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Some Google Pixel 2 owners don’t have the option to unlock their bootloaders

Google’s smaller Pixel 2 has been free of a lot of the problems that have been plaguing the larger version, but it’s still had a few minor issues. Lately, a handful of Pixel 2 owners have been noticing that they don’t have the option to unlock the bootloader on their device.

Right off the bat, let’s make it clear that this isn’t a big issue by any means. Those who unlock their bootloaders are few and far between, and most of the people who are affected by this probably won’t ever know it. However, it’s still something worth noting.

Several users on XDA’s forums as well as Google’s issue tracker have noticed that their bootloaders can’t be unlocked, but also don’t even have the option to enable it.

If you’ll recall, Google added a toggle to Android’s developer options in a previous version of Android which required users to enable unlocking before they could hook up to a computer and perform the process.

This is something that’s expected of Pixel devices sold through Verizon, but users reporting this problem actually purchased the phone directly from the Google Store. It doesn’t seem that Google mistakenly shipped Verizon units either, as hardware IDs line up with unlocked units according to Android Police. It could be as simple as a software problem that isn’t showing the toggle, but regardless, we hope this is something Google can easily fix.


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