downgrade jelly bean to ice cream sandwich

[jrich]

Hello all,
Since I updated my phone to jelly bean (4.2.1) the bluetooth doesnt work very well in my car. SInce the upgrade, when i get into the car with the bluetooth on the phone turned on, the phone wont connect. if i try to turn the bluetooth off, the screen says "turning bluetooth off" but it never turns off. The screen just says that until i turn the phone off. (ive left it 'turning off' for days) once i turn the phone off and back on with the car running, the phone connects to the car just fine. Until i turn the car off, then i have to go through the process again. So in a day of running errands with the kids I might wind up getting in and out of the car 10 or 12 times, and having to reset the phone each time. this happens in both of my cars. other phones work just fine in both cars. my phone worked just fine in both cars while it was running Ice Cream Sandwich. Ive been hoping against hope that version 4.2.2 would come out for sprint phones and that it would fix the problem, but i surrender. None of the improvements of Jelly Bean mean anything to me and I miss being able to use the bluetooth in the car. Can someone please post step by step directions for how to put the Ice Cream Sandwich software back on the phone? Including which versions of what software i need to download? All of the tutorials Ive seen online seem to have multiple choices of things to download, all with the warning that downloading the wrong files will 'brick' the phone, but without very clear instructions about how to pick the correct files. The most detailed instructions Ive found talked about how to do it with a GSM galaxy nexus, but i dont think the sprint phone is GSM. Id love some help. thanks
-j

 

[prolongExistence]

First, let me warn you that if you downgrade to stock ICS then you will keep getting the popup notice that an upgrade is available. Not sure of your skill level but there are dozens of custom ROMs that you could switch to that would not give you the warning.

In either case, the easiest answer is to download WugFresh's Nexus Root Toolkit wugfresh.com
If you just want to downgrade then there is a button there to flash a stock ROM & it provides a link to download the ROMs from google.
If you want to go the custom route then you need to Unlock your bootloader, Root & then flash the custom ROM & gapps .zip files
When is comes to installing a custom Recovery I would recommend TWRP over CWM but it's really just preference.

The Sprint GNex is CDMA and you want to install the versions code-named toroPlus. Verizon is toro & GSM versions are maguro.

Also, it is pretty much impossible to brick a Nexus device since the factory ROM images are freely available & you can always flash back to them

 

[jrich]

Thanks so much, this info was great. I was easily able to go back to the 4.0.4
Can I bother you again....... I see in your signature that you have the sprint galaxy nexus running 4.2.2. Where did you get the update? The last update I got from sprint was 4.2.1
Thanks again
-J

 

[prolongExistence]

Thanks so much, this info was great. I was easily able to go back to the 4.0.4
Can I bother you again....... I see in your signature that you have the sprint galaxy nexus running 4.2.2. Where did you get the update? The last update I got from sprint was 4.2.1
Thanks again
-J

No update from Sprint. I'm currently running the XenonHD ROM which is based on 4.2.2. Most of the custom ROMs out there are up to 4.2.2 now. Most likely Sprint abandoned the GNex as an older device and stopped worrying about updates for it. They will most likely leave it at 4.2.1 forever so that you get the itch to buy a newer, better device (which would of course keep you as their customer for another 2 years).

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using AC Forums mobile app

 

[jrich]

Wow were you right to warn about the upgrade popup.... i figured that it would come up once or twice a day..... but its closer to every time i pick up the phone. Theres really no way to get it to stop that? If I could get the popup to stop, I would just leave it on the stock 4.0.4 software forever. The upgrade notification is annoying enough to me that I will probbaly go with the custom Rom if i cant get it to stop with the stock one. That leaves me with a whole host of other questions like:
Where do I get the ROMs?
Do they mostly work and feel like the regular Jellybean software?
is there one that is exactly a copy of software version 4.2.2?
If I were to try one out, Id probably just copy you, at least at first, and use the Rom you mentioned. Could you just give me a brief reason why its better or different then the other ones? and where do I get it?
Thanks so much for the answers to any of these questions.
Also, that WugFresh Toolkit was a great piece of software. The instructions were so clear and easy to follow, much better then a lot of the software Ive gotten from major developers. The only reason I'm even considering a custom Rom is beacuse of how easy it was to use the toolkit, so I can change it back if i want to. Thanks again for that.
-J

 

[prolongExistence]

Wow were you right to warn about the upgrade popup.... i figured that it would come up once or twice a day..... but its closer to every time i pick up the phone. Theres really no way to get it to stop that? If I could get the popup to stop, I would just leave it on the stock 4.0.4 software forever. The upgrade notification is annoying enough to me that I will probbaly go with the custom Rom if i cant get it to stop with the stock one. That leaves me with a whole host of other questions like:
Where do I get the ROMs?
Do they mostly work and feel like the regular Jellybean software?
is there one that is exactly a copy of software version 4.2.2?
If I were to try one out, Id probably just copy you, at least at first, and use the Rom you mentioned. Could you just give me a brief reason why its better or different then the other ones? and where do I get it?
Thanks so much for the answers to any of these questions.
Also, that WugFresh Toolkit was a great piece of software. The instructions were so clear and easy to follow, much better then a lot of the software Ive gotten from major developers. The only reason I'm even considering a custom Rom is beacuse of how easy it was to use the toolkit, so I can change it back if i want to. Thanks again for that.
-J

Get them here Sprint Galaxy Nexus Android Development - xda-developers Two key things to remember, the Sprint GNex is the toro+ version & when you flash any custom ROM, you have to also flash gapps. The gapps package is what adds google services & the necessary google apps. Without them, you won't be able to access the Play Store or your google back up account.

For the most part, any custom ROM starts with the stock (vanilla) Android. Then they fix some of the bugs that google didn't get around to fixing yet. Then they add in some other features, tweaks, etc to give it some more flavor. So yes, they mostly work & feel like regular Android.

Out of respect for the hard working, underpaid (mostly unpaid) devs I'm not going to say that any one ROM is better than the rest. I've tried out a few & they all have their good points and bad points. Read through the forums, look at the screenshots. A good indicator is to see how active the devs are at developing & updating their ROM. You may not want a ROM that isn't being actively developed since there won't be frequent updates or fixes. Try one out, if you don't like it, try another. Important note, when you flash to a different ROM, always do a clean install, otherwise expect bugs. Wipe cache, wipe dalvik, wipe data. Then install.

Here's a couple other references...
[GUIDE] Rooting, ClockworkMod and Custom ROMs...an A to Z for beginners - xda-developers - This one talks about using ClockworkMod (CWM) but you can do the exact same things with TWRP so whichever you chose is fine.

Galaxy Nexus Android

 

[jrich]

Thanks for all the info. Im really not able to dedicate time to computer / phone things latley, the custom ROMs seem like soemthing I would enjoy,maybe after both my kids get to school age. My first choice would be to just keep running stock 4.0.4 and somehow get the upgrade popup to stop showing up. The only reason Im even messing with it is becasue my bluetooth stopped working with the 4.2.1 update. It's working flawlessley since I put the 4.0.4 back on it, by the way.

I found this thread:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/go...w-do-i-remove-system-update-notification.html

a few posts in on the thread, Ro Brasov suggests something with an app called System Tuner. When i get to the part about unchecking things, I cant seem to do it. All the blue checks shown in the screen shots are grey on my phone, and I cant uncheck them, If i Root my phone, will that give me access to those check marks? Also, what exactly does rooting do to the phone? I used the WugFresh toolkit to flash my phone back to stock 4.0.4. If i root the phone, will i still be running that same stock software, just with "administrator" permissions? Also, do you have any thoughts on if the method suggested to stop the upgrade popup? Will it work? Will it have other unintended consequences?
Thanks again for all your help
-J

 

[prolongExistence]

Seems like it would probably work but yes, I would say you need to be rooted. Normally apps need root permission to make system changes like that. Would be nice if the app description warned you of that.

What is rooting? In a linux based system (which Android is) there are users and superusers. Superusers are equivalent to Administrators in a Windows environment. By rooting your device you change from a user to a superuser.

Now, here's a dilemma for you though. Unfortunately, in order to root a GNex you need to unlock the bootloader first. A simple task in Wugs but it will wipe your device. You can do a back up first in Wugs. Back up 'All apps' and then back up your 'SD card' and then restore after you root.