Database Develop

Removing/freezing bloat after OTA

I noticed there are some new apps and some new processes with the new update to ICS, like Google+ and a new messenger and some new authenticators. Does anyone have an updated list of what is safe to disable/freeze?

Marvin- said:
I noticed there are some new apps and some new processes with the new update to ICS, like Google+ and a new messenger and some new authenticators. Does anyone have an updated list of what is safe to disable/freeze?
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I'm just looking to remove that junk. Root Uninstaller didn't seem to be helpful. Thankfully, this Moto junk is my work phone and not my personal. I'd never buy one of these!

I too am interested after noticing that I am down 75MB+ of available memory on average after the OTA ICS upgrade (coming from stock GB).

Actually, you don't really need any special guide. Almost everything can be either uninstalled or frozen by going into Settings => Applications and finding the app in the list. This is now built in to Android, so if you can disable it from there, it is safe. Also, most of the additional bloatware that isn't directly VZW can just be uninstalled now.

Awesome. I noticed that you can disable natively now. I just wanted to make sure disabling or removing stuff would not hurt future updates like people have said it would in the past.

Marvin- said:
Awesome. I noticed that you can disable natively now. I just wanted to make sure disabling or removing stuff would not hurt future updates like people have said it would in the past.
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Nope, this is now an Android feature. You can, of course, root your phone and further disable some software, but for the most part, you should be fine sticking with the safety of the native disabling.

Excellent, thanks for the quick response.

i like how they discourage you from disabling the bloatware by telling you stuff might misbehave... yeah, if i disable the NFL thing and my phone misbehaves, it's getting returned. lol
i can't wait for the day when the carriers are forced to allow us to completely remove the bloat that comes on phones, just like PC manufacturers were required to in the 90s.
has anyone experimented with repartitioning so that the app storage and user data areas are in the same partition? i really don't see any reason to keep them separate. right now i could get another 2gb back from the app partition to store more music in if i wanted to.

Gibson99 said:
i like how they discourage you from disabling the bloatware by telling you stuff might misbehave... yeah, if i disable the NFL thing and my phone misbehaves, it's getting returned. lol
i can't wait for the day when the carriers are forced to allow us to completely remove the bloat that comes on phones, just like PC manufacturers were required to in the 90s.
has anyone experimented with repartitioning so that the app storage and user data areas are in the same partition? i really don't see any reason to keep them separate. right now i could get another 2gb back from the app partition to store more music in if i wanted to.
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The "your phone might misbehave" is more of a generic message, but it can apply to anything. For example, if you have an app that relies on one of the activities from the NFL app, it is quite possible that your phone will do something unexpected (like crash).
Of course, I do also wish I could completely and safely obliterate all the VZW stuff.
As for repartitioning, Motorola does this so that they can continue to provide a mass storage connection mode. If you repartition to unified storage, it will mean that you will be restricted to MTP/PTP transfer modes. It also means that you'll need to be a LOT more careful when modifying your phone's OS. Personally, I recommend you simply invest $35 in a 32GB mirco SD card, or if you really have a lot of music, spring for a 64GB one.

[Q] Stock Amazon Apps on Custom Roms?

As much as I love Android 4.3, I still miss a couple of the stock Amazon OS apps on my Kindle. The Play Store version apps just aren't as nice in my opinion. I managed to rip the stock "Launcher.apk" and "KindleForOtter.apk" from a Kinology update.zip I had lying around on my hard drive. I moved them to "/system/app," gave them root permissions (rw-r--r--), and rebooted (knowing it probably wouldn't work). Sure enough, both apps force closed upon launch. So my question is, is there anyway to integrate these apps into JellyBean? If so, what are the files necessary, and how much work would it take?

Ph0enix_216 said:
As much as I love Android 4.3, I still miss a couple of the stock Amazon OS apps on my Kindle. The Play Store version apps just aren't as nice in my opinion. I managed to rip the stock "Launcher.apk" and "KindleForOtter.apk" from a Kinology update.zip I had lying around on my hard drive. I moved them to "/system/app," gave them root permissions (rw-r--r--), and rebooted (knowing it probably wouldn't work). Sure enough, both apps force closed upon launch. So my question is, is there anyway to integrate these apps into JellyBean? If so, what are the files necessary, and how much work would it take?
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This is a question that has been brought up and looked into since the first generation KFs. Many skilled developers have looked into the issue and the answer is always the same...
While it may not be impossible to port apps like the launcher, reader and Silk to non-Amazon ROMs, the work involved would be way more than what it's worth.

Does this apply to things like the Instant Video, which is not Kindle specific, as it also runs on my Sony internet streamer (and actually shows in the play store for that), but don't work on other devices, like my Nexus?
In other words, does whatever check it does to see if it's on a Kindle or other 'approved' device still work on , for example, CM?

[Q] Safe to uninstall Google Fit and other Gapps?

First Nexus device here, quick question. Am I safe to remove Google fit and other Google apps like Books, etc. that I don't have a need for? Will be removing via TiBu...I'm backed up and have TWRP backups as well but figured asking is less of a hassle than restoring.
Never really dabbled with Google Edition ROMs on my M7, as much as I wanted to I always instantly went back to Sense ROMs because my speakers sounded like beer cans, my camera would be worse than it already was, etc. lol. Thanks!

Yes it is safe to install. It should be noted that if you do uninstall it you may have problems applying the OTA when that time comes around though. To workaround it, just simply freeze the app or use a custom ROM instead.

Yeah, if I understand correctly, I won't be able to get the OTAs with root and custom recovery anyway. I'll just flash manually when that time comes.
I just wanted yo make sure removing them wouldn't cause other apps to FC all the time (a lot of that going on in sense). I have them disabled at the moment as a soft-test so I'll proceed. Thanks!

Rooted, now what?

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.
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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.

[DISCUSSION] Considering NOT Unlocking/Flashing/Rooting

The entire time I have been an Android Fanboid I have rooted and flashed and customized my androids to my heart's content. But I'm considering not doing so with this device and I submit the reason to the forum for discussion:
This phone appears to me to do exactly what I want, how I want, when I want it. It doesn't appear to have anything I don't want. It doesn't appear to lack anything I do want (except auto night view). Every app I would have on it backs it's data up in the cloud or IS a cloud service. I do not need to change anything so I don't need root. I do not need to backup stock settings (nandroid) if I don't need to flash Roms. If I don't need to flash Roms, I don't need a custom recovery.
The only caveat is I'm waiting on the phone to get here.
I welcome your input
Edit: As of Jan 2017 I have flashed TWRP and rooted. So yeah. I couldn't stay away from it ?

i ended rooting it because i wanted a better sounding headphones on my ear. but i was also considering going back to stock, but not for now. viperArise is the main reason why im staying unlocked for now

I tried that - The ads got to me after a while. They hurt browser performance, are distracting, and consume data. If you can live with ads then you'll be fine.

AdAway, xposed, that's why i'm rooted my device.

scorpion667 said:
I tried that - The ads got to me after a while. They hurt browser performance, are distracting, and consume data. If you can live with ads then you'll be fine.
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I use my phone very little for social media and browsing. Is almost all work for me. I don't think ads are going to get to me.

acmerw said:
AdAway, xposed, that's why i'm rooted my device.
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Xposed. ... Coming off ios for the last 2 years, I had forgotten about xposed.

I'm rooted but I think I'll keep it almost stock when N arrives. I'll just flash adfree hosts once in a while.

I rooted mainly to install two Xposed modules:
- GravityBox [MM] to have center clock, always expanded volume sliders and a couple of other tweaks;
- App Settings to have custom DPI values on some applications (mainly the ones who benefit from displaying more content on the screen, like web browser, XDA Labs, etc. etc.).

I'm back to stock with locked bootloader only advantage for root I had was the ability to use adblock to get rid of annoying ads

Am stock at the moment. Phone runs great.
Dealing with ads may help me to get to rooting but the main reason I'll root is to add bands to the phone.
It's being worked on at the moment so fingers crossed.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Ad blocking seems to be the major contributor, but I'm not bothered by any now.... on my Android tablet or on my iPhone (getting replaced with op3).
Only place I'm annoyed with them at all is reading articles in Google +. Otherwise I don't really notice them.

Yeap totally after i flash many roms im about to going to lock oem and get rid of this
Cuz flashing roms is pain in the ass
Only problem was dpi but i can satis with it ?
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

For ads, why not use Adguard? It does not require root and works very well. Only downside is that it uses VPN for blocking ads, so not suitable for people who want to use their VPN for anonymity or when connected to unsecured Wifi in café for example.
I did not root this device yet as I use Android Pay alot.
Cheers
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

NetGuard blocks ads and doesn't require root.
Twilight has a night filter and doesn't require root.

This is my first phone i didn't root or added custom recovery. I like it the way it is. The only things i want to see gone is the stock google apps like: music, books, games,...

Bart3n said:
This is my first phone i didn't root or added custom recovery. I like it the way it is. The only things i want to see gone is the stock google apps like: music, books, games,...
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you can disable them

2x4 said:
you can disable them
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Yeah i know but with root and An system app uninstaller they are gone.' but i don't really mind

Bart3n said:
Yeah i know but with root and An system app uninstaller they are gone.' but i don't really mind
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i would never root simply to remove apps that can be disabled - there's plenty of space on the system partition as well as the phone

2x4 said:
i would never root simply to remove apps that can be disabled - there's plenty of space on the system partition as well as the phone
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With my other phones i did. With this one i didn't. Because the only bloatware is the Google apps.

I'm considering not unlocking it or rooting until CM14.1 nightlies are official. OxygenOS is working really well so far and the battery endurance is really good. The only thing I'm thinking about is AdAway because plenty of website from my country use obnoxious ads (I don't mind and actually support them on a few major websites) and the ability to backup/restore in TWRP.
The thing that is inclining the balance towards rooting is that somehow QuickPic feature of fixing the date on restored videos (from my PC) is not working on OOS. It always worked really well on my OPO with different ROMs. I need this badly because I hate seeing the videos in dates I did not shot them. To be able to modify the dates I need to be rooted, so that could make the decision for me.