The Samsung A32 comes in two variants: The standard Samsung A32 and the 5G variant. Both come with Android 11 out of the box and are upgradable to Android 12. In recent years, Samsung has changed its ways and begun locking its bootloaders on some of its devices. Much to the dismay of its owners, the Samsung A32 is one of them. This means if you want to install custom firmware, you have to unlock the bootloader first. Thankfully, Samsung has not made it difficult to unlock the bootloader; it does not require the developer knowledge of unlocking on some other smartphones whereby you may have needed to use the command line. Instead, unlocking the bootloader on the Samsung A32 5G can be done directly from the GUI.
The following tutorial demonstrates how to OEM unlock the Samsung A32 5G bootloader.
Smartphone operating systems come with a bootloader (also known as a boot manager or bootstrap loader). The bootloader is the program responsible for booting the operating system. Sometimes this bootloader is locked by default, while other times it can come unlocked already. With an unlocked bootloader, you can install custom firmware. In today’s world, this is most often relevant to the Android operating system, and that certainly is the case when it comes to Samsung smartphones in particular. Samsung smartphones don’t come with the bootloader unlocked, but they also don’t make bootloader unlocking an arduous process. This is excellent news for those who do wish to install custom firmware because some manufacturers require the use of software exploits to unlock bootloaders.
Tip: How to Download Samsung Firmware with Free Update Tools
How to Unlock Samsung A32 5G Bootloader
You can unlock the bootloader on most Samsung smartphones by booting into Download Mode and selecting the option to unlock the bootloader, called Device Unlock Mode, from the menu. Here is how to do that:
Note: You need to connect your Samsung A32 5G smartphone to the internet via Network & internet > Internet. Alternatively, you can search for the WiFi network you want to connect to by using the search field via the Settings Menu.
1. Press the Power button to turn on the Samsung A32 5G device.
2. Enable the Developer Options Menu on the Samsung A32 5G device. See this tutorial for enabling the Developer Options menu on Samsung smartphones: How to Unlock Developer Options Menu and Enable USB Debugging Mode on Android.
Warning: Unlocking the bootloader usually causes the data to be wiped on the smartphone. So make sure you have backed up your data before continuing.
3. Boot the Samsung A32 5G smartphone into Download Mode. See this tutorial for booting a Samsung smartphone or tablet into Download Mode: How to Enter Download Mode on Samsung Smartphones and Tablets.
4. From the Warning screen that lets you know that a custom OS can cause critical problems on the smartphone and its installed applications, long-press the Volume Up button.
5. From the Unlock Bootloader screen that tells you if you unlock the bootloader you will be able to install a custom operating system on the smartphone, press the Volume Up button.
Note: If the device shows you a message letting you know that all data will be deleted before the bootloader can be unlocked, press the button to confirm you understand this.
Once the smartphone has rebooted, you can look into installing the custom ROM via root access or custom recovery you wanted to install.