General Pixel 6a OEM Unlocking Greyed Out STILL in August Update

[i-hate-phones]

I just want to post here to warn anyone considering buying this piece of trash phone to think again, and choose a different model. I never would have bought a google phone in the first place because I fully expected issues like this from an awful corporation like google, but I wanted to try GrapheneOS and pixels are the only option..

I bought an unlocked phone and I am unable to enable unlocking no matter what I try. I got it on sale for a good price, forgot about it until the return window closed, and now I am stuck with this POS that refuses to let me enable unlocking. I have tried sideloading the latest updates, factory reset probably 30 times, nothing works.

This is completely unacceptable. My $300 device that I OWN should not have to phone home to google, in the process sending them my wifi local data and god knows what else, just to allow me to use it the way I want. The modern state of technology is truly pitiful, and big brother google sure as heck doesn't care about anyone they can't profile and make money off of. I'm convinced at this point that this is just blatant datamining. Honestly I'm about to just throw this thing out the window and try to forget about it.

Update: using public wifi and running some sort of '''update''' (even though I had already sideloaded the most recent OTA...) has enabled OEM unlocking. I would still advise anyone to not purchase this phone if they care about privacy and don't want to feed google their data. Walking down to the shopping center in the cold was a pain in the a** but after having given google $300 of my hard-earned dollars I refuse to give them a single iota more. This is blatant datamining, not a 'bug' and a big F U to those of us who prefer to use custom android builds and generally expect to own the devices we pay for. Death to google I say, and if GrapheneOS wasn't so promising I would just sell this thing on ebay.

 

[MONGTAY]

Is there currently a way to enable OEM unlock on Pixel 6a from Verizon?

 

[mike.s]

Is there currently a way to enable OEM unlock on Pixel 6a from Verizon?

No, and it's unlikely there will be.

 

[tmittelstaedt]

I just picked up a Pixel 6a 2 days ago running A12 and it had the option greyed out. Running all updates including the update to A13 and connecting the phone to wifi and giving it a few hours fixe the problem. The phone is a model GX7AS

 

[mmead1143]

^^
run back thru the thread - I too had the issue and figured it out via this thread. Can't remember now but you will find the exact issue - GL

 

[bdizzle1686]

I bought mine back in mid December 2022, option was greyed out, performed a factory reset about 2 weeks later, and option was available, and has been since .
Yes, it sucks that a factory reset is required to fix the issue, but y'all are making too much of an issue about it.
Every phone I've ever owned (from Samsung, to htc, to Motorola, to Lenovo-rola, to Nexus, to Pixels, have all had their own issues..
This is by far my favorite phone I've ever owned, (and I've owned ALOT)
Do yourself the favor, factory reset it and enable OEM unlocking. Presto all better

 

[induna]

Just another data point. I bought my 6a just before Christmas. It arrived with Android 12 and OEM unlocking greyed out. It continued to be grayed out after updating to 13 and stayed that way until just the other day. I rebooted the phone because it was acting funny. It was a very long reboot but afterwards OEM locking was available. I have no idea what happened.

 

[EliteBlackKaiser]

Got an unlocked Pixel 6a delivered yesterday from the Google Store. Was planning to root it immediately upon setup but the "OEM Unlock" option in Dev settings is greyed out, saying "Connect to the internet or contact your carrier". I am connected to the internet, have a Visible SIM installed, and am on the most recent Android 13 update available for the 6a. I have tried all of the options, including factory resetting, going through setup without SIM or internet, etc. Google support has been of little to no help.

Pulled the build.prop using adb shell getprop and the value ro.oem_unlocking_supported does not exist.

I'm pretty sure their are some pixels devices on some carriers who don't support the bootloader unlock. And most carriers have put a stop to bootloader's being unlocked until the phone is paid off to prevent modifications/ warranty voiding while they still own the phone.

For example I received my 6a from Spectrum Mobile , opened it up , turned the phone one and tried every step you mentioned and with no luck it was still greyed out. Ended up finding out I couldn't get Spectrum to send the unlock until I paid the phone off... When I paid the phone off within minutes they sent the unlock confirmation to my phone and I was able to factory unlock my phone...

And currently on LOS 20 , magisk , and modules.

 

[john-aurelio]

I solved the problem

 

[john-aurelio]

 

[john-aurelio]

go to settings and then go down to reset options enter and press erase all data.

 

[kisjoska]

I have the same problem. What to do?

 

[Bobbore89]

Stessa cosa con moto g42 sto aggiornando il software e provo a vedere le varie cose che ho letto

 

[Wyattx17]

I bought 2 pixel 6a's from the google fi store and both of them were locked. On one of them, I went through the upgrades to android 13 and it was still greyed out. I did 3 factory resets and I was able to toggle OEM unlocking in the developer options. It seems like random luck to me. Not sure what I did to be honest.

 

[Singlespeed10]

@bobby janow You forgot to type a response when you quoted me. It just seemed like when you said something about a list that maybe you had posted that in the wrong thread, since I didn't notice anything else in the thread that made sense for that response.

Edit: Oh, you edited it now. Nevermind. I understand now.

list of pixel 6a models - Google Search

Although the first search result only lists:


GSMArena only lists three:

My understanding is that the A4RGB17L is for the Japan market only.

 

[TechX1991]

I just want to post here to warn anyone considering buying this piece of trash phone to think again, and choose a different model. I never would have bought a google phone in the first place because I fully expected issues like this from an awful corporation like google, but I wanted to try GrapheneOS and pixels are the only option..

I bought an unlocked phone and I am unable to enable unlocking no matter what I try. I got it on sale for a good price, forgot about it until the return window closed, and now I am stuck with this POS that refuses to let me enable unlocking. I have tried sideloading the latest updates, factory reset probably 30 times, nothing works.

This is completely unacceptable. My $300 device that I OWN should not have to phone home to google, in the process sending them my wifi local data and god knows what else, just to allow me to use it the way I want. The modern state of technology is truly pitiful, and big brother google sure as heck doesn't care about anyone they can't profile and make money off of. I'm convinced at this point that this is just blatant datamining. Honestly I'm about to just throw this thing out the window and try to forget about it.

Update: using public wifi and running some sort of '''update''' (even though I had already sideloaded the most recent OTA...) has enabled OEM unlocking. I would still advise anyone to not purchase this phone if they care about privacy and don't want to feed google their data. Walking down to the shopping center in the cold was a pain in the a** but after having given google $300 of my hard-earned dollars I refuse to give them a single iota more. This is blatant datamining, not a 'bug' and a big F U to those of us who prefer to use custom android builds and generally expect to own the devices we pay for. Death to google I say, and if GrapheneOS wasn't so promising I would just sell this thing on ebay.

you nearly always have to connect either to wifi or cellular signal before oem unlock will pop up. This isn't new.

Also, your clear issue with google shows you shouldn't use an iphone or android phone either way. All android phones data mine. All iPhones data mine. Your windows computers and macOS computers data mine.

You're just paranoid, and it shows lol