Purchased Unlocked Pixel 8a but the OEM unlocking option is disabled
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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.
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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.🙃🙄
michaelsoftbinbows Yes, how do you think it was added to GrapheneOS? Multiple community members tested it which led to it being released...
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.
"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!
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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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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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.
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I am also having the same issue. I bought two devices from Best Buy, both "unlocked Google Pixel 8", and OEM Unlocking has been greyed out for the past 2 days. I am connected to WiFi, have setup the devices, and everything I can think of. I opened a support ticket to Google and the representative confirmed my devices were unlocked on their end. The rep had no idea what the issue could be. I already brought one device back and managed to avoid the restocking fee by claiming it was defective, but I'm starting to think this is a bigger issue than a few devices... I have bought many unlocked devices from Best Buy in the past and never had an issue unlocking the bootloader.
I also checked on "store.google.com/repair" with my IMEI numbers and both devices were shown as "Google Pixel 8 (Unlocked)". Very strange.
GrapheneOS Unfortunately Google support has not been very helpful in my case. They walked me through a bunch of troubleshooting steps, including "checkin", factory reset, connecting to WiFi with Mobile Data disabled, etc. The warranty page shows it as "Pixel 8 Obsidian 256GB (Unlocked)". They eventually told me they have no idea what's wrong and to bring my device back. I brought my device back and have the same issue with another "unlocked device." There must be some bigger issue here. There's reports online of this happening when the Pixel 6 came out and was resolved with a system update. I'm just gonna wait it out at this point. Looking forward to using GrapheneOS, it has spoiled all other ROMs for me :)
tnk479 Try telling Best Buy there is a software defect and it is advertised as Unlocked but it is not unlockable. Worked for me to avoid the restocking fee. However, I ended up with another device with the same problem. So I don't think it will help you very much, unless you get a different model.
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Try this! Worked for me same issue!
I was in the same boat. For anyone having this issue, you cannot just connect to Wi-Fi, you have to actually get an active SIM to connect to the network. I went and purchased one online from one of those international carriers for about five dollars and as soon as it got a data connection within five minutes I had the OEM unlocking option available. Before I was just on Wi-Fi I did not have that option available to me. You have to have an active eSIM or a regular SIM on the phone and it has to connect to data.
TLDR - Had the same issue with an Amazon phone as soon as I got a data-only eSIM and it connected within five minutes OEM unlocking was available to me. Wi-Fi only did not fix the problem.