Roll back to /e/OS v0.23 on Samsung S7

/e/OS Devices Samsung
1

I know this question has already been asked for a FairPhone, but I’m not able to find the same information for a Samsung S7 phone.

Last July I upgraded my S7 from v0.23 to v1.0 and then to v1.1. After the upgrade, some apps stopped working properly, I can provide details if necessary. After some research, I haven’t been able to make the applications work as before. I am not a technical user nor do I have the required time to do more research.

Since for me it is much more important to keep the apps functionalities rather than having the last up-to-date OS version, my question is: ¿is there any way to downgrade, or roll back, from v1.1 to v0.23? I actually did a “routine” upgrade back in July, not being conscious that this will imply a major OS upgrade, and moreover, older versions of the OS were automatically deleted from my phone, which had never happened in the past.

I would really appreciate any help on this issue. I now realize that the performance of my v0.23 OS was close to perfect, and I regret having upgraded to v1.0 / 1.1 (if something works, don’t fix it).

Thanks and best regards.

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online servicesphone

2

I a user have take a backup of the e-0.23-q-herolte.zip, he will be able to share it with you
Otherwise i just have look on /e/'s server, and those builds are not anymore online for downloads

3

Hi Piero, thanks for your answer.

How could I contact that user who made a backup of e/OS/ 0.23. Would he provide instructions on how to perform the rollback?

On the other hand, I was wondering if there is any “official” support for this kind of downgrade. I am surprised of not having received any other answer in two weeks. A yes / no would suffice, but no answer at all appears a bit strange to me.

Perhaps I am asking the question at the wrong place / subforum?

As before, any help would be highly appreciated.

Thanks and best regards

4

The “step up” between /e/ versions 0.22-q, 0.23-q, 1.0-q and 1.1-q are on a par with eachother [1], you notice there is no Android version change, so these updates are simple, and the matching “down-date” would be similarly simple.

However your Samsung S7 may have taken the OTA Upgrade of Android version, or you may have done the Android version upgrade deliberately or inadvertently … you don’t say.

In the case of an Android version Upgrade some apps may need to be uninstalled and reinstalled, as the old version might not be compatible with the new Android version.

I guess these decisions would need to be made on an app by app basis.

If your main issue is the failure of some specific apps, I would uninstall and reinstall the app.

… but on what Android version?

[1] Except v1.0 introduced Advanced privacy.

I can see the attraction in going back … myself, if on Q … I would try to go forward! :slight_smile:

5

Hello Iain,

I assumed that e/OS/ versions were somehow “linked” to Android versions. After reading your message, I see that this might not be the case.

When I purchased my Samsung S7 from /e/ foundation, in October 2020, it came with e/OS/ 0.9-2020062860623 and Android version was 7.1.2. I was manually performing upgrades, every few months, through the standard procedure with a Wi-fi connection: Settings > Upgrades > Look for new upgrades > Download > Install. If my e/OS/ version was, say, 0.15, and 0.16 - 0.17 were available, I first downloaded and installed 0.16, and once finished, I repeated the process with 0.17. After installing these new versions of e/OS/, old versions were still visible in the list of upgrades, sorted by date.

I wouldn’t be able to tell which was the last 0.xx e/OS/ version my phone had when I upgraded to v1.0 last July, nor the Android version that was running “below” e/OS/. I only know that I didn’t notice any major changes in appearance, but I have no way to know if Android was still version 7, 8, 9, etc. I just upgraded e/OS/ the normal way, and didn’t write down the Android version after any of those upgrades.

What I know for sure is that after the upgrade to 1.0 (and immediately to 1.1) done in July:

  1. The appearance of the phone screen changed. The background picture was different, some third party applications claimed that they had been developed for a former Android version, and for example Aurora app store asked if I wanted to access through a Google account (which I obviously answered no)
  2. The list of old upgrades had been automatically deleted. I have already changed that setting, so if I upgraded now to 1.2, I guess that I could see the 1.1 version on the list
  3. Sadly enough for me, some applications stopped working the way I was used to, and I lost really nice features, that saved me lots of time and trouble. I tried to make these apps work the old way, searching the /e/ forums and the internet, but I have been completely unsuccessful to that extent. I mainly refer here to system-default applications (phone, contacts, bluetooth linking,…), not third party applications.

Currently my phone has e/OS/ 1.1-20220627199797-stable-herolte and Android 10. I see now that upgrades to e/OS/ 1.2 and 1.3 are available, but I haven’t performed those upgrades so far.

As I said before, I am not a technical user, but common sense dictates me that there shouldn’t be such a big issue in making available a downgrade to, say, the last 0.xx e/OS/ version that “ran over” Android 7. I don’t really need the last OS versions, but I really miss the lost functionalities in my apps.

If this request requires some kind of premium support, I would be more than willing to pay a reasonable amount for it, I have anyway contributed to the /e/ project in the past.

Sorry for the long explanation, and as always, I would be most grateful for any help provided.

Best regards

6

Likely you were still on Nougat stable and on this particular device never before experienced an Android version upgrade. Sounds like your /e/ shop purchased phone was in a similar position to this older post Pre-installed S7: Nougat or Oreo?.

Here is a weekly update from the summer when the significant change happened Week 23, 2022: Development and Testing Updates please read all that applies to your position. As a result of this the now unsupported Nougat builds were withdrawn.

So going back is not an option!

Regarding apps which misbehave after this 3 Android version upgrade we had this note re Signal S7/S7+ upgrade related issue. Some other apps were similarly affected. In case of problems just try to install a current version of the app.

Most users have found versions 1.2 and 1.3 a significant improvement on 1.0, I would upgrade to 1.3.

7

Hello Iain

I will carefully read the suggested links, and in the presumable case that I upgrade to 1.3, I will leave feedback in this thread.

Thanks for the help and best regards

1 Like
8

Hello again,

just to let you know that I upgraded to 1.3 several weeks ago. After using the smartphone on a regular basis, none of the lost functionalities have come back, and in addition, all my pictures and videos were deleted from the smartphone. Fortunately, the pictures and videos were stored on ecloud, and I have saved them to my desktop PC, just in case.

I see now that versions 1.4 and 1.5 are available, but I am quite discouraged about applying them, since my smartphone seems to go worse and worse with every new upgrade.

I just can’t explain how much do I miss my old v0.xx running over Android 7, were all applications ran smooth and seamlessly. I unconsciously made a mistake, back in July, by routinely upgrading something that already worked fine, and now I regret I won’t be able to just go back to the OS I had in June.

If anyone knows of any way I could recover my old platform, I would really appreciate to learn about the details.

Thanks and best regards