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Samsung Galaxy S21 Download Mode Tutorial –
1. Intro [00:00]
2. Boot into Download Mode [02:15]
3. Unplug the USB cable once you see the blue/green screen
4. Now look for the “Warranty Void” line [03:03]
If this line starts with the number 0, then that means KNOX has NOT been tripped and your warranty has not been void (in specific regions).
If this line starts with the number 1, then KNOX efuse has been blown.
Samsung’s in-house security platform is known as KNOX. For those who are curious, you can read more about it here. . .
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The company uses it to make sure the integrity of the filesystem is in check but the sad thing is, once KNOX has been tripped you can not reverse it. Granted, there have been exploits in the past that will let you force it back, but those are very rare these days.
For most of us, KNOX is just something that prevents us from using exclusive features like Samsung Pay and Secure Folder. But if Samsung can’t verify the integrity of the OS (which happens when we root the phone with Magisk) then it will refuse to run those apps (similarly to how it can’t install OTA updates normally if you’re rooted).
If you purchased the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra brand new, then you already know if the phone has been rooted. However, this is less likely for those who end up buying the smartphone used on eBay or something.
So, if you just received your used device, the first thing I would do is check to make sure KNOX has not been tripped. That is, assuming you want to use some of the features that rely on it (like Samsung Pay, Secure Folder, etc).
We can do that by booting the device into Download Mode first. And then we can look at the text that is displayed on the screen. One of these lines will read “warranty void” and then display some numbers after it.
The numbers tell you if your Galaxy S21 Knox has been void or not. If it reads “0” then you’re safe and knox has not been tripped. However, if it reads “1” then that means the efuse has tripped knox and you most likely won’t be able to work around the issue.
There have been some mods in the past that bring these features back, but those are not guaranteed at all. And just like with SafetyNet, it’s typically a cat and mouse game that will sometimes work and sometimes not.
