A complete MikroTik firmware downgrade requires a downgrade of two components: 1️⃣ MikroTik RouterOS – an operating system (OS), and 2️⃣ MikroTik RouterBOARD firmware – a bootloader.
Before starting the MikroTik router downgrade, make sure that you have a backup of your current router configuration, as this is important in case of something goes wrong during the downgrade process.
Cool Tip: How to backup and restore a MikroTik router! Read more →
MikroTik Downgrade
Get the information about the current MikroTik RouterOS version, factory software version and device architecture, by going to ⚙️ “System” → “Resources”:
ℹ️ The factory software is the oldest version supported by the MikroTik device.
Also list the installed packages by going to ⚙️ “System” → “Packages”:
To get this information from a command-line (terminal), execute:
[admin@MikroTik] > /system resource print - sample output - uptime: 13m7s version: 7.10.2 (stable) build-time: Jul/12/2023 09:45:11 factory-software: 7.5 free-memory: 617.5MiB total-memory: 928.0MiB cpu: ARM64 cpu-count: 4 cpu-frequency: 1320MHz cpu-load: 1% free-hdd-space: 94.1MiB total-hdd-space: 128.5MiB write-sect-since-reboot: 50 write-sect-total: 684906 bad-blocks: 0.7% architecture-name: arm64 board-name: hAP ax^3 platform: MikroTik [admin@MikroTik] > /system package print - sample output - Columns: NAME, VERSION # NAME VERSION 0 routeros 7.10.2 1 wifiwave2 7.10.2
1️⃣ MikroTik RouterOS Downgrade
To downgrade the MikroTik router it is required to downgrade not the RouterOS only but all the installed packaged, otherwise the downgrade won’t succeed and the MikroTik version won’t change after reboot.
Download the packages to which you want to downgrade your MikroTik router (they should match your device architecture).
In the example below I am downloading the routeros-7.6-arm64.npk package and the all_packages-arm64-7.6.zip archive that contains the wifiwave2-7.6-arm64.npk package that also has to be upgraded:
Upload the .npk packages to the MikroTik device through the 📁 “Files” menu:
From the command-line (terminal) you can upload them, for example, using scp:
$ scp Downloads/routeros-7.5-arm64.npk admin@192.168.88.1: $ scp Downloads/wifiwave2-7.6-arm64.npk admin@192.168.88.1:
To downgrade the MikroTik RouterOS, go to ⚙️ “System” → “Resources” and click on “Downgrade”:
To downgrade the MikroTik RouterOS from the command-line (terminal), execute:
[admin@MikroTik] > /system package downgrade
The router will be rebooted and the MikroTik RouterOS will be downgraded.
2️⃣ MikroTik RouterBOARD Firmware Downgrade
After downgrading the MikroTik RouterOS, it is always recommended to downgrade the firmware of the MikroTik RouterBOARD.
To downgrade the MikroTik RouterBOARD firmware using Winbox/Winfig, go to ⚙️ “System” → “RouterBOARD” and click on “Upgrade”:
After the MikroTik RouterBOARD firmware downgrade, reboot the router for changes to take effect (⚙️ “System” → “Reboot”).
To downgrade the MikroTik RouterBOARD firmware from the command-line (terminal), execute:
[admin@MikroTik] > /system routerboard print - sample output - routerboard: yes board-name: hAP ax^3 model: C53UiG+5HPaxD2HPaxD serial-number: ******** firmware-type: ipq6000 factory-firmware: 7.6 current-firmware: 7.10.2 upgrade-firmware: 7.6 [admin@MikroTik] > /system routerboard upgrade [admin@MikroTik] > /system reboot
Cool Tip: Upgrade MikroTik RouterOS & RouterBOARD firmware! Read more →