- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
TL;DR
- ASUS has apparently withdrawn the ability to unlock the bootloader on its phones.
- As per the company’s technical support team, Zenfone 10 and Zenfone 9 users
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Oh, fuck off. I’m not one to root my phone, but you own the damn thing. Once it’s in your hands, the maker should have no right to tell you what to do with it.
Yeah, I’m really tired of this.
We should be able to root and install any OS on our phones like we can do on PC.
I don’t use root or custom ROMs on my phone anymore but this is something that should always be possible.
Consumers seem to be too dumb for their own good.
Regulators seem to be too captured for consumers’ good.
The problem with companies trying to stop this is the fact that there will be at least one person/team who will find a way to bypass this.
No amount of corporate software devs/engineers can stop the might of a determined team on the internet from achieving their goals when it comes to this kinda stuff.
The updated response from Asus:
The service team reply misunderstood the situation. Unlock tool is unavailable at this moment but we are allowing the possibility to unlock, please stay tuned.
So the server is down and will be back up. But that is not exactly the most reassuring response. It kind of seems like they are planning on removing it later or majorly altering it.
ASUS is apparently killing the posibility of me being a potential customer of their smartphones.
Rooting users are only a small percentage of all users so they probably won’t even notice unfortunately.
sent from rooted phone
Very easy way to remove an almost perfect phone from my list of upgrade considerations.
asus has killed the possibility of me being a potential customer then lol
Why do so many phone manufacturers hate letting you unlock their bootloaders? Every Google phone lets you do this, and they probably have the most secure Androids of them all.
Probably because they know their OS is a duct-taped piece of garbage which could fall to pieces if you look at it wrong while unlocked.
I used to own a ZenFone, and Asus’s technical support was awful. I guess I’m glad I don’t use one now
Don’t these phones only have 2 years of security updates? I believe samsung S23 is a better choice as a small phone as it has 5 years of security updates.
This is such an anti-consumer move, by refusing to unlock the bootloader Asus hinders the ability of users to extend their devices’ life beyond Asus’s original support window by flashing alternative ROMs…
I’d like to see right to repair laws expanded to right to unlock. I think you could make a reasonable argument that a working device that’s not receiving security updates is just as broken as a device that’s experienced a hardware failure.
I can’t believe this shit… I was planning on getting the Zenfone 10. with it’s headphone jack, small size, and Android feel.
Which means, legally, you can no longer own even the hardware of a Zenfone you bought, you now only license it. Since their OEM software is proprietary and in nearly every software’s TOS they can revoke your license to it at any time for any reason, which would effectively brick the phone if bootloader unlocking is not possible.
Tbh, it has been years since I last rooted a phone. There is hardly any reason left to do it tbh.
Plenty of reasons.
- System wide adblock
- Advanced permission management
- Backups and exports of system apps
- Full uninstall of bloatware (instead of mere hiding them with adb)
- Enabling screenshots system-wide
And a bunch of other stuff I need in order to have a fully functioning device.
- Advanced permission management
- Backups and exports of system apps
Two things previously possible in stock android (via appops & adb backups), but no longer possible to any realistic extent (particularly ADB backups, as most devs disable this for their apps). These are the main factors for me rooting personally
Can’t you remove bloatware with adb nowadays?
See https://www.makeuseof.com/uninstall-android-app-adb-system-apps-bloatware/
It doesn’t remove them, it uninstalls the app from the current user profile, but they persist on system level. That’s what I meant with the comment in brackets.
It’s the best you can do if rooting is not an option, but I prefer a full removal.
Ah, I see. Would the app still run and consume resources? Or is it just sitting in whatever is a phone’s equivalent of a hard disc?
It would just sit there and be dormant.
I have been using an old samsung tablet with lineage os (android 12), but the last stock rom was android 6.
So yeah, for me the ability to unlock the boot loader is a must. And that’s not even mentioning getting away of spooky-ware I got as a gift a Huawei phone, really good phone but when I tried to search an app using the sistem laucher it fucking asked for a lot of data, fingerprints, etc. I was sorry to this person but I just sold it ASAP since I wasn’t able to install a Custom Rom to get away from all that crap.
Yes there is.
If you want a cfw, which you do because your phone either comes with 2 years of updates or has touchwiz.
If you run cfw you NEED safetynet. Even the witzair app crashes without it. If you cfw and need safetynet, you have to have magisk. Magisk needs root for the safetynetfix.
So they will just be bricks in a few years
In a while ASUS won’t be able to sell its phones in the EU. I guarantee it.
A typical example of planned obsolescence what an effective way of killing my plans to get an Asus phone as my next daily driver assuming this is true
Some important context from the article:
A Reddit user claims that the company’s developer liaison on its Telegram channel has no knowledge of any such development. “According to them, the unlock tool server is in maintenance and will resume in Q3,” the person writes; We’ve written to ASUS to clarify the situation and will update this article when and if we hear more.
But here is the thing why do I need to use a tool to connect to a server just to be allowed to unlock the bootloader? I don’t and didn’t need such a thing to unlock the bootloader of my Samsung Galaxy phone (planned obsolescence ladies and gentlemen)
I suspect it’s to keep a record which can be used to defend themselves from lawsuits. “You caught that virus after you removed our protections, so it’s your own fault. Here’s the receipt.”
