No way to use my Verizon Pixel?

hippo

I have been using a Pixel 7 for a few years, but I'm fed up with all of the big tech companies' privacy practices (especially Google) so I'm trying to take back control of my technology and data. I was never a big fan of the Pixel experience anyway, so the plan was always to switch devices when it came time to upgrade.

However, when I learned about Graphene I got very excited to finally have some feeling of control over my own phone, so I decided to give the Pixel another chance.

I spent two hours at the Verizon store going through the upgrade process for a Pixel 9 Pro, and gleefully came home ready to install Graphene, only to find out that Pixels from Verizon cannot be OEM unlocked and therefore cannot use Graphene. I thought I might be able to use my old Pixel 7 but no luck there either since it's also from Verizon.

Am I really SOL? Is there any way to OEM unlock either my Pixel 7 or 9 Pro?

If not, I really wish the devs would explain this more clearly in the pre-requisites. I know there was a warning about unlocking on their website, but it's not as obvious as I think it should be.

Anyway, rant over. Time to return my phone and pay a $50 restocking fee!

starglider

hippo Yes, it's BS that carriers get away with this nonsense, but that's the reality. Unless you buy it straight from Google, you're not guaranteed an unlockable bootloader.

raccoondad

hippo but it's not as obvious as I think it should be.

Its extremely obvious....but yes, you are SOL buying a vendor based device and wanting to unlock the boot loader.

de0u

hippo If there are specific wording changes that might be useful, they could be proposed. But I suspect the project may not be interested in naming specific carriers, if only because naming some anti-unlock carriers might give people a mistaken impression that some other carrier is unlocking-friendly. So I suspect proposed new wording would probably need to remain somewhat generic, and I suspect that may make it easier to miss.

ErnestThornhill

hippo It's a good idea to give a look at the GrapheneOS website. Specifically the prerequisite section of the installation guide where it says "To make sure that the device can be unlocked to install GrapheneOS, avoid carrier variants of the devices. Carrier variants of Pixels use the same stock OS and firmware with a non-zero carrier id flashed onto the persist partition in the factory. The carrier id activates carrier-specific configuration in the stock OS including disabling carrier and bootloader unlocking. The carrier may be able to remotely disable this, but their support staff may not be aware and they probably won't do it. Get a carrier agnostic device to avoid the risk and potential hassle. If you CAN figure out a way to unlock a carrier device, it isn't a problem as GrapheneOS can just ignore the carrier id and the hardware is the same."

https://grapheneos.org/install/web#prerequisites.

Verizon has been heavily discussed on this forum with regards to the company locking their device's bootloader and there not being a way to undo it.

Psyonico

I feel your pain about carrier locked devices, but the very first sentence of the "device compatibility" FAQ is pretty clear:

"Devices sold in partnership with specific carriers may be locked by the carrier, which will prevent installing GrapheneOS"

starglider

de0u Not to mention it can be inconsistent across devices. Maintaining an updated list would be a nightmare.

Also really annoying that carriers have been able to obfuscate this whole thing by conflating “carrier unlock” with “boot loader unlock.” I bet a nontrivial number of people expect that toggle to light up 60 days after purchase because Verizon “unlocks” phones (in terms of the network) after 60 days.

mar2112

Have you fully paid for your phone? It's been a few years, but my T-Mobile Pixel 4a5g could not be unlocked until I fully paid for the phone which I did as soon as they told me that's all I needed to do to be able to unlock the device.

ErnestThornhill

mar2112 "Carrier Unlocked" and "OEM Unlocked" are two different things.

de0u

mar2112 Have you fully paid for your phone? It's been a few years, but my T-Mobile Pixel 4a5g could not be unlocked until I fully paid for the phone [...]

The original poster asked specifically about Verizon phones. Verizon's policies are different (no bootloader / OEM unlocking, period).