How To Downgrade Samsung Galaxy S2 From Ice Cream Sandwich To Gingerbread

POSTED BY Faizan Ali, UPDATED ON April 6th, 2023
How To Downgrade Samsung Galaxy S2 from Ice Cream Sandwich to Gingerbread

Gingerbread a popular Android flavor, is still proving its hold over Android smartphones as the latest released Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has managed to grab only 3 % of the total Android devices. Wide-ranging Gingerbread is being used on the majority of Android devices, i.e. 63.7%. Simultaneously, Android 2.2 or Froyo is used on 23.1% of devices.

These stats are terrifying for hotly anticipated firmware which was Android 4.0 ICS, now the talk about the Android 5.0 (named jelly-beans) has increased to a large extent over the internet. On the other hand, active ICS users are also not happy with the performance of the latest firmware on their devices. People are talking about the bugs and flaws present in the ICS and mentioning that it drains their battery out too quickly (pointing towards the Samsung Galaxy S2), over a fair number of forums.

In case you are also not happy or if your device is not performing according to your expectations, after the acquisition of the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. We can provide you with a solution.

 

Prerequisites

  • Download Odin3
  • Download Firmware

 

Tutorial

Following is a complete step-by-step tutorial on the downgrading of firmware from ICS to Gingerbread for Samsung Galaxy S2.
  1. Go to settings.
  2. Hit ‘About Phone’ and find your Galaxy S2’s kernel version.
  3. Shut down your device, and wait for a few seconds.
  4. Press and hold down the Volume Down + Home + Power buttons at the same time.
  5. When the warning prompts out, hit the volume up button download mode for Odin will be launched with your above-mentioned action.
  6. Connect your phone to your computer via a USB cable.
  7. Extract the firmware and open Odin.
  8. Click on the PDA option and Select .tar (extracted firmware file).
  9. Then click start, and wait.
  10. After the completion removes the USB  cable.

Remember if your setup wizard creates some problem (probably because of the mixing of previous and newer firmware files) just power off your phone and perform a deep factory reset (hold Vol-Up + Home + Power).

This will surely sort your problems out. Below is a step by a step video tutorial to clear things out.

4 Comments

  1. Eleazar says:

    This is so useful! Thanks a lot

  2. Janitor says:

    I used SMSbackup+ to backup txt messages etc…to my google account, restoring later.

    I had issue with the install of Gingerbread following the firmware install ( all sorts of package failures )…The factory reset alone did not fix the problems after the reboot.

    I removed my SIM card and SD Card from the phone :-
    .wipe my phone/factory reset
    .clear the cache
    ( power down the phone – home + volume up + power on, select wipe data and then wipe cache – can be done during the same step)

    before going into update mode as you described above and re-applying the firmware….worked a treat for me.

  3. Gabriel says:

    I wish you mentioned it is essential to back up contacts and messages. Thank you for the negligence!

  4. Ben says:

    Follow the guide to the letter but on start up the phone is now just showing the Galaxy S2 animation over and over again! Help please!

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