TUTORIAL: Downgrade Samsung Galaxy S5 from 5.0 to 4.4 KitKat

[ironass]

SM-G900F (French-XEF) 5.0
Firmware: G900FXXU1BOE5

You have the identical model of phone, G900F, as mine and you are running the same OE5 unbranded firmware as mine and Samsung do not lock their bootloaders. You will be able to root your phone with Odin and the CF-Auto-Root-klte-kltexx-smg900f kernel by following the rooting instructions in my earlier link.

 

[po1725]

You have the identical model of phone, G900F, as mine and you are running the same OE5 unbranded firmware as mine and Samsung do not lock their bootloaders. You will be able to root your phone with Odin and the CF-Auto-Root-klte-kltexx-smg900f kernel by following the rooting instructions in my earlier link.

I have to unchek block reactivation in security options thats rooted but knox is 0x1

 

[tree9]

Hi

I had a screen blinking glitch on my verizon GS5 and just got the phone swapped out with the factory warranty. the new one had android 5.0 and base NE9

Odin was successfully able to install G900VVRU1ANK2_G900VVZW1ANK2_G900VVRU1ANK2_HOME.tar
but get stuck and cannot boot

I have tried factory reset, clear cache, pull battery, in many configurations, It gets stuck on
"android is upgrading, starting apps"
Also, there was odd artifacting on the samsung startup logo

anyway I was able to install Android 4.4.2
G900VVRU1ANE9_G900VVZW1ANE9_G900VVRU1ANE9_HOME.tar.md5

And now im back to kitkat, **** yes


Does anyone know whats up with G900VVRU1ANK2_G900VVZW1ANK2_G900VVRU1ANK2_HOME.tar ?
I think it was the newest kitkat for my device,

 

[ironass]

Hi

I had a screen blinking glitch on my verizon GS5 and just got the phone swapped out with the factory warranty. the new one had android 5.0 and base NE9

Odin was successfully able to install G900VVRU1ANK2_G900VVZW1ANK2_G900VVRU1ANK2_HOME.tar
but get stuck and cannot boot

I have tried factory reset, clear cache, pull battery, in many configurations, It gets stuck on
"android is upgrading, starting apps"
Also, there was odd artifacting on the samsung startup logo

anyway I was able to install Android 4.4.2
G900VVRU1ANE9_G900VVZW1ANE9_G900VVRU1ANE9_HOME.tar.md5

And now im back to kitkat, **** yes


Does anyone know whats up with G900VVRU1ANK2_G900VVZW1ANK2_G900VVRU1ANK2_HOME.tar ?
I think it was the newest kitkat for my device,

Unless you root your phone and stop updates it will be a moot point as Verizon will be forcing their latest version of Lollipop, OE1, to your phone any day now. See post #1 of Verizon OE1 update prevents rooting/downgrading

 

[tree9]

If u advise its enviable I suppose I will get root access and disable updates.

So far it's been a week on sammobiles kitkat 4.4.2 and no update messages yet.

 

[Rachel Leinbach]

THANK YOU !!!! THANK YOU !!!! THANK YOU !!!!! I was starting to panic because my phone wouldn't get out of the red Verizon screen and my son left for Marine Corps boot camp today. I'm expecting a call from him later tonight and I didn't know what I was going to do if I didn't have a way of getting his call!!!! You are LIFESAVER !!!!!!

 

[chas521]

I followed [100%] the steps in the OP for downgrading and all I kept getting was that ODIN failed. Tried 4 times. Drives me crazy because I hate Lollipop with all the battery issues. Any ideas why?

 

[tree9]

the original instructions has not been updated to show that that verizons latest update dropped a bomb on u and it wont work.

do u have a verizon phone with base version ending in OE1 ? if so you are stuck at the moment

 

[chas521]

OUCH!!!! Many thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, it's yes.

 

[ironass]

Am re-posting this again as consv93 has not amended his post #1 to reflect the latest Verizon, OE1, release...

WARNING!

If you are at present, running the latest, U.S. carrier, Verizon OE1 firmware on model G900V you will be unable to downgrade your firmware at all and particularly to Android 4.4.2, to root your phone thanks to Verizon's own new and unique bootloader. See, here.

Verizon does not allow you to... refuse an update... downgrade from an update or... want you to root their phones!

WARNING! Verizon are rolling the OE1 update out to customers and unless you are already rooted and have disabled OTA updates, there is no way of stopping it.

"You will be assimilated! Resistance is futile!" (The Borg)

Thanks Verizon... welcome to, "the land of the free!"

 

[tree9]

verizon makes my **** hurt

 

[chas521]

Clear partition and do a factory reset. Trust me, it gives the battery life back and then some + MUCH faster performance (thank god)! Mine automatically re-installed all the apps and settings I had before so it took no time at all.

1. Turn phone off.
2. Hold power, home and volume up key until menu appears.
3. Wipe Cache Partition first.
4. Factory Reset.

Viola... faster performance and you get that awesome battery performance back. I didn't think it would work but... it definitely does. It's a lot simpler and faster than re-installing 4.4.4 and you get a lot of extra stuff that comes with Lollipop.

This worked great! Now I get over two days of battery life from my Verizon OE1 Lollipop. You gotta try this.

 

[danchitu86]

I have one Samsung S5 4G+ SM-G901F on Orange network, Romania.

I want to downgrade from 5.0.2 G901FXXU1BOC4_G901FORL1BOC1_G901FXXU1BOC4 to 4.4.4 G901FXXU1ANH7_G901FORO1ANH2_G901FXXU1ANH6. Tried to flash with Odin this firmware from Sammobile and got this error:
<ID:0/003> system.img.ext4
<ID:0/003> modem.bin
<ID:0/003> cache.img.ext4
<ID:0/003> hidden.img.ext4
<ID:0/003> FAIL! (Ext4)
<ID:0/003>
<ID:0/003> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)"

Also tried to use a PIT file G901F_pit_G901FXXU1ANH7_FTM but same error.

Now I flashed again 5.0.2, but how can I get back yo 4.4.4? I have understand it is something about new partitions size...

Thank you!

 

[TheDroidMann]

Hi and thanks!
Just a small problem
I have a fail message in Odin. I tried again and in the last second I get the same message. Should I try more? It could be something wrong wit the kitkat package?

 

[TheDroidMann]

Please help! I am running Verizon galaxy s5 g900v android 5.0 and I cannot downgrade it gives me a error I'm trying to downgrade to latest version of 4.44 so I can root please reply and help

 

[ironass]

Please help! I am running Verizon galaxy s5 g900v android 5.0 and I cannot downgrade it gives me a error I'm trying to downgrade to latest version of 4.44 so I can root please reply and help

You can't downgrade. See post #210, above.

"The rooting ship for Verizon customers on OE1 has sailed!"

 

[djraven911]

i finally have a better solution, i posted it on youtube. just search on youtube: How i downgraded my Android Samsung S5 to Kitkat 4 - No Root! No notification! KNOX + warranty!

 

[rbidi21]

I'm a newbie (please bare with me) and trying to figure out if I can downgrade & root my S5. I bought a S5 that was on Verizon (SM-900V) from a friend. He did a factory reset on it before he gave it to me. This was on July 4, 2015. I just activated my phone with another carrier (PagePlus).

My about phone shows that I am on Lollipop with a Base Version of OC4, Kernel 3.4.0, Build OC4. I'm guessing since I reactivated phone on a different carrier the OE1 never affected my phone. Can I downgrade? More importantly can I root?

If I can, can someone point me to the proper tutorial to use or walk me through it?

Thanks in advance. Any help is much appreciated.

 

[ironass]

I'm a newbie (please bare with me) and trying to figure out if I can downgrade & root my S5. I bought a S5 that was on Verizon (SM-900V) from a friend. He did a factory reset on it before he gave it to me. This was on July 4, 2015. I just activated my phone with another carrier (PagePlus).

My about phone shows that I am on Lollipop with a Base Version of OC4, Kernel 3.4.0, Build OC4. I'm guessing since I reactivated phone on a different carrier the OE1 never affected my phone. Can I downgrade? More importantly can I root?

If I can, can someone point me to the proper tutorial to use or walk me through it?

Thanks in advance. Any help is much appreciated.

Hello and welcome to Android Central rbidi21!

You have dodged a bullet!

Providing, as you say, your Verizon, G900V, phone has never updated to the latest OE1 firmware with its mega locked down bootloader, you can indeed downgrade your phone and root it.

As for rooting, you will need to flash your phone with the stock Verizon NCG firmware and root with TowelRoot and install Safestrap as per Note 4 of this link on xda developers...

[How-To] Update to G900V_OA8 - 5.0 and KeepRoot

This is for competent users and you should read all instructions, carefully and thoroughly beforehand. If you have any queries regarding rooting you can possibly find the answers or post questions to other Verizon owners, on Samsung Galaxy S5 Rooting, ROMs & Hacks at the top of the forum.


ironass motto... "Flash in haste... repent at leisure"

 

[rbidi21]

Thank you for the welcome and response ironass. I look forward to learning more here.

I have rooted my S3 and Tab before and am now looking to root my S5. I will be reading up on the link you posted.

Thanks again.