android device that doesn't have an encrypted bootloader because that's the way most carriers sell them so the only way to go is buying factory unlocked and confirming that the device can indeed be bootloader unlocked before purchase. Thing is many people who sell phones online don't care to answer a question like that and they buy their phones in bulk and half of them don't know what the heck they have. lol.. A good phone salesman knows what we mean when we say the word "bootloader." They're like, "Aaaah hell another one of those xda rooting tech gurus." ?? Back in the day almost all Android's could be bootloader unlocked by user if they wanted to. Now it's a mess of confusion for those who want to mod their device.