Possible to downgrade Android on a phone on an EE contract?

caff

caff

caff

Soldato
Joined
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Hi,

This might sound like a stupid question, but is it possible to downgrade Android from v13 to v11 on a phone that is currently on an EE contract?

It's a S21+ running Android 13, but I need to downgrade for compatibility reasons (don't ask... it's complicated). My phone isn't unlocked.

I can see ways of doing it with Odin & a firmware file, but I'm assuming this will either brick my phone or break my contract with EE, as it's not firmware supported by them?

Thanks in advance.
 
I don't see how EE have a say? You're financing the cost of the device, not borrowing it.

The phone is yours to do what you want with as long as you keep up to payments.
 
You'd compromise your phone with old software and security vulnerabilities.

But yes you can do it, it's not up to EE.
 
You can install different versions of a rom on your phone, official or not. And EE should be non the wiser unless you need to hand it in for warranty or whatever.

But there some rules you need to follow. It's been a few years since I messed about with roms, so do look into this for the current state of play.

Although you can roll back different software versions, you cannot jump back past the current bootloader version so that will be your limiting factor. And I would be very surprised if the bootloader from android 11 is the same as 13.

If you install anything unofficial you will most likely trip the Knox fuse, which is unrecoverable. This is Samsung's security fuse, and once it's blown it's a new motherboard, if you want Knox back. This is to ensure banking apps etc stay secure.
 
As everyone else has said, EE won't have control over what you do with the phone.

However as also mentioned there's a big chance you can't downgrade as the bootloader most likely also updated with A13 (12 even) which will prevent 11 from working. Samsung added extra checks that will trip Knox if you force the bootloader to downgrade for security reasons.
 
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