This page contains a complete guide in 12 steps for downgrading your NVIDIA Shield TV (Pro) 2019 back to NVIDIA Shield OS v8.2.3 (Android TV Version 9, build of april 2021)

Welcome!

If you read this, you probably also got sick and tired of (unwanted) updates and those unacceptable ads on the top of your home screen…. me too. Aaaand since the device is “fully open source” we can fiddle the hell out of it 🤟🏼

Downgrade to v8.2.3 in 12 steps (updated october 31, 2023)

1. Hardware check
2. Preparation, download files and unpack folders
3. Connecting cables
4. Enable developer mode & USB-debugging
5. Open command prompt and navigate to adb.exe
6. USB Connection check
7. Load fastboot mode
8. OEM unlock
9. Flash images
10. OEM lock
11. Reboot
12. Disable auto-updates and upgrades

[ Update: After 18 months still (april 3rd, 2023) ]

Tried latest firmware (9.1.1) last time…

Nvidia is working on updates always so I tried the latest 9.1.1 OS update for my Shield Pro. Unfortunatly Kodi 20.1 Nexus is running a bit better and I had my hopes up, for a little while at least.

After installing my Kodi-build it seemed to run smooth but after a while it started getting jittery and a got a freeze-frame-app for about a minute!? Even after full-debloating and turning of ALL Google background processes it still runs slow as fck.

Sigh, it looks like new hardware is needed on Android 11 (pushing ads and collecting telemetry takes around 35%-45% of capacity, wtf?).

Okay, quickly back to 8.2.3 again 🙂

My device is downgraded and in use for a whole year now and I’m enjoying every minute of it: No more app-crashes, better experience and superfast navigation and also switching between apps runs smooth as …. . It has truely never worked better and I’m amazed with the increase in speed when running back on 8.2.3.

My setup

Ultra fast but simple, local media player.

• Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2019
  
  • Android 9 with Nvidia Shield OS 8.2.3 (april 2021)
    • Disabled lots of (background-)apps, (guide here)
    • [optional] Custom Launcher: Wolf
  • Build RQ1A-210105……….. (january 2021)
    
  • Apps used:
    • Kodi 20.1 (+ Custom skin), with addons;
    • Any phone or tablet with “Kodi Remote” or “Kore” for Android.
      
• Shield TV remote (latest)
• Logitech MX Master
• Playstation Dual Shock 4 for SNES emulation

Okay, now skip the 💩
and let me get back my awesome player

Why downgrade (still)?

I made this page because I needed a complete manual and cheat-sheet for myself anyway and this way it can also be usefull for fixing your device.

Now i’m getting a better understanding in the Android (TV) OS and its options, packages, features, inner workings and tools. It took a long time, lot’s of patients to get all required information, tools and software for this little box. Hang in there…

Hope this instruction will help to also fix YOUR Shield TV and bring back the ultra-fast mediastreamer and gameconsole that it can, and should be.

Around december 2021 NVIDIA released a major update for their Shield TV Pro, their very affortable flagship-4K-streaming-device (€ 200,- EUR or $ 222,- USD).

When bought in early 2020 my Shield TV was working perfectly,

but every since Android 11, NVIDIA Shield OS 9.0.1
it was too running slow and caused many crashes.
Also those fckng ads in the home screen 🙁

and also hated the shitty advertising in the home-screen and disabling of third-party-app-support and accessibility to the OS.

Android 11 and Shield OS version 9.x

Shield OS 9.1.1 vs. 8.2.3

As a manufacturer there’s nothing wrong with updating your device to offer new features, apps and services but it seems that the lastest “upgrade” is only good for showing ads and monitoring your activities.

Overall unworkably slow

Option A: Try to solve issues and keep upgrading

I tried every possibility and nothing worked: reset, uninstall (app-)updates and even factory reset (twice).

Okay, maybe NVIDIA is working on a fix, I thought… there MUST be more shield-users with these problems. So I tried to contact support via mail, facebook, twitter and even filled in a few stupid forms on their websites and this forum . Check out the threads with many different problems after the release…damn.

Nice: some “fixes” from NVIDIA

After a few weeks of no response I searched the web, yet again. Signed up for NVIDIA SDK and searched ‘within the organisation’ on their pages, social media and forums/fora. Starting to find more and more users there, and on youtube that are experiencing the same problems…finally some action from the manufactorer.

Requested a hotfix @NVIDIA by mail; and got it (eventually)! I got my hopes up again. NVIDIA rules! 😀

[Update] Downloaded public release / hotfix 9.1.1 and it also didn’t work for me, still the same issues that I had before in earlier versions. For some people it fixed all their issues so that’s good.

Option B: Smash with hammer, buy a different device.

Before this release… 8.2.3

Earlier it all worked like a charm in april of 2021 and it was the best media device I’ve bought in years. Fast hardware with full options, in a little box that consumes little energy and plays ALL 4k HDR formats with ALL audio codecs supported. Everybody happy, Jeej.

But no worries: I held on to my patients, counted to 10 and started writing this page

Best solution:

Downgrade Shield to v8.2.3

After a few long evenings of web searches and some ‘Android-adb-readin-up’ I’ve discovered too many details, directly from NVIDIA SDK 👏🏼 with additional information found on several discussion groups social media, forums and also Google Android SDK. It was a hassle to find the right tools and versions to make it all work.

Because damn: There is sooooo much misinformation and/or clickbait with outdated 💩 out there 99,9%

After my own struggle the first time around, I started making this guide. Along with software downloads with proper drivers and step-by-step illustrated help.

Hopefully this will ease the process for you.

Hardware checklist

• NVIDIA Shield TV (Pro 2019), [current version 9.0.1 (33.1.0.283)]+ Power supply
• HDMIcable, and MUST STAY CONNECTED AT ALL TIMES to;
  • Screen , Display or recorder (HDMI);
• USB-wired-Keyboard or NVIDIA Game Controller;
• Windows PC or laptop (Win10 Pro x64 Phoenix OS used in this example);
• USB male-to-male-cross cable (it’s the only way, tried networking: not supported);

Preparation

To proper downgrade your device, you need to prepare two folders.

These are original files (copy of) Android SDK and Nvidia SDK put in the right order, and just in case Nvidia removes them from their servers in the near future.

for NVIDIA SHIELD TV *PRO* 2019 FW 8.2.3
Drivers, for windows (adb + fastboot) ‘extract to c:\driver’	Download	~1MB
Command tools & 8 Images files ‘extract to c:\tool’	Download	~840MB

• Download files above and extract them in the root of your c:\ drive (easier to follow)

for other hardeware, like 2015-, 2017- & Tube-models etc. check;

This will create two folders ‘c:\tool’ and ‘c:\driver’

Enable Developer mode & USB Debug on Shield

Simply enable developer mode in the Android settings on your Shield device

• Settings – > Device settings -> About

scroll down to

This window will pop-up

you are are now ready to connect

Connecting cables

First, two mandatory steps:

HDMI cable must be connected to a screen at all times!

Hotplugging the keyboard not supported (in fastboot mode),
also keep it connected at all times!

• Connect all cables, like so;

When connecting the USB-cross cable Windows 10 should automaticly recognize the device
and should open up a explorer-window with the Shield-shared-folder

if not: install ADB driver manually instructions here.

In my case: ADB Device was auto-installed by Windows but

I had to install the driver for ‘Fastboot-mode’ manually

Command prompt

Now that the NVIDIA Shield is connected and the ‘ADB is recognized’ by windows,

we need to open up a command prompt in administrator mode:

• Press Windows START and type ‘cmd‘,
• right-click on ‘Command prompt’ and choose
• ‘Open as administrator’

• navigate to c:\tool by typing the following command:

cd c:\tool

Let’s connect!

USB Connection check

Now we can check if adb.exe can connect with the device (adb-daemon-service starts automaticly)

• Type command:

adb devices

• Use the remote controller (or keyboard/gamepad) to authorize, select ‘Allow’

• (re)Check if adb.exe is now authorized, by typing in the command window again:

adb devices

Okay, device connected and you are ready to load fastboot mode 🙂

Load Android to ‘Fastboot mode’

Android bootloader on Nvidia Shield TV can be loaded in 3 ways, with

• Command prompt
• Nvidia gamecontroller or
• USB-keyboard

Output will be, or similar to;

🤟🏼 Congratulations; you are now in ‘fastboot mode’ 🤟🏼

continue with a fastboot-connection check.

Fastboot connection check

Similar to ‘adb.exe’, we now have to switch to ‘fastboot.exe’ and its USB connection. To make sure this works, follow these steps:

If the output is empty, no device is recognized.

This means that the ‘fastboot USB driver’ has to be installed manually.

This was nescesarry in my case: After manual installation, continue to next step

• In the command prompt, (re)type to check the connection (at any time)

fastboot devices

After the ‘fastboot mode’ is connected continue with the OEM unlock

OEM Unlock

Before downloading and flashing the images to the device we have to unlock the bootloader.

• Select ‘Unlock bootloader’
  • with keyboard press ‘ENTER’ or gamepad ‘A’

• Select ‘Confirm’
• with keyboard press ‘ENTER’ or gamepad ‘A’

Bootloader is now unlocked! Continue with flashing the images…

Flash images

Once the devices’ OEM is unlocked, we can proceed with
flashing the bootloader and Android- and NVIDIA-OS images.

This will only work if the Fastboot connection check was succesful

• Switch back to the command prompt again and type/copy the following commands;

Rule by rule, in this order (!important)

fastboot flash staging blob
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash dtb mdarcy.dtb.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash vendor vendor.img
fastboot flash vbmeta vbmeta.img

On the ‘fastboot screen’ progress is also shown;

After putting in all commands and
therefore all the images are stored on the Shield device we can lock OEM again.

If this step FAILS the Shield logo will appear
and device keeps rebooting over and over untill infinity (and beyond)

Repeat the commands above again and check if every rule is [OKAY] in the prompt window,
and/or check for errors in previous steps.

OEM Lock

After flashing all images to Shield device, we can lock OEM again.

This will erase all data on your device!

• Select ‘Lock bootloader’ with keyboard or gamepad

• Select ‘Confirm’ with the keyboard/gamepad

Now the Shield device is ready to load ’the old OS’ again, next step is reboot.

Reboot

Now that all work is done, it’s time to reboot the device back to april 2021 🙂

• Choose ‘Reboot’ in the ‘fastboot screen’

The device will now reboot to the desired OS

Be patient, the first time takes longer to boot (for me 2 minutes)

After rebooting, the Shield device will startup the initial setup wizard.

• Complete the initial wizard, like usual.

• You can now check your version in -> Settings -> Device settings -> About

Downgrading is now done, disable auto-upgrades in the next step

Disable updates

Once the downgrade, reboot and the initial wizard is complete the device is ready to use,
however Android TV OS is by default set to upgrade to the latest OS version,
wich we try to avoid in this case.

1. Go to -> Settings -> Device Settings -> About -> System upgrade
2. And DISABLE the ‘Auto-upgrade‘ option.

3. Next the ‘Check for upgrade’ option

4. And choose ‘When upgrade is available’ option

5. And choose ‘Notify me’

This way auto-upgrades are denied en no download takes place in background,
wich otherwise would have reduced storage capacity by around 900MB!

ADB USB connection troubleshooting

It’s important to know that there are two types of connection:

fastboot	= Bootloader / BIOS / Kernel: Works only with USB-cross in ‘fastboot mode‘
adb	= Android DeBugging: Only when Android + Debug is active (USB-cross & (W)LAN)

Install USB Drivers (manually)

If the USB device is not recognized. follow steps below.

The shitty methods below haven’t changed since Windows 95, true but sad.

This means it will probably work on Windows 11 as well 🤣🤣 will try soon…

• Open Windows explorer and right-click on ’this computer’ and choose ‘Manage’

This will bring up the ‘Manage computer window’,

• go to ‘Devices’ and unfold ‘USB devices’.

This should contain ‘ADB Interface‘ or ‘Fastboot device‘
(depending on the mode the Shield is in)

ADB Device driver

If the Shield device is in ‘normal mode’ and connected to USB, Windows will display the device as ‘ADB Interface’ and in my case auto-installed the right drivers. If not:

• Right-click here and choose ‘Update drivers’

• In the next window, choose Search on my computer.

• In the next window, choose ‘Choose manually’

• Choose ‘Select file’

• Again, choose ‘Browse’

• And now select the right file (depending on wich driver you want to install)

For ‘ADB Device‘ select file

c:\driver\android_winusb.inf

You can now command your Shield to go into ‘fastboot mode’

Fastboot device driver

If the Shield device is rebooted in ‘ fastboot mode’ and connected to USB,
Windows will display the device as ‘Fastboot’ in ‘Other devices’

• Right-click here and choose ‘Update drivers’

• In the next window, choose Search on my computer.

• In the next window, choose ‘Choose manually’

• Choose ‘Android devices’ or ‘All devices’ and hit next

• Choose ‘Browse’

• Choose ‘Browse’ again ( sigh, the “A:\” stands for Floppy drive)

• Navigate to c:\windows\driver\ and choose file ‘android_winusb.inf’

• Hit ‘OK‘

• Hit ‘Next’ and ‘Yes’ to the warning

Windows will install drivers now and reports with this window

• Hit ‘Close’

We can now see that Windows recognizes the device with propers drivers for its connection!

• You can now (re-) check ‘fastboot mode’ here.

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