[Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Questions & Answers] TWiiTCH:
I feel your frustration. I bought this phone because I wanted a hi end hi performance phone & I thought I'd stay on Oreo until there was a root method for my Snapdragon model only to find out that after hitting no to the update request about 20 times it still forced me to upgrade. Why the heck do they ask if you want to upgrade or not if they're just going to force you to upgrade anyway. As for the bootloader thing if you are on version 1 it doesn't matter what release firmware you put on it just as long as it is bootloader version 1 or higher. Once you go to a firmware that has bootloader version 2 or higher you are unable to go back 2 a firmware that is lower then the one you're currently on. It is stupid but I don't know what to say because I am in your position, stuck with a phone I cannot root and paid big money for. If you have any questions on how to do things just PM me and we can chat I am fairly knowledgeable when it comes to Samsung devices and the note 9 as I've had mine since it was released. Do you have the exynos or snapdragon model? Mine is snapdragon so that is the one I am most familiar with. If I don't know something that you ask me I will not lie and pretend like I do know and feed you information that could lead you down a bad Road. I will give you answers if I do have the correct ones and I am sure of that.

What is it you wish to do or have done with your phone? If it is rooting/jailbreak and you have the exynos model you have an 80% chance that you can succeed in doing so. If you have the Snapdragon model like me we probably will not see a jailbreak or root anytime soon, if at all. There are ways and tricks to get around a lot of problems but they involve work and knowledge and time and usually they are a lengthy process to complete a simple task if it doesn't come out of the box already doing what you wish.

I'd love to trade mine if I could find somebody with a phone that is rootable and it's in the same quality and performs close to the way this one does. I'm going to hold off though because I have downgraded to Oreo and everything I need is functioning at the moment. My only wish 4 root is because I'd like to run Viper4android to be able to get the best sound quality out of the phone possible. For me there is not enough Bass and the volume level is too low, and when you turn the bass or treble up using the EQ provided by Samsung the music goes quieter just so the bass and treble sound louder by comparison. This phone has a very low end audio quality in my opinion. I hate the earbud headphones they come with, AKG I believe. They keep falling out of my oddly shaped ear canal and don't provide me with anything I'd consider special sounding. They rate the headphones as high end $100 value but to me I've bought better for $29.99. Some may disagree but with hiphop/rap I need, well like heavy bass & sharp snappy treble without loss of mid range vocals. I'm getting married in 3/4 of a year, maybe I'll ask for a wedding gift (doing a money tree) and get me some $400 beats over ear headphones by Dr Dre. This phone without viper4android may not push them tho so I'll get a Bluetooth model which provides its own amp power supply.

Like I said if you have questions I'll tell you what I know, what I've actually done myself, and what I'm unsure of. I feel for you so least I can do is offer. Don't give up just yet. Day 2 on Oreo 8.1.0 and still nothing about updates has come up. It's two simple adb commands that stops the forced updates and it affects nothing on the phone. No prompts or error messages & EVERYTHING else works fine. It's easy to undo also and does not void warranty.

Cheers mate, take a deep breath & we can look at each issue 1 by 1. Hopefully their easy to correct.

I'm Ryan by the way. Ttyl ?.