According to tipster Ice Universe, Samsung has disabled Odin, a proprietary firmware flashing tool typically used to install stock firmware, install custom ROMs, and restore devices. It also appears that Samsung has removed “Download Mode,” which acts as a gateway for Odin. This change appears to have been made in the latest One UI 8.5 firmware and currently affects the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and recently launched Galaxy S26 series.
I went ahead and forked out my savings to buy a Fairphone with /e/os preinstalled just because of this. My big fear though is that some of my favorite FOSS apps will disappear because the developers abandon the platform. I hope that will not be the case.