Modified war scene youtubeur posted an impressive video tutorial detailing a full downgrade of his PS4. In the video, youtube went from 6.72 to 10.01, then went down from 10.01 to 6.72.
Downgrade from PS4. Important Notes and Disclaimers (READ THIS SERIOUSLY FIRST!)
Now, to be very clear: this is nothing new or revolutionary at this point, the point is that you can only go back to the firmware you’ve created a backup of (from your console). Also, the initial save is much easier to create if your console is broken, although it is also possible to do this on a ‘normal’ console.
In other words , If you are using a non-jailbreakable firmware (eg 10.01 at the time of this writing) and are hoping that this will allow you to downgrade your console to a jailbreakable firmware, the answer is no unless you have done the preparatory work At some point where your console is brickable.
In my view, this means that the guide will most likely be useless to the vast majority of people who find it, usually when it’s too late. However, it has tremendous value for several reasons. First of all, I’m not sure there’s a detailed (and well done!) guide on how to do this yet. Secondly, we still say on this blog that downgrading from a previous version of PS4 is “Technically possible, but…So it will now be possible to easily refer to the MW video to explain why this is difficult at best, and in most cases impossible. As Modded Warfare mentions, it may also have some value for people who are “stuck” on unjailbreakable firmware, but want to update to the latest and best so they can play online. These people can back up their current firmware (hoping it’s eventually jailbreakable) and then update to the latest firmware. Last but not least, it might actually pave the way for easier downgrade methods at some point, especially if some aspiring modder tries to work on a solderless modchip solution.
With all of the above said, assuming you want to back up your PS4 so you can “easily” upgrade to a newer firmware and then switch back to a jailbroken console later, here’s my honest advice:
Buy another PS4 Do not try to follow the downgrade guide.
Listen, I’m not kidding, owning two PS4s is probably a safer idea than trying to downgrade, and unless you already have the necessary hardware, it can also be cheaper. (Give or take, there are $200 worth of hardware out there that you need to own/buy in order to downgrade). This may change in the future if the process becomes easier, or if there are good reasons for coming and going (eg removing bricks), but At the moment, downgrading a PS4 is very difficult with significant risks of permanently bricking the console, which is more technically impressive than useful or profitable..
However, if you want to keep watching your tech-savvy video or personal knowledge, you might be the audience for that. At the very least, you might want to watch the video, if you only hear MW say “we’ll take a few pranks” or “take a good dump” with a straight face ????
required tools
Note that the process is easiest if you start with a jailbroken PS4, which is what MW’s video describes.
Here’s what you need to prepare and perform the downgrade. It is recommended to prepare all these tools (hardware or software) in advance.
the required materials
- Your PS4, it’s running on firmware you might want to downgrade
- Important. This is a downgrade method and will not allow you to downgrade firmware that you did not initially create a backup for. Using someone else’s save will not work either!
- flashing devices such as a lowercase letter 4 (This is necessary to get SFlash0 from a non-jailbroken console and copy it back during the downgrade process. Also required to flush syscon)
- Heat gun (to decompile the syscon chip. This is necessary to save it)
- a Soldering iron
- a tweezers
- a TQFP board
- a 4 kilo ohm resistor
- some PCB wires
- a Diode switching
- a USB to TTL converter
- Replacement syscon chip (which model you need to order depends on your motherboard, R5F100LLAFB or R5F100PLA, you can find it on Aliexpress)
- As I understand it is not required, but recommended, so you don’t have to constantly flash these chips
- Renesas E2 Lite programmeror other flash
required software
- BwE NOR AuditorWhich will help you to make sure that the backup files are not corrupt (Download here)
- FTP client like filezilla
- RAW hard disk copy (to back up the hard drive)
- Drivers for a USB to TTL converter (eg Drivers for CP2102 The above-mentioned)
- MW package file Which contains the program required for the defect process
What you’ll need to save to prepare for a downgrade from PS4
The following data is what you’ll need to backup, and then restore, to downgrade from your PS4:
- Full console hard drive backup
- PS4 SFlash0 (NOR Firmware)
- It’s extremely easy to get SFlash0 from a jailbroken console, because it’s just a file you can copy from FTP
- Will be PS4
As a TL, DR, the idea is that you will save the above three data, then you should be able to go to the higher firmware, and then back. The Modded Warfare video, of course, contains all the details.