There are many reasons someone would want to downgrade Android to an older version, Android 5.0 (the latest version of Android) features a ton of changes over Android 4.4 kit kat of which some are great and others not so, sometimes reason enough for us to downgrade like app incompatibility.
Downgrading an operation system is a relatively easy process however, it does require you to wipe all your data and restoring a backup made of Android 5.0 on an other version isn’t possible, so we recommend you check out our guide how to back up your folders and pictures to the cloud. Once we have done that, lets start with the downgrading process
How to Downgrade Android 5.0 Lollipop to Android 4.4
- We will need to download the Android 4.4.4 KitKat factory image of our device and Fastboot/ADB. You can download the Factory Image here and Fastboot/ADB here
- Once installed and downloaded turn off your Android device
- Proceed to Boot your device back up into recovery mode, this can be done by pressing a key combination specific to each device (You will have to look up on how to boot yours into recovery mode)
- Perform a system wipe (wipe all data from the device)
- Connect your device to your computer
- Open up a terminal window
- Move the downloaded folder in Step 1 to your desktop
- Write the following command: cd /USERNAME/desktop/kitkat
- To detect your device, run this command: Fastboot devices
- Then run the following command to flash the factory image to your device: flash-all.bat
- Voila!
Keep in mind that finding the right Factory Image for your device can be hard depending on what device you have, the link shared in Step 1 is only valid for Nexus users.
