How can i downgrade android 8.0 to android 7.1

[0899]

I want to downgrade my android version from Android 8.0 to Android 7.1

 

[lhaff37]

Me too

 

[Rukbat]

You can't "downgrade", there's no file for that. You flash the 7.1 ROM for the particular phone. Since the ROM image doesn't come with anything you've installed or modified, you have to do a full backup of everything important that didn't come with the phone (see Backing up an Android Device), then flash the ROM, then restore everything you backed up.

Depending on the phone, that can be anywhere from almost trivial to a whole day's work.

 

[Mooncatt]

Depending on the phone, that can be anywhere from almost trivial to a whole day's work.

And when it's all said and done, the update servers will still try (and sometimes force themselves) to update your phone again. So that means once you're done flashing the ROM, you may have to root it and do some system level changes to prevent Oreo from being installed again.

 

[lhaff37]

Rukbat, thanks for your response. My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S7 that was at Android 6.0 when I recently bought it. After dragging my feet for a couple of weeks I updated to 6.1, after which it automatically downloaded 7.0. After delaying another week or so, I went ahead and installed it yesterday, which spawned about a dozen additional updates. I blindly installed everything it threw at me and when it was all done, I was surprised to find that I had unknowingly updated to 8.0. The new UI is atrocious and I can't deal with it, so I need to find a way to go back. Where can I find instructions for installing new software and where can I find the 7.0 or 7.1 package? I'm technically inclined, but obviously I'm a dummy on this topic so I need all the help I can get.

 

[hallux]

http://sammobile.com will have everything you need. However, those are just the stock Samsung versions of the OS and you may still be subject to a forced update to Oreo anyway, as noted above. You also need to be 100% sure you have your data backed up, this is a destructive process.

 

[lhaff37]

http://sammobile.com will have everything you need......this is a destructive process.

Thank you hallux for that info. It's very much appreciated. Destructive is what I want.

 

[lhaff37]

Since my main gripe with Oreo is with the UI, which I assume is the "Samsung Experience", is it possible to revert to an earlier version of that (mine is 9.0) rather than the complete OS?

 

[hallux]

Samsung has not released the "Samsung Experience" portion separate from OS updates.

 

[lhaff37]

OK thanks. I figured that would be too simple.

 

[Bruce39]

On my current phone (Nexus 6P on Verizon); I have it set so all updated are over Wifi only & I turned off auto updates. I have never received any update that I did not request. Generally, I dismiss the notification & sometime later go to Play store & download only the updates I want. System updates are similar, get notification & then i generally update sometime later.