TP Link TL MR3020 is really a wonderful portable router. There was a time when this one was my primary router, till my range requirements increased. I wrote some reviews on MR3020 review and experiments of configuring MR3020 as Wifi repeater.
One of those experiment was to flash OpenWRT on MR3020. During this, I wanted to revert back to stock firmware many times. So, I created a user guide for all people to restore MR3020 stock firmware with a video.
Steps to Restore MR3020 Stock Firmware
You will need a stripped version of MR3020 stock firmware to revert from OpenWRT firmware. The unstripped full version of stock firmware has additional bootloader check code which bricks the router if flashed directly. So, this one was created. You can flash official latest version after this.
You can either watch this video and/or read text version below. Stripped firmware download link is given in first point, below video.
1. Download the stripped MR3020 firmware and extract it on your desktop. The final file name will be TL-MR3020-V1-FW0.0.3-stripped.bin
2. Now, login to your router’s administrator page and navigate to ‘Backup / Flash Firmware’ option present under System tab.
3. Scroll down and untick the option ‘Keep settings’. This is crucial or there will be possibility to brick the router.
4. Click ‘Choose File’ from option and navigate to extracted .bin stripped version. Select it and press OK.
5. Hit ‘Flash image’ and you will be routed to new page where the checksum and other details needs final verification before flashing this on your router.
6. Hit ‘Proceed’. A page will appear showing the progress. In some cases the page visuals are broken and progress can’t be seen. Don’t panic and don’t navigate anywhere. Just stay put for at least 3 minutes.
7. Wait for page to expire or reload. In many cases you will need to change the Wireless network again with default key on your router as stock firmware restored the manufacturer’s original wireless network.
8. Now, try to navigate to router’s IP address i.e. 192.168.0.254 for this firmware. If it works then great and skip to point number 12 directly. Other people, will need a little bit of work.
9. Some of you will need to configure the Wireless adapter IP address for a while as some firmware and hardware demands that PC/laptop should be on same IP subset to be able to connect to router.
10. Go to ‘Network and Internet’ on your PC/Laptop and find your computer’s Wireless adapter.
Right click on it and open properties. Select ‘TCP/IPv4 properties’ and set the computer’s IP to something in subset. Usually, the below works,
192.168.0.1
Keep the subnet mask as below and hit OK.
255.255.255.0
11. Now, again try to reach the router’s page. It will work this time. Use default login details for admin page. Refer, this tplink default password list if you don’t know it.
12. As we are now back to stock firmware, download the latest firmware from TP-link website and upgrade your router using ‘Firmware Upgrade’ option in ‘System Tools’ menu.
If you still have doubts or concern to restore MR3020 stock firmware or having any error, then please let me know by comment (preferable than email). I reply to every comment.