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Swappa.com for GrapheneOS compatible devices – Stay Away

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/33727-swappacom-for-grapheneos-compatible-devices-stay-away
75•OsrsNeedsf2P•1h ago

Comments

djhope99•1h ago
Uh oh. I just brought a pixel 6a from Swappa, was hoping to use a different os. Not arrived yet though.
znsdx•1h ago
sometimes the option to unlock the bootloader doesn't work until you connect the device to internet. not sure if the original person who posted tried that. this might be a non issue.
laweijfmvo•1h ago
Swappa became a no-go for me when they started making exceptions to their rules for commercial sellers, justifying it by saying they were inherently more reliable. For example, using stock photos for multiple devices instead of the device you actually receive. All of three of these phones, based on the seller names, were those reliable sellers.
glhaynes•1h ago
Bummer of an experience. About a month ago I bought an unlocked 8a from a seller on Swappa and had no issue getting GrapheneOS (which works well!) on it.
hmry•1h ago
> we are unfortunately not able to guarantee bootloader unlocking, as it is not feasible for us to search through thousands of devices in order to find one that is

Ohhhh, is that how it works? Maybe I should try that next time. Instead of selling broken hardware as "NOT TESTED, AS IS, PARTS MACHINE" I should sell them as "100% working!" and when someone asks, I'll tell them "sorry, it's not feasible to search through all devices and find the working ones"

uyzstvqs•17m ago
Imagine a supermarket telling you "sorry, it's not feasible to check the expiration dates on all of our products".
compass_copium•8m ago
I feel like supermarkets more or less do tell you this--I get expired crap all the time if I don't check myself.
kube-system•6m ago
That essentially is the case. Grocery stores make a best effort to remove expired foods but you can often find expired food on the shelf in the US.

Go make a stink about it at the customer service desk and they will probably say exactly that.

deeplowdock•1h ago
I wonder why almost no one in these GrapheneOS praise topic mentions that you won't be able to pay with your phone, and often even bank apps refuse to install on it - it was a deal breaker for me personally, and now I'm back under Google umbrella :<
cyanydeez•1h ago
Paying with your phone just seems like one of those separation of concerns problem. I'm sure you have backup forms, and cash, etc, but there's something about not having to worry about the multinefarious capabilities of my phone if it's not in my posession.
deeplowdock•1h ago
You could then separate the audio system from your car and drive around with a boombox
NewJazz•1h ago
Difference is a plastic card that is lighter and smaller than the phone is just as effective as the phone is for payments. When it comes to audio, a car stereo is going to be much more convenient and brtter quality than a boombox or bluetooth. That said, i did know someone with an older car who used a bluetooth speaker instead of their stereo, so they could connect their phone audio.
0x3f•48m ago
I don't know about where you live but here contactless card payments have lower limits than phone-based ones. Also the phone allows me to switch between multiple cards, including transit-specific cards.
zephen•1h ago
I forget. What are the security implications of having your car play your music again?
thejazzman•55m ago
Pretty sure Jeep was hacked via their infotainment system and remotely driven (by researcher Charlie Miller)

So it’s actually kind of a real thing

ramon156•1h ago
Fair point, but how much extra effort is it to put a credit card between your phone? I'm still under the Google umbrella as well, but this would be my first issue solved.
Pacers31Colts18•1h ago
Not every banking app is that way. Mine worked.

I also dont think everything needs to be an app.

BLKNSLVR•1h ago
I gets mentioned on every GrapheneOS thread I've read.
hnuser435•1h ago
Limitations are on the website - https://grapheneos.org/articles/ I don't care about google pay/wallet or android auto. My credit union's app does work fine, but even if it didn't, I'd still use GOS. It's great.
McDev•58m ago
FWIW I've tested Android Auto before with sandboxed Google Play, works fine.
ShowalkKama•2m ago
>I don't care about google pay/wallet

and if you did you could use curve pay instead. Basically the same thing with more features, the only catch is that they charge FX fees after surpassing a limit (but that can be mitigated by paying with the same currency of your linked card, thus never executing a change in the first place)

throawayonthe•1h ago
this is the main point of discussion under every grapheneos thread though...

also my bank apps install, but yes, no tap to pay

edm0nd•48m ago
Yup, Chase Bank app will not load at all. I think its a "security" feature that it wont load on rooted phones lol
chappi42•27m ago
GrapheneOS phones are not rooted.
mikestorrent•5m ago
There's some reasonable fear that at some point large portions of the web will require secure attestation that a device is not rooted; this may come in the form of automating age verification for convenience. When all it takes is a checkbox on Cloudflare to require 18+, a lot of site operators will just use it.
ethagnawl•39m ago
For many GrapheneOS users, this class of annoyances is an acceptable concession.
theandrewbailey•39m ago
I guess I'm so paranoid that not only do I run GrapheneOS, I've never had nor wanted banking nor payment apps on my phone. Having ALL my money be accessible from something so easily lost, stolen, or seized would be a constant source of stress for me. There's (hopefully) a lot of security around accessing it, but sometimes the only winning move is not to play.
convexly•1h ago
Did you try disputing through your payment method or is that not an option with how Swappa processes things?
erelong•1h ago
Swappa has been "ok" in my experience

I had issues with receiving incompatible "variants" of compatible devices when shopping for used phone for custom roms

yogthos•1h ago
I just bought an official Pixel 9 to install GrapheneOS, and the process couldn't be simpler. Their webusb installer is extremely polished. You just plug your phone in, click through a few steps, and you're done. There's absolutely no reason to bother looking for a phone with GrapheneOS already preinstalled.

As a side note, I've been using it for a few months now, and it works great. All the apps I use run on it just fine. Battery life is great, and you don't have a bunch of cruft from Google running on your device. Can highly recommend for anybody looking for a phone you actually own.

NewJazz•1h ago
As a note, swappa isn't selling phones with grapheneos preinstalled. It is selling used phones, you would still have to install gos.
kay_o•59m ago
This is not the related of preinstalled. Swappa is selling bootloader permanently locked forever phones as bootloader unlockable
OsrsNeedsf2P•59m ago
I'm trying to go through Swappa to help reduce waste and save a bit of money. Unfortunately, when I decided to go second-hand, I didn't expect issues like this.
beej71•59m ago
I was just about to buy something from them, but maybe not now. I want a used pixel--where is the best marketplace for that?
troyvit•52m ago
I've gotten used pixels off of ebay more than once and never had a problem. I feel like if it was that simple swappa.com wouldn't exist though. Maybe I've been lucky?
fwipsy•37m ago
I've also had good experiences on eBay. Buyers can leave bad reviews for anything so good reviews are a strong indicator. (That said, there are plenty of "genuine" laptop batteries for $15 from high-scoring sellers.)

I feel like eBay put a lot of work into creating a competitive marketplace where honesty was rewarded, and it basically works well but they got an unsavory reputation anyways. Then Amazon tried to hide that complexity from the end user and buyers just get burned. Maybe Swappa is trying to go the Amazon route? I do not think there are real shortcuts here. Either the marketplace needs to vet sellers manually, or offer a competitive, transparent reputation system like eBay.

rglover•54m ago
I've had good experiences with gazelle.com for used devices but never tried to load GrapheneOS on anything from them.
zargon•44m ago
Swappa is great for sellers and bad for buyers. They use a Paypal marketplace product and have no actual authority in a transaction, they just match buyers and sellers. If the phone is not as described, you'll have to pay return shipping yourself.
lnx01•27m ago
In the context of an online marketplace "Unlocked" means "Not carrier locked". This has _nothing_ to do with the bootloader.
zenGull•4m ago
100% this.
ethagnawl•24m ago
I went through this cycle myself a few months back. It seems like many sellers conflate bootloader unlocking with carrier unlocking.

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