[Moto X Q&A] liveroy:
Hello,

This is a short (hopefully) guide on how to downgrade your Moto X 2013 from Android 5.1 to 4.4.4 (and lower).

The procedure is fairly simple and takes about 10-15 minutes, once you get the files you need.It does however needs some technical understanding of how to use fastboot, command prompt and eventually unlocking your bootloader.Fairly strong reading skills recommended.

WIth that said, make sure you read thorough and even few times before you take any actions.

This method has now been proven to be working by multiple people, on many different versions of Moto X 2013, including GPE

Disclaimer

Although this procedure has been tested by me and some friends numerous times, it still has some risk involved.You MUST be aware of the potential risks of modifying your phone software and performing actions that may lead to complete defunct of your device.

As you may expect I will not take any responsibility or be accountable for any damage or loss you may incur by following this guide.

Performing a system downgrade WILL void your warranty and it is NOT supported by Motorola/Lenovo or their service network.

I also recommend you read This post by KidJoe about the potential risks that downgrade might involve.

This guide has came up being needed as many people were afraid to downgrade after reading the post of KidJoe and I don't blame them, it is possible something to go wrong and you end up with non-working device.

HOWEVER, this has been tested on more than 10 separate Moto X 2013 and more than 12 times on my own device, which makes me to believe that it's generally safe.

Prerequisites

You need your bootloader unlocked.Motorola and their bootloader does NOT support downgrading and it will spit errors in fastboot.

WHEN YOU UNLOCK YOUR BOOTLOADER ALL YOUR PERSONAL DATA ON YOUR DEVICE WILL BE LOST.MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP YOUR FILES AND THEN PROCEED.

You can find how to unlock your bootloader HERE or just use the search here in the forums, plenty of info on that matter.

If you cannot or don't want to unlock your bootloader, then you CANNOT downgrade.

Files Needed

For this tutorial we`ll do downgrade from 5.1 to 4.4.4.This is the safest downgrade and it will be successful if you follow all the steps w/o any skipping.

The Android image used is for XT1052, but if you got different model, you can find the image for your own model and use that instead.

1.First you need a signed image of Android 4.4.4 for Moto X 2013.You can find one Filefactory or RetailEU here <=> RetailGB here <=> RetailDE here

If you want to download the image faster, use the Yandex-hosted images, FileFactory is slow.

2.Motorola Device Drivers: You can find them Here

3.Motorola Fastboot and generic adb/fastboot tools package: You can find it attached to this post or click Here

Flashing your device

0.Charge your device's battery to at least 35%.

1.Extract the archive with the signed images somewhere (in this case I`ll use C:\temp , but you can use any drive or directory if you so desire).

2.Extract the android-tools archive in the same directory.You should have boot.img, recovery.img, system.img and mfastboot in same directory.

3.Reboot your device in bootloader (Power your device off -> Hold Volume Down and Press Power button -> then release).

!!THIS WILL DELETE YOUR USER FILES EVEN IF YOU HAVE YOUR BOOTLOADER ALREADY UNLOCKED!!!

4.Open a command prompt and navigate to C:\temp and execute the following commands:

mfastboot erase cache
mfastboot erase userdata
mfastboot flash boot boot.img
mfastboot flash recovery recovery.img
mfastboot flash system system.img
mfastboot erase userdata

mfastboot reboot

DO NOT skip erasing the userdata, doing so , you'll most likely end up with soft brick.Just don't do it.

Result

Congratz, now you have successfully downgraded your device to Android 4.4.4

The device will take some time the first boot to create dalvik cache and some other stuff, but it should not take more than 5 minutes.

When your device boots, it will ask you at some point to downgrade the motorola services bla bla, agree to that, your device will reboot and it will tell you that the downgrade was successful.I did this more than 10 times, seems to be totally safe.

Any feedback will be appreciated, you may ask questions, but don't expect me to answer to every single one.

If I missed something, I'll add up/fix as soon as I can.