How to downgrade from Marshmallow to Lollipop?

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A factory reset WILL NOT get you back to Lollipop. All that does is erase your settings and take it back to a fresh Marshmallow install as if the phone were new. You'd have to install all your regular apps, network settings/passwords, etc. Only way to go back to Lollipop is to flash the phone with a factory Lollipop image and hope you get it right. From what I've read, some phones will revert back and some won't. My phone will not revert back, so I'm stuck with it...
 

RecklessRaggy

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A factory reset WILL NOT get you back to Lollipop. All that does is erase your settings and take it back to a fresh Marshmallow install as if the phone were new. You'd have to install all your regular apps, network settings/passwords, etc. Only way to go back to Lollipop is to flash the phone with a factory Lollipop image and hope you get it right. From what I've read, some phones will revert back and some won't. My phone will not revert back, so I'm stuck with it...

I'm going to wait and see what the shop can do then. I expect it'll be nothing but hey, we'll see. I
 

Ry

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Are you sure? Many other forum posts are saying it doesn't mess with the system partitions. I just want to check because on the off chance Carphone Warehouse do take it in, I'll probably have to make it look bad so that they'll fix it. I have no problem with factory resetting, just... ARE YOU REALLY REALLY SURE?

Fixed. Typed too fast.

Posted via the Android Central App on the Moto X Pure Edition
 

Aquila

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Please refrain from trolling. If you are not here to help then there are other threads already devoted to that and it isn't necessarily to derail this one.
 

RecklessRaggy

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GrrrrRARAAAGAGAAG

So, interesting update for anyone who may be interested. I took it to Carphone Warehouse, and they said they couldn't do anything and I'll have to send it to Motorola. But the guy there was helpful. I explained the whole situation to him and he said if I send it in for repair, they'll reset and flash lollipop back on it. Now that I wasn't so sure they were allowed to do but I walked away and followed their advice anyway. Upon calling them I am met with the helpline and she runs through the generic stuff that would solve this. Eventually she makes me factory reset. If the problems still persisted after then they would let me send it in, which I was going to do either way since I JUST WANT IT FLASHED FOR THE LOVE OF-... Anyway, I factory reset the phone and am met with a prompt telling me to sign into the Google account that was previously linked. I do, but realize I've forgotten my password. (Oh don't worry, it gets worse.) SO, I go to my PC to use the recovery email to reset it. I eventually get it done and go back to the phone to log in. It didn't recognize me as the owner account.

I've had it. I'M DONE. Through a strange combination of Android's lack of care and my incompetence, I have given up. I've sent an email requesting they give me instructions to send my POOR PHONE in for repair. Until then it's useless...
 

Ry

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Motorola won't flash it back to Lollipop.

Posted via the Android Central App on the Moto X Pure Edition
 

acejavelin

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GrrrrRARAAAGAGAAG

So, interesting update for anyone who may be interested. I took it to Carphone Warehouse, and they said they couldn't do anything and I'll have to send it to Motorola. But the guy there was helpful. I explained the whole situation to him and he said if I send it in for repair, they'll reset and flash lollipop back on it. Now that I wasn't so sure they were allowed to do but I walked away and followed their advice anyway. Upon calling them I am met with the helpline and she runs through the generic stuff that would solve this. Eventually she makes me factory reset. If the problems still persisted after then they would let me send it in, which I was going to do either way since I JUST WANT IT FLASHED FOR THE LOVE OF-... Anyway, I factory reset the phone and am met with a prompt telling me to sign into the Google account that was previously linked. I do, but realize I've forgotten my password. (Oh don't worry, it gets worse.) SO, I go to my PC to use the recovery email to reset it. I eventually get it done and go back to the phone to log in. It didn't recognize me as the owner account.

I've had it. I'M DONE. Through a strange combination of Android's lack of care and my incompetence, I have given up. I've sent an email requesting they give me instructions to send my POOR PHONE in for repair. Until then it's useless...
It is known to take up to 72 hours after resetting the password to be able to log in to a locked device... It typically is a few hours, but it can be up to 3 days.

Give it a little time, well turned on, and try again.
 

MeadowsMan

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You have to accept an Android update. It is not forcibly installed without your knowledge.

60% of users is something you're making up.

Posted via the Android Central App on the Moto X Pure Edition

Actually, it *was* forcibly installed on mine. I received all the annoying reminders to upgrade and declined them all until one such notification was no longer notifying, it was telling me it was installing and that I had no choice in the matter. I've been around IT long enough to know not to install anything until its third update. Wasn't given a choie though and I'm quite frankly fuming about it.
 

Aquila

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Actually, it *was* forcibly installed on mine. I received all the annoying reminders to upgrade and declined them all until one such notification was no longer notifying, it was telling me it was installing and that I had no choice in the matter. I've been around IT long enough to know not to install anything until its third update. Wasn't given a choie though and I'm quite frankly fuming about it.
It was forcibly installed without your consent, but you did have knowledge of it. On a side note, what didn't you want about it?
 

fleapower

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On a side note, what didn't you want about it?

I've been following this thread because I do not like Marshmallow and am hoping to switch back to 5.1. I thought I'd chime in given the previous poster's question about what is not desirable about Marshmallow. Simply put, the SD management is horrible. No matter if I use it as internal or portable storage, I can't move apps to the SD card (there are a few exceptions). I can't even do it with Titanium Backup (is anyone else having the problem)? My internal storage is full (can't install any more apps) and my 32G SD card only has 256Mb used.

Not to hijack the conversation (it is a related question), but has anyone gone from the Marshmallow OTA update to CM 12.1?
 

MeadowsMan

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It was forcibly installed without your consent, but you did have knowledge of it. On a side note, what didn't you want about it?

It's like I said, I repeatedly declined the install until one day there was no more opting out allowed. Only an OK button and no X or "No thanks" or even "Later" option. Just "OK". When the message covers your screen and you can do nothing else on your phone until that message is cleared, in my world, that's called not having any option. As for whether or not I had knowledge of it, not sure how to answer that... seems obvious I did.

As for what I didn't want? I had a 2 week old phone that absolutely sang. Everything I wanted was at my finger tips in lightning speed. In an instant, my wi-fi connections went from immediate to 30 seconds or more and sometimes requiring multiple on/off cycles to convince it to connect. This is not to different wi-fi hotspots... this is to my home wi-fi, configured properly and running perfectly for all other phones, iPads and laptops in the house. Additionally, and like many have complained here, the internal storage, file and SD card management is beyond unworkable. My issue is a bit different from many others who complain to have a new /0/ directory emulating folders. I too have that same /0/ but my folder contents are not emulated or duplicated. The folders themselves are but not the files... for instance, in Gallery, I have an Album called "Kids". If I take a picture of my kids it will initially go to an album called "SD Card" by default. I go into that folder, select my new photo, select the three dot menu, select "Move to" and choose the "Kids" album. Once complete, it brings me to my albums list again and I see two "Kids" albums... one with all the previous kids photos and one with only the new photo. If I try to move it again, I then have two "Kids" albums in my list and no matter how often I try, I cannot get them all together into just one.

I've tried going and moving it physically using ES File Explorer and when I cut it out of the one folder, by the time I navigate to the second (original) kids folder, I can no longer paste the photo and it is lost forever.

I also tried copying files rather than cutting and when I go back to delete the ones from the folder I don't want, it deletes all of them.

And all of the above can be repeated for my eMails as well except in gMail it's "Tags" not folders and eMails will randomly appear in my Inbox or, most often it will say "You're all done here, have a nice day!" and yet I know I received mail because I can see it on my laptop. A day or two later, it might pop up under some random tag I never asked for, or, better still, I will click on "All Mail" and get swamped with dozens of unread eMails. I've seen many forums with people complaining about gMail tags so perhaps that's not related to Marshmallow. But again, I had everything working perfectly for two weeks before all this mess started. If gMail issued a release at the same time as the new Android system, then I guess they're both messed up.

Additionally, I cannot predict whether or not my camera will be trying to write to internal storage even though I've set it to use the SD card, out of the blue it will ditch my recorded item due to lack of space caused by all these apps that have inexplicably been permanently moved off my SD card and have used up all the real estate on my internal storage.

If I had the wherewithal to have taken a screen shot of the "no option, we're ramming this marshmallow down your throat" I highly doubt I would have been able to locate it to post it here.
 

David Alfredo

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That's a lot of trouble you're going through, I had similar experiences regarding storage management and had to downgrade... but to be honest the update was never "forced" on my device(s), I simply wanted to try it. I don't understand when some users are questioning you "what you didn't like about it" as if everything about the "upgrade" was 100% "likable" for everyone. Go figure. Also, by reading your post it becomes clear you're familiar with Android / computers / IT in general, I wonder how the average Joe using this device would react to similar issues are you're facing. Good luck !
 
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Aquila

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I don't understand when some users are questioning you "what you didn't like about it" as if everything about the "upgrade" was 100% "likable" for everyone. Go figure.

I'll try to explain it. The user was obviously upset that the update was forcibly installed. They didn't say why they didn't want to install it in the first place. Since that post, it has been reiterated that they didn't want it forcibly installed and many things that went wrong afterwards - but my question was aimed at understanding why the update was undesirable before trying it. It is absolutely obvious that SD cards do not work the same as has been beat to death elsewhere and there's no need to rehash that here. Generally users are excited for and anticipating software upgrades. Seeing members who are trying to avoid them isn't that common and I was curious what it was that would make someone not want the update, especially given the better security, stability, resource management, battery life, etc. Other than users not understanding how SD card functionality changed and how to use it, most of the experiences shared have been resoundingly positive. And all of those experiences are found after trying it, not before. So learning about what you don't like after installing it doesn't explain the apprehension beforehand. Make sense? Cool.

Since you were able to downgrade, would you be willing to share how to do it with those who created this thread to find out?
 

David Alfredo

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Since you were able to downgrade, would you be willing to share how to do it with those who created this thread to find out?

of course, I've mentioned it several times in different threads and I believe it should come up after a simple search, but anyway, my experience was:

- the update left my device in a "worse" state I bought it, I tried every fix available and others I've learnt from experience but still I didn't like it
- I contacted the seller (Amazon Spain) and was honest about my "problem", turned out the person helping me offered me two options, returning the device for a full refund or contacting support for a way to downgrade to 5.1.1 and still being able to return the device for a full refund if it failed
- I went with the second option and in 15 minutes some IT young woman called me, she e-mailed some links (ftp server) and a password (temporary) to download a .rar file
- Once I had it downloaded she called back and told me what to do with the software tools and firmware image inside the .rar file to downgrade the phone, it was relatively straight-forward.
- The device I downgraded using this procedure was a Motorola Moto G 2015 XT1541 -EU/Spain- 16/2 GB with great success (it's still running smooth as of today), the firmware I downgraded to was the same I had before upgrading to Marshmallow, this is, 23.21.47.osprey_reteu_2gb.reteu.en.En reteu compilation LPI23.72-47

I hope I can help anyone here, I know the tools are now available for everyone in XDA for instance.
 

Ry

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I'll try to explain it. The user was obviously upset that the update was forcibly installed. They didn't say why they didn't want to install it in the first place. Since that post, it has been reiterated that they didn't want it forcibly installed and many things that went wrong afterwards - but my question was aimed at understanding why the update was undesirable before trying it. It is absolutely obvious that SD cards do not work the same as has been beat to death elsewhere and there's no need to rehash that here. Generally users are excited for and anticipating software upgrades. Seeing members who are trying to avoid them isn't that common and I was curious what it was that would make someone not want the update, especially given the better security, stability, resource management, battery life, etc. Other than users not understanding how SD card functionality changed and how to use it, most of the experiences shared have been resoundingly positive. And all of those experiences are found after trying it, not before. So learning about what you don't like after installing it doesn't explain the apprehension beforehand. Make sense? Cool.

Since you were able to downgrade, would you be willing to share how to do it with those who created this thread to find out?

And I'm still curious as to how the update was installed without the user accepting it. I have never seen that and I can't recall hearing that ever being the case with Android OS updates.
 

beachfl1

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... Since you were able to downgrade, would you be willing to share how to do it with those who created this thread to find out?
After several unsuccessful attempts to root my phone after the Marshmallow OTA update (each attempt soft-bricked my phone), I've had to downgrade to Lollipop a few times in the past weeks. The instructions on XDA on how to flash a Moto G system image worked just fine for me, every single time.
 

Aquila

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And I'm still curious as to how the update was installed without the user accepting it. I have never seen that and I can't recall hearing that ever being the case with Android OS updates.

For the last couple of years this has been cropping up a bit. Essentially, some updates are always optional and some of those are not even downloaded until the user accepts it. Most updates function in this way, and either pre-download and wait for permission to install or they just notify the user that it is available to download and let them initiate the download. But some are not optional, though I am not clear on how the OEM's and carriers decide whether or not an update is going to be optional. A non-optional update will offer the user a few chances to accept or postpone the update. Typically it has already been downloaded and installing is all that still needs to occur. After a non-optional update is postponed too many times, the only remaining option will be to install it. You may recall in the S5 updates, a lot of users were very upset to get Lollipop and were rooting and doing tricks in order to delete the download and stop it from downloading.
 

Ry

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For the last couple of years this has been cropping up a bit. Essentially, some updates are always optional and some of those are not even downloaded until the user accepts it. Most updates function in this way, and either pre-download and wait for permission to install or they just notify the user that it is available to download and let them initiate the download. But some are not optional, though I am not clear on how the OEM's and carriers decide whether or not an update is going to be optional. A non-optional update will offer the user a few chances to accept or postpone the update. Typically it has already been downloaded and installing is all that still needs to occur. After a non-optional update is postponed too many times, the only remaining option will be to install it. You may recall in the S5 updates, a lot of users were very upset to get Lollipop and were rooting and doing tricks in order to delete the download and stop it from downloading.

So install without accepting the install, without any user interaction is possible?
 

RecklessRaggy

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I did my waiting. 3 DAYS OF IT. And it works now. I was just wondering, there's an option to restore a backup of the phone. I'm definitely going to restore the setting etc of it, not typing it all in again. However, I'm thinking the best course of action is to keep all apps off until it runs stably, am I correct? Please advise.

Also it's been interesting reading all the responses to this thread. I agree in that Marshmallow's most colossal flaw is the SD management. I can deal with everything else but the fact that app data can no longer be on my SD is crushing for me. Also, it's installing on people's phones regardless of consent? Smells dodgy. Smells Windows 10...
 

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