Can I downgrade Android 4.1.1 to 4.1 on a Motorola Razr M w/o Rooting?

March 10, 2013 8:48 PM

So Verizon finally updated my Razr M to 4.1.1 and, for some reason, the battery life has become absolutely horrid and wifi tethering has basically stopped working.

Is there a way to "downgrade" from the latest version of Android to an older one - without rooting the phone?

If not, does anyone have experience rooting a Razr M? What are the pros/cons?

posted by NYC-BB to Technology (4 answers total)

I bought a Razr M in mid December and it came with Android 4.1.1 so I guess they just now decided it was ready to push to the older phones. It works fine for me, including the battery -- I frequently will go TWO days without charging.

Keep an eye on this forum:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/droid-razr-m/

to see if others start complaining about similar problems.

And of course, file an official complaint with Verizon. They can't know that there's a problem until you complain. They may not be able to resolve it right away, but given enough complaints somebody smart on the inside will eventually sit up straight and figure it out.
posted by intermod at 9:16 PM on March 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Try clearing your cache first. Helped me when the same thing happened to my Bionic.
posted by pyro979 at 3:32 AM on March 11, 2013

I had similar issues on my Nexus when it upgraded to 4.2. What worked for me was factory-resetting the device - it's under "backups and reset" in the settings menu. That'll clean up whatever detritus is left over from the upgrade (just make sure to back up any files you want to keep first). Not guaranteed, but it's a strategy.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 6:59 AM on March 11, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks for all the replies, everyone,

Cleared cache and factory reset the device and it's running noticeably faster, battery life improved marginally, and still can't use as a wifi point. Wife's Android 2.x phone works fine as wifi point.

WTF?
posted by NYC-BB at 9:15 PM on March 12, 2013