[Moved] Nokia 3.1 Plus working poorly after Android 10 update? Just Downgrade back to Android 9!

Pulkit.J
Pulkit.J ✭✭
edited September 2020 in Nokia 3.1 Plus

Prelude: My nokia phone (Nokia 3.1 Plus, Indian Version) was working poorly after update to android 10. The situation became so bad that ultimately I was even unable to run basic phone app. Also, nokia supposedly removed the option to mount SD card as internal (and hence no moving app to sd) and the memory was getting filled to the brim. (Planned Obsolescence)

I love my nokia phone, and I think nokia 3.1 plus is the best and most minimalistic looking android phones in the world of ugly notches. So I had to fix it!

Present Status

So after days of digging through the realms of internet and arguing with customer care representative, I finally found a way to downgrade from Android 10 (Q) to Android 9 (Pie).

As many other people have already pointed out, the following method only works on nokia 3.1 plus phones upgraded to android 10 and have an April security patch. Fortunately for me, I was unable to install the may security patch back then because of some OS error, so I was stuck with the April patch and the downgrade worked for me flawlessly.

Procedure:

  1. Ensure that your Nokia 3.1 Plus has Android 10 Update installed but is not updated to the May security patch (i.e. the latest security patch in updates is from April 2020)
  2. Take backup of all of your data, as your device will be completely wiped out during this downgrade.
  3. Enable developer mode and USB debugging from the Developer options
  4. Download and install special nokia USB drivers from here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=15HqsegRAnxycMh3PaHVZVxuPcxyxt1xt (ref: https://www.techmesto.com/download-official-nokia-usb-drivers-for-windows-adb-fastboot-others/)
  5. Download USB minimal ADB and Fastboot from here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rW09QgUkzQomL7xhNuHzG2UkC5b8koqd (ref: https://www.techmesto.com/download-minimal-adb-and-fastboot-latest/)
  6. Connect your Nokia device and verify RSA Fingerprint key for USB debugging
  7. Open command prompt as admin and:
  • Locate and get into the folder where you have downloaded the ADB/Fastboot program.
  • 'adb devices' (and authorize rsa key on your phone)
  • 'adb reboot bootloader' - and wait a moment until your phone restarts
  • 'fastboot getvar current-slot'
  • Look at the current slot value and switch from a/b b/a via: 'fastboot --set-active=X'
  • 'fastboot reboot'
  • Phone will hang at android boot. Type: 'adb reboot recovery' and use factory reset option. To enter to recovery menu press power+vol_up buttons few times.

Ref: https://www.reddit.com/r/Nokia/comments/hs595q/is_there_a_good_guide_on_how_to_downgrade_back_to/

Known hurdles and fixes:

  1. The phone gets stuck at fastboot black screen and is not detected by fastboot program. Fix: make sure you have correct driver installed and that you use the provided minimalistic fastboot and ADB program. Make sure that you are using elevated command prompt (run cmd as admin)
  2. Cannot get into Bootloader menu. Fix: turn off your phone. Press Volume Up and power button together until you see the android screen. Following that you will see a dead android logo. Click on power and volume up buttons again. you have reached the bootoader menu.

Bonus: Mounting SD card as Internal and moving apps to SD:

  1. Insert a freshly formatted SD card into your phone and mount as external storage. (warning, this method will wipe your Micro SD, so better to use pre-formatted and cleaned Micro SD)
  2. Set as developer mode and enable USB debugging and
  3. connect your phone to pc and open the ADB folder using admin command prompt
  4. Type in the following:
  • 'adb devices' (to confirm if your device is connected properly)
  • 'adb shell' (to open device shell)
  • 'sm list-disks' (to show the list of virtual disks in the device). This should return something like 'disk:179,128' This is your <disk ID> and the corresponding number is supposedly the size available on the disk in GBs
  • 'sm set-force-adoptable true'
  • From here on, you have 2 options you can either set the entire memory as internal using the command 'sm partition <disk ID> private' or as a partially external storage using the command 'sm partition <disk ID> mixed <external percentage>' where<external percentage> is the percentage of memory you want to use as external. Example commands in my device:

sm partition disk 179,128 private (for 100% as internal storage)

or

sm partition disk 179,128 mixed 50 (for 50% as external storage)

  • 'sm set-force-adoptable false'

You have an extended internal memory now.

Next, go to developer settings and enable "Force allow apps to external". This will now allow most of the apps (except internal system apps) to be moved to SD card as internal storage that you just created.

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