HELP!! I upgraded to 4.4.2 and can't roll back using ODIN :( (T-Mobile)

I may be giving you bad news but last time I checked the ota notice said you cannot roll back ... I have yet yo see anyone roll back from KitKat official on the 9500


The new boot loader is pretty persistent at rollback prevention.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

zz1049 said:

Hey everyone,

1- Can ANYONE tell me how I can roll it back to 4.3 until I JUMP to my S5 in April?
2- If not how does one go about removing - ROOT - by Chainfire or CF-AutoRoot?

=> so I can at least trade in my phone for the 5 and be done with this mess in a month.

Reason I want 4.3 is because I had much more control over the system and was able to perform tethering tasks and APN tricks that have been blocked by the Kitkat update.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Once you have installed 4.4.2 with the matching boot loader, you cannot install 4.3 with Odin. However you can restore an Nandroid backup of your old 4.3 setup from recovery, so the phone will be back to how it was before the upgrade.

If you want to unroot, you can fire up SuperSU and select the "Full Unroot" option from the settings tab.

In order to restore APN settings on 4.4.2, I have always taken a backup of them on earlier versions using this great app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riteshsahu.APNBackupRestore

In order to make it work on 4.4.2, you move the APK from /Data/App to /System/priv-app using Root Explorer or similar, then reboot. Disable the ICS check in the settings section of APNBackupRestore, and you're good to go!

For tethering by USB, this works very well for me:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.tether

Good Luck!

Nandroid recovery

Hi VogonP0et,

I have a Sprint S4. I also upgraded OTA to 4.4.2 and am regretting it. I was not rooted when upgrading. Haven't been rooted for a few months. I do not like 4.4.2 restrictive sd card. Screwed up my Doc's to Go and Sygic nav.

I do have a nandroid recovery back up from last summer. MDL i believe.

Do I understand you correctly, I can root 4.4.2 reinstall TWRP. Then do a recovery back to my earlier version. Is this correct?

Thanks in advance.

Jim

Clean install rooted 4.4.2

BrickBait said:

Hi VogonP0et,

I have a Sprint S4. I also upgraded OTA to 4.4.2 and am regretting it. I was not rooted when upgrading. Haven't been rooted for a few months. I do not like 4.4.2 restrictive sd card. Screwed up my Doc's to Go and Sygic nav.

I do have a nandroid recovery back up from last summer. MDL i believe.

Do I understand you correctly, I can root 4.4.2 reinstall TWRP. Then do a recovery back to my earlier version. Is this correct?

Thanks in advance.

Jim

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Hi Jim

You can only restore a 4.3 or 4.4.2 backup, not an earlier version.

I have an International i9505 jfltexx, although I believe the process would be the same for you. Here's what I did:
- Nandroid backup to the external SD card first job! Copy to the PC for safety.
- Power off the phone, and manually re-start in Download mode.
- Flash original factory KitKat 4.4.2 firmware of choice using Odin (I used V3.09), which will include the matching boot loader.
- Allow the phone to start up, which will take some time.
- Power off the phone, and manually re-start in Download mode.
- Use Chainfire's CF-Auto-Root to root it, using the Odin that comes in the package. Find it here (3rd post):
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2219803
- phone will re-start when the process is complete
- I did a full wipe at this point, and although it's a bit of a pain to restore all your data with Titanium backup it gives a problem-free start.
- Full wipe made my Sygic work properly again!
- Before you drop in a custom recovery, it is a good idea to use Chainfire's Triangle Away to reset the flash counter. It seems that the Flash Counter needs to be zero for successful operation of Mobile Odin in future.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.triangleaway
- once you have set up your Google Play account, download SGS4Flasher here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nl.bvgemert.flasher
- SGS4Flasher will drop in the recovery of your choice. I use and recommend TWRP personally.
- You're good to go, and Flash Counter is still zero!
- Now you can restore an earlier Nandroid backup of a 4.3 ROM, or install a new custom 4.3 or 4.4.2 ROM

After this I installed the custom ROM of my choice, which is Echoe V16 based on 4.4.2. Echoe makes all the limitations and restrictions of 4.4.2 go away, but there must be a custom ROM suitable for you. I don't think you can use Echoe on your phone, but you may have a favourite. I have to say that doing the full wipe was an important step to make it all work well, so worth the hassle.

The only concern I have is that your backup at version at MDL may actually be Android 4.2, which I don't think you can use directly. However Titanium Backup can extract the data from a Nandroid backup to restore. I have spent quite a bit of time understanding the 4.4.2 limitations and restrictions, and found ways to make it do what I want now. Overall I'm happy, but it has taken some time to get there.

Good Luck!