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Help Verizon downgrade to KitKat - Dummies Guide

Sorry gabor10. Those last 2 posts are, without a doubt, the unluckiest and saddest that I have read in a long time.

Not wishing to rub salt into an open wound but as you are not registered on the Verizon network, you will not receive any future OTA updates to your phone ever again I am afraid... unless you download and flash them manually via Odin. See #1.6 of 41 Galaxy S5 models - Dummies Guide.

As per post #95, above...

ironass said:
Both AT&T and Verizon have been un-rootable for over a year now, since the release of 4.4.4, hence the downgrading to 4.4.2, and still no-one has figured a way around it.
Click to expand...

All Verizon did with the release of the OE1 firmware was to prevent the downgrading... which came as a shock to everyone. They have now extended this to other models and manufacturers phones.
 
Thank you for your reply and all the other previous posts that helped me to understand my situation. I'll sure be more careful next time before I do anything...
 
If you need any hints, tips or tweaks for the G900V model, our resident Verizon maestro is AZgl1500 who will, I am sure, be only too pleased to help. :)
 
I can only feel your pain, but if you register on Verizon, it WILL BE upgraded ( spoilt is a better word ) with LolliFLOP...

I detest 5.0 but there is nothing I can do about it....
what you need to do now, is install Nova Prime so you can at least disguise the look of 5.0
* Nova Launcher - Android Apps on Google Play


and you also need to install * Package Disabler Pro for Samsung
which will disable anything on the phone you don't want.

That won't take it out of the Apps Drawer, but it will prevent it from showing up on a Homescreen.
 
Consulting you guys, Oh Learn-ed Ones, just to be sure I'm truly sunk for rooting...just picked up a Verizon S5 on eBay before Christmas. My oh so rooted, time-tested, tried & true Thunderbolt finally became unusable last week.

Device specs:

SMG-900V
Baseband version = G900VVRU2BOK3
Kernel = 3.4.0
Build = LRX21T.G900VVRU2BOK3
Android 5.0
Hardware = G900V.05
Configuration version = J13.SAM.SMG900V.1
 
EternalWorth said:
Consulting you guys, Oh Learn-ed Ones, just to be sure I'm truly sunk for rooting...just picked up a Verizon S5 on eBay before Christmas. My oh so rooted, time-tested, tried & true Thunderbolt finally became unusable last week.

Device specs:

SMG-900V
Baseband version = G900VVRU2BOK3
Kernel = 3.4.0
Build = LRX21T.G900VVRU2BOK3
Android 5.0
Hardware = G900V.05
Configuration version = J13.SAM.SMG900V.1
Click to expand...

Hello and welcome to Android Forums EternalWorth

As far as rooting your G900V, Verizon, model on OK3 firmware... forget it!

As per post #61, here, any Verizon firmwares after June 2015 are unrootable.
 
Hi Guys,

My phone seems to have an older firmware with 5.0 on it, so I think I am in the clear to downgrade? Perhaps I am wrong? Below is my phone info:
SM-G900V running android 5.0 on Verizon reseller "Page Plus Cellular"

Bootloader: G900VVRU1BOC4
PDA: G900VVRU1BOC4 / G900VVRU1BOC4_OC5
CSC: G900VVZW1BOC4
BASEBAND: G900VVRU1BOC4


When trying to downgrade per the instructions, I am getting an error. The phone in ODIN mode states the following when I click START in ODIN:
"MDM MODE CAN'T DOWNLOAD"

Odin log is as follows.
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> G900VVRU1ANK2_G900VVZW1ANK2_G900VVRU1ANK2_HOME.tar.md5 is valid.
<OSM> Checking MD5 finished Sucessfully..
<OSM> Leave CS..
<ID:0/004> Added!!
<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> sbl1.mbn
<ID:0/004> FAIL!
<ID:0/004>
<ID:0/004> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)
<ID:0/004> Removed!!
Click to expand...

Appreciate your help!
 
SuzukiDan7 said:
Hi Guys,

My phone seems to have an older firmware with 5.0 on it, so I think I am in the clear to downgrade? Perhaps I am wrong? Below is my phone info:
SM-G900V running android 5.0 on Verizon reseller "Page Plus Cellular"

Bootloader: G900VVRU1BOC4
PDA: G900VVRU1BOC4 / G900VVRU1BOC4_OC5
CSC: G900VVZW1BOC4
BASEBAND: G900VVRU1BOC4


When trying to downgrade per the instructions, I am getting an error. The phone in ODIN mode states the following when I click START in ODIN:
"MDM MODE CAN'T DOWNLOAD"

Odin log is as follows.


Appreciate your help!
Click to expand...

Hello and welcome to Android Forums SuzukiDan7

Check that you open Odin in Administrator mode, #1.11, and that you have extracted the Verizon firmware .tar file from the .zip file and that you are using, "AP", in Odin. Also, make sure that your Reactivation lock is turned off.

If you still experience problems, install Phone INFO ★Samsung★ and check the details of your phone's bootloader.
 
ironass said:
Hello and welcome to Android Forums SuzukiDan7

Check that you open Odin in Administrator mode, #1.11, and that you have extracted the Verizon firmware .tar file from the .zip file and that you are using, "AP", in Odin. Also, make sure that your Reactivation lock is turned off.

If you still experience problems, install Phone INFO ★Samsung★ and check the details of your phone's bootloader.
Click to expand...

Hi,

Thanks for the response! Yes I ensured all of the points you made here are as they should be. Running ODIN in admin mode, extracted the .tar.md5, loading it in AP section of ODIN. Reactivation lock is not enabled.

I have Phone INFO, which is where I got the info about my bootloader / pda / csc etc that I posted - what other information from this would you need to help you?
I found my "Build Date" under android is wed mar 18 13:32:10 KST 2015 so it seems I am indeed prior to the June updates that lock the downgrade out?

I tried using ODIN 3.09 and also 3.10.7 .

Here are a couple items that may help you diagnose:

- I had trouble getting my win 7 laptop to install the Samsung ODIN mode drivers. In ODIN mode the laptop could not find the device drivers despite me having installed KIES3. I then tried downloading the USB drivers directly from the Samsung site. Still no go. So I deleted the device in device manager, unplugged the phone, rebooted my laptop, plugged the phone in to another USB port and this time it was able to be recognized and installed. ODIN began recognizing the phone as COM4 after this, but ONLY using the one USB port - I have 2 other USB ports and if plugged in there, it will NOT recognize the phone in ODIN mode. I have verified these USB ports are fully functional with several other devices, so not sure why that is happening.

- I do not think I have the original SAMSUNG USB cable. My phone was a refurb and just came with a white USB cable that has a traditional single micro usb ended plug for the phone, where as the phone has the dual style plug that I see on modern external USB drives. I have a few external hard drives that use this style plug, so I tried using one of these as well. Regardless of if I use the single ended or dual ended USB cable, the same thing happens resulting in a failure in ODIN with the same "MDM MODE CAN'T DOWNLOAD" error presented on the phones "DOWNLOADING" screen in ODIN mode.


I am downloading another release of 4.4.4 from sammobile to try - G900VVRU1ANI2_G900VVZW1ANI2_VZW.zip . Perhaps this will help?
 
SuzukiDan7 said:
Hi,

Thanks for the response! Yes I ensured all of the points you made here are as they should be. Running ODIN in admin mode, extracted the .tar.md5, loading it in AP section of ODIN. Reactivation lock is not enabled.

I have Phone INFO, which is where I got the info about my bootloader / pda / csc etc that I posted - what other information from this would you need to help you?
I found my "Build Date" under android is wed mar 18 13:32:10 KST 2015 so it seems I am indeed prior to the June updates that lock the downgrade out?

I tried using ODIN 3.09 and also 3.10.7 .

Here are a couple items that may help you diagnose:

- I had trouble getting my win 7 laptop to install the Samsung ODIN mode drivers. In ODIN mode the laptop could not find the device drivers despite me having installed KIES3. I then tried downloading the USB drivers directly from the Samsung site. Still no go. So I deleted the device in device manager, unplugged the phone, rebooted my laptop, plugged the phone in to another USB port and this time it was able to be recognized and installed. ODIN began recognizing the phone as COM4 after this, but ONLY using the one USB port - I have 2 other USB ports and if plugged in there, it will NOT recognize the phone in ODIN mode. I have verified these USB ports are fully functional with several other devices, so not sure why that is happening.

- I do not think I have the original SAMSUNG USB cable. My phone was a refurb and just came with a white USB cable that has a traditional single micro usb ended plug for the phone, where as the phone has the dual style plug that I see on modern external USB drives. I have a few external hard drives that use this style plug, so I tried using one of these as well. Regardless of if I use the single ended or dual ended USB cable, the same thing happens resulting in a failure in ODIN with the same "MDM MODE CAN'T DOWNLOAD" error presented on the phones "DOWNLOADING" screen in ODIN mode.


I am downloading another release of 4.4.4 from sammobile to try - G900VVRU1ANI2_G900VVZW1ANI2_VZW.zip . Perhaps this will help?
Click to expand...

Whilst I cannot discount a bad firmware download or the cable as causing your problem, I would, if possible, try another PC to downgrade your phone.
 
ironass said:
Whilst I cannot discount a bad firmware download or the cable as causing your problem, I would, if possible, try another PC to downgrade your phone.
Click to expand...

Well I had typed up a nice long elegant response, then this wonderful forum software decided to lock up and crash. Awesome. Let's try this again hopefully not skipping details due to nerd rage.

I tried downloading another older 4.4.4 firmware, same error.

Tried this on another PC (a pretty powerful gaming PC) - same error.

Worth noting - on the gaming PC, I installed Kies3 first and then plugged in the phone - and windows / Kies3 were NOT able to recognize the phone due to missing drivers. Windows automatically began searching for drivers and found drivers for 2 of the 3 components that were associated with the phone. I did not get a screenshot of this unfortunately.. but only 2 of the 3 were able to be Installed this way. The third component was listed as failed. However once this was done, Kies3 noticed the device and after a few seconds informed me my device is not supported by Kies3. Ok fine, I closed Kies3.

Now I went in to Odin and tried the downgrade, of course it failed.
Rebooted the phone, and tried installing the USB drivers as found on the phone itself, when you plug it in to a new PC it will present you with an internal drive on the phone acting as a USB device, it has some verizon upgrade software among other things, as well as a file called "amsung_Mobile_USB_Driver.exe" . I figured why not give that a try since it almost certainly is compatible with my phone?
The install finished and windows detected my phone both in normal mode and in ODIN mode. ODIN also detected the phone, so I figured this was a good start. However the downgrade with ODIN still fails with exactly the same error..

In my best estimate, it seems like its a driver issue. I believe that third component that drivers were not found for might be the problem. As I cannot recall the name of that device, I figured I would show you what components do appear in my device manager when I plug the phone in in ODIN mode along with driver details. Please let me know if you think any components are missing or possibly have the wrong driver versions?

The only other theory is its my USB cable? But is it really likely there is that much difference between USB cables? The ones I have do indeed have the dual plugs on the end and look exactly like the 'genuine' USB cables.

Untitled_zpswsxnhrwb.jpg
 
ironass said:
Try installing Samsung's Smart Switch which supersedes Kies3 and comes with a set of PC drivers. see if that helps.
Click to expand...

I just tried this, and while it got my hopes up as it seemed to install additional devices when I plugged the phone in, Odin still came back with the same error.. and the phone also still displays "MDM Mode. Can't Download" =(

By the way, regardless of how this turns out I do appreciate you trying to help very much!

I'm hoping there is something easy I'm missing, perhaps I have to buy an authentic samsung cable to try all ideas? I'd rather not spend $15 on a cable but if I must I will.
 
By the way, I'm completely comfortable wiping everything off this phone, if need be. I have everything important to me backed up elsewhere so don't hesitate to suggest wiping it clean through whatever method you see fit.
 
To recap...

You have tried 2 different computers
Numerous different USB ports.
You are running Odin as Administrator.
You are not connecting via a USB hub but direct to the PC
You are booting the phone into Download mode and not Recovery mode. See #1.10
You have tried 2 separate firmware downloads
You have installed Kies3 and Smart Switch for the drivers but you are not running either of those programmes at the same time as Odin


Have you tried turning off your PC's antivirus software temporarily in case that is causing an issue?
Can you borrow a genuine Samsung USB cable from a Galaxy S5/S6 or Note?

The next time you get a fail in Odin, could you post a screenie of Odin, showing this.
 
ironass said:
To recap...

You have tried 2 different computers
Numerous different USB ports.
You are running Odin as Administrator.
You are not connecting via a USB hub but direct to the PC
You are booting the phone into Download mode and not Recovery mode. See #1.10
You have tried 2 separate firmware downloads
You have installed Kies3 and Smart Switch for the drivers but you are not running either of those programmes at the same time as Odin


Have you tried turning off your PC's antivirus software temporarily in case that is causing an issue?
Can you borrow a genuine Samsung USB cable from a Galaxy S5/S6 or Note?

The next time you get a fail in Odin, could you post a screenie of Odin, showing this.
Click to expand...

Correct on all accounts.

I just tried again with AV disabled, and for kicks I plugged into another port that I know for a fact is USB 3.0. Same error again.

I do actually know someone with a Tmobile S5 - I will ask them to borrow their OEM cable tomorrow.

Here is the screenshot requested. Note: The Com port was filled in, but I unplugged the phone before I took this screen shot. It was connected as com5 though.

Also a bonus screenshot (well, picture anyway) of the phone screen when the error occurs.

Edit: I also just tried wiping the cache partition in recovery mode, then rebooting into download mode.. still fails with same error. Do you think it would be worth trying to do a factory reset in recovery mode?

odinerror_zps1vu9jaj1.jpg


IMG_0544_zpstuxs96gq.jpg
 
Last edited:
I think that borrowing a genuine Samsung USB cable is a better idea than a Factory Data Reset as unless you have modified or rooted your phone, I don't think it would do much good... having said that, we are running out of options.
 
Hi Ironass,
It's been a while as I had trouble getting my hands on a genuine samsung cable in a short time. But I finally got one that came with another verizon S5 . Just tried this process again and with the same result; fail in Odin with the same error shown on the phone in download mode.

Any other ideas I can try? I'm getting very tired of the OEM ROM eating all my battery, and even worse than that, the camera autofocus seems to be botched as many other people have noticed. I'm hoping downgrading might resolve that as well.
 
SuzukiDan7 said:
Hi Ironass,
It's been a while as I had trouble getting my hands on a genuine samsung cable in a short time. But I finally got one that came with another verizon S5 . Just tried this process again and with the same result; fail in Odin with the same error shown on the phone in download mode.

Any other ideas I can try? I'm getting very tired of the OEM ROM eating all my battery, and even worse than that, the camera autofocus seems to be botched as many other people have noticed. I'm hoping downgrading might resolve that as well.
Click to expand...

Could you install, free from the Play Store, Phone INFO ★Samsung★ and run it and post a screenshot of the, "FIRMWARE", screen.
 
ironass said:
Hello and welcome to Android Forums EternalWorth

As far as rooting your G900V, Verizon, model on OK3 firmware... forget it!

As per post #61, here, any Verizon firmwares after June 2015 are unrootable.
Click to expand...

Sorry for what is probably a rudimentary question for you guys, but were all 4.4.2 builds safe? I'm thankfully finding some S5's out there in various venues that have KitKat. Thank you!
 
EternalWorth said:
Sorry for what is probably a rudimentary question for you guys, but were all 4.4.2 builds safe? I'm thankfully finding some S5's out there in various venues that have KitKat. Thank you!
Click to expand...

Yes.

Alternatively, for later builds, use the new root method mentioned in the previous post
 
ironass said:
Be advised, that by not upgrading you will not be covered for the latest security patches and fixes for such things as StageFright which are included in OG5.
Click to expand...
@ironass I am unsure whether I am actually able to downgrade and root my S5, SM-G900V. Below is the fail error I repeatedly get in Odin, as well as a screenshot of my phone info.

<ID:0/008> Firmware update start..
<ID:0/008> SingleDownload.
<ID:0/008> aboot.mbn
<ID:0/008> NAND Write Start!!
<ID:0/008> FAIL! (Auth)
<ID:0/008>
<ID:0/008> Complete(Write) operation failed.
<OSM> All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)

upload_2016-5-1_13-53-0.png


Can you please tell me if I'm able to root or if I'm just out of luck? I also just got an S7 Edge (T-Mobile SM-G935T) but I don't believe it is possible to root this model either.
Thanks in advance!
 
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