Lay it out like I'm five.

[Lastspark]

So my amazing Samsung Galaxy S4 had the amazing 4.2.2 version of Android and it was amazing. Then one night while being drunk I missed the thing that said to wait to update. So now it's downgraded to 4.4.2 and everything about it is terrible. The clock doesn't even work right. When I turn on the screen, the clock says 9am or whatever then it jumps to whatever accurate time it is. And I believe this is what is leading my alarm to go off well after the time it is supposed to. And there are a lot of other things that I hate about it. So I went on the adventure of trying to understand "cell phone lingo". People don't call it a "UI", they call it a "theme" which is only about 10x harder to install than a full custom Windows 7 UI that alters anything and everything. /end rant.

I see a lot of threads about going from 4.4.2 to 4.2.2. Then I see a lot of threads saying that a thing called a "bootloader" cannot be changed or removed or whatever. So I am thinking it's not possible to go from 4.4.2 to 4.2.2 because... logic... says that it would be a different boot loader?

So is it even possible to root 4.4.2? I have a extra SIM card that is unused, is the OS installed on the SIM? I don't believe it is but I could be wrong.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums.
You do have some of it right. There is a different bootloader, and Samsung made it more difficult to roll back a version of Android. Verizon is also nefarious for locking down phones so that root access is much more difficult.
As for the new version of Android that you have; you can try clearing cache in recovery. That might clear errors in the previous ROM that are creating conflicts in the new one.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...ing-into-recovery-mode-galaxy-s2-s3-tab2.html
Follow instructions for the S3.

 

[Lastspark]

Well, I'd much rather just go back to the old version. It was more refined and the "minimalist" look always looked disorganized to me. I like the battery thing being green when it's fully charged and the clock on the unlock screen was in a better spot. The "touch screen refinement" that they did made it too refined near the home button, it seems to always push something at the bottom of my screen now. I have found a few tutorials to go to 4.2.2 but none of them worked, do you have any other links that I could try? Right now it's just a bone stock phone, no custom anything. I tried using another .tar.md5 file off another site that said it was 4.2.2 stock restore but it doesn't even load into Odin. It just errors out.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Everything I am looking at is kind of conflicting. I will look again tomorrow.

Signed, XenonRom, Nexus 5 and AC Forums App

 

[Lastspark]

That's kind of what I noticed, thanks for checking it out for me though, maybe you will find something that I missed.

 

[Golfdriver97]

So I have poked around a little, and I am still finding conflicting answers. The last I knew, you could not roll back a version of Android with this device (I may very well be wrong too). The chances of bricking the device are quite high. I am under the impression that Samsung did this intentionally, as opposed to a Nexus device which can roll back to any version that was released for it.

 

[Lastspark]

Well, I'll just go buy a new one then. I have a upgrade available and I don't really need a newer phone. Hell, don't want a new phone either as it probably comes with that twix or whatever it's called. And not having a "settings" button gets really old in a hurry. Thanks for checking it out. I was hoping your Google-foo was better than mine and you'd find something but oh well. It's a shame I can't just do a 100% wipe and manually install 4.2.2.