All the Nexus device are having Android Lollipop update now. Lollipop is a great operating system with many new changes and cool features but many people want to downgrade to Android KitKat after they updated their device with Android Lollipop. Forums are filled with complaints related to Android Lollipop and one issue which is faced by a lot of people is battery drain. Most of the devices which are receiving lollipop update are also experiencing battery drain issues after the update.
Many people also experienced issues while they were updating their Nexus 7 and got stuck with the update process. You can easily downgrade to Android KitKat which is a better and stable Android operating system for Android devices.
How to downgrade Nexus 7
Downgrading Nexus 7 from Android Lollipop to Android KitKat is easy. The process of downgrading is reverse of what you do when you manually update to a new operating system. Unlike other Android devices you can easily downgrade Nexus 7 as some Samsung devices come with Knox which make it very difficult for a user to downgrade to earlier operating system.
Before you start the downgrading process of Nexus 7 you need a couple of things with you. First of all you need to download the factory image of Android KitKat for your Nexus 7. If you want to downgrade to earlier versions like Android Jelly Bean that is also possible by using the factory image of Android Jelly Bean for Nexus 7 but that makes no sense. You can download the factory image for Android KitKat for your Nexus 7 from this link. (Make sure you download the factory image for your version of your Nexus 7)
The second thing which you need to take care of is to create backup of your device because you are going to lose all data once you downgrade to Android KitKat. You can use any software for taking backup but we suggest you to go for Helium.
How to downgrade Nexus 7 from Lollipop to Android KitKat
- Download ADB tools if you are not having them on your computer. You can download them from this link.
- Once you have installed ADB tools, transfer the factory image to the ADB Tools folder & unpack it.
- USB Debugging should be enabled on your Nexus 7. To enable USB debugging go to Settings > About Phone > Tap build number 5-7 times. Go back to Settings and you will see Developer options. Open it and enable Developer options on Nexus 7.
- Make sure that bootloader of your Nexus 7 is unlocked before you start the rooting process.
- Switch off your Nexus 7 and enter the Fastboot menu by holding Power + Volume Down If you are using custom recovery use the volume buttons for navigating and Power button for making a selection, on the other hand if you are using stock recovery on your Nexus 7 Press power button and then quickly press Volume Up button and you will enter Recovery mode of your Nexus 7.
- Once you are in recovery mode navigate to wipe cache partition. Once cache is deleted, select wipe data/factory reset
- Connect your Nexus 7 with your computer using a USB cable.
- Once your Nexus 7 is connected, go to ADB tools folder and click on flash-all.bat The downgrading process will be started on your Nexus 7.
Once downgrading has been completed you will Android KitKat start screen waiting for you on your Nexus 7.
If you are having any issues while you are downgrading to Android KitKat please use the comments section below.
