Question Unlocking bootloader will disable the camera?

[白い熊]

I just got a new Fold 3. Toggled OEM unlock in Developer settings, rebooted in Download mode – then long press up.

Now it asks to confirm bootloader unlock and says: “Doing so will cause the camera to be disabled”.

I've never seen this before – anyone seen that Samsung would do this on any other phone – disable the camera on bootloader unlock?

Can the disabled camera then be reenabled?

A phone without a camera would be problematic.

 

[LR7875]

I just got a new Fold 3. Toggled OEM unlock in Developer settings, rebooted in Download mode – then long press up.

Now it asks to confirm bootloader unlock and says: “Doing so will cause the camera to be disabled”.

I've never seen this before – anyone seen that Samsung would do this on any other phone – disable the camera on bootloader unlock?

Can the disabled camera then be reenabled?

A phone without a camera would be problematic.

Well it honestly, looks like what that will be caused by a virus.
Nonetheless, maybe it's Samsung's new way of ensuring you to stay on stock rom so that they can track (and maybe sell) your data, because samsung always does crap different (e.g. odin download mode instead of fastboot, need tar images, csc region code, etc)

 

[白い熊]

It's not a virus – this still happens while you're in download mode – it's a Samsung warning, they're trying to discourage unlocking the bootloader.

The question is whether this can be fixed somehow, so that the camera would work if you unlock the bootloader.

 

[LR7875]

It's not a virus – this still happens while you're in download mode – it's a Samsung warning, they're trying to discourage unlocking the bootloader.

The question is whether this can be fixed somehow, so that the camera would work if you unlock the bootloader.

I DID NOT SAW ANYTHING LIKE THIS honestly.
Sorry for SCREAMING.
Other manufacturers choice:
Huawei: locked down oem unlock forever
Xiaomi: go home and wait 7 days bro
DEAR SAMSUNG why disable the camera? Why? It is going mad! How did the camera offend you? What is the reason? This kind of proofs that they are putting ads and trackers onto the phone as there are no reason outside this.


Well they are just discouraging advanced users from buying the phone and push them to Xiaomi, OnePlus, etc

 

[白い熊]

I'm gonna wait a couple of days, just in case some info pops up somewhere on how to enable the camera.

If not, I'll return the phone – it'd be useless without the camera. Unless it'd just block the selfie cam, which I wouldn't mind. But there's no way to find out – unless you risk unlocking it, the camera would be disabled and then Samsung wouldn't take the phone back, as they'd say warranty is void.

 

[onefloofysheep]

Unlocking the bootloader no longer breaks the camera on Sony Xperia devices running Android Pie

Unlocking the bootloader of Sony Xperia devices running Android Pie no longer totally breaks the camera like before, but not every feature will work still.

www.xda-developers.com

I am thinking they claim it will be disabled because of something like this that happened on Sony phones?

 

[ianmacd]

I'm gonna wait a couple of days, just in case some info pops up somewhere on how to enable the camera.

If not, I'll return the phone – it'd be useless without the camera. Unless it'd just block the selfie cam, which I wouldn't mind. But there's no way to find out – unless you risk unlocking it, the camera would be disabled and then Samsung wouldn't take the phone back, as they'd say warranty is void.

The warranty isn't void if you unlock the bootloader. You can lock it again and nothing will have changed. Just unlocking and relocking doesn't affect Knox.

Can you please post a photo of the screen with the warning about disabling the camera?

And can you confirm you have the global F926B model?

 

[PiCkLeS]

Which device is this, the SM-F926B or a US/Asian-variant?

 

[白い熊]

F928B

Low Q pic I took – but you can see the warning there.

The warranty isn't void if you unlock the bootloader. You can lock it again and nothing will have changed. Just unlocking and relocking doesn't affect Knox.

You're right – unless I flash something, should be OK.

I'll go and give it a try now, and see what's up with the camera.

 

[Jake.S]

The warranty isn't void if you unlock the bootloader. You can lock it again and nothing will have changed. Just unlocking and relocking doesn't affect Knox.

Can you please post a photo of the screen with the warning about disabling the camera?

And can you confirm you have the global F926B model?

No that's where you are wrong unlocking the bootloader does trig KNOX and warranty is void. I seen others unlock and their KNOX where triggered.

 

[白い熊]

Ugh – if it toggles Knox they'll tell me for sure warranty is void. OMG – what a quandary…

 

[ianmacd]

No that's where you are wrong unlocking the bootloader does trig KNOX and warranty is void. I seen others unlock and their KNOX where triggered.

I've been unlocking and flashing these devices for years and I can assure you that the act of merely unlocking the bootloader does not affect the Knox status.

That isn't affected until the first time that you flash an unofficial image to one of the partitions.

You can relock the bootloader without making modifications and Knox will still be intact.

 

[renegade]

Seeing ianmacd is here brings hope that there might be a solution to be found...
The question is, did anybody actually try unlocking the bootloader and checked if the cameras really get disabled?

 

[ianmacd]

Seeing ianmacd is here brings hope that there might be a solution to be found...
The question is, did anybody actually try unlocking the bootloader and checked if the cameras really get disabled?

My own Fold3 (F926B) will arrive on Sunday.

I'll unlock the bootloader straight away and observe what happens to the camera. Then we'll know for sure.

 

[StormCell]

I just got a new Fold 3. Toggled OEM unlock in Developer settings, rebooted in Download mode – then long press up.

Now it asks to confirm bootloader unlock and says: “Doing so will cause the camera to be disabled”.

I've never seen this before – anyone seen that Samsung would do this on any other phone – disable the camera on bootloader unlock?

Can the disabled camera then be reenabled?

A phone without a camera would be problematic.

What country are you in?

 

[Mr. Orange 645]

Disregard

 

[白い熊]

My own Fold3 (F926B) will arrive on Sunday.

I'll unlock the bootloader straight away and observe what happens to the camera. Then we'll know for sure.

Did your phone arrive and did you unlock it?

 

[Hogyoku]

Don't they mean the under display camera that will get disabled ?

 

[ianmacd]

Did your phone arrive and did you unlock it?

Yes, my Fold3 (F926B) arrived yesterday and I unlocked its bootloader this afternoon.

I can confirm that all cameras stop working afterwards. This means that facial recognition also fails. Anything that uses any of the cameras will fail.

I tried installing a third-party camera app, but this also failed. I took a logcat of the failure:

07-12 13:50:51.413  1384 31574 W ServiceManager: Permission failure: android.permission.CAMERA_OPEN_CLOSE_LISTENER from uid=10291 pid=8927
07-12 13:50:51.413  1384 31574 D CameraService: CameraDeviceState for CameraManager
07-12 13:50:51.413  8927  9780 I CameraManagerGlobal: Camera 0 facing CAMERA_FACING_BACK state now CAMERA_STATE_CLOSED for client net.sourceforge.opencamera API Level 1
07-12 13:50:51.413  8927  9780 I CameraManagerGlobal: Camera 1 facing CAMERA_FACING_FRONT state now CAMERA_STATE_CLOSED for client android.system API Level 2
07-12 13:50:51.413  8927  9780 I CameraManagerGlobal: Camera 2 facing CAMERA_FACING_BACK state now CAMERA_STATE_CLOSED for client android.system API Level 2
07-12 13:50:51.414  8927  9780 I CameraManagerGlobal: Camera 20 facing CAMERA_FACING_BACK state now CAMERA_STATE_CLOSED for client android.system API Level 2
07-12 13:50:51.414  8927  9780 I CameraManagerGlobal: Camera 21 facing CAMERA_FACING_BACK state now CAMERA_STATE_CLOSED for client android.system API Level 2
07-12 13:50:51.414  8927  9780 I CameraManagerGlobal: Camera 23 facing CAMERA_FACING_BACK state now CAMERA_STATE_CLOSED for client android.system API Level 2
07-12 13:50:51.414  8927  9780 I CameraManagerGlobal: Camera 3 facing CAMERA_FACING_FRONT state now CAMERA_STATE_CLOSED for client android.system API Level 2
07-12 13:50:51.414  8927  9780 I CameraManagerGlobal: Camera 4 facing CAMERA_FACING_FRONT state now CAMERA_STATE_CLOSED for client android.system API Level 2
07-12 13:50:51.414  8927  9780 I CameraManagerGlobal: Camera 52 facing CAMERA_FACING_BACK state now CAMERA_STATE_CLOSED for client android.system API Level 2
07-12 13:50:51.414  8927  9780 I CameraManagerGlobal: Camera 71 facing CAMERA_FACING_FRONT state now CAMERA_STATE_CLOSED for client android.system API Level 2
07-12 13:50:51.414  8927  9780 I CameraManagerGlobal: Camera 73 facing CAMERA_FACING_FRONT state now CAMERA_STATE_CLOSED for client android.system API Level 2
07-12 13:50:51.414  8927  9780 I CameraManagerGlobal: Camera 91 facing CAMERA_FACING_FRONT state now CAMERA_STATE_CLOSED for client android.system API Level 2
07-12 13:50:51.415  1384 31574 D CameraService: getNumberOfCameras E
07-12 13:50:51.416  1384 31574 W ServiceManager: Permission failure: android.permission.SYSTEM_CAMERA from uid=10291 pid=8927
07-12 13:50:51.416  1384 31574 D CameraService: getNumberOfCameras X: ok
07-12 13:50:51.416  1384 31574 D CameraService: getNumberOfCameras E
07-12 13:50:51.416  1384 31574 W ServiceManager: Permission failure: android.permission.SYSTEM_CAMERA from uid=10291 pid=8927
07-12 13:50:51.416  1384 31574 D CameraService: getNumberOfCameras X: ok
07-12 13:50:51.416  1384 31574 D CameraService: getCameraInfo E: 0

At a glance, I'm confident that this can be fixed using Magisk (i.e. root), but I can't rule out the camera having been disabled in other ways, too. The situation may not be recoverable.

After relocking the bootloader, the camera works again.

It's really obnoxious of Samsung to do this, and I am in two minds now about keeping the device and working on a fix for the issue, or simply returning the unit in disgust. This is the kind of practice I expect from Apple, and I always tell Apple users to vote with their wallet when confronted with such anti-consumer practices.

 

[chieco]

@ianmacd

Thank you so much for reporting back. This is just sad and disgusting what Sammy is doing. I was so excited to get a SD SoC in a Sammy flagship device in Europe and now this... Do you think down there line there will be a fix? Otherwise I'll have to cancel my pre-order because using a device without root is not acceptable for me.