[Samsung Galaxy S9  Guides, News, & Discussion] WatchersGrim:
I have looked around the internet and finally found over on a sprint forum some sad news about rooting. So in the case most of you are unaware, the US models for the Galaxy s9 have had their OEM Unlock(Bootloader unlock) option disabled. I finally found the reason why on an old post back from the Galaxy s8. Please don't harp on me that its a different phone because its the concept discussed that actually gives the real reason why vendors like sprint have disabled the option!

"Link to below quote: community.sprint.com/t5/Samsung-Board/OEM-Unlock-option-is-gone/td-p/965240"]https://community.sprint.com/t5/Samsung-Board/OEM-Unlock-option-is-gone/td-p/965240:

"Quoted from Community manager, seawolf's post!"

Re: OEM Unlock option is gone

First of all, wow [MENTION=254186]zaha[/MENTION]le! its my job to be somewhat aware of our current population and to keep an eye out for knowledgeable posters (we like to try to make those people Advocates, like [MENTION=1863987]DJ_[/MENTION]Damjano and [MENTION=525654]Fireguy[/MENTION]_6364). I have run across several of your comments in this space lately and you're definitely above the curve when it comes to technical device knowledge and experience. I'm kind of following you around now just to learn Smiley Wink

I was pretty sure I knew why Sprint locks down developer options but I put the question to some of my device folks in conversation yesterday. The explanation probably won't be something you like, but hopefully, it'll be something you can understand. Unfortunately, as with many things, knowing why also won't change anything but you asked a fair question and I wanted to try to give you a fair answer.

Sprint locks things like boot loaders down to control the average customer experience and to prevent a novice user from accidentally damaging the device or negatively affecting performance. While technically such a change isn't Sprint's fault, I can tell you from experience from when I was in customer service that most customers think it is and correcting the problem, if its possible, can be a challenge at best.

Unfortunately, this is an all or nothing kind of situation. We either leave it open for everyone or we lock it down for everyone. Since we can't customize the experience based on user knowledge, we try to optimize it for the novice, which means some of the more advanced setting areas on the phone are locked down.

This is clearly important to you and I can understand why. With this particular phone there isn't anything we can do on our end to unlock the developer options for one individual. When you are ready to upgrade again, you might want to look for factory unlocked versions of the phones you like or OEMs that leave theirs unlocked (although that's harder to verify). In this case, the developer options are not locked down in the factory unlocked versions of the S8 and S8+.

SeaWolf

Sprint Community Manager & Customer Advocate

Captain of the Vicious Cream-puff

I encourage you to post your questions on the community, give Kudos when earned and always mark the correct answer as "Accepted Solution".

Like SeaWolf states, it is just easier after your contract is done to just buy a OEM unlockable version. They do this for customer based reasons to make a novice experience for all users so that new users can't brick their phone on accident messing with settings. Sorry all but OEM unlocking will never be an option for g960U users.