Custom binary blocked by OEM Lock after parental control turn off

/e/OS Devices Samsung
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22

Well done. :slight_smile: Clearly the intention was to flash a Stock ROM [1].

Please contact me (TheAirBlow) about this in XDA DMs!
If you would cooperate, we could uncover hidden features!

Maybe this tool will have the ability to extract. Personally I would be prepared to spend some time on how to extract or repair the phone before going with the planned Stock ROM approach.

23

I think I want https://www.sammobile.com/samsung/galaxy-s9/firmware/SM-G960F/BTB/#SM-G960F

24

Just a ā€œMe tooā€ from me at this point. Interested to see if any easy solution is found for this. (Iā€™m also watching the gitlab issue)

25

Hi @ewblen I remembered your guide [HOWTO] (Needs expert review) Flash Galaxy s9+ to Stock Android 10 using heimdall-gui and you mentioned

This might be a useful way forward.

Of course we do not know the exact state of the phone, but perhaps what has happened is that the phone has done a Hard reset.

Samsungs being different from most devices might declare ā€œCustom binary blocked by OEM Lockā€ the case being

  • USB debugging got disallowed (so we cannot flash a Custom ROM)
  • Odin and heimdall (I think this is the case) is able to communicate with it and flash a Samsung ROM.

If TWRP were included, would the ā€œcustom binaryā€ be seen / challenged.

In ā€œthe other threadā€ @sam_uk made some progress trying to use HOME_CSC Samsung S9: Custom binary blocked by OEM lock - what about the files? - #40 by sam_uk

26

Thanks @aibd, I have made some progress. I downloaded odin4 for linux, and a complete set of firmware files. (Using odin to avoid having to unpack the many files)

First I tried a restore using HOME_CSC_... but got blocked at ā€œYour DATA is encrypted, please enter your PINā€

Next I downloaded CSC_... and have now got the phone booted back into stock Android :slight_smile: (This is actually an improvement on last time I tried to revert to stock, when the phone wouldnā€™t boot into android, but I could then install /e/OS successfully)

Fortunately most of my stuff is backed up to Murena cloud, and I did a manual backup of a few other apps data in March when I did a full upgrade of /e/OS with data wipe.

Next, Installed e recovery using Heimdall, rebooted into that and installed /e/OS via adb sideload, and reboot.

Aaand finally Iā€™m back in e/OS/. Now to restore all my apps, preferences and data that isnā€™t synced with Murena cloud.

:sweat_smile:

2 Likes
27

I have the same issue and it appeared during upgrade to v2.3 (but might not have rebooted since playing around with parental lock).

Download-mode is working for me, but Recovery-mode is not.

Seems, so far there is no solution other than reinstalling and losing all data?

2 Likes
28

Same procedure as @ewblen, losing all data.

Also had to choose CSC_ā€¦ instead of HOME_CSCā€¦, since the latter gave the encryption error.

First reboot after flashing took several minutes, stay calmā€¦ /e/ is up and running again.

2 Likes
29

Maybe a workaround for those aware of the problem would be to backup on an sd card using twrp. If the OEM locks, you would reinstall stock rom, unlock it, then reinstall TWRP and restore the backup. That way your data wonā€™t be lost, but you gotta do the backup before the problem occures. Or maybe you can choose to backup only the data and the system, i donā€™t know if the OEM state is stored into the boot partition. Otherwise it would be possible to restore system without restoring the boot partition and so the OEM state ?? I might say something dumb that could brick oneā€™s device, so please wait for confirmation of a more experienced user.

30

Hi all,

If I understand well, there is no way to recover data?
I have actually one phone that is blocked and anotherone that I try not to reboot (not to lose data!!). What are the instructions to recover data? Can I backup without Rebooting or risk to reboot if I try to go to TWRP. And will there be an update that removes the bug?

Thanks

31

Your best hope is from the Gitlab issue to which I think you already contributed.

I suggest you ask the question also on Gitlab. If you manage to do this under expert supervision of devs I think this may help inform a solution.

32

Yes I tried on Gitlab and direct support (email) but since there is no answer and it getā€™s urgent Iā€™m looking elsewhereā€¦
Thanks

33

Regarding backing up without reboot, I have written about my backup process here

Note that this doesnā€™t back up applications themselves, because they can be reinstalled from App Lounge or F-Droid.

Another manual approach (vs sync to murena.io) is to connect your phone to a PC in file transfer mode, and copy all your documents, photos, app settings etc to the PC.
Perhaps not perfect, but it will preserve personal files, which I assume will be the most valuable to you.

1 Like
34

Does anyone have tested to include TWRP (or recovery-e) into ā€œAPā€ and perhaps vbmeta-e into ā€œBLā€ associate with a ā€œHOME_CSCā€ Samsung firmware ?

To see if it can preserve /dataā€¦

35

Same issue here bricked s9 phone after configuring parental control on my kid phone :fearful:

36

Iā€™m hesitating to wait for a solution or try to fix it now by the way you describe. If I understand well you suggest to load the ā€œHome_cscā€¦ā€ file and two others with Odin? I could try if I can download the right files (Iā€™m only beginner).
Cheers

37

Ideally somebody who has a ā€œspareā€ phone to test on could try this. Iā€™m not willing to try on the phone I use every day, given the hours and angst I went through to get it working again!

38

this days i had access to my computer, and have tried,
but tweaking firmwares has became too complicated on recent devices because they include keys