Purchased Unlocked Pixel 8a but the OEM unlocking option is disabled

GrapheneOS "A Pixel from the Google Store is guaranteed to be able to be unlocked."

I do not believe this is true.

There is a report on XDA and a report on Reddit of people having the OEM Unlocking function greyed out on their Pixel 8as purchased directly from Google.

GrapheneOS Is it acceptable to post the Reddit and XDA forum posts of other people having issues unlocking the bootloader of Pixel 8a's?

jahim663 I can also confirm on the Google Store warranty page it is a Pixel 8a (Fi), not Unlocked like ordered.

This does seem like something for their support people to work on, so it's good it's in their hands. If, hypothetically, they are shipping the wrong devices to end users, maybe they are also shipping the wrong devices to retailers.

Please report back!

[deleted] actually have yet to see a single report of anyone being able to successfully OEM unlock their 8a, regardless of where it was purchased from.

I suspect at least one GrapheneOS developer unlocked at least one 8a 🤔

jahim663 My Best Buy model lists it as (Fi) as well.

Which is curious because if that means it's a Google Fi branded model, it should still be bootloader unlockable, as phones purchased through Google Fi have always been fully unlocked (sim and bootloader) Pixels.

de0u Google Support forwarded the issue to "Google Pixel Hardware Support" team. If anyone else reaches out to Google Support, they seemed to recognize it was an issue after explaining carrier unlocking is different from bootloader unlocking "OEM unlocking" option.

[deleted] I've been scouring Reddit and XDA for last few days and people in the Pixel 6a forums ancedotally mentioned that Pixel 6a (Unlocked) purchased from Google Store show up as Pixel 6a (Fi) in the warranty page.

jahim663 Glad you were able to submit a report.

They refused to help me at all because I didn’t purchase the phone from them. Which is a whole other can of worms. I’ve never had a manufacturer of any product refused to help me just because I didn’t buy it directly from them. and my warranty is still through them so that literally makes no sense.🙃🙄

jahim663 People in the Pixel 6a forums ancedotally mentioned that Pixel 6a (Unlocked) purchased from Google Store show up as Pixel 6a (Fi) in the warranty page.

Hmmm. When I put my serial number into the "Warranty Helper" it comes back as "Pixel 6a 128GB Sage (Unlocked)".

michaelsoftbinbows You should contact their support rather than getting a less secure device with far less support ahead.

jahim663 SIM card can't cause an issue with this. It doesn't matter which carrier you're using. It's supposed to say it's an unlocked device, not a Google Fi device.

[deleted]

"A Pixel from the Google Store is guaranteed to be able to be unlocked."

It is true. If you're having a technical issue with enabling OEM unlocking with your unlocked device, contact their support and get it resolved.

[deleted] That's utter nonsense since we obviously had to unlock a device to add support for it and many of our users have tested it and are using it. You're doing the opposite of what would get you useful support.

de0u We could not have added support for it without having devices with GrapheneOS and having people who tested it with GrapheneOS. It makes no sense to claim that no one has devices they were able to unlock when a bunch of people are using GrapheneOS on the Pixel 8a already...

GrapheneOS We could not have added support for it without having devices with GrapheneOS and having people who tested it with GrapheneOS.

Indeed!

GrapheneOS I don't know what your process is for developing new builds. I'm not a developer, but I do know that there often is software built for devices without actually testing them on the hardware itself. So I guess I assumed that. Apologies. My mistake for assuming.

Since I'm apparently doing the opposite of what would get me useful support(?), what should I be doing, short of returning my phone?

Right now those of us that were sold "unlocked" Pixels (some of us directly from Google) are simply trying to figure out what's going on since it doesn't make sense why people like you have had no problem unlocking, but we are. Any help is genuinely appreciated, because all of us here want to use Graphene.

[deleted] Since I'm apparently doing the opposite of what would get me useful support(?), what should I be doing, short of returning my phone?

Personally I think you have three possible moves:

1. Return the phone. As I suggested earlier, if you have found reports online of people purchasing unlocked phones from Google and not being able to unlock them, maybe bring some of those reports and try to talk them into treating the phone as broken instead of charging you a restocking fee.
2. Wait until the issue filed by from-Google-Store purchasers makes its way through the system (which could take weeks or months -- who knows?) and hope that Google can either remotely enable OEM unlocking for the device you have, or will set up a mechanism for returning non-unlockable devices.
3. Try to sell the device second-hand as a Fi-specific device.

If the device is genuinely not OEM-unlockable, then installing GrapheneOS on it is genuinely not possible, and it seems unlikely that the GrapheneOS project can fix that (at least, I can't imagine how). Since Best Buy presumably won't take the device back forever, it may be infeasible to wait for Google to figure out what they will do.

I suspect what @GrapheneOS meant by "A Pixel from the Google Store is guaranteed to be able to be unlocked" is that if the device sent by the Google Store is not unlockable then it is guaranteed that they will resolve the issue. This is consistent with the report from jahim663 that Google's front-line support is escalating the issue.

Personally I am fairly motivated to buy my next Pixel from the Google Store, because that seems to me to be the "most guaranteed" way to get an unlockable device. Part of my consideration is that when I failed to unlock my first 6a, bought from Amazon, I tried Amazon tech support and it wasn't clear to me the person I was connected to understood what OEM unlocking is.

de0u that all seems pretty reasonable to me.

Of course I traded in my 6a for the 8a, so if I return this I only get a fraction of the trade in credit since I don't get the "deal" ($80 vs $180) and also lose the $100 gift card I got. I also have to decide how much I want to argue so I don't pay the $40 restocking fee. Ugh. What a mess.

I'll have to sit down and do the math if it's worth it to go through that hassle or just sell it on Swappa.

Appreciate the input.