Link: https://9to5google.com/2026/02/27/samsung-galaxy-update-android-recovery-menu-removed/

Samsung is removing several options from the Android recovery menu with the latest updates for Galaxy phones. Specifically, the update is removing:

Apply update from ADB
Apply update from SD card
Wipe cache partition
View recovery logs
Run graphics test
Run locale test

They want to lock us out of owning the devices we fucking paid for.

The sad thing is the average consumer neither understands nor cares.

This era is such a pointless attack against the smallest niche of users. I honestly don't get it. How much are a few techie hobbyists costing Google/Samsung's gargantuan bottom lines? They are stepping over dollars to chase after pennies.

Just let people who want to modify their phones. It's already prohibitively hard that no one who doesn't have the know-how is installing their own apps outside the stores.

Welp, next phone is gonna be a challenge to pick.

I decided awhile ago to never get another Samsung phone, at least they keep making it an easy decision to keep.

They don't want you to be able to uninstall the government mandated spyware that will be rolling out next

Alas, I couldn't resist the lure of the fold

Pixels have a fold, and you get GrapheneOS for that. I tried a fold for about a week, just felt really uncomfortable holding that expensive a phone with so very little case options

I feel these companies are forgetting the lessons from the mid 2000’s. When you remove the hardware features from your devices, which only the most advanced users use. It doesn’t mean you’ve locked it down, but instead invited these users to find alternative ways to bypass your security.

PS3 had Linux support. PS3 removed Linux supper. PS3 was cracked wide open.

Xbox One has a Dev mode, devs who wanted to play emulators on their Xboxes could. So the hardware was left be.

I can't believe the but for the first time in my life I am now just straight up telling normal people to just buy Apple shit instead of Windows or Android devices. For the average person, it will be a better experience and Apple is at least a bit more trustworthy. These morons have destroyed everything that made themselves better than Apple and now there's no point in buying their shit. I think Linux and FOSS are much better paths but the average person will simply just not be able to handle running Linux as soon as something goes wrong. As for a phone I'm legit considering just downgrading to a dumb phone because I'm sick of all of it and everything sucks on the Internet these days anyway.

Fairphone has been great so far, spreading the word that there are alternatives and when it's time for an upgrade, vote with your wallet

They want no competition. They want consumers to have devices, that are necessary for them to have in the modern world, that are locked down and under control of corporate or state entities. It's surveillance capitalism combined with police states

It's the cyberpunk future

Their goal is to have no ways to bypass it. Sure, it's an ideal that might not hold up, but they will keep trying over and over and over again

Backed up by server-side authorization, and supported by powerful entities such as banks or governments. They will not stop trying

Still not available/supported in most of the world, unfortunately. Hopefully they get big enough to open up soon.

I guess that's part of the problem. It's easy to encroach on these things when there's effectively no pushback.

a powered system is a vulnerable system.

they will never have the ability to 100% lock down hardware.

I'm personally in the states, if that helps, but I agree it needs to take off in more places

Fairphone has been pretty legit tbh

https://www.androidauthority.com/fairphone-4-bricked-update-3627690/

As a hobbyist if I can't side load my necessary apps to make my phone functional, then I have a non-functional device. And if my device is non-functional then there is no point in having one.

I'll legitimately just go back to a flip phone or have no phone. And there's no fucking way I'm touching a iPhone.

I was considering the supposed ifold but with Apple shoving Google Gemini and that Israeli AI on to it, I worry about the lack of customization to let me disable such things

I should have gotten the pixel 9 instead of the s24 ultra. At this point it might just be more economical for me to sell mine at a loss and scrounge up for a pixel 9 and install graphene OS

Man I fucking hate this. I like the s24u because of the stylus. Sure I might use it 3 to 4 times a month, I'm always grateful that the pen is bluetooth and can act as a camera remote control, fingerlessly control my phone and just the precision a stylus has.

Man fuck my life this is such bullshit

How can I block any further updates from samsung? 😬

K, fairphone 6 has been pretty legit?

After Google decided to ban sideloading (their alleged "change of heart" is increasingly looking like a PR exercise), I decided to not buy any more devices devices based on American platforms.

My A73 works fine, but I planning to get a Jolla phone later his year. Going to use both in parallel to aid in switching.

I do wish European banks and eGov services started porting their apps to SailfishOS.

"Next"? Isn't that already baked in with the platform's spyware that governments can access freely?

Surely they will never stop trying, and the challenge will get certain people really worked up to be creative in how to do it.

Remember iOS used to have a huge community on hacking the phone. The interest slowed down after Apple sort of implemented the features people used that for. iOS is certainly more secure nowadays, but there’s no shortage of vulnerabilities being constantly discovered, and with vibe coding apparently being integrated even large companies, I suspect more and more dumb vulnerabilities will be looming just waiting to be exploited.

Pixel is doing the same later this year. We have to leave big tech devices altogether. I got the fairphone and its fun again, lineage tying a new phone in 2007.

This is gonna push a number of technical people to iOS. Not phone enthusiasts necessarily. At my workplace you need to be running non-rooted Android or iOS to be able to use work stuff from your phone. From that lens, if I can't install non-signed software or mess with the personal side of the OS... I might as well have an iPhone.

They don't care. They will profit more cause most customers dont know about sideloading.

Not defending Samsung, not by a long shot, but isn't referring to the ability to sideload in recovery (roms)?

It doesn't seem to affect normal sideloading for apps. Still very shitty move regardless.

If I download the latest software update on my s23 ultra, I will no longer be able to sideload?