Root Downdrade Nexus 5 from 5.0 to 4.4.x .. HELP PLEASE

[Chris Fuqua]

Someone, anyone PLEASE tell me the proper and complete steps to downgrade my T-Mobile Nexus 5.

The new update was pushed on me a few weeks ago, I now have Android 5 and I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT.

The phone is slower, the GUI isn't as nice, apps frequently crash. Functionality has been ruined.

Since i bought the phone, I feel it is MY personal property, and I can downgrade the OS as I choose.

That being said, I don't want to brick it, so I am reaching out to the experts before I do this.

Help please!

 

[BRAINZ2013]

You need all the 5.0 drivers but here is a hands on video to show you post back if you need help​

You have received a YouTube video!

 

[Chris Fuqua]

You need all the 5.0 drivers but here is a hands on video to show you post back if you need help​

You have received a YouTube video!

Thanks, I will check it out this weekend!

How do I ensure I have all of the correct 5.0 drivers?

Also, I found another thread last week to do this, but when Unzipping the file, all of the "Flash-all" and other files didn't appear, so I didn't go through with it.

 

[BRAINZ2013]

Thanks, I will check it out this weekend!

How do I ensure I have all of the correct 5.0 drivers?

Also, I found another thread last week to do this, but when Unzipping the file, all of the "Flash-all" and other files didn't appear, so I didn't go through with it.

That's just the USB drivers and if you need just use the universal drivers that clockworkmod has made. But the offer the drivers in the download

 

[Unforgiven]

Moved to the device forum.

 

[Hook]

While there is nothing you can do if you hate the UI, you might be able to solve the other problems by doing a factory reset and clearing app cache. I'm not crazy about the UI either, but I get great performance, the best battery life I have had without a custom kernel and absolutely no apps crashing. I would spend a little time seeing if you can get things working smoothly and see if you can adapt to the UI before locking yourself into the past. Your choice, of course.

 

[lunatic59]

Hi Chris.

While you can downgrade, I don't know that I would recommend it. First, even if you do get back to Kitkat, you will continue to get notices about the update to 5.0 to the point of irritation. It is a Nexus after all and is supposed to be on the latest version. Next, 5.0 really is better. It is a bit of a change (okay, it's a MAJOR change) but give it a chance, if you have a Nexus, I bet you'll grow to love it. If you are adamant about downgrading (your phone, your choice) here's the quick list ...

1. Get the Android SDK, Google drivers and Java Development Platform. Install them.
2. Get the 4.4.4 factory image from Google. 4.4.4 (KTU84P) and decompress the contents into the platform-tools folder of the SDK.
3. Put your phone into fastboot mode (with phone off, power + vol. down buttons).
4. Plug in phone and let drivers install, if they aren't already. Test this by opening an elevated command window (Start menu, type "cmd" in search. When you see cmd.exe right click and select run as administrator) then change directory to platform-tools. Type "fastboot devices" (no quotes) and you should see a serial number listed. If you do, then ...
5. Run Flash-all.bat

Let it do it's thing. You phone will reboot a bunch and it can take a while. Remember it's replacing pretty much everything on your phone. (BACKUP FIRST OR IT'S GONE!!!)

Yourlag and crashes are most likely from the OTA. A factory reset now will most likely clear that, but backup first. We see this all the time with every version upgrade. From 2.1 to 2.2 ... to 2.3 ... to 4.0, etc. These major changes work well for most, but there's always a group that get's into trouble. 99% of the time a factor reset cleans things up, and they come back singing the praises of the update once it's working correctly.

If you want a perfectly clean install of 5.0 (lollipop) just follow the instructions above, but use the 5.0 factory image files. Everything else is the same.

 

[jj14x]

If you want a perfectly clean install of 5.0 (lollipop) just follow the instructions above, but use the 5.0 factory image files. Everything else is the same.

Note that some folks (including me) have indicated that the flash-all.bat for 5.0 doesn't seem to work right. User would need to unzip the various .img files and flash them in the appropriate sequence.