Last week I was happy to find a near-mint condition 2020 Galaxy Tab S5E on the used market (GSM Arena specs here and /e/OS doc there).
But despite having the “OEM Unlocked” option activated in Android 11, the device isn’t showing any unlocking options in the “blue boot screen”… but on the next one loading official binaries, a mention of the “Qualcomm Secureboot On”
So it’s potentially dead but, I am still exploring a way to enter the Qualcom Emergency Download Mode, that should permit unlocking so I bought a cable for it on AliExpress to give it a try (you can build one if soldering is your thing).
I am new to the world of Android and didn’t know about such low-level restrictions. I will update this message early april when the cable will arrive, but to newcomer like me : be careful when chosing a device for flashing
Is there a particular point in the pre-install instructions where you get stuck?
It is probably assumed in the instructions that you have owned and used the phone for more than ~ 7 to 14 days. There is a condition “Prenormal” which on some newer devices does not show on the Download mode screen, but it still blocks flashing non official binaries for a week or two.
Thank you for the answer and the link I am going to read carefully… because I didn’t knew anything about that KG/7 days delay!
Otherwise everything ran fin, but I also have the OEM lock (U1) mention (it’s the WiFi version). And I read multiple times across the web these were impossible to flash. On this setup it’s guaranteed the OEM unlock is activated in Android :
No I am not sure, for now I just find one for the *25 model but I didn’t dig very deep. But it’s going to be the last measure, before that I will see if the delay will improve something, and eventually try to look for further intervention. I just read so many contradictory things about the “U1” mention(supposedly a typical US thing) that I am not sure where the problem is.
simply connect to an internet website,
check for OEM & ADB enable in Developper Option menu,
then reboot to download mode.
→ prenormal should change to checking, that is a flashable state !
No I am Swiss, but in a very cosmopolite city so it wouldn’t be a surprise to find a US device in a local pawn shop. Thank you everyone for your advices, I have a lot to digest here.
Both on the Android recovery screen and on the Download screen, the exact model should be shown … so do you see gts4lvwifi or something similar with suffix U1 ??
To go further with that S5E unlock, I must enter into technical territories I am not familiar with for now, so I will put this on pause for a few days and take my time to read and test : it’s a great piece of hardware, even by today’s standards, and I don’t want to brick it. And also because…
So, the end of the story is that rather having to wait 7/14 days or trying obscure SoC flashing, the pawn shop was ok to exchange my T720 for the exact same model.
My hypothesis is that with the first tablet, the in-house Samsung Android updating system has locked the bootloader during the upgrade from A9 to A11 (the two tablets were parts of the same fleet the vendor told me).
Like with the first one, on the retail 9.0 Pie, Knox let me activate “OEM” without any hassle after a first Wi-Fi connection. But this time the unlock option remains on the download screem after a straight 11 Odin flash.
The conclusion is to never use the normal update system to reach the needed Android build to install a custom rom but to flash it directly.
