How can I downgrade my Chromebook?

What do I need?

• USB drive (8 GB+)
• One of the following: Chromebook Recovery Utility (ChromeOS, Windows, MacOS), dd (Linux/macOS/POSIX-compliant), or balenaEtcher (Linux, MacOS, Windows)

Step 1: Find your board name

1. Open chrome://version on your Chromebook
2. Find Platform: row — the word after stable-channel is your board name (e.g., reks)

chrome://version blocked?

Go to “Settings” (the app) → “About Chrome OS” and you should see a button called “additional details”. Click it and then you should be able to copy build details - this is a copy of what is on chrome://version. You should be able to paste it and find it. Below is a demo where the board is reven.

If both fail…

Then proceed to the next step but instead of board name assume device name (i.e. Dell Chromebook 3100 (if you have this, it is octopus), but this will be less accurate for some of them.)

Download recovery image

1. Visit the cros.download website and click “Recovery Images”.
2. Search for your board name and click the board name in the table.
3. Download the .zip file.
4. Find the version you want and click the link in the download column.

Step 2: Write image to USB

Using Chromebook Recovery Utility (Windows/macOS/Chrome OS):

1. Install Chromebook Recovery Utility
2. Open it (click on the extension icon from the puzzle piece)
3. Click the gear icon → “Use local image”
4. Select the .zip file
5. Choose your USB drive and create the recovery USB

Option 2: balenaEtcher

1. Go to https://etcher.balena.io/ and download and install balenaEtcher if needed.
2. Click “flash from file” and select the ZIP file (if it fails, unzip it and then try again).
3. Select your USB after clicking “select target”.
4. Click “flash”.

Option 3: Using dd (Linux/macOS/POSIX-compliant):

1. Unzip the .zip file either through GUI, or through a command like unzip
2. Identify your USB device by running sudo fdisk -l (Linux) or using macOS Disk Utility. It should say something like Disk /dev/sd... (Linux) and in macOS open Disk Utility, select it under “External” and you should see Device:. You will want to use /dev/INSERTTHATNAMEHERE instead of /dev/sdX. Other OSes will have to see relevant documentation for identifying the proper USB device.
3. Write the image (replace /dev/sdX and file path. Remember to use the unzipped file):

sudo dd bs=4M if=/PATH/TO/IMAGE.bin of=/dev/sdX conv=sync status=progress

Restore Chrome OS

1. Enter recovery mode: Esc + Refresh + Power
2. Insert recovery USB
3. Follow prompts to reinstall Chrome OS
4. Remove USB when done. You can wipe it in Chrome OS Recovery Utility with gear icon → “erase recovery media”. You can mkfs.ext4 on the block device in Linux (on Mac use Disk Utility or CRU).