Help Downgrade back to older firmware

[godlovingman]

Hi sorry I don't be on here any unless I have a need an answer for something anyway I'm thinking about getting an Galaxy S7 to replace my S6. But the S7 I'm thinking about getting is running 7.0 I need to downgrade it to 6.0.1 so I can continue to use foxfi my s6 keeps eating batteries so want newest phone I can use and still use foxfi. How hard is it to downgrade from 7.0 to 6.0 on the S7? TIA!

 

[AugieTN]

On newer androids you don't need Foxfi, You turn WiFi Hotspot on under Settings>Network & Internet. I'm not sure if 7.0 has that option. If it does you wouldn't need to worry about downgrading the software

 

[godlovingman]

On newer androids you don't need Foxfi, You turn WiFi Hotspot on under Settings>Network & Internet. I'm not sure if 7.0 has that option. If it does you wouldn't need to worry about downgrading the software

You have to pay for the hotspot though don't you? I've had foxfi almost 10 year now 3/17 will be I paid for it then and haven't had to pay for it since. I'm still under the old grandfathered data plan been with Verizon since they bought alltel out.

 

[AugieTN]

Yes, you have to pay for data/internet when you use hotspot.

Foxfi says, "...FoxFi usage is covered under your phone's existing data plan..." So it sounded like the same thing to me.
http://foxfi.com/

 

[godlovingman]

Yes, you have to pay for data/internet when you use hotspot.

Foxfi says, "...FoxFi usage is covered under your phone's existing data plan..." So it sounded like the same thing to me.
http://foxfi.com/

That's why I've kept my s6 so long so I keep using foxfi paid for it once and uses data from my data plan not a separate hotspot plan. That's why I was wondering how hard it'd be to downgrade an s7 to 6.0 so I can keep using foxfi and not pay extra for a hotspot plan. If the hotspot in newer firmware used existing phone data like foxfi I'd be happy instead of having to pay for phone data and separate hotspot plan data.

 

[Hadron]

I guess "separate hotspot plans" are a US thing? In other part of the world there are no such things, and hotspot usage is just the same as any other data usage. For that matter hotspots have been a standard part of Android firmware for a very long time: every Android I've had, back to 2.x, had that feature built in, so if your older phones don't have it that's because your carriers have been removing it.

Unfortunately I don't live there so don't know whether your carriers still suck in this way (making something like FoxFi necessary) or whether they've decided to give up on that particular rip-off.

 

[godlovingman]

That's why I've kept my s6 so long so I keep using foxfi paid for it once and uses data from my data plan not a separate hotspot plan. That's why I was wondering how hard it'd be to downgrade an s7 to 6.0 so I can keep using foxfi and not pay extra for a hotspot plan.

I guess "separate hotspot plans" are a US thing? In other part of the world there are no such things, and hotspot usage is just the same as any other data usage. For that matter hotspots have been a standard part of Android firmware for a very long time: every Android I've had, back to 2.x, had that feature built in, so if your older phones don't have it that's because your carriers have been removing it.

Unfortunately I don't live there so don't know whether your carriers still suck in this way (making something like FoxFi necessary) or whether they've decided to give up on that particular rip-off.

Verizon fought for years to keep companies like FoxFi from doing what they do making you pay extra for a hotspot plan instead of it being included with your data plan itself. I use foxfi to power my laptop, TV and ps4. So I use close to 200gb of data a month I'd love to get a newer phone but been trying to keep older phones to keep foxfi working.

 

[svim]

You should double-check your user account settings with your Verizon account, there is a good chance you have hotspotting available for no added fee, negating the need to keep Foxfi as a workaround.
https://www.verizon.com/support/mobile-hotspot-faqs/

 

[AugieTN]

Verizon fought for years to keep companies like FoxFi from doing what they do making you pay extra for a hotspot plan instead of it being included with your data plan itself. I use foxfi to power my laptop, TV and ps4. So I use close to 200gb of data a month I'd love to get a newer phone but been trying to keep older phones to keep foxfi working.

If you are using 200GB a month I'm surprised Verizon hasn't came up with a reason to cut you off, regardless of what was grandfathered in. Maybe they will if you change phones. Good Luck!

 

[godlovingman]

If you are using 200GB a month I'm surprised Verizon hasn't came up with a reason to cut you off, regardless of what was grandfathered in. Maybe they will if you change phones. Good Luck!

Sorry I just looked I use around 100gb used to use around 150 but I don't be online as much as I did.

 

[godlovingman]

You should double-check your user account settings with your Verizon account, there is a good chance you have hotspotting available for no added fee, negating the need to keep Foxfi as a workaround.
https://www.verizon.com/support/mobile-hotspot-faqs/

Thanks my account shows it's $24 for hotspot

 

[mikedt]

A solution might be to install a custom ROM of the desired Android version. The Galaxy S7 is quite an easy device to root, I've rooted an S7 myself. and had plenty of support on XDA Devs.

 

[godlovingman]

A solution might be to install a custom ROM of the desired Android version. The Galaxy S7 is quite an easy device to root, I've rooted an S7 myself. and had plenty of support on XDA Devs.

Same process as going back stock firmware isn't it? I don't want to possibly brick a phone or worse with a bad rom.

 

[mikedt]

Same process as going back stock firmware isn't it? I don't want to possibly brick a phone or worse with a bad rom.

Yeah, pretty much, which means the device must be rooted to install an older stock Android 6 ROM.

The S7 I had, I installed LineageOS, but this was years ago, and no longer have that phone.

FYI
https://lineageos.org/
https://forum.xda-developers.com/f/samsung-galaxy-s7-exynos-roms-kernels-recoveri.5125/ef

Having to do this sort of hackery just to enable tethering is something I've not seen for myself of course. All smart-phones I've had, tethering is standard, without having to pay any extra fees to a carrier.

 

[godlovingman]

Yeah, pretty much, which means the device must be rooted to install an older stock Android 6 ROM.

The S7 I had, I installed LineageOS, but this was years ago, and no longer have that phone.

FYI
https://lineageos.org/
https://forum.xda-developers.com/f/samsung-galaxy-s7-exynos-roms-kernels-recoveri.5125/ef

Having to do this sort of hackery just to enable tethering is something I've not seen for myself of course. All smart-phones I've had, tethering is standard, without having to pay any extra fees to a carrier.

Verizon charges $24 a month to use tethering/hotspot wish it was free so I wouldn't have to use a work around app like foxfi.

 

[godlovingman]

A solution might be to install a custom ROM of the desired Android version. The Galaxy S7 is quite an easy device to root, I've rooted an S7 myself. and had plenty of support on XDA Devs.

Looking on the sites looks like only the international version has roms unless I'm looking at it wrong.