TUTORIAL: Downgrade Samsung Galaxy S5 from 5.0 to 4.4 KitKat

[Brianthelion26]

I ran into the same issue on an AT&T Galaxy S5, trying to downgrade from 5.0 to 4.4.2. ODIN would fail on me too. From what I have gathered, it is not possible to downgrade, period, at this time. The bootloader is locked I believe and you cannot downgrade or even root if you are on a OTA 5.0 version. I semi-bricked my phone trying to downgrade and ended up having to download the 5.0 kernel and flash using ODIN to get my phone working again.

 

[etemp1]

Thanks Consv93, It works !!! However I would like to add the following steps in case someone loses his IMEI during downgrade :

If the phone boots properly but the IMEI becomes NULL (Dial check: *#06#) and Baseband version (Dial check: *#1234#) becomes UNKNOWN and you lost your carrier signal. Do the following steps:
1. Download the firmware of Lollipop (version 5) and extract it. Then extract the resulting .tar.md5 file again using WinRar to get new .bin and .img files.
2. Open ODIN again and add modem.bin file as CP file in order to flash it to phone ROM
3. Boot your phone in the download mode by holding Volume down+Home+Power buttons together
4. Connect your phone to the PC. Then push Start in ODIN
5. After it finishes flashing modem.bin, it will reboot and you will get your IMEI number and carrier signal again. However the Baseband version will be that of Lollipop not Kitkat.
By the way, the downgrading methods here will not void your warranty. The boot loader flag will keep 0X0 after downgrading.

 

[gdmercad]

Downgraded my Samsung Galaxy S5 from 5.0 to 4.4 KitKat following the tutorial. Kept getting upgrade notifications, so I decided to wipe partition, wipe data/factory reset and try the Verizon 5.0 update. My apps and setting were uploaded to the cloud prior to the initial download procedure. After the 5.0 upgrade, the phone downloaded all the saved contacts, updated apps and settings from the cloud. No overheating, no battery issue, no lagging. Its been three days and all is still well. My feeling is that 5.0 Lollypop is best installed clean, based on my recent experience. Battery life averaging 22 hours with light to moderate usage.

 

[lmiller001]

Ok, I'm desperate, I've followed your instructions exactly, accept Odin will not download the firmware. Here's what it says exactly:

<ID:0/004> Odin v.3 engine (ID:4)..
<ID:0/004> File analysis..
<ID:0/004> SetupConnection..
<ID:0/004> Initialzation..
<ID:0/004> Get PIT for mapping..
<ID:0/004> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/004> SingleDownload.
<ID:0/004> aboot.mbn
<ID:0/004> NAND Write Start!!
<ID:0/004> FAIL! (Auth)
<ID:0/004>
<ID:0/004> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

Also, my Galaxy displays this in red:

START [224,1440]
SW REV. CHECK FAIL : fused : 7 . Binary : 6

What am I doing wrong?

 

[tvman802]

Has anybody been able to succesfully block the lolipop download notice from verizon after restoring kitkat on their S5? I mean lose the nag notice completely.

 

[Holley2583]

I can't get the .rar file to download from any of the links here. It just says 10-11 HOURS to DL, but isnt actually doing anything. Ive picked the correct file for Verizon 4.4.4, kitkat. Anybody got a link for me please. Also, after DL'ING Kies and Odin my PC is not happy with all the extras...it would be worth it if I could get 4.4.4!

 

[bshoop13]

hello all I am new here and I have a sm-g900a. I found this very interesting because I was forced to upgrade lollipop and I hate it. I have tried all kinds of different cords and versions of odin and it immediately fails everytime. It's very frustrating.

 

[DavidTechGuy]

For everybody who is having problems downgrading on the G900A (AT&T S5), AT&T locked the S5's bootloader along with the Lollipop update, preventing us from downgrading.

We just have to sit tight until somebody finds a way to downgrade on our model.

 

[alex autry]

what version were you on the first version of Lollipop (OA8) or the latest Version which is OC4? i'm reading posts of people being able to get their "Lollipop" back to KK but wish they'd include which version they were on. Thank you

 

[to4raiden]

Pretty lost right now.

I have a s5 sm-g900v

TRYING TO GO FROM LOLLIPOP TO KITKAT

Can't find the firmware. The only one I know of is from Sammobile which there servers blow so it would take 8hrs.

I downloaded another one but don't know if its the right one. its labeled as "G900VVRU1ANE9_G900VVZW1ANE9_VZW"

Can someone please help.

running lollipop 5.0

BASEBAND VERSION
G900VVRU1B0C4

BUILD NUMBER
LRX21T.G900VVRUIB0C4

CONFIGURATION VERSION
J13.SAM.SMG900V.1

 

[Robert Gustincic]

thank uou soooooooooooooooooooo much m8 your officially mlg thamk you i downloaded and installed the past stufff and roooooooooooooottttedddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

 

[semcharmed]

Hello,

First off, thank you so much for this guide. I am going to attempt to try it tonight. I just have one question (and i'm pretty sure the answer will help many users like me) :

I tried to back up my samsung galaxy s5 (G900F) with samsung Kies however it told me that my phone is not compitable and asked me to download Smart switch. So i backed all my data with smart switch, since Kies is mentioned on your guide, incase things go wrong would this back up help me or do i need to use Kies strictly?

Thanks in advance,

Semcharmed

 

[bintob]

This did not work!! Help!!

 

[Host Dolphins]

It's true, their (sammobile) servers are so slow. But I figured to download it and try to find an alternative in the meantime. It's dowloading and still says another 6 hours left, I spent the last hour trying to find a faster alternative but only found a rapidgator mirror which was even SLOWER.

So it looks like for now this is the only choice. However, once downloaded maybe I will host it. However even though I can say I'm not going to modify it, really I would even say to distrust even myself because you don't know me. So beware of the source from whence you find your OS. For all you know it could be a hacker uploaded for the sole purpose of inserting a back door trojan to use your phone as part of a botnet whenever you are connected to the internet. And then the concern about the hacker being able to read your sensitive data.

So that said I would recommend to wait the 8+ hours for it to download from sammobile. It's sad to have to wait for so long but so be it. I think I might download a couple versions simultaneously so maybe if the version I have doesn't work then I won't have to wait another day to download and try another one.

I hope this works. I just got this phone (G900V), and it had 5.0 already, I would NEVER have upgraded it if it were me. I am going to downgrade to 4.4.2.

By the way you can disable update notifications after downgrade and root by physically disabling the application. If needed you might have to find and freeze the update app using titanium backup. That's what I usually do. Also disable notifications for the update app and you'll never hear from it again. Just make sure it's really frozen before you disable notifications so it doesn't update without you knowing!

I was appalled to discover that Verizon locks their bootloaders. I'm glad I only go the prepaid route, and if it ever comes time to upgrade phones in the next couple years I'll be changing to another provider if Verizon still continues to lock their bootloaders. In fact I would have never even signed up with Verizon in the first place if I had known about them locking the bootloaders causing me a PITA. In fact I bought the 500+ 64gb turbo and when I found out the bootloader was locked and there was no way around it, I returned it so Verizon already lost $549 from me because of that, because I bought the S5 on craigslist. /rant

Anyhow I will let you guys know if the downgrade and subsequent root works or not. IF it doesn't work I will be canceling Verizon and going to another provider. I hope not cause I just want a working phone, but I WILL NOT stay with Verizon if I can't bypass their locked bootloaders.

 

[semcharmed]

Thank you so much. Worked like a charm. So happy to get 4.4.x back. BTW - it hanged up on welcome screen as you said. Anyone doing this make sure you have a back up.

 

[Host Dolphins]

Thank you so much. Worked like a charm. So happy to get 4.4.x back. BTW - it hanged up on welcome screen as you said. Anyone doing this make sure you have a back up.

Update: I said yesterday I would let you guys know if it worked. It did. I wrote a quick writeup how to do it, I posted a new thread it will just need to get approved by moderators first.

I have downgraded successfully from 5.0 on Verizon S5 g900v to 4.4.2 (NE9 kernel) and also rooted with towelroot. It has been successful. Will post the link to the quick writeup thread once it's approved.

UPDATE: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...oot-verizon-galaxy-s5-even-after-upgrade.html

 

[epicrules75]

will this method work if i wanted to try to downgrade my sprint s5 from 5.0 od3 back to 5.0 oa6
i am asking this because i read going back to 4.4.4. might mess things up

 

[Host Dolphins]

It should work, BUT, I don't recommend it, because 4.4.2 is the best. Use titanium backup to back up EVERYTHING and then downgrade to the better 4.4.2 OS. Use your titanium backups that you saved to your PC to restore all your data.

 

[Rukbat]

Going from 5.x to 5.x will work. Going from 5.x to 4.x doesn't work on all models of Samsung AT&T and Verizon phones. But remember, EVERYTHING will be deleted, so make sure that anything you don't want to lose is backed up. If there's something Kies won't back up (I don't use it for backup at all, it's just the fastest way to install the driver), see Backing up an Android Device.

A few thoughts:

1. Backdating to KitKat will cause the phone to keep trying to update to Lollipop. Eventually it will, without giving you the option of stopping iy. The only way to prevent this is to root the phone. (And freeze the updater, if you don't want to keep seeing the "update available" and "update failed" notices.)

2. The latest version of Odin (3.10) is at Odin. It's clean - it was uploaded by one of the more trusted devs on XDA (no, not me).

3. Softpedia is not a trusted site. There's a lot of junk on their site. They may virus-check, but that alone doesn't make a file safe.

4. SamMobile is trusted. Unless you get a bad download, you're getting a stock Samsung file, untouched.

 

[Christopher Swierczynski]

Hi, My S5 began restarting before Odin said "All Threads Completed!" and is now hanging on the Verizon logo. My device is still plugged in, should I remove the battery?

UPDATE:
After a few minutes, Odin reported that all threads were completed. I proceeded to unplug my phone. I removed the battery because it was hanging on the Verizon logo and restarted my phone. It still did not make it past the Verizon logo. So I proceeded to the next step of formatting the phone, and applying the backup. That worked, and now I am running Android 4.4.4 using the above steps. Thanks!