yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] dr.ketan:
Test2 suggest oem unlock is on Though not visible.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] pswin09:
If you need any tester please let me know doctor.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] fragtion:
This is something that should probably be tried somehow - at least for those users who are still waiting after 11+ days etc who have nothing to lose besides more time... Drain battery in Download mode until device powers off. Then charge, boot straight to Download Mode, full wipe everything (flash stock + OXM CSC) and boot to fresh system. If OEM toggle isn't there, in theory it should appear 7 days later if the theory of battery & internal hw clock is correct (unless of course Download Mode picks up the last timer and re-enforces it from where it left off before the battery disconnect... then this won't work)

Yes this is mostly speculation, but without a battery how does the phone manage to keep track and know that 7 days are passed, if we are full wiping everything when we flash stock??
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] dr.ketan:
Nothing but someone try rebooting device can confirm tested result really working
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] kenpaci:
Any result?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] pswin09:
I haven't tried bro. [emoji16] [emoji16]
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] kenpaci:
Mybe i need selling my note8 this week, very tired for all this
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] white7561:
Hang on. We don't know if we are on the edge to finding a workaround [emoji3]
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] MistahBungle:
Pretty sure we do have one ?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Superduper01:
This world is full of geniuses, I am sure we will have one
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] MistahBungle:
We do have a workaround:-

*Once you've got OEM Unlock in dev settings, toggle it on.

*Flash TWRP in Odin exactly as per the flashing instructions on the first page of the TWRP thread.

*Once you've booted into TWRP after flash, initialise exactly as per instructions in TWRP thread.

*Flash rom, reset.

*Staying in TWRP, flash Magisk, reset.

*Reboot into system, obviously first boot takes a while as it usually does when you flash something clean.

*????

* PROFIT !!!!

In other words, follow what Krabman suggested here. Is there a superfluous step or two in there ? Maybe. That's less important than the fact it works, you should be able to use/reboot your phone normally & OEM Unlock should stick.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] metzo32:
7 days and OEM show up!, still want to root of course.Is better to flash Rom like Reno or stay with stock rooted are better option ? in Reno Rom OEM is removed after flash is that normal too,any body try it ..Thanks
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] fragtion:
Congrats for your OEM.

Actually we need more volunteers to try replicate the steps above (from MistahBungle / krabman). It MUST BE DONE EXACTLY, step for step as shown. If we can prove that these steps result in seemingly permanent Unlocked OEM for anyone who follows them then we might finally have a reliable method for rooting all of our devices without risk of losing OEM.

Nobody can tell you what to do, but if you want to contribute further to our combined research then you should probably try to follow those steps and flash Dr Ketans ROM (N2) or another ROM which does NOT hide the OEM Unlock switch. If you still have OEM after the flashing then there is a VERY good chance that those steps, if performed EXACTLY as described, will work for everyone else and become our official safe rooting method.

Anyway this has proven to be most effective method for now so even if your OEM switch does disappear, at least you know that you tried with arguably the best approach we have right now, and besides you will still achieve a rooted custom ROM as intended - You'll just need to be careful not to reboot for another week until the OEM switch re-appears. You then disable & re-enable it and try rebooting (white7561's suggestion, which has great potential but is yet to be proven). Just be sure to let us know your results please!! GOOD LUCK! :)
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] dr.ketan:
What I suggest exact steps to flash ROM who have just appeared OEM unlock are

1.Enable Developer Option (settings - about phone - Software information - Tap 7 times on build number to activate developer option in settings menu)

2.Enable OEM Unlock from developer option

3.Download ROM and copy to Ext SD card.

4.Download TWRP for N8

5.Switch Off device

6.Press Vol down + Bixby + Power to reboot to download mode, press volume up when asked to continue to download mode

7.Download Odin and open it, Disable 'Auto reboot' from option menu of Odin

8.Select TWRP (tar image) with AP tab of Odin and Start

9.Once Successfully flashed, you will see 'Passed' in Odin tab

10.Disconnect device and hold Vol down + power till screen goes off, Now immediately press Vol Up + Bixby + Power to reboot to TWRP

11.Select to allow modification

12.From TWRP, Select WIPE menu - Then FORMAT DATA - You need to type 'yes' to perform wipe. WARNING : This will erase all data including Int SD storage from device

13.Once format device completes, go back and select REBOOT' Menu and then - 'RECOVERY', This will reboot to TWRP again

14.Now select Install and navigate path to Ext SD card - ROM zip, you have copied earlier

15.Once ROM flash successfully, Reboot to System

I Don't recommend multi wipe.

PS : If your ROM have forced removed OEM option then you can't confirm you have developer option stuck or not.

In case some one just wanted to 'root' without flashing ROM, simply download latest Magisk.zip instead of ROM as said above and flash that.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] sun2sunny:
Had done exactly but lost oem unlock and stuck at official binaries but after rebooting rom detects sim change and started reboot and factory reseted again after reboot i was not having oem unlock i think sim change detection is problem.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] rocketmail.com:
Can someone post stock firmware to Mega or Androidhost for me, am trying to download latest N950 F/DS , but am finding it difficult now.

Am trying to prepare my files for life after jail.:laugh:
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] dr.ketan:
Search samfirm tool

Fill up device model and csc and select Auto mode

You will get best speed direct from Samsung server and can resume download too
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] chloeleedow:
I feel like an iPhone user since becoming a note 8 owner ? ? ?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] rocketmail.com:
We will find a way out, Samsung can't bully us like that.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Gammer2017:
Am back in jail

So waited the seven days.

Oem came up. So relieved. I switched it on and then flashed with odin and installed magistic. Went back into system all fine. Decided to use dr katen tool to unlock oem. Rebooted and I got the red writing. Back in jail
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] j3yps:
Okay this might not be a smart question to ask, and i don't mean this negatively.

The Renovate ROM hides the OEM Unlock right? so how come with the renovate rom there's not problem booting with my phone but with the N1 version of Dr.Ketan's rom i got the error?

Just curious because if the flash count returns to 7days after we flash a rom, shouldn't that be the same case with Renovate as well?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] willcor:
Just a observation.

I got OEM unlock back yesterday, after my last Factory reset. ( 7 days)

Apart from OEM unlock enabled, i have done absolutely no other modifications ect.

Since yesterday toggle presence was stable.

Decided now to see what happens if i just do

a normal reboot.

Result.... OEM toggle disappeared. !

So it seems a plain innocent reboot

also triggers the OEM to disappear.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] fragtion:
Nobody confirmed that the OEM unlock APK is working yet, so you could have been a bit more careful than to rely on it to save you from the reboot bug. Also if you followed the last 2-3 pages of this thread, you would have seen that krabman's method is currently the most promising method we have for our devices right now, as it has worked for some users already.

Either way, your device now falls into the same category as mine and many others here (prone to the red text after reboot), and as things stand right now, there are only 2 possible ways we know of, which could potentially overcome this - namely:

- krabman's steps - which have already worked for him and some others like MistahBungle and turilo.

or

- white7561's idea - after you flash custom ROM and confirm OEM is missing, just keep phone on for another 7 days until OEM appears again. Then switch OEM off, and back on, and reboot. If phone reboots fine, you are done!

So far, nobody has been patient enough to actually confirm whether white7561's method works or not. In principle it seems like it would work perfectly.

As for krabman's steps - I followed turilo's "shortened" version of them with no luck (I still lost OEM -- despite no sim CARD in slot while flashing or booting) - but others have reported success while following that

So as stressed before already, what we really need right now is for more users to try the above two methods and confirm whether it works for you or not, rather than going on your own mission or trying methods which we have already proven do not work (unless you're another developer and want to save us, of course ;D)

Have there been any reports of users flashing Renovate and then being met with the Red text afterwards? Personally, I've been quite puzzled as to why the majority of users are flashing Renovate if it is missing OEM toggle (seems like a stupid thing to do), but even more puzzed at the lack of complaints about softbricked devices from the Renovate camp!
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] j3yps:
I personally flashed Renovate because, i think i read somewhere that so far it's the safest (forgive me for not being precise, I've read aloooot of things regarding this phone and it's possible that i sometimes mixed some infos uo in my head haha). So i tried flashing it first, tried rebooting a couple of time, even went to TWRP a couple of times, without any problem. Whereas since the dev purposely removed the OEM Unlock option it should've been a more risky rom to flash. This is phone is gping to drive me nuts!haha

I'm really reaaaaallllly hoping that this is just a temporary bug that samsung will fix soon. If not, this is like the Note 7 again (a POTENTIALLY perfect phone)

---------- Post added at 02:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:28 AM ----------

So this happened, i changed the date to Oct 31 manually, booted into safe mode. the OEM Unlock option appeared. Toggled it and it gave me the usual warning i accepted it and booted back to normal mode. But the option again went missing. Tried flashing TWRP, but it's still a no go :(
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] krabman:
The red text just means a stock kernal thats not enforcing, it's normal and doesn't hurt anything. I have it as do the others that followed the same procedure.

As to renovate I have a theory. A number of people have described waiting a week, enabling OEM, and then can see the toggle come and go while still stock before they've flashed anything. It may be that when the toggle is not visible it's not set even though it shows unlocked in download. Think about it. If you have a normal phone and go ahead and enable OEM unlock, it will show unlocked in downloader. Switch it back off and it will still show unlocked in downloader but if you try and flash something you go into boot loop because the switch isn't on. I'm thinking it's possible that it isn't just the setting that's coming and going in the GUI for some users, it's also changing status. In other words on when visible, off when missing. A renovate user cant check because the option has been removed from the GUI but the setting still exists in the firmware despite that. So what happens is Russian roulette, the setting is changing status in the background and if you flash while it's set to on you're ok, catch it when it's gone and you go into boot loop. Sounds far-fetched for sure and yet it would explain a lot.

This is why I said there may be a real clue there as to what's going on. If this is the case finding out why the switch is coming and going in renovate versus not in ketan would lead to an answer. This is all theory gents, I'm guessing, but I do know one way it could be checked. If we could talk the kind folks behind renovate into not hiding the setting would could then see if it was coming and going. That would remove multiple possibilities if nothing else.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] Gammer2017:
The last time I had read the thread no one had experimented so I wanted to try it and if it worked I could report back here. Well I guess that it don't work. I last checked the thread maybe 24 hours ago at that time not sure if the methods u mentioned were there or not. But I guess I'll have to use my s8 for now.

P.s thanks for the insight well appreciated

And I wish I was a developer ???
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] fragtion:
Hmmm..Noo dude , wait let's backtrack a sec here. I guess I should have been more specific about "the red text". We're talking about the "Only official released binaries are allowed to be flashed" red text which appears IF a reboot happens while the device is flashed with ANY non-stock binary while OEM Unlock toggle is OFF. It's a different text to the "KERNEL IS NOT SEANDROID ENFORCING" which you refer to (and yeah *is to be expected* when running these custom kernels). Just to be clear here -- you did get this "Only official released binaries are allowed to be flashed" error accompanied with bootloop and followed by 7 days jail, or did you succeed on your first flash after seeing your OEM switch appear?:confused:

Lol yeah, it should actually be in OP that if/when OEM switch ever appears, waste no time and also don't reboot! Rather enable it, and then hold power, bixby, vol- to reboot to Download Mode at that very opportunity. I know I will do this moving forward
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] j3yps:
So even if i'm in safe mode when the OEM Unlock appears, i should go straight to download mode and flash TWRP right away?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] metzo32:
Very active thread,Thanks to every one for that support :good:

This is Why I mentioned earlier about flash Reno after Root..In my S8+ also OEM was removed all the time!

But the device did not have any problem and Bank's app,android pay all were working perfectly..

It's need a confirmation from any user , in fact the thread there is quite as usual no complains so far!
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] krabman:
Oh, sorry my bad, I thought you were talking about the seandroid, not the official binaries. As you stated one is normal the other obviously bad. As to your second question both yes and no. I did a lot of screwing around with one of the developers flashing various crap with a missing toggle trying to get it to show up. That was before we figured out it was on a timer. Must have got the binaries ten or more times doing that along with trying different firmwares, CSCs, and so on which also tripped it a few times. Once it became clear we were working with a timer I left it be, mine showed up in five days. During that time I watched what others had been doing, seeing what failed, guesses people were making, and came up with a flash procedure that for lack of a better phrase threw the kitchen sink at the problem. As it would turn out it worked. Who knew? lol
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] fragtion:
It would appear that we still aren't entirely certain how the UI controls this OEM switch... so while I stand to be corrected, there seems to be no reason to reboot into system again if we're only to go back to download mode anyway, right? So this seems like an extra step to take, which could in turn increase our risk of failure

Further than that, I actually have no idea... but yeah I'm spending my entire 2nd jail term in safe mode anyway (booted right into it after flashing stock on Sunday night) so I will also reboot straight to download mode when/if I see OEM appear again. See no reason why the result should be any different - buut we'll find out soon enough.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] ZeroDefined:
A Quick update on my situation....

Model: SM-N950F/DS

Region: Malaysia (XME)

Carrier: Telus (Canada)

Following the 7 day wait period my OEM unlock showed up. I then followed [MENTION=1230317]krabman[/MENTION] instructions to the T and am now successfully rooted with Magisk, have a fully working TWRP recovery (which i have booted into and out of more than a dozen times) and am running Renovate ICE 2.0. Everything works flawlessly and I have zero issues so far.

I was so fed up with this situation I almost threw in the towel and ordered a N8 from Clove UK. Glad I was patient and followed this thread. Major kudos to [MENTION=1230317]krabman[/MENTION] for the workaround, thanks to him we can finally unlock the full potential of this beast of a phone.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] j3yps:
Do not try and change ROM at the moment.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] ZeroDefined:
I have zero plans to do so, for w/e reason Renovate seems like the golden goose for keeping our phones unlocked and preventing the soft-brick. As the saying goes "If ain't broke, don't fix it"
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] fragtion:
Was this after softbricking your device previously, or have you just been waiting for OEM to appear since unboxing?

If this even makes any difference:silly:lol
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] rocketmail.com:
Good to know you were successful,

And also a confirmation of [MENTION=1230317]krabman[/MENTION] theory.

When am out of jail, I will go that direction to confirm that, so that we narrow down the theories.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] ZeroDefined:
thankfully never soft-bricked. I just had to wait for 7 days after first activating the phone
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] krabman:
I used ketan's rom which doesn't hide the OEM switch. Not for any particular reason, any rom that had knox removed would have suited my purpose for testing. In hindsight whether the switch is visible may be a factor. Some have successfully done the renovate rom but then bootlooped after a short while and this may be related to that setting. I think at this point everyone has kept close tabs on the thread so you all know where we stand. I would not be rebooting a renovate flash for a week or so and then I would try to break it. Boot, restart, go to TWRP, flash something, install an app that will access system files like adaway. I'm not just saying this, I tried it with this one. I figured if the damn thing was going to keep slapping me upside the head I would rather get out early than keep on dealing with it.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] DeeXii:
Forgive me if this has been asked.

Has anyone obtained OEM unlock.. Flashed TWRP and then done a full wipe (system/data/caches) etc, and then flashed the UK firmware?

Perhaps the times people have tried the UK FW they flashed over top the original Asian FW.

If this has been tried, then what could be causing this. Isn't it strange that the UK and Indian phones don't experience this issue but using those FW on a Asian phone changes nothing.

Any theories on what could keep this going?
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] iunlock:
That is interesting indeed and per our conversation so far I think the culprit could be within the code itself (within the firmware.)

Or within the Kernel? Could that be the culprit?

ie... it could be something like: IF, SIM = UK, Then OEM = true etc.... (Q: Will the 7 timer go off even without data connection?)

Therefore, whatever is causing this timer could be hiding within the code itself to trigger this count down...

I mean what else would cause the OEM to be non existent, by simply putting in a UK SIM right?

Has anyone looked deep into the firmware code and other sub files that are in there?

Another thing that came to mind was the similarity of the unlocking of the phone in general, with the T-Mobile unlock app, however, that is OTA....

Could this OEM unlock issue with the Note 8 also be caused by the phone (code within the firmware or sub files) and the trigger happening via an ota from the carriers based on what SIM it detects?

Just a thought....

Update: @DeeXii just informed me that some people with the UK SIM tried it in an Asian variant and the OEM issue still happens. In that case, going back to my theory of there being something within the code, this could still hold true.

Ex. IF, Region = XYZ, Then, OEM Unlock = True or False, depending on the region and this could all be triggered via ota, once the phone is connected to the network in that region....

-

So the question is why would they do this? Here are my thoughts...

1. Licensing...to prevent businesses from under cutting etc....FCC like BS etc....

2. Same reason why certain regions get higher internal storage variants that are dual SIM. Since both slots would be occupied, there's no room for a microSD.

3. Therefore, this cancer of an issue is likely a means to keep the variants separate, otherwise if one variant could do it all and is rootable etc...why would anyone buy a carrier specific variant right? (Well aside to the 0% EIP w/ T-Mobile for example etc...that's beside the point.)

.
[Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions and Answers] fragtion:
Something tells me that the underlying mechanism for the OEM toggle actually has little to do with OTA, kernel, firmware, sims, etc.... I'm no expert on the matter and this may sound like a conspiracy theory but I think that this issue lies with some new technology that Samsung have built directly into these proprietary Exynos chips - a hardware clock or "uptime counter" of sorts, and Boolean switch state (probably more complex even) which operate independently of anything accessible by the user, so even changing the system clock or Odin flashing new firmware can't manipulate this state. The fact that our batteries are hidden safely out of reach behind a waterproof seal certainly seems to support this theory in my mind, which is why I earlier suggested that someone experiment to see what effect disconnecting the battery would have.

Hopefully our workarounds continue to prove effective, then we can put an end to all of the speculation