How to Safely Downgrade Android 6.0 Marshmallow to 5.1 Lollipop

Why would someone downgrade their Android OS from Marshmallow to Lollipop?

Not long after the main brands like Samsung, Nexus, LG, Motorola and HTC upgraded Android OS from Lollipop to Marshmallow, we heard many complaints saying that the Marshmallow update was like a bug-filled Windows 10 for PCs. Despite Google already rolling out its newest software update, Android 7.0 Nougat, the majority of users expressed that they no longer wanted updates and instead wished to return to the familiar OS, Android 5.0/5.1 Lollipop.

The following are some feedback that explain why people would rather downgrade from Android 6.0 Marshmallow to Android 5.0 Lollipop than tolerate the issues they're facing.

• Data loss issue: The Android Marshmallow update deleted photos, contacts, messages, etc.
• WIFI Mac issue: In the recent Beta 3 release of Marshmallow 6.0, the WIFI MAC address changes after each reboot.
• Battery drain and heating issue: The Nexus 9's battery drains rapidly, like water. With Marshmallow, the device started heating up, causing faster battery drainage than under normal conditions.
• Force close issue: Despite a clean installation, apps such as Twitter and Google Play Services are encountering force close issues.

Preparatory Work - Backup SMS, Contacts, Photos, Music, App Data, Call Log Translation: Preliminary Task - Backup SMS messages, Contacts, Photos, Music, Application Data, Call History

Some tech-savvy individuals and experienced Android users have provided simple and useful guides online, instructing users on how to revert to the previous Android OS from Marshmallow. However, to guarantee data safety, they strongly advise using MobiSaver for Android, a user-friendly and powerful Android data backup and recovery application, to backup Android data to a PC. By creating a complete backup of your contacts, photos, call logs, messages, and app data, you can then proceed with downgrading your Android from 6.0 to 5.1 without any data loss.

STEP 1. Connect your Android Phone to a Windows computer.

STEP 2. Run the MobiSaver tool to scan all data on your Android device.

STEP 3. After the scan, save Android data to your computer.

Guide to Downgrade from Marshmallow 6.0 to Lollipop 5.1 on Android Devices

STEP 1. Download the Lollipop 5.1 OS.

STEP 2. After downloading, extract the folder to your Desktop.

STEP 3. Open the folder to extract the zip file, as shown in the screen capture below.

STEP 4. On your Windows computer, press Shift + Right Click to select "Open Command Prompt here," as shown in the screenshot below.

STEP 5. Once done, turn off your Nexus device so that it can be entered in the bootloader mode. Press the Volume Down button and the Power button on your Nexus device to enter it.

STEP 6. Connect your device to the computer using the original USB cable, and execute the following commands one after the other to downgrade the device to the Lollipop OS.

Fastboot flash recovery recovery.img Fastboot flash boot boot.img Fastboot flash cache cache.img Fastboot flash userdata userdata.img Fastboot flash system system.img

Aside from the Nexus device OS downgrading guide, there are also tutorials for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, LG G3 and LG G4, and Moto G (2nd Gen) on how to downgrade Android OS from Marshmallow to Lollipop.