Can anyone help?
Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online services
Yes, but t-mobile/sprint. I bought it on the 26th of Aug bootloader was available the next day it was gone
I tried the changing the date back 7 days to a month solution but did not work. It went missing right after update.
My first thought was that it is a “carrier lock” - your carrier may want to keep you locked in. Is this a possibility? Are you able to check with the carrier?
Yes I contacted my carrier. I believe it was and update to Android 11
Besides that the phone is paid for can they still keep it locked even though it’s paid for?
They can keep it locked, but some carriers will release it if asked (in Europe, perhaps tougher rules in USA)
Perhaps you can find how to make a formal request if that is the case.
Even though the phone is played paid off they say I have to wait 40 days before they can fully unlock it. Does that mean the bootloader will reappear after the 40 days?
That is the sort of nonsense they do say! I guess you really want to be quite certain what they said and what the rules are so that you know for certain what to expect. 
What would you suggest I do? Perhaps I haven’t exercised all of my options.
Here is T-Mobile’s unlock policy: SIM Unlock Policy | Unlock Your Mobile Wireless Device
You can check your device’s unlock status/waiting period remaining by following this guide: T-Mobile device unlock | T-Mobile Support
Our U.S. carriers have some annoying and unjust policies, for sure. That’s why I only buy carrier-unlocked devices.
Now does that still apply even though Sprint and T-Mobile have merged? I am going through Sprint.
Does the Sim carrier have anything to do with the bootloader being missing anyway? I’ve researched this a lot online and the new Android 11 update is making a lot of bootloaders disappear.
Sprint’s waiting period was even longer (50 days on network): https://www.androidguys.com/tips-tools/how-to-unlock-your-sprint-phone/
But in any case, T-mobile owns them now.
That I don’t know. But you’re right, carrier-unlocking is a totally different thing from OEM-unlocking.
I guess you’ve already tried stuff like this, am I right?
https://www.droidwin.com/fix-missing-oem-unlock-samsung/
I also see this:
_ “If you enabled the Developer Options and noticed the OEM Unlock there before but can’t find it anymore, there could be another reason for it. It is a possibility that you’ve already enabled OEM Unlock, at which point the feature will most likely disappear from the Developer Options menu. The OEM Unlock option is hidden away by the software for 7 whole days after the mandatory factory reset, after which you will be able to see and enable/disable it from the Developer Options menu.”_
…excerpt from: https://nerdschalk.com/galaxy-s8-s9-note-8-oem-unlock-option-get-it-back/
1 Like