How to fix the missing OEM Unlock button on the Samsung Galaxy S9/S8/Note 8

On any smartphone running Android 5.0 Lollipop and higher, you may find an option called ‘OEM unlocking’ in developer options. By toggling this option, you’ll get the ability to unlock the bootloader on your device. Unlocking the bootloader lets you install a custom recovery such as TWRP, root your device to access system files, flash custom ROMs, modify the kernel, and much more. If you own the international/Exynos version of the Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, or Samsung Galaxy S9 and you’re missing the OEM unlock toggle, then there’s a fix available.

Samsung allows unlocking the bootloader on the international versions of their phones. But on the Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy S9, and Samsung Galaxy Note 8, the ‘OEM unlocking’ option only becomes available after 7 days of activating the device and adding a Samsung or Google account to the device. If you would rather not wait 7 days or if even after 7 days the button is still missing, XDA Senior Member altai1963 has posted instructions about how to fix the missing ‘OEM unlock’ button on the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+, Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, too. The latter is not yet tested, but we’re positive it’ll work on it too.

Without any further ado, let’s get started:

Fix Missing OEM Unlock Toggle on Samsung Galaxy S9/S8/Note 8

1. First of all, open the Settings app on your Galaxy device;
2. Go to General management > Date and time;
3. Untick ‘Automatic date and time’;
4. New options should appear. Tap ‘Set date’ and select any date from the last month, so that we can trick the system into thinking we’ve had the device for more than 7 days. In this case, we’re selecting May 10th;
5. Back out. In Settings, go to About phone > Software information;
6. Tap on Build number 7 times to activate Developer options;
7. Back out. In Settings, go to the newly added Developer options;
8. Untick ‘Auto update system’;
9. Back out. Go to Software update;
10. Untick ‘Download updates automatically’;
11. Tap on ‘Download updates manually’. It may throw an error, but don’t worry, that’s absolutely okay;
12. Reboot your device;
13. That’s it! ‘OEM unlock’ option should be available in the Developer options now.

After following the instructions, you’ll be able to unlock the bootloader on your brand new Galaxy device. As I already mentioned, this method has been tested on the Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy S8+, Samsung Galaxy S9, and Samsung Galaxy S9+, but the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 should theoretically work, too.

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