Share this article
Improve this guide
Latest news
With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low
Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app
Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities
Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount
Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier
Fix: Unable to Downgrade to Windows Phone 8.1 Using Windows Recovery Tool
2 min. read
Updated onOctober 4, 2023
updated onOctober 4, 2023
Share this article
Improve this guide
Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial teamRead more
We’re close to the release of Windows 10 Mobile RTM (at least we think we’re close), and a lot of Windows Phone 8.1 users already switched to the Preview of the new mobile OS. Since Windows 10 is almost ready for the commercial use, its Preview version is very close to the full version, as it features minimum of bugs. But some people may decide to, for some reason, downgrade their Windows Phone devices to Windows Phone 8.1.
For all users who want to downgrade their phones, Microsoft provided a handy tool, called Windows Phone Recovery tool, which allows you to easily downgrade your system to Windows Phone 8.1. But one user complained on Microsoft Community forums that he’s unable to use Windows Phone Recovery tool to downgrade his phone, as it shows him a “Software package not available for this phone” error.
Something obviously went wrong with Windows 10 Mobile Preview, so it stopped to be compatible with the recovery tool. It’s probably because updates weren’t applied properly, but we cannot confirm that. Anyway, we found out that the only solution for this problem is resting the phone. After the reset, factory settings will be applied, and you should be able to downgrade your phone to Windows Phone 8.1 without any problems.
In case you don’t know how to reset your phone, follow these instructions (Since you probably can access phone’s settings, there’s no need to perform a ‘physical’ restart, so we’re going to do this the easier way):
After the phone is reset, try to downgrade it usingWindows Recovery toolagain, and it should work properly. Since you already planned to downgrade your phone, I assume you already created a backup of your data. If you didn’t, don’t forget to do that.
More about the topics:windows 10,windows 10 mobile
Ivan Jenic
Windows Hardware Expert
Passionate about all elements related to Windows and combined with his innate curiosity, Ivan has delved deep into understanding this operating system, with a specialization in drivers and driver troubleshooting.
When he’s not tackling diverse driver-related problems, Ivan enjoys watching good movies and spending time hiking with his family and friends.
User forum
0 messages
Sort by:LatestOldestMost Votes
Comment*
Name*
Email*
Commenting as.Not you?
Save information for future comments
Comment
Δ
Ivan Jenic
Windows Hardware Expert
Ivan has delved deep into understanding the Windows OS, with a specialization in drivers and driver troubleshooting.
