How to Downgrade from Android 7.0 Nougat to Marshmallow 6.0.1

Android 7.0 Nougat has been out for the supported Nexus devices and will be coming soon to other Android devices from Samsung, LG, Motorola, Sony, HTC, Huawei and others. However, you might find some issues or changes in the nougat update that you may not like and would wish to downgrade back to Marshmallow 6.0.1 from Android 7.0 Nougat.

Well, of course you can downgrade to Android 7.0 Nougat from Marshmallow. The process, however, will differ for devices from each manufacturer. All you’ll need to roll back from Nougat to Marshmallow is stock firmware build of Marshmallow for your device, which might be tricky to find for some, but we’ll do our best in this post to help you (at-least for the major Android manufacturers).

As said above, installing stock Marshmallow firmware isn’t same for all devices. Every manufacturer has its own way of installing stock firmware on their devices, like Samsung uses its own proprietary software called Odin, LG has its own Flash Tool, Sony too has a FlashTool, Motorola has RSDLite, HTC has RUUs for each device and Nexus devices come with factory images flashable via Fastboot. And these are just the tools for the major Android manufacturers, but Android is a big world and there many more devices from various manufacturers with different solutions for installing stock firmwares (you may have to use Google for more info).

Resources for downgrading from Nougat to Marshmallow

Below are some resources for the popular manufacturers/devices to download/install stock Marshmallow firmware, so that you can downgrade from Nougat to Marshmallow.

Google Nexus devices

Google Nexus devices are one of the easiest to install the stock Marshmallow firmware. Google provides fastboot flashable factory images for all of its Nexus devices and for all Android versions ever released for them. You can get these factory images at the link below, along with a detailed step-by-step flashing instructions:

Download Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow Factory Images └ Make sure you check out the installation instructions on the page.

Samsung Devices

Installing stock Marshmallow firmware on Samsung devices is easy as well. You just have to download an Odin flashable .tar file of stock firmware for your device model number and flash it using Odin.

Below are links to two site that have the largest database of stock firmwares for all Samsung devices. Download Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow firmware for your device model number from these resources and then follow our instructions guide to install the firmware using Odin.

Download from SamMobile Download from Samsung-Updates

[icon name=”hand-o-right” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] How to Install Stock Firmware using Odin

Sony Xperia Devices

Installing stock Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow firmware on Sony devices is easier too. A custom tool called FlashTool is available for Sony Xperia devices that lets you flash stock Xperia firmwares that come as a .ftf file. There’s a nice tool called XperiFirm to find and download .ftf firmware for Sony Xperia device. Below are links to both the tools:

Download XperiFirm

Download FlashTool for Sony

Motorola devices

Motorola has an architecture very close to Nexus devices for bootloader, and hence also has a very similar way for installing stock firmware. You’ve option to use either RSDLite, a Motorola-distributed software to flash stock firmware OR you could tear open a stock firmware, get the .img files for all system partitions and manually flash each partition via Fastboot (or mfastboot.exe) like Nexus devices.

Download Motorola Firmware Download RSDLite

[icon name=”hand-o-right” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] How to Install Motorola Stock Firmware using RSDLite
└ (Just check the step-by-step guide to understand how to use RSDLite to flash firmware, ignore everything else on the page)

HTC Devices

HTC provides the easiest of all method to install stock firmwares. Stock firmware for HTC devices come as a RUU (Rom Upgrade Utility) which is a standalone click based installer with a firmware pre-packaged into it.

For HTC users from USA, HTC has a page to download latest available RUU for all the devices released in the country along with installation instructions.

Download HTC RUUs (official, limited database)

Download HTC RUUs (unofficial, large database)

LG Devices

We personally find LG devices hard to install a stock firmware, but maybe that’s because we’ve had less experience with LG devices. Anyway, LG stock firmware come as .kdz files and can be installed using LG Flash Tool. The resource for both firmware download and Installation instruction is the best you can find on the interwebs for LG devices.

Download LG Stock Firmware

[icon name=”hand-o-right” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] KDZ firmware installation guide for LG Devices

That’s all the info we’ve for installing stock Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow firmware on Android devices from most popular manufacturers. We may update this post with links and resources for more devices, but that isn’t the purpose of this page. All you need to know is that to downgrade from Nougat to Marshmallow, you just need to install a stock Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow firmware back on your device. That it.

Happy Androiding!

Posted by
Shivam Malani

Shivam is our resident designer and web developer who also enjoys writing. He loves to meditate, drive on the freeways and hunt for snipers during his Call Of Duty playtime. Email: shivam@theandroidsoul.com