I got my device from AT&T yesterday, and it came with several APPs that I don't want. But I cant find a way to uninstall them. I've tried several Uninstaller programs, but no luck. Any ideas?
If you root your phone, you will have several options.
1) Install Titanium Backup from the market. You can use this to remove apps you don't want.
2) Download the Android SDK. You can use any terminal program to explore the file system and remove unwanted apps.
Be careful what you remove as root, you can make you phone unstable if you remove the wrong programs.
easiest way is to root and un install with titanium backup. . . just delete the AT&t apps and you are good to go.....
Actually, I think the easiest is to search the forum for super rooter extreme. It will root and remove bloatware in one shot.
Actually, found the link for you.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=751934&highlight=super+rooter
Thanks a lot guys. I have to bring my phone back to AT&T tomorrow since I can't send or receive MMS. I'll try all this once I get it back.
I know there are some people like myself who actually like Sense and doing a 'full' root can be daunting, especailly if all you want to do is remove the crud that Vodafone or your Telco install on your branded Legend. But there is no reason this can't be used to remove apps that are in a custom ROM - as far as I am aware! If someone with a custom ROM could confirm this, that would be great!
Righto, as per usual here is the disclaimer - doing this is risky and you do so at your own peril! Don't come crying to me or Paul @ MoDaCo if it bricks your phone (it shouldn't but this is just a warning)
Enough of that you get the idea Now for the fun bit!
First if you are not you'll need VISIONary+ from MoDaCo, at the time of this writing r13 is the latest and is available on page 7.
Please read and check the original post as there may be an updated version. If you are rooted skip to the next step.
This is Paul's guide he done quickly on his G2, it's more of a pictorial guide (same rules apply to the Legend as G2 in this case).
Once installed use the Temproot option, this can take 15 seconds or so to complete, use a Terminal Emulator and type su then return/enter and your $ should change to a # - this means you have temproot.
Go to the market and install SuperUser, Titanium Backup, BusyBox.
Open Titanium Backup allowing it root access when prompted, go to Backup/Restore and scroll to find one of the preinstalled bloatware apps, I chose the Vodafone Music app and the Vodafone Web app.
Long hold on the app you want to remove and scroll down a bit and choose the option "Force remove app (by recovery exploit)"
This will reboot your phone TWICE, you will get the recovery screen up - LET IT RUN IT's COURSE! DO NOT INTERRUPT THIS.
Once it boots back into your normal check that the app is no longer in your App drawer
Repeat for all the Apps that came preinstalled that you don't want, just be careful you don't remove anything that may still be needed!
A huge thanks to Paul at MoDaCo for this ingenious hack and the Titanium Backup, BusyBox and SuperUser developers for their hard work in writing their apps which also allow us to easy do this
Oh and you can use the Temproot on boot to have a sortof but not fully permaroot
Great work. I'll try on CM 6.1 RC1. One thing though...If I'm rooted I presume I need only the Titanium backup not VISIONary or other tools, right?
Yes you need the other apps, but you can remove them afterwards if you want. You'll need SuperUser to be able to grant Titanium Backup access, and Titanium Backup requires BusyBox to be installed - Titanium Backup gives you the option to install BusyBox if you press the 'Problems?' button under the Overview tab.
PS: you can use the free version of Titanium Backup for this exercise.
Yes, thank you. I knew about busybox and the option to install it from Titanium. SuperUser I have it already since I'm using CyanogenMod RC1 and it is included in the ROM (I think it is OK like this). So only Titanium (+busybox) needs to be installed.
I'll give it a try and let you know the results. I'll try to remove a rather large application (for ex Google Maps) and I'll install it afterward on the sdcard (since it is system appl, it cannot be moved directly to sdcard)
Later edit: IT WORKS! So I've tried to (and succeeded) remove 2 "system" applications: Google Maps and Calculator. Both were removed and the free space is now available (before 80 Mb free, after 91.2 Mb free).
There was only one issue with Maps, the icon still showed up in the application drawer and it was working (even after going through all above). After several checks I found the reason. The Maps were installed twice...the version included in the CM ROM (that was deleted by this procedure) AND the updated Maps (it once asked for upgrading the application from the market and I did that). After removing the "system installed" version of Google Maps, the "updates" remained. I went to Settings-Applications-Manage Applications and I found Maps there. I've uninstalled the updates then rebooted the phone. After that the icon was gone completely.
To conclude, for CM ROMS (or for all phones that are already rooted and have already the SU application), the steps to be performed for removing a system appl are:
1. Install Titanium Backup
2. Press (as instructed) "Problems" button. This will install a working version of busybox.
3. Check if the application you want to remove, has also updates (from Market or some other places) installed. If YES, go to Settings-Applications-Manage Applications and uninstall all the updates.
4. Start Titanium Backup and perform the steps indicated in the first post by TheLegendaryJay.
So it is working on custom ROM's as well and you don't need VISIONary or other application/tools.
All credits go to Paul, CM team and this whole community, the ones which made such things possible for our phones. TheLegendaryJay, thank you also for sharing this with us. Perhaps for rooted phones it is easier to remove applications with adb commands, but some are maybe not so technical to install the SDK or know how to use it (I can be counted as one of them), or they just might want to remove an application when they don't have a pc with SDK nearby.
yap, can confirm this. works great on cm 6.1 rc1. thanks for the hint
For you guys who are rooted - why not just flash the overlay filesystem patch, enable it, and then use any file explorer and go to /system/app/ and delete the apps you dont want? just a tip, it's much easier.. (and takes less time)
Because one of the reasons for which I wanted to rip out an application from the ROM is to gain some more space... By using overlay system, as I understood, you're practically duplicate the whole system to make it accessible for writing so I don't know if you gain some more space. Eventually you'll have less. Or, if that space is on the sdcard, that does not suit me also cause as I know, is working slower from there. Anyhow, I don't want to detail this here cause we'll be off-topic.
Rapier said:
Because one of the reasons for which I wanted to rip out an application from the ROM is to gain some more space... By using overlay system, as I understood, you're practically duplicate the whole system to make it accessible for writing so I don't know if you gain some more space. Eventually you'll have less. Or, if that space is on the sdcard, that does not suit me also cause as I know, is working slower from there. Anyhow, I don't want to detail this here cause we'll be off-topic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I understand it, the system folder is only linked so the phone believes it's on the SD-card. This should mean, no extra space is taken (except for the few kB that makes this possible). i could be wrong, but I use system overlay and I see no whatsoever decrease in performance. Not in benchmarks nor in usage.
If you are rooted - and dont want system overlay, I still think there is a better wway - ADB! just mount system, cd to system/app, ls it and rm whatever apps ypu dont want.. no need for multiple reboots - quick and effective
adb way might be quicker but it might prove to be ineffective (at least for me it was). In order to remove an application, you must check its filename (with ls command). I've tried to remove Facebook and Twitter applications using adb remove and guess what...they're still there. I admit I might have done something wrong, what I'm saying is that through this new method described above, someone is able to remove an appl by chosing it from a list. For the ones that don't feel so confortable using adb, this is an alternative
Sent from my Legend using XDA App
Rapier said:
adb way might be quicker but it might prove to be ineffective (at least for me it was). In order to remove an application, you must check its filename (with ls command). I've tried to remove Facebook and Twitter applications using adb remove and guess what...they're still there. I admit I might have done something wrong, what I'm saying is that through this new method described above, someone is able to remove an appl by chosing it from a list. For the ones that don't feel so confortable using adb, this is an alternative
Sent from my Legend using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When it comes to ADB, you must write the filename exactly as it is, if you want to remove Facebook.apk you must rm Facebook.apk, not facebook.apk or just rm Facebook*
What I do, I ls all files, copy the filenames I want to remove into into a txt file. ex. "rm facebook.apk Torch.apk voiceDialer.apk AndroidTerm.apk" and so on. When I flash a new rom, i just copy that file string and remove em all with that one command ofc. I ls it after and check if there is anything new I want to remove, but I get rid of most of it in a few seconds. (good tip!)
I understood that. Now I've checked again and I know what happened...the same thing I said above. The appl was removed also with adb command but the updates of that appl were not. I've removed the updates from Settings and after that the whole appl was gone (Facebook in this case). So both metods work, everyone can choose what he likes more
Anyway this was much more to test if it's working on custom ROMs as was asked by TheLegendaryJay and less as of providing an alternate way for rooted owners.
Sent from my Legend using XDA App
You both are wrong. Overlay is just an overlay... it uses several file systems or parts of file systems (directories, files), merge them and show them to us as one new merged file system. The principle is such that if U have one read-only and one read-write file system merged together, all writes are then performed to that read-write one. If you'd like to delete one file from read-only portion, that action is noted on read-write portion and your system doesn't t see that file again through merged file system whereas it is in fact still there...
BlaY0 said:
You both are wrong. Overlay is just an overlay... it uses several file systems or parts of file systems (directories, files), merge them and show them to us as one new merged file system. The principle is such that if U have one read-only and one read-write file system merged together, all writes are then performed to that read-write one. If you'd like to delete one file from read-only portion, that action is noted on read-write portion and your system doesn't t see that file again through merged file system whereas it is in fact still there...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for this, great info. Now I'm glad I use adb and not file overlay for removing files
Why's that? Overlay is really handy thing for testing... U can make the system think that the file is not there but in fact is. If something goes wrong (boot loop) because of that, U just disable overlay and U R back on with origial state. After U are satisfied with changes, U can merge those changes into read-only file system via recovery mode.
Sent from my HTC Legend
BlaY0, you're totally right. Overlay is a great thing for testing (and by the way many thanks you for what you did). But if you're not a tester, just an enthusiast who look for new stuff for his phone, overlay could be much more than he needs.
I'm looking for example to have as much free space in memory as possible. REAL free space. If I'm using overlay, that will not be gained right? The read only files will still be there, only the overlay will show them "deleted". So...what I'm doing instead is that I'm flashing one of the existing ROMs (as per my preferences - CM 6.1 RC1 for ex.) that will not "brick" my phone, I customize it with widgets and applications as I like, than I start deleting what I don't need. For sure I can use overlay for that, but I can do it also without it. This topic presented an alternative for doing that, to the known adb commands. Also from what I've understood, the method in this topic is more aimed to the ones that are not (or don't want to be) rooted. And for those, the adb method doesn't work
You sure are totally right, but then again if you deleted some apk from /system/app that is needed for some other apk and U didn't know about that, you could end up with a so called boot loop. And if this is done by some noob, the simplest way for him to restore would be to wipe and reflash the original ROM. Overay can prevent such accidents. Actually even with overlay you can save space especially where is needed the most, that's on data partition - there's no need for dex in dalvik-cache any more etc. and surely you get more free ram as that app isn't loading any more. For the system partition it actually doesn't matter if it is full in fact why it shouldn't be full. When we get our S-OFF the first thing I will do is to rearange mtd partitions shrinking system and extending data coz now I have like nearly 50 MB free on system partition that I can not use wisely.
Sent from my HTC Legend
Thanks, VF music and web app not banished from my Legend
Okay, I must be doing something wrong, but I have no idea what. I have the same ROM as Rapier on my Desire, I have Titanium Backup and I did everything he said above. The pre-installed apps are uninstalled with TB (Car app, News and Weather, Facebook, Twitter, Google Voice, Maps, Quickoffice 2.0 which I have no idea what really is), I clear the Dalvik cache and many mega are freed. Then if I reboot, they're back. Like nothing happened.
Do you have any idea or should I give more details? Thanks for the help, guys.
Have you checked also if those applications you're removing do not have some updates installed? Because if they do, you'll get them back on the phone. First remove the updates from each application (from normal "Application" management), then remove the application residing in system with TB.
PS. QuickOffice is a suite program similar with MS Office, that allows you to read (and in the paid version also to write) office documents (.doc, .xls, .ppt...etc)
Thank you for your quick reply.
Yes, I have checked and uninstalled all updates. They are all with the basic version.
About Quickoffice, I know what it is It's just that the one that came with CM 6.1.0 RC1 cannot be accessed, it can only be used to open supported file formats (I just found out after posting here ). I'd prefer the normal Quickoffice with which I can access my dropbox and Google docs too, that's why I wanted to uninstall this in the first place.
I know, I should have a backup, I'm an idiot. I manually deleted the Google App planning to just reinstall it with the store version so I could hibernate it with Greenify.
I reinstalled it and everything except Hotword detection from any screen works.
I still have a backup of the system files, but I don't know how to properly reinstall them.
Here's the files I backed up:
com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox.apk
com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox.odex
com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox.zip
extra_secondary_data.zip
info.txt
I've just done a factory reset, and the Google App was gone after resetting. This leads me to believe that the necessary files Android uses to restore Apps have been deleted.
General question: Where are these files stored and what do they look like? Would it be possible to manually move the necessary files back there (I still have the backups) and do another factory reset so they properly reinstall?
Could anyone with a Tab S2 maybe look for the necessary files and where they are located in the /system folder and maybe reupload them for me so I can place them back where they belong?
Help would be much appreciated.
Try copy them to a self named map in /system/app
Give proper permission and reboot
Thanks a lot for your help. Apparently I have lost my backup files. Do you or does anybody else have the correct files so I can put them back into the system folder? I'm so close to getting this thing to work.
In case anyone ever encounters a similar problem, I fixed it by downloading the stock-ROM from sammobile.com (you have to register to download but it's worth it) and flashing the md5 with ODIN (tried Flashify before, but somehow that didn't work).
Just follow this tutorial but use your stock ROM from Sammobile instead. http://www.theandroidsoul.com/samsung-galaxy-tab-s2-root-sm-t810-sm-t710-sm-t715-84217/
You'll lose root access but I guess you could just redo the tutorial with the autoroot file and you should be back to normal.
Thanks for your help everybody!
Hey all!
I am absolutely new to the rooting world (last time I used a rooted phone was circa 2009/2010) so please bare with me, I am have a world of trouble with getting the bloatware apps uninstalled from my phone. HTC u11, I installed twrp, I installed magisk, I tried to uninstall the apps, no dice, I then grabbed one of the apps out there for removing system apps, I gave it root, it failed.
I'm hoping to get to the linux subsystem to see if I can get a jdk running on this. I'm trying to make a dev box I can use while hiking (all with a microphone and finger tracking keyboard). But the first pebble becomes a stumbling block. How to actually get root and act as an elevated user in android.
Anyways I think I'm missing something and maybe I missed a piece in the documentation since I did kinda fly through it.
There are a few ways to remove bloatware.
You can delete them in TWRP.
You can delete them with a root capable file explorer.
You can delete them with Titanium Backup.
You can delete them with an app that's been made for the purpose.
If one of the above doesn't work, try another.
You can also pseudo-debloat by using a Magisk module that simply systemlessly "removes" them. They'll still be there, taking up space, but you won't be able to access them in any way (until the module is uninstalled). I don't think this is what you want...
Doing it in TWRP should always work.
With MagiskSU, I've personally tested it with both a root file explorer (FX) and TiBu. But, YMMV...
Purpose made apps might or might not work. It depends if they're properly updated or not.