Today, I came to the unfortunate realization that the Kit-Kat update locked the Bootloader of my S4 (Applies to the S5 as well) in the Verizon and AT&T flavors. That's a shame because I was planning on flashing a 4.4.3 Google Play Edition rom onto my phone. I'm hearing this is effecting other phones as well with the two carriers and that there is an unclaimed bounty for anyone that can unlock it. Anyone run into this mess? This is somewhat saddening as it seems Google is starting to close up on us. Roms are one of the best things about Android phones!!
It's not google doing it, for a start it's a Samsung phone, but secondly it's your network, Samsung have never locked the bootloader on an international phone, this isn't new though, USA networks have locked the bootloader on every galaxy phone afaik.
It's not Samsung that's at fault, it's the Carrier. Sprint is the only one in the US that has an unlocked bootloader with their S4 and S5 phones. There are a couple of bounty threads on XDA in regards to unlocking bootloaders for the Verizon and AT&T network. But so far it's been unsuccessful.
Does this hold for contract-free phones as well? You know, the type which will use any SIM card you insert in it right from the start?
Yeah, I've had the S (Fascinate), S3, and S4 and they all had locked bootloaders. I had a One M7 and I unlocked that through HTC. Stateside carriers are just upping the ante on locking the bootloaders. Plus, you have the Samsung Knox App which "supposedly" records data on whether or not users have flashed new roms onto their phones. If the Knox Counter's gets tripped your warranty is voided. I'm leaning towards ditching Verizon and going T-Mobile. The stateside coverage isn't as good but they're more Android friendly and carry a better variety.
Yeah, I've been looking into that now especially since I've had issues since getting Kit Kat. Even doing a factory reset didn't help.
The international phones have the knox bootloader with an efuse that blows if you flash a custom rom/recovery, even though they don't have locked bootloaders. What's the point of having an unlocked bootloader if they use an efuse to try kill your warranty anyway. My S3 international has a custom binary count though so technically my warranties void according to Samsung, but according to the EU it isn't and I can take them to court for like £25 if I need to anyway. I don't see why carriers insist on locked bootloaders though, it doesn't affect them in any way, shape, or form as it's totally different to a sim lock. Sony globally have bootloaders that cannot be unlocked on any sim locked phone which is pretty ****ty of them as there is no reason for it.
I had no issues downgrading to 4.3 MK2, albeit, without sound no matter how many times I flashed the modem zip file. I rooted the phone as well, but it was kind've redundant considering that you need an unlocked bootloader to rom nearly all roms. I tried Cyanogen but then realized that it needed to be unlocked. So long story short, I unrooted and re-updated to kit kat OTA. Back where I started lol. At least there's Nova Launcher so I don't have to use touch wiz.