MikroTik RouterOS is in constant development and new features or bug fixes are frequently available, sometimes even monthly. So, it is always recommend upgrading MikroTik RouterOS to a latest and stable version before beginning any configuration. But sometimes you may face that the upgraded version is not working properly according to your demand or you may upgrade to a new version that you don’t want. In this case, you should come back to your workable RouterOS version and firmware. Upgrading RouterOS and Firmware is so easy but downgrading RouterOS may be more difficult if you don’t know the proper guideline. So, in this article I will discuss how to downgrade MikroTik RouterOS and Firmware with step by step guideline.

Downgrading MikroTik RouterOS and Firmware

If you don’t have proper guideline, you may spend hours and hours to downgrade your RouterOS version but your result will be null. So, I am sharing here how to downgrade MikroTik RouterOS and Firmware with proper guideline.

MikroTik RouterOS can properly be downgraded with the following four steps.

• Finding Architecture Name of MikroTik Router
• Downloading Exact RouterOS Version with Architecture Name
• Uploading Downloaded File to MikroTik Root Directory
• Providing Downgrade Command

Step 1: Finding Architecture Name of MikroTik Router

It is important to know Architecture Name before going to download your desired RouterOS version. The following steps will show how to find architecture name of your MikroTik Router.

• From Winbox, go to System > Resources menu item. Resources window will appear.
• Architecture Name of your MikroTik Router will be found in Resources window.

From the above Resource window you can see that the Architecture Name of this MikroTik Router is powerpc.

Step 2: Downloading Exact RouterOS Version with Architecture Name

Knowing Architecture Name, we will now download desired RouterOS version from MikroTik Download Archive. The following steps will show how to choose accurate RouterOS version for your MikroTik Router.

• Go to MikroTik Download Page and select your desired RouterOS version. You will find a list of RouterOS version for all Router Board architectures.
• Click on the NPK (.npk) file that will match with your Architecture Name. The file format will be routeros-architecture_name-routeros_version.npk.
• Your download will be started and within few times it will be finished.

From the above image you can see that the NPK file for powerpc is routeros-powerpc-6.40.npk.

Step 3: Uploading Downloaded File to MikroTik Root Directory

After downloading exact NPK file for MikroTik Router, we will now upload this file to MikroTik root directory. The following steps will show how to upload downloaded NPK file to MikroTik root directory.

• From Winbox, click on Files menu item. File List window will appear.
• Drag and drop the downloaded NPK file to this File List window. Then, the file will be uploaded to MikroTik root directory

Step 4: Providing Downgrade Command

We are now ready to downgrade RouterOS version. The following steps will show how to provide downgrade command to MikroTik Router.

• From Winbox, go to System > Packages menu item. Package List window will appear.
• Click on Downgrade button from this window.
• It will ask to Confirm Reboot. Click on Yes button.
• System will be rebooted and after reboot you will find that your RouterOS has been downgraded.

Downgrading MikroTik Firmware

If you upgraded firmware before, you also need to downgrade firmware. The following steps will show how to downgrade MikroTik Firmware properly.

• From Winbox, go to System > Routerboard menu item. Routerboard window will appear.
• Check your Current Firmware and Upgrade Firmware version.
• If the Current Firmware version is greater than the Upgrade Firmware version, click on Upgrade button. It will ask to confirm upgrade. Click Yes button to upgrade firmware.
• Now reboot MikroTik Router. After reboot you will find that Firmware has been downgraded.

If you face any confusion to follow the above steps, follow the below video tutorial on Downgrading MikroTik RouterOS and Firmware. I hope it will reduce your any confusion.