How to Get the Old Android Market Back

The new Android Market app is something you either love, or you hate. I’m leaning toward the latter. I mean, sure, it looks cool, but I’m not able to “rent” movies on my smartphone because I’m rooted, so those are just taking up space (besides, I have Netflix). For books I prefer Nook, so those are taking up even more space.

The new Market seems to be “out of date”. I’ll see an app that says it needs updating, but when I go to update it I’m only given the options to “open” and “uninstall”. Today I was shown an app that I’d purchased that wasn’t installed — even though it was.

Developers don’t like the new Market app either. They’re losing ratings and reviews, and sometimes losing relevance in the search results.

Isn’t there a way to go back to the older version? No, not the old old one, but the one we had before the current one? Luckily, there is, but you need to be rooted to be able to do it.

The easiest method is to push the files via ADB, but you can do it from terminal if you’d like. To start off, head over to the XDA thread and download the two .apks. Place them into the folder that you’ll be running adb from (or transfer them to your phone if you’re going to use the terminal method).

0. Assume the risk of losing the ability to install or update any apps

1. Reboot into recovery and plug into pc

2. Mount /system using your recovery image

3. Type adb push Vending.apk /system/app (enter)

4. Type adb shell rm /system/app/MarketUpdater.apk (enter)

5. Type adb shell chmod 644 /system/app/Vending.apk (enter)

6. Type adb shell chown root.root /system/app/Vending.apk (enter)

7. Reboot your phone

Enjoy the faster, older version of the Market!

Source: XDA