TUTORIAL: Downgrade Samsung Galaxy S5 from 5.0 to 4.4 KitKat

[CRS1]

I found this same procedure at another site. I downloaded the correct file for my Sprint S5 from that sam file site.

Followed the steps and back to 4.4.4. So happy it worked!

Lollipop was ugly and KILLED my battery life. My wife is sticking with Lollipop.

Never again will I do any major updates again. I got burned when I had my Samsung S2 and Jelly Bean came out. I ended up getting a new phone from that deal.

Remember the good old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

Stay away from Lollipop!

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

 

[noybat]

To CONSV93, thank you for the guide! But which version of ODIN? I see 4 version of ODINfro softpedia, for S5 Verizon SM-G900V. Thank you!

 

[dmcpilot]

Curious--after you reverted back 4.4, do you still get the (VERY) annoying prompts to download lollipop?

 

[dbrem26]

Thank you so much for this. Lollipop was so painful. Huge battery drain and the lagging was horrible. Back to smooth 4.4.4 thanks to you! Mine also locked up on the Verizon Screen. I had to do a Factory Reset. Kies locked up a couple of times restoring apps but after a computer reboot I got it to work. Had to re-do a few things (didn't bring in all my apps and lost my GOSMS text message history but that is nothing compared to what I was living with. Won't be installing Lollipop for a long while.

 

[consv93]

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?

Make sure the 4.4 package is unzipped. Try redownloading the 4.4 package and make sure it's about 1.7 GB. If that doesn't work, try downloading Odin from somewhere else.

To CONSV93, thank you for the guide! But which version of ODIN? I see 4 version of ODINfro softpedia, for S5 Verizon SM-G900V. Thank you!

You're welcome! Use "Odin3 3.10.6". Just search Odin and you should see it as the 4th result. (I can't post links yet because I'm a new member.)

Curious--after you reverted back 4.4, do you still get the (VERY) annoying prompts to download lollipop?

Yes, you should only get them once a day. I just hit install later and delay it to the middle of the night while unchecking start download automatically. That way when you wake up you can delay it again or just let it sit on your status bar.

 

[dbregman]

This works great. My phone is back to where is should be. Thank OP.

 

[ThisGirlSerious]

Thank you so much. The only issue I had was Odin 3.10 would not see my phone. Went to 3.7 and was able to downgrade. You are a lifesaver. I have let all my friends know not to upgrade and made people aware of your post.

 

[thesales]

That worked great! Thanks so much for taking the time to do such a great step-by-step tutorial!

Greg

 

[svlsduran]

I did every step and it rebooted quickly, but somehow it was still in 5.0.0.

Does anyone has the same problem?

 

[KJ78]

Worked great. Thanks for the help.

 

[mastersb]

Hi and thanks for post. Now back to Kitkat. Only 1 problem I'm having is that I keep getting message "Unfortunately Vodafone updates has stopped working". I keep clicking ok, but message continues to come up on screen. Anybody have this issue? I have blocked the Vodafone updates app, and this stops the message, but never have had this before in either Kitkat or Lollipop. Any ideas?

 

[Ruthie Paredes]

I agree with all of you 100%. Lollipop is gross to be honest. If I wanted everything white, flat and ugly (and uncustomisable) I'd buy an iPhone. Phone now freeze up, notification bar is ugly, cant view the contents without clicking on it, when new message received my LED light wont light up, screen wont wake up as well. How can i downgrade without doing factory reset? Android should fix the notifications settings, keep them as they were. The update would've been a lot better without changing notifications settings and layout. We have to do so many steps know in order to receive a notification, keep it like the KitKat version (i mean settings wise).

 

[JohnnyGalaga]

Is there a quicker way to download Android 4.4.4? The SamMobile website has a screen that gives you two download options: a fast speed that you have to pay for, and a slow speed that only goes at 15 kb/s. The slow speed will take about 2 days to download (2 DAYS, not hours). Any better options? Thanks.

UPDATE: The download goes slow for a while but eventually keeps failing and stops. So there's basically no way to even do this at all.

 

[JohnnyGalaga]

There's three different versions of 4.4.4 on the SamMobile website. Which one should we use? Thanks.

Oh, and what's the best version if you wanna root the phone?

 

[cydewaze]

Thanks for this tutorial. I may need it for my wife's phone now that she's back in the US.

But what's to stop the phone from re-updating itself to lollipop?

 

[JohnnyGalaga]

Tried the download again and this time it got done in like 3-4 hours. The downgrade worked. I went with the oldest version 4.4.2 to make it easier to root. It did get stuck on the "big red" Verizon screen, so had to do the reset. But it worked! Thanks!

 

[radulianis]

Worked for me.I was sceptical about it first time but the sluggysh Android 5.0 made me so angry that i finally decided to downgrade with the risk assumed.My bigest fear was triggering KNOX counter and void my warranty, but i heard that flashing stock ROMs will NOT trigger the counter.So I begun the process with some emotions.I knew that were lot of chances to remain stuck in boot loooop so i was prepared for anything.
After few minutes of waiting Odin finished flashing the firmware.The phone reboted and remain stuck in bootloop.I followed the steps given and proceed a Factory Reset and my S5 now booted in the old blazing fast KitKat.

Thanks for step by step tutorial!

 

[Svetoslav Dushkov]

By doing this, am I actually rooting my S5?

EDIT: I got my asnswer - no.
P.S. Ty for the guide.

 

[svlsduran]

Downloaded the firmware from Sammobile. Everything went okay until it got finished in Odin.
The firmware-downgrade failed. My phone stays in ODIN-mode with new text underneath it:
"Secure Download: Enable
UDC START
Volume Size is too big 61440 < 102400
ODIN: Invalid ext4 image"

The Log in ODIN3 v3.10:
"<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> G900FXXU1ANG9_G900FPRO1ANG3_G900FXXU1ANG8_HOME.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<ID:0/003> Added!!
<ID:0/003> Odin engine v(ID:3.1005)..
<ID:0/003> File analysis..
<ID:0/003> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/003> Initialzation..
<ID:0/003> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/003> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/003> SingleDownload.
<ID:0/003> sbl1.mbn
<ID:0/003> NAND Write Start!!
<ID:0/003> aboot.mbn
<ID:0/003> rpm.mbn
<ID:0/003> tz.mbn
<ID:0/003> sdi.mbn
<ID:0/003> NON-HLOS.bin
<ID:0/003> boot.img
<ID:0/003> recovery.img
<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)"

Can anyone help me? I already had this ones and needed to restore everything (worked but still on that damn 5.0.0), so I tried again today, and still no good...

 

[Branden Griffiths]

is there anyway to back out after you have pressed start on the odin program, it came up with it failed after i ran it.