Hate the android update? How-To Revert to Gingerbread.

[raroz28]

Couldn't deal with the battery life. It also got very hot. I did like some of the features, but ICS just has too many bugs at this time. It also removes the USB mass storage feature from your device.

If anybody wants to revert back to gingerbread, it's very simple to do. It only took me 10 minutes once I downloaded the necessary files.

For those interested, here is a simple breakdown for those of you who have a Samsung Galaxy S2 with Sprint.

WARNING: Doing the following will root your phone. This isn't a major issue and once you have rooted and reverted back to Gingerbread, you can unroot the phone. You can google how to do this, it's everywhere and easy to do. You will lose all of your downloaded apps and app data. This one click program will reset the data on your phone. There is another odin file available out there that allows you to keep user data, but once you've updated to Ice Cream Sandwich, going back will just throw "force close" and "app failed" messages nonstop making the phone not usable - I am not even going to include a link to this. You will have to download all of your apps again. It did not remove my pictures, movies, music, and any other files that I put onto the phone. My contacts are linked to my gmail account. I lost all my text message conversations.

Download and install these drivers here.

Next download and install the one-click ODIN installer that will root your phone and revert it back to Gingerbread here.

Extract the ODIN files into a folder on your desktop. Open up the file, you'll see a box open up with a button at the bottom that says "start."

Power off your phone. Once it's completely off, press and hold the volume down and power buttons at the same time. Keep it held down until the odin box pops up. It will tell you to press volume up to continue. Press volume up.

Connect your usb cable to the phone and computer. In the odin box that you opened up on the computer, you should see it recognize your phone once the drivers install. Click Start.

It will take under 5 minutes and you'll be back to Gingerbread EL29.

I have to say going from ICS back to Gingerbread, I almost forgot how snappy fast and smooth my phone was. I definitely will not upgrade to ICS until I read from the masses that it is good to go and not a buggy mess.

 

[TRBOBUICK]

Sprint has a fix in the works...... http://phandroid.com/2012/08/22/sprint-epic-4g-maintenance-update-promises-to-improve-battery-life/

 

[sofa king]

Sprint has a lot of "fixes in the works"....Too bad they don't seem to complete any of them...

 

[Tin]

If youre going through all of that trouble to flash back to an old OS, why not just flash CM9 and be done with it?

 

[gub]

Yea i messed up and got that dumb update. Not only does everything look weird but most of my apps are slow.

 

[raroz28]

Sprint has a fix in the works...... http://phandroid.com/2012/08/22/sprint-epic-4g-maintenance-update-promises-to-improve-battery-life/

Yeah hopefully they work out all the kinks over the next few months. I may update when they do but one thing I have learned is that I will never upgrade to a new OS right away. I will wait a bit and read feedback from other users first.

 

[raroz28]

Yea i messed up and got that dumb update. Not only does everything look weird but most of my apps are slow.

Yeah I couldn't deal with it. Gingerbread is awesome.

 

[TRBOBUICK]

Get a google play nexus. Done. I will never buy a carrier branded phone again. 4.1.1 is sweet .

 

[gub]

Does the downloaded version work just like the way it was before? Any type of glitches or anything weird

 

[raroz28]

Does the downloaded version work just like the way it was before? Any type of glitches or anything weird

No it is a factory version but rooted. You can unroot it easily and it will be 100% factory version. The only difference in my phone now and the way it was last time it had gingerbread is that now I have a superuser app and I can use my phone as a tether free.

 

[Stalker]

This thread is full of danger. You should NEVER just google something when dealing with 'rooting'. There are a massive number of ways to brick your phone out there from sites who claim to know what they are doing. Don't do this unless you feel comfortable or know someone who can help you. This will only work when dealing with a Samsung Galaxy S2. You try this with any other phone and you'll more than likely brick it. I advise anyone who is experiencing problems that wants to rollback to do research and learn everything you can from http://www.xda-developers.com/. They have forums for your specific device (don't confuse yours with the interntaional version). I'll gladly try to help with any questions, but since I don't have your device most of my advice will be to consult XDA.

 

[raroz28]

This thread is full of danger. You should NEVER just google something when dealing with 'rooting'. There are a massive number of ways to brick your phone out there from sites who claim to know what they are doing. Don't do this unless you feel comfortable or know someone who can help you. This will only work when dealing with a Samsung Galaxy S2. You try this with any other phone and you'll more than likely brick it. I advise anyone who is experiencing problems that wants to rollback to do research and learn everything you can from http://www.xda-developers.com/. They have forums for your specific device (don't confuse yours with the interntaional version). I'll gladly try to help with any questions, but since I don't have your device most of my advice will be to consult XDA.

As stated this will only work on the Samsung Galaxy S2 through Sprint. It's a very simple process, I learned how to do it here. I just found my writeup to be more simple.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/sp...2158-guide-how-rollback-gingerbread-el29.html

I didn't think I had to mention that you needed some common sense and that it wouldn't work on another phone, hence why I stated it was only for the Galaxy S2 through Sprint.

The assertion that this thread is full of danger is only backed out by the fact that there are sites out there with bad info, this will only work with the S2, ad it will likely brick any other phone.

If you have a rooted gingerbread phone it is simple to unroot it and have a phone as it was out of the box. The information is everywhere. Again, if you don't have common sense to figure out what a reputable source is, and whether or not it will work on your phone, then you should not try this, you are correct.

 

[gub]

What does root mean

 

[Tin]

What does root mean

Full admin rights over the whole phone.

 

[raroz28]

What does root mean

Full admin rights over the whole phone.

Honestly you won't even notice it's rooted. You may get flack if you ever get your phone taken in for service but it all depends on who you are dealing with.

Yesterday I navigated to the mall, browsed the web, texted and used my phone a lot on purpose. By the time we left the mall, my girl who has the same phone with the update, had zero battery life and it was only 5:30. She barely used her phone at all, and we had both unplugged in the morning around 8:30.

When we got home she asked if I could reset her phone. 5 minutes later it was done. Gub, don't let people scare you into thinking it's rocket science. If you don't like the update, going back is as simple as I've stated in this thread. If you decide later you want the update, it's as simple as selecting "Update" from your phone. If you have a Sprint Galaxy S2 with ICS then the links I provided on the first page is all you need. It's a simple "plug in the phone" and "click start button" process. It really is that simple.

 

[Stalker]

I would highly advise people to not just follow this process. What is being described is possible and easily doable, but it's not as foolproof as you're being told. Its not rocket science, but you've yet to mention not to take any OTA updates. Want to see a phone brick? Take and OTA update when rooted. Rooting a phone does void 99% of carriers warranties. Yes, you can unroot, but if you aren't a normal phone guy, you probably won't think about it and end up getting your device declined. I understand you're trying to help people, but this isn't something you should take lightly or just waltz into thinking that just because it's easy that it's foolproof. Mobile devices are as diverse as cars. Would you tell someone who always takes their car to the dealership how to swap a major component for a minor one even if it's easy? If they break it, would you go fix it? If they destroy it, would you pay to replace it? You honestly should just point people to a forum like XDA and let people find the information for themselves and deal with professionals who can help them. Unless you're a pro at SDK and can walk them through creating a jig or how to back out of a bad root.

 

[raroz28]

I would highly advise people to not just follow this process. What is being described is possible and easily doable, but it's not as foolproof as you're being told. Its not rocket science, but you've yet to mention not to take any OTA updates. Want to see a phone brick? Take and OTA update when rooted. Rooting a phone does void 99% of carriers warranties. Yes, you can unroot, but if you aren't a normal phone guy, you probably won't think about it and end up getting your device declined. I understand you're trying to help people, but this isn't something you should take lightly or just waltz into thinking that just because it's easy that it's foolproof. Mobile devices are as diverse as cars. Would you tell someone who always takes their car to the dealership how to swap a major component for a minor one even if it's easy? If they break it, would you go fix it? If they destroy it, would you pay to replace it? You honestly should just point people to a forum like XDA and let people find the information for themselves and deal with professionals who can help them. Unless you're a pro at SDK and can walk them through creating a jig or how to back out of a bad root.

Stalked, I think that for you to strongly support your assertion you would need to find a person with a galaxy s2 through sprint who has bricked their phone using the process I have described above. You will not be able to, and there are many who have done it and it is documented in the link with the guide that I posted earlier. Most people are unhappy with the update, and when searching for a fix I had to sort through dozens of sites that were people just complaining and asking how to go back, but no answer. I found an easy guide and had success in using it, so i thought I would post it here because somebody actually made a thread on here and many members wanted to go back. I reverted easily, and I thought they may like to as well.

If you had not noticed, I did provide a link to a reputable forum where many have done this process with ease. I am not sure if you did not notice it, but it is in one of my previous posts. IIRC, it also links to a thread on the XDA forum as well.

As for trying to support your claim through analogy, we would need to be on the same page as far as level of difficulty, which we are not. You compare this process to that of a person who knows nothing about cars to replace a major engine component on his own. Of course I would not advise that person to replace a major engine component, but I give most people on here the benefit of the doubt in that they are not an idiot and know how to use technology. I would compare this process to that of filling a tire with air. While true that some people can't do it, common sense makes it possible for all.

I understand you want to look out for people but I think that your basis is unfounded in this case. I'm not saying people don't brick phones, but what I'm saying is there are many S2 users with Sprint who have used the process I've described and there has been a 100% success rate. Either that, or people have done the process and bricked their phone and not spoken up about it.

I've also not forced anybody to do this. I did it on my and my girlfriends phone with ease and thought I would share. Of course anybody who does this should know by now that anything they read on the internet is done at their own risk and if they do not feel comfortable doing this type of thing then they will not do it.

If it makes you feel better, edit the first post I made and just put a link to the forum, where there is a very long drawn out description and a 10 minute video people can watch. I do not care. Was just passing this along.