I didn't spot any thread around here covering the topic of debloating stock sony firmware. Not that it would be cluttered like other manufacturers firmware, but theres still room for improvement
Is there a guide somewhere or a list of all apk safe to disable/remove (provided root acces) on sony firmwares? Similar to a Samsung Galaxy S2 related guide here or another very exhaustive one here (<- preferred).
I'm from the X10i & the Arc forums, I use this as a guide
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1089470
Good Luck
* If you want to delete a app by Root-Explorer, don't update it by Playstore first before removing it. (Facebook)
* Some apps can be removed by Settings - Apps etc.
Sent from my LT30p using xda Hotline
Well on tx stock, I got the following apps disabled. ;/
my phone is running fine. From start up to everyday use.
This all depends on what functions you use for the phone. Deleting apps stops their functionality, so you always reduce the functions of the phone when deleting apps. It is persona l preference on which apps you want to delete.
However, there are plenty of apps that are "safe" to delete and still keep your phone working as a phone. The best way I have found of doing this is not by following other peoples list but by using Titanium Backup to "freeze" apps and then test the phone to see if it still works the way I want it. Then I could delete the app. If I ost some functionality I would defrost the app and no harm is done.
gregbradley said:
This all depends on what functions you use for the phone. Deleting apps stops their functionality, so you always reduce the functions of the phone when deleting apps. It is persona l preference on which apps you want to delete.
However, there are plenty of apps that are "safe" to delete and still keep your phone working as a phone. The best way I have found of doing this is not by following other peoples list but by using Titanium Backup to "freeze" apps and then test the phone to see if it still works the way I want it. Then I could delete the app. If I ost some functionality I would defrost the app and no harm is done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What Greg says is right, but to add to it:
Apps that you can "disable" will not effect the functionality of the phone, you will just lose the function of the app in question.
Secondly, if you are using titanium back up to freeze system apps, and you are not sure what the app you are freezing does you might stop your system from working, so before you freeze anything you are unsure of, take a full backup first so you can restore it if your system becomes unstable.
Please post your results in this thread for others to learn from.
There is also a system app cleaner in flashtool, although I have not used it with the T yet.
Sent from my LT30p using xda app-developers app
gregbradley said:
Deleting apps stops their functionality, so you always reduce the functions of the phone when deleting apps. It is personal preference on which apps you want to delete. *snip* However, there are plenty of apps that are "safe" to delete
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As for the first part of your post, I'm fully aware of. In fact thats the reason why I'd like to have some of useless stuff removed (numerous FB clients/apps/agents for example) But thanks for putting it here as other users might not be aware of the possible issues.
The part in bold is of most interest to me. I'm totally not an Android novice, I know most crucial system packages. Derping around in relatively pure Android releases like AOSP and CM10 and reading the same package names over and over again gives a feel what is Android related and what is vendor specific. For Sammy/Touchwiz I know which package does what, but with Sony I'm new and dont know which files are safe to remove without breaking the system. Hence this thread.
[email protected] said:
What Greg says is right, but to add to it: *snip*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course same as above. I do not use TiB though, I use an app called System App Remover. I know TiB very vell of course, but then, who doesn't But again, I'm not interested in getting informations what removing or freezing apk's means in general, I'm interested in which are essential to Sonys UI and will break the system if removed.
I'll have a look at the link provided to the Arc/X10 forums.
Gesendet von meinem ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TG mit Tapatalk 2
LitoNi said:
Well on tx stock, I got the following apps disabled. ;/
my phone is running fine. From start up to everyday use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yesterday I found out that disabeling Setup Guide resulted in me losing all APN settings and the phone refused to (automatically) recreate them. They got recreated without any fuzz after enabeling the setup wizard and running it. I'll eventually try to recreate this as I fight with myself if this connected or if I coincidentally hit a time where my network decided to derp on me.
schaggo said:
Yesterday I found out that disabeling Setup Guide resulted in me losing all APN settings and the phone refused to (automatically) recreate them. They got recreated without any fuzz after enabeling the setup wizard and running it. I'll eventually try to recreate this as I fight with myself if this connected or if I coincidentally hit a time where my network decided to derp on me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure whats that got to do with it, Setup guide is one of the first apps i delte. Unless this an app from your carrier that loads the apn settings...mine are downloaded automatically from vodafone.
Related
I apologize if this has been answered earlier.
I use a stock N1 with ADW.Launcher and a bunch of other apps. I recently noticed that even when I uninstall an app from my phone, there are some directories / files that remain on the phone.
Is there any reason why these do not get deleted when the app is unistalled.
May be the same answer as installers written for windows. If the developer didn't do a good job with cleanup, you get trash leftover you need to manually clean.
i agree with both above. i found devs dont do good with uninstalling and leaving folders left behind, i wonder if there is an app that clears them?
The best way is to realize what should and shouldn't be there and manually take care of it. To write an application to clean up after 50,000+ other applications that are messy. Would be a programming nightmare and I would not want to support such an application.
or someone could make some sort of app similar to those on pc, montors what and where files are being installed to so if uninstall doesnt take em out alteast you know where to look exactly.
Edit: better yet, the app itself can uninstall everything on the users request! now that would be an app i wouldnt mind paying a good buck for.
I agree, apps itself should uninstall everything with user consent.
Also I don't think a lot of us mind taking the manual route as long as we know what to delete ..
Any way to find out what files belong to what apps?.... or is it the same as on any unix/linux platform.
thats what i was trying to say. windows has a simple app that makes a txt file of all files being installed including registery. launch the app to monitor first, install like normal. in this case, the app itself will make a database of the app then the user can use that app to delete everything catched that was installed. that would be very nice. i find myself doing google search to see where files came from and when i see i uninstalled that i have to delete it myself. this would save me lots of time. i dont really worry about it though i have a list of apps i must install and with all the froyo i keep wiping the os to try new roms. until everything is stable ill worry then but for now im good.
garryvirdi said:
I apologize if this has been answered earlier.
I use a stock N1 with ADW.Launcher and a bunch of other apps. I recently noticed that even when I uninstall an app from my phone, there are some directories / files that remain on the phone.
Is there any reason why these do not get deleted when the app is unistalled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you mean the directories on the sd card?
Yes directories and files on the SD card.
-------------------------------------
Sent from my Nexus One
garryvirdi said:
Yes directories and files on the SD card.
-------------------------------------
Sent from my Nexus One
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could have data that could be reused if you decide to use the app again. Settings, preferences, keys, notes, photos etc..
I do hope that the default folder for apps defaults to something like /sdcard/appdata/ instead of the root folder /sdcard/ (unless explicitly set)
Development dropped in favor of Liberation.
Only difference between Nothing Special 1.3 and Liberation 1.0 is that Google Car Home has been replaced by the stock HTC Car Panel. This is to remove "holes" left by the removal of a stock app. Also, this no longer conflicts with my intent of having a stock ROM minus carrier bloat/restrictions. Google Car Home can be added by the user if they so choose.
Great job. All the stock roms seem to be outdated.
SX Reapz!
Looks nice. Is there any benefit, though, over RUUing, adb shell, and then using rm to delete CityID etc?
pianoplayer said:
Looks nice. Is there any benefit, though, over RUUing, adb shell, and then using rm to delete CityID etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A few.
Apply this ROM is faster than using the RUU, re-rooting, and then manually deleting the programs you want. On the plus side, the slower method lets you delete any program YOU want, rather than being a one-size fits all type deal.
I'm using a memory/task killing teak offered by the Android Kitchen that is a bit more aggressive in memory conservation. This should give a slight performance boost over the RUU.
So really, it's more of a convenience than using the RUU. Many people who flash ROMs don't even know how to remove programs via ADB.
what kind of feed back are you looking for, there is more bloat but that is kinda user preference I remove almost everything and leave just the apps, kinda like the magnoila desenseitize but i do it manually bucause that wont flash for me on the stock rom
so far so good, can you post the list of addons i see carhome which is a good move
tjamscad said:
what kind of feed back are you looking for, there is more bloat but that is kinda user preference I remove almost everything and leave just the apps, kinda like the magnoila desenseitize but i do it manually bucause that wont flash for me on the stock rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to make sure that I didn't screw anything up. Everyone has a different definition of "bloat." I decided to leave whatever HTC/Google apps came with the phone, and removed Verizon's additional bloat. Removing HTC's apps and cause minor stability issues that the casual user won't want to deal with. Those who know how to manually remove the apps tend to know how to deal with the minor issues that crop up.
tjamscad said:
so far so good, can you post the list of addons i see carhome which is a good move
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had Car Home listed under removed apps as the replacement for HTC Car Panel. I've copied it under features as well as per your suggestion. Otherwise, that's pretty much it.
If you want to further remove apps, a very simple way to do so is to unzip the package, delete the APKs under /system/app that you don't want, re-zip using a program like 7-ZIP (free), then flash it.
You can also do this to package ring tones in the /system/media folder so that they are stored in /system, don't take up user space, and will work correctly even when the device is USB mounted or just booting up.
do i use rom manager/ clockwork to flash this rom???
ahjdmarchi said:
do i use rom manager/ clockwork to flash this rom???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use ROM Manager, so I couldn't tell you how to use it in that way. I just download and flash via Clockwork Recovery.
i have used clockwork and rom manager both work just fine
how do you feel about removing the HTCSetupWizzard.apk I find it to be bothersome when i have install a new rom and that pops up. I am not tring to be a jerk just throwing things out there. its your rom
VZW backup assistant, vzw 3g hot spot
tjamscad said:
how do you feel about removing the HTCSetupWizzard.apk I find it to be bothersome when i have install a new rom and that pops up. I am not tring to be a jerk just throwing things out there. its your rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're absolutely not being a jerk. Like I said, no ROM will make everyone happy. Any user is free to modify the zip and delete the APKs (and corresponding odex files) from the /system/app folder prior to flashing.
HTCSetupWizard only pops up when data is wiped. On the "stable" release, if you just do a flash over, (same on any future upgrades) it won't pop up.
tjamscad said:
VZW backup assistant, vzw 3g hot spot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Deleting VZW backup assistant causes a "hole" in HTC's setup wizard. The point of this ROM was to maintain the user experience while deleting unused bloat. Also, this ROM pre-dates both Google's backup option as well as HTC's Sense.com option, so VZWBackup is a decent free alternative.
The 3G Hotspot option isn't made by Verizon, it's an HTC app (it's the same app on their unlocked phones). Some people, for whatever reason, will pay for tethering. They need this app to do so and it's not replaceable via the Android/VCAST markets. Also, there's a way to use this app to tether for free, essentially disabling the aspect that reports to Verizon. However, due to questionably legality, I can't detail how that works here.
However, I see your points, and I'll look at it more when I get back from my business trip.
Looking for a good "stock" ROM to replace Virtuous which seems to have been abandoned.
Any first hand experiences with this ROM? I'm starting to think the silence is a good thing (no problems).
I run it with Lou's #8 and it's running absolutely flawlessly. No complaints.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Installed this last night and so far it has been awesome! Very Snappy too.
Titanium seems to be broken, telling me it doesn't have root/BusyBox (even though I granted it root permissions), but I don't think it's the ROM since everything else that uses root works (Root explorer, ROM Manager, etc). Not a big deal since I can just use AppBrain, although a little more work involved there.
This is just what I was hoping for! Thanks.
craighwk said:
Installed this last night and so far it has been awesome! Very Snappy too.
Titanium seems to be broken, telling me it doesn't have root/BusyBox (even though I granted it root permissions), but I don't think it's the ROM since everything else that uses root works (Root explorer, ROM Manager, etc). Not a big deal since I can just use AppBrain, although a little more work involved there.
This is just what I was hoping for! Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At the bottom of titanium click "Problems?" And it will fix that problem by downloading busybox. Hope it helps.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
all good no problems, when do you consider it stable? Not sure you could do anything else to it with out loosing the stock start over feel.
THis is just what i've been looking for, im not too crazy for those roms with 5h!tty mods and ugly colors, just wanted a stock without the bload, just google and HTC stuff and this one seems to offer that.
So nothing got broken in the process of removing the bloat right? will work just like the stock minus the bloat?
Would LOVE to get a ROM like this but with Sense 2.0 in it, now that would be awesome!
Great to always have a copy of this on your SD card. As a backup rom, for those of us who forget to nandroid sometimes
I got a new wifi S2, installed the permissive kernel and rooted it. I installed TWRP and made a backup. Now I've got an uninstall app and I've removed a few things; primarily Knox and the security logger so that it quits whining at me. I have a strong desire to never ever use the cloud, create a Samsung account, or a Google account. I really just want to load some books onto it and DLNA some music and videos.
So I want to get rid of all the stuff that I'll never be able to use but it's not clear to me how to identify all that. I'm a long time Unix guy but not at all an android guy. If something prompts me to create an account I know I want to uninstall it, but damned if I can figure out how to identify what to uninstall from what icon I touched.
I've found bloatware lists but they're all somewhat old and not for the S2, so it's not clear to me if I should trust them. I'd like to avoid trial and error "uninstall and reinstall if something doesn't work" or the even more dreaded "uninstall and find out six months later that something doesn't work". Can anyone point me at a good list of what I can remove, or where I can figure out how to determine that for myself? Thanks.
Better start freezen apps instead of uninstalling them. I use titanium backup for that, but you can use whatever you like. Just be carefull freezing or uninstalling OS related apps, you can end in a bootloop, but you always have the odin flash method to reflash your system back to normal. Just don't play around with partitions or /dev .
Right now I using my tablet unrooted and untouched, so I can't be more specific which apps you can freeze without problems.
He doesn't need odin as he has a twrp backup.
I take it you are using System App Remover (root) to uninstall system apps? If so you are pretty safe as they are backed up and can be restored any time if something goes wrong.
Also are you aware without a Google account you will lose part of the functionality of an Android device?
Samsungs account you can do without. All that stuff related to it can be deleted, but don't advise removing any of the Google core services from the stock rom.
If you really want a GAPPless rom then you're better off with a non stock custom rom like CM or AOSP.
Not much in that area of development at the moment, but there are a couple of members working on it.
ashyx said:
He doesn't need odin as he has a twrp backup.
I take it you are using System App Remover (root) to uninstall system apps? If so you are pretty safe as they are backed up and can be restored any time if something goes wrong.
Also are you aware without a Google account you will lose part of the functionality of an Android device?
Samsungs account you can do without. All that stuff related to it can be deleted, but don't advise removing any of the Google core services from the stock rom.
If you really want a GAPPless rom then you're better off with a non stock custom rom like CM or AOSP.
Not much in that area of development at the moment, but there are a couple of members working on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, thanks. If I lose functionality to avoid Google watching over my shoulder I'm all for it. I'm old and probably overprotective of what's my business and not theirs. In truth, I bought the S2 because I have a collection of chess book pdf's and djvu's that I want to be able to read while I'm sitting at my chess board. I got the 9.7 inch S2 because the old eyes aren't what they used to be. Anything I can do beyond that is icing on the cake.
I do have the app remover, and I've removed the stuff that was obvious to me (like the Microsoft Office stubs). But there are still lots of things that bring up a prompt for an account when I run them and it's not clear to me how to figure out what app to remove to get rid of that particular thing. On Linux I could use rpm -q to figure out what rpm contained a file I want to remove and I'd be good to go. I've tried googling some of the app names but the "descriptions" I end up finding are particularly unenlightening. And since this is definitely not my area of expertise I don't really want to operate in "let's remove this and see what happens" even if I can reinstall the app from its backup. I've been doing software development and sysadmin for more than 35 years now and that just doesn't seem like the way to approach this.
I was looking at CM, which seems like it might be what I'm looking for, but it's still in alpha and my skill level is probably not up to coping with that so I'm back with the problem of how to decide what to get rid of.
Hi,
I like to know if there's a way to back up the phone without root, if something went wrong, like errors and so. By backup I mean back up all the settings, wallpapers, themes, like the backup we can make with recovery.
Thank you for the help.
soilentgreen said:
Hi,
I like to know if there's a way to back up the phone without root, if something went wrong, like errors and so. By backup I mean back up all the settings, wallpapers, themes, like the backup we can make with recovery.
Thank you for the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah comes with samsung backup.
Nick216ohio said:
Yeah comes with samsung backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And this is the only way?
soilentgreen said:
And this is the only way?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is but this seems like the best so far. This is coming from a person who was die hard titanium backup fan. Actually surprised how well it works.
Nick216ohio said:
There is but this seems like the best so far. This is coming from a person who was die hard titanium backup fan. Actually surprised how well it works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you share the second best backup?
Thank you.
Also, what is the best order to use Google restore and / or Samsung restore? I used the Samsung cloud Backup for a restore and was rather disappointed ?
So, what is best practice to prepare for a hard reset and restore? I do it this way:
- make backups in all apps that support it, like nova launcher prime, nine email and so on
- do a Samsung Backup
After hard reset, I follow the process and restore when offered, Google and Samsung. However, afaics, no app data is coming back.
Am I holding it wrong? ?
soilentgreen said:
Can you share the second best backup?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 2nd options being other apps from play store. I haven't tried those on this phone. If you're rooted definitely titanium backup.
corwin_amber said:
Also, what is the best order to use Google restore and / or Samsung restore? I used the Samsung cloud Backup for a restore and was rather disappointed ?
So, what is best practice to prepare for a hard reset and restore? I do it this way:
- make backups in all apps that support it, like nova launcher prime, nine email and so on
- do a Samsung Backup
After hard reset, I follow the process and restore when offered, Google and Samsung. However, afaics, no app data is coming back.
Am I holding it wrong? ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What disappointed you? No app data coming back is normal. Just like when you do a titanium backup restore. It's adviced to restore with no app data. Because when you do tend to get a lot of issues. Your just getting apps back.
Nick216ohio said:
The 2nd options being other apps from play store. I haven't tried those on this phone. If you're rooted definitely titanium backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not rooted and looking apps from play store.
I would appreciate it if someone could recommend good apps.
Good topic .
For some reason my restoring process is always messed up when I use the Samsung smart switch. Since it restores via smartswitch and then Google restores also.
Moving forward should one have Google back restore enabled and also use smartswitch as well or is it safe to assume smartswitch on its own is adequate?
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
@Nick216ohio Ok, I see. I am just comparing to iOS and even Windows phone / mobile restore. iOS / iCloud restore is brilliant, WP / WM restore depended on App support.
What is the situation like with Android, can apps support app data restore via Google restore?
This whole topic is a little unclear to me, is there a resource where it is explained?
Thanks ?
corwin_amber said:
@Nick216ohio Ok, I see. I am just comparing to iOS and even Windows phone / mobile restore. iOS / iCloud restore is brilliant, WP / WM restore depended on App support.
What is the situation like with Android, can apps support app data restore via Google restore?
This whole topic is a little unclear to me, is there a resource where it is explained?
Thanks ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can restore data, but like I said before causes issues. Like force closes, apps not working right, etc. Wish we could restore data without issues. Just google and you will get clear answer. I am to lazy to explain. Apple does some things better and same with android. They both got +/- overall.
But here's some good news for all of us>
http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/1...ow-restore-backed-data-initial-setup-process/
corwin_amber said:
@Nick216ohio Ok, I see. I am just comparing to iOS and even Windows phone / mobile restore. iOS / iCloud restore is brilliant, WP / WM restore depended on App support.
What is the situation like with Android, can apps support app data restore via Google restore?
This whole topic is a little unclear to me, is there a resource where it is explained?
Thanks [emoji847]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apple backup and restore is eons ahead of Android backup and restore.
I'm an Android fanboi BTW.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
I rooted last week and so tried to prepare as much as I could for the factory reset step. I don't use Google or Samsung backup for apps, I prefer things local to me (I am too used to TiBu coming from a rooted Note 3).
I backed up the apps that allow an export of setting/content as previously mentioned in this thread (so like Nine email, Signal Messenger etc), I also used Helium backup which stated it backed up most of my apps & data and then I copied all of internal SD to an external one.
I was disappointed with Helium, it restored all apps and data "successfully" however it didn't actually appear to have done anything. After some googling I manually installed the apps it backed up and then proceeded to restore the data...this actually works for some of the apps but I was left with quite a lot that it did not. I ended up cutting my losses and starting fresh with those apps.
I am now rooted and back onto TiBu which is fine until I need to change to a phone that isn't rooted. I have limited experience with anything Apple but from the sounds of it they do a pretty good job at restoring apps and data but I wouldn't be able to cope with how tight the control is on their devices (which is one element that I expect helps with having a more reliable backup solution).
kaos_king said:
I rooted last week and so tried to prepare as much as I could for the factory reset step. I don't use Google or Samsung backup for apps, I prefer things local to me (I am too used to TiBu coming from a rooted Note 3).
I backed up the apps that allow an export of setting/content as previously mentioned in this thread (so like Nine email, Signal Messenger etc), I also used Helium backup which stated it backed up most of my apps & data and then I copied all of internal SD to an external one.
I was disappointed with Helium, it restored all apps and data "successfully" however it didn't actually appear to have done anything. After some googling I manually installed the apps it backed up and then proceeded to restore the data...this actually works for some of the apps but I was left with quite a lot that it did not. I ended up cutting my losses and starting fresh with those apps.
I am now rooted and back onto TiBu which is fine until I need to change to a phone that isn't rooted. I have limited experience with anything Apple but from the sounds of it they do a pretty good job at restoring apps and data but I wouldn't be able to cope with how tight the control is on their devices (which is one element that I expect helps with having a more reliable backup solution).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This story reminds me a bit of my own.
I'm an Apple AND Android user and just recently got a lot more into using both for the given areas where they excel...
Well, fun fact is that I'm considering going with a Note 9 when it launches and I want to try my luck in staying unrooted there, certainly staying on stock ROM (because I would like to use the SPen to its full extent and many things that Samsung does incorporate into their ROM attract me... Please don't shoot. )
Either way, upon researching backing up Android rooted or not rooted I found out it's an absolute crap shoot on this side of the fence and it'd be incredibly hilarious if it wasn't so sad.
I also doubt Google has any big incentive to fix it, they'd much rather fix cloud backups gluing you to their ecosystem. Pulling a good old Apple. :silly:
The fact is, as far as I found out, please correct me if I'm wrong, the issue is mostly that app developers must flag their apps as allowing to be backed up/not flag it's disallowed. (I read that not setting the flag is treated like a default no, but that's up to the version of the ROM/base Android, this may differ. I do not know)
Apparently, plenty enough apps use that liberty and whilst there is such a flag in iOS as well it's limited to stuff like login credentials afaik.
The general problem here I think is that the history of personal computers and smartphones is not only diagonally aligned chronologically, but also many technologies in smartphones matured as they had become a mass medium for practically the - excuse the blunt wording - dumbest of users. That and the general philosophy of SMART phones (read: it does a lot, but it's easy, it does things for you) and the approachability aspect.
My personal opinion is that this whole mess complicated backups needlessly and could be solved, but I don't want to get overly technical right now at 10pm.
Glassed Silver said:
This story reminds me a bit of my own.
I'm an Apple AND Android user and just recently got a lot more into using both for the given areas where they excel...
Well, fun fact is that I'm considering going with a Note 9 when it launches and I want to try my luck in staying unrooted there, certainly staying on stock ROM (because I would like to use the SPen to its full extent and many things that Samsung does incorporate into their ROM attract me... Please don't shoot. )
Either way, upon researching backing up Android rooted or not rooted I found out it's an absolute crap shoot on this side of the fence and it'd be incredibly hilarious if it wasn't so sad.
I also doubt Google has any big incentive to fix it, they'd much rather fix cloud backups gluing you to their ecosystem. Pulling a good old Apple. :silly:
The fact is, as far as I found out, please correct me if I'm wrong, the issue is mostly that app developers must flag their apps as allowing to be backed up/not flag it's disallowed. (I read that not setting the flag is treated like a default no, but that's up to the version of the ROM/base Android, this may differ. I do not know)
Apparently, plenty enough apps use that liberty and whilst there is such a flag in iOS as well it's limited to stuff like login credentials afaik.
The general problem here I think is that the history of personal computers and smartphones is not only diagonally aligned chronologically, but also many technologies in smartphones matured as they had become a mass medium for practically the - excuse the blunt wording - dumbest of users. That and the general philosophy of SMART phones (read: it does a lot, but it's easy, it does things for you) and the approachability aspect.
My personal opinion is that this whole mess complicated backups needlessly and could be solved, but I don't want to get overly technical right now at 22pm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep , just thank God for smartswitch. Before that it was even worse!
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
there could be possibly another way, try the cloning apps, like App Cloner, they modify apps before cloning them, and one option is to make the app store its data outside the system directories, in the internal storage, thus your able to save the apps data easily, but i have not fully tired and there are other limitations and enabling too many clone options = random crashes and bugs.
it depends on how important app data backup is for you.
limitations are, every time app updates versions, you must reclone if you need the updates, apps may not work properly.
there are heaps of cool tweaks you can do and i always clone apps that i know I won't need to update much.
Limeybastard said:
Yep , just thank God for smartswitch. Before that it was even worse!
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worse? Didn't Kies backup apps at all?
Also, is Smart Switch at least better than any other solution that isn't Titanium Backup? I guess another way to wird this question is:
How is Smart Switch different than other solutions? (also, does it use adb or is it proprietary Samsung technology because Samsung customized the ROM to begin with)
COULD it become better?
I'm really interested in getting the next Note phone, but damn having to root just to get proper backups irks me.
Afaik Samsung doesn't like to service rooted devices, pulling an Apple here, but that may be wrong or outdated info?
Also you apparently lose Knox/Secure Folder?
Does rooting on Samsung's flagships require a custom kernel like you need with Sony's Xperia (currently rocking an Xperia X and the rooting procedure is a joke)
sonhy said:
there could be possibly another way, try the cloning apps, like App Cloner, they modify apps before cloning them, and one option is to make the app store its data outside the system directories, in the internal storage, thus your able to save the apps data easily, but i have not fully tired and there are other limitations and enabling too many clone options = random crashes and bugs.
it depends on how important app data backup is for you.
limitations are, every time app updates versions, you must reclone if you need the updates, apps may not work properly.
there are heaps of cool tweaks you can do and i always clone apps that i know I won't need to update much.
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Way too much fussing about.
Guess the ball is in Samsung's court, but they seem to agree with the stance that a developer should be able to disallow me to rule against my freedom to do with my personal data as I please. Boo...
Accidentally I stumbled upon the folder gangyun and pref_storekeytool inside.
I scanned the Maze with an antivirus scanner and beautysnap.apk was reported as adware.
I guess beautysnap.apk is part of the system camera?
Unfortunately no app can beautify me, so I would like to delete this app. Is it safe to do it?
TIA
bestunameever said:
Accidentally I stumbled upon the folder gangyun and pref_storekeytool inside.
I scanned the Maze with an antivirus scanner and beautysnap.apk was reported as adware.
I guess beautysnap.apk is part of the system camera?
Unfortunately no app can beautify me, so I would like to delete this app. Is it safe to do it?
TIA
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What virus scanner did you use? I've just received my Maze Alpha X. There are some bad things about this phone, I'm a bit disappointed. The worst in my case is that the front camera doesn't work. It's like there's no camera at all.
Yeah unfortunately this phone is loaded with precarious apps, adupsfota for instance disguised as the ota wireless update is full of dodgy adware/spyware and if you look at the permissions your see just how worrying it is, it has permission to access banking apps, android pay, key-logger, microphone, camera the list goes on, I've disabled it several times but it manages to re-enable itself. Beautysnap is also a bad one which I have managed to disable for good, LocationEM2 is another suspect app, Fotaprovider which is also adups related. Basically this phone really needs an alternative kernel/custom rom before it can be safely used but as far as I'm aware there isn't one as yet.
The CPU usage is always very high too which is not a great sign, not good at all, I'm surprised Amazon can sell phones in this state tbh.
McSwifty said:
Yeah unfortunately this phone is loaded with precarious apps, adupsfota for instance disguised as the ota wireless update is full of dodgy adware/spyware and if you look at the permissions your see just how worrying it is, it has permission to access banking apps, android pay, key-logger, microphone, camera the list goes on, I've disabled it several times but it manages to re-enable itself. Beautysnap is also a bad one which I have managed to disable for good, LocationEM2 is another suspect app, Fotaprovider which is also adups related. Basically this phone really needs an alternative kernel/custom rom before it can be safely used but as far as I'm aware there isn't one as yet.
The CPU usage is always very high too which is not a great sign, not good at all, I'm surprised Amazon can sell phones in this state tbh.
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Could you please say what scanner did you use?
dangerous666 said:
Could you please say what scanner did you use?
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Ive used a few but the adware/malware/spyware that the phone has installed as standard on the kernal/rom it's shipped with are installed as system apps with the exception of beautysnap so you need to go through them manually. I used an app called SystemPanel2, it's a great app that gives you a really complete overview of whats running on your phone and what not, it can record system processes, memory, battery and cpu usage over a period of time as well as network stats.
McSwifty said:
Ive used a few but the adware/malware/spyware that the phone has installed as standard on the kernal/rom it's shipped with are installed as system apps with the exception of beautysnap so you need to go through them manually. I used an app called SystemPanel2, it's a great app that gives you a really complete overview of whats running on your phone and what not, it can record system processes, memory, battery and cpu usage over a period of time as well as network stats.
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I couldn't be able to find those suspicious apps. I've run a bunch of virus/malwares scanner, nothing reported. I've installed SystemPanel2 and I didn't find the processes you list. I believe our phones run different firmwares. I've got mine from Gear Best.
dangerous666 said:
I couldn't be able to find those suspicious apps. I've run a bunch of virus/malwares scanner, nothing reported. I've installed SystemPanel2 and I didn't find the processes you list. I believe our phones run different firmwares. I've got mine from Gear Best.
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Under your Wireless Update system app what does it say? On mine for instance is says "com.adups.fota". If your firmware is good/clean then that's a good sign that if I put a fresh stock rom on here it should be fine, I was thinking maybe all the maze alpha firmware's were affected.
My com.adups.fota "seems" to be clean.
For hibernating apps on my rooted Alpha X I use SD Maid Pro.
Under app control you set several things
A) Hibernate the app
B) Disallow start on boot
C) Look up where all the files of the app are located
D) Remove app completely
E) etc
bestunameever said:
My com.adups.fota "seems" to be clean.
For hibernating apps on my rooted Alpha X I use SD Maid Pro.
Under app control you set several things
A) Hibernate the app
B) Disallow start on boot
C) Look up where all the files of the app are located
D) Remove app completely
E) etc
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Click to collapse
No such thing as clean addups I'm afraid dude.
A newly discovered malicious app is found on China-made mobile devices running the Android OS. This is a baked-in system app used to update the device’s firmware but is found to also steal personal information, among other things. A blog is recently published about this malware by Kryptowire.
Already we have had inquiries on whether we detect Adups or not. The answer to that is I believe we do. You see, the app in question, which goes by the package name of com.adups.fota, has a couple of variants. There is an older version seen around 2014 and a newer version that emerged mid-2016. This older version we detect and have done so since 2014. I can verify that this older version was indeed pre-installed on various Chinese mobile devices bought cheaply on online stores, mainly Amazon. I know this because ever since we started detecting this older version of com.adups.fota, we have received support tickets periodically about why we are detecting a system app that cannot be uninstall—I’ll get to how to address this later.
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https://blog.malwarebytes.com/cybercrime/2016/11/mobile-menace-monday-adups-old-and-new/
I want to know if theirs a firmware for the Maze Alpha and the Alpha X without addups baked in, I hope so because it's a great phone otherwise.