Lets Debloat This Beast - T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S6

As many of us 920T users know, XstreStoLite is not available or fully working on our phones. Many of us are very interested in this rom. Myself included. The creator of XstreStoLite will be making an Aroma Installer for us here soon to be able to remove the bloatware from our phones to get the same crazy speed that his rom produces. The downside is, he says it make be as long as 2 weeks before this is available. As many of us are rooted, we can go ahead and remove this bloat without a rom or Aroma. The purpose of this thread is to discuss what can be removed without causing anything on the phone to stop functioning or working properly. So, here it goes. Please list anything you have removed, including its filename and location, as long as it was successful. I will update this post as we accumulate a list and hopefully we can improve our speed and battery life. Thanks.

Related

Need a FAQ / n00b / Caveat / Root Sticky

Hi All,
Having already committed the original sin on my first Droid3, and seeing the profusion of various threads (good threads, mostly) developing here, I would like to commit a thread to be stickied that will include rooting guides, safe bloat removal guides, exploit scripts, (and we hope!) ROMs and Recoveries. If this is a good idea and the Moderators will approve of it, please help me help you help me help you by posting:
1. Type of Mod/Guide/Script/Recovery/ROM/SBF/Image/etc
2. Device it applies to (eg Droid3 US, XT8xx, country, telco etc)
3. Level of Difficulty (n00b --> coding wizard)
4. Risk Level (from installing market app --> damn near microwaving your D3)
5. External thread for file hosting, cross-linked sites, etc
6. Android version (2.3.4 --> ???)
suggestions to further categories will be appreciated!
Thanks all, let's make the D3/XT a quality, fun, and safe modding platform by working together.
Obviously, I will be the maintainer of this thread, unless someone else feels they have a religious duty to take it instead!
I would love a proper list of apps that can be frozen/renamed for when I get my droid 3.
I know there's a script and several topics/posts with 'safely to remove' apps, but most still list apps that cause minor faults/bugs like calender not working etc.
DoubleYouPee said:
I would love a proper list of apps that can be frozen/renamed for when I get my droid 3.
I know there's a script and several topics/posts with 'safely to remove' apps, but most still list apps that cause minor faults/bugs like calender not working etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure that any app not relating to the Framework can be safely removed. That is a pretty short list: Citrix, the games, and that's just about it.
volcanomike said:
Something with the built in text messaging causes picture messages to not be received when disabled with your script
Sent from my DROID3 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's more stuff out there that make me not want to use the script.
I'd just want to remove all the obvious bloatware without destroying core features of the phone.
DoubleYouPee said:
There's more stuff out there that make me not want to use the script.
I'd just want to remove all the obvious bloatware without destroying core features of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's put it this way: if you can download it from the Market for Free or for Money, you should be able to zap (freeze, move, or delete) it without consequence.
Until then, wait for AOSP or rebased/ported ROMs to appear.
rynosaur said:
Let's put it this way: if you can download it from the Market for Free or for Money, you should be able to zap (freeze, move, or delete) it without consequence.
Until then, wait for AOSP or rebased/ported ROMs to appear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't care about deleting apps that can't be downloaded from the market as long as they don't affect anything important

ROM vs. Freezing

After living with many different cooked roms on my Tilt and Inspire, I've observed that none of them are without their bugs and quirks. Most notably I've found that some cooked ROMs tend to suffer from performance issues after a while, others are just flat out buggy.
I'm wondering if, rather than flashing a new ROM if it might not be just as effective to root, freeze the bloatware apps that I don't want and take a Nandroid backup if I need to restore to 'stock'. Can anyone comment on whether freezing unwanted apps will help with system performance (i.e. freeing up operating memory)?
Bump.
Nobody can comment on the Pros and Cons of freezing or uninstalling with TiBU rather than flashing a ROM specifically where bloatware is concerned?
The magic with TB is you can freeze an application and let you evaluate the impact on your device. If all is good and you don't encounter any kind of bad effects, then it is safe to say you can remove it.
Otherwise, if the impact is negative on your phone you can simply “defrost” the frozen application and everything should regain normality.
TB is, honestly, the very first application every flash addict should buy. It was one of the very first I bought years ago, and it is probably the one I am using the most frequently.
Lucky Thirteen said:
The magic with TB is you can freeze an application and let you evaluate the impact on your device. If all is good and you don't encounter any kind of bad effects, then it is safe to say you can remove it.
Otherwise, if the impact is negative on your phone you can simply “defrost” the frozen application and everything should regain normality.
TB is, honestly, the very first application every flash addict should buy. It was one of the very first I bought years ago, and it is probably the one I am using the most frequently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, yeah. I'm a flashaholic. Or, at least I was with my Inspire. I totally rely on TiBU and ROM Manager. They were some of the best app licenses I've bought. But I've learned some things about custom ROMs over that time which suggest I want to live in OEM Stock for the time being.
What I'm trying to understand is whether or not there's a performance benefit to uninstalling bloatware applications. IOW, does it free up system resources to help the phone run faster, or is it dedicated space for storage and not accessible by the system for cache or other benefits.
On that subject, is it possible to create my own 'cooked' rom by uninstalling the stuff I don't want (like the AT&T Bloatware, SoundHound, Polaris Office, and so on) and replace them with apps that I prefer like Documents2Go, SugarSync and other stuff that I'd rather have in the ROM?
I guess I'm just not understanding how the Android ecosphere works in terms of system partitions, where the ROM is located, what happens when we flash a ROM and if I can achieve the same thing on my own without having to learn how to use the 'kitchen' to roll my own worrying about deodexing and all that other fancy-dancy tech stuff.

What Apps can we Safely Disable/Turn Off?

Since there's no root or custom rom available I wanted to know exactly what can be disabled or turned off as they call it now to stop as much bloat from running as possible.
There's a bunch of things I've never heard of in the apps list and I'm not sure if they're essential or not. It would be great if we can compile a list here to help ourselves minimize the bloat while we wait for a root/flashing ability.
Thanks!
Here is a general Note 3 list: http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2470862
AT&T-specific apps can all be frozen with Titanium Backup.

Question for devs!

So, I wonder?
I've been digging through the system files in my unlocked, rooted UA v40, and except for the apps that came installed with the phone, there's also some in the root that didn't come alive, just taking up space? I know, there's no need to clear space, but I still wonder!? And it also seam to exist some dalvik even for the apps that never came alive in the first place?
Following today's Android rules, is it still possible to clear Dalvik?
Say, if I delete the apps in root/system/product that aren't even installed, will it scr.. something up?
I guess there's some kind of script executed while flashing the rom. If I delete apps (in the right place), and factory reset my phone, will that corrupt something? Is there a file (command/script) I can edit in root, that decides what app to install, to make this work?
Back in the days I deleted unvanted apps before flashing the rom, but I understand it's different today...
Not very important, but would be nice to know
Not a dev but thought I'd throw in some thoughts. We don't have any "stock based" dev to bug regarding stock fw really.
From my own digging through newer fw releases, it seems that LG hired some really lazy mofos as coders. Looks like they create new fw from old ones, then updated it to new versions plus some tweaks to suit the target model.
For a programmer that'd make sense since you already have the base code, you just change modules and libs as needed. However, in LG's case, their guys didn't bother to remove anything that was already there. They just kept adding on stuff. That's where you see the unused apps (and also explain why stock fw sizes keep getting bigger). Hell, I even found G8 specific settings in the service menu earlier today. Best I can tell, there aren't any symlinks that tie back to these unused apps, so, technically, removing them won't break anything. But given how sloppy the existing structure is, it wouldn't be surprising if it does either.
Now dalvik on the other hand, that' and interesting point. Since dalvik was dropped when google implemented ART, it theoretically, shouldn't even be on the phone. Where did you find those?
That's just stupid of LG
I mean, what does "Airmotion" do in v40? Hahaha!
Oh, I still say Dalvik, aware of art.
Thanks
This is what I mean
This is one of the apps that wasn't really installed to be used in v40. Is it normal that one of those apps still got art files? So if I was to delete this app, can I delete the linked art files too?
Can anyone port the v40 camera app for lg v30 pie?
This was my main question:
I guess there's some kind of script executed while flashing the rom. If I delete apps (in the right place), and factory reset my phone, will that corrupt something? Is there a file (command/script) I can edit in root, that decides what app to install, to make this work by factory reset?
neocyke said:
Not a dev but thought I'd throw in some thoughts. We don't have any "stock based" dev to bug regarding stock fw really.
From my own digging through newer fw releases, it seems that LG hired some really lazy mofos as coders. Looks like they create new fw from old ones, then updated it to new versions plus some tweaks to suit the target model.
For a programmer that'd make sense since you already have the base code, you just change modules and libs as needed. However, in LG's case, their guys didn't bother to remove anything that was already there. They just kept adding on stuff. That's where you see the unused apps (and also explain why stock fw sizes keep getting bigger). Hell, I even found G8 specific settings in the service menu earlier today. Best I can tell, there aren't any symlinks that tie back to these unused apps, so, technically, removing them won't break anything. But given how sloppy the existing structure is, it wouldn't be surprising if it does either.
Now dalvik on the other hand, that' and interesting point. Since dalvik was dropped when google implemented ART, it theoretically, shouldn't even be on the phone. Where did you find those?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed that on the V30 already too.
Settings are enabled/disabled depending on the props set, and which device its running on, some you should even be able to activate/deactivate during runtime...
Makes things way easier to develop that way, yes... but also unneccessarily bloats the whole UI... should have set flags during compilation to fully exclude the code (e.g. how the HALs do that lol)

Using adb to remove system apps: got a list of "safe" apps?

Does anyone have a list of Note 9 Android apps that can be safely removed with adb? I've not done this before but am considering it as an alternative to rooting my N9600. And if someone knows of a primer on using adb to do this I'd appreciate it. I may end up rooting anyway but thought this should at least be tried first.
Adding this link... which describes the how. (Don't know how I missed it before):
https://www.xda-developers.com/uninstall-carrier-oem-bloatware-without-root-access/amp/
I'll include a pic of the moment I deleted four facebook-related apps from my Note 9 using adb this morning. But I would very much like suggestions on what other system files could be removed in a debloating process here. I'm thinking about Bixby, for instance, but am unsure as to what will potentially be "broken" by me doing that. Other more obscure suggestions for app deletions also appreciated.
I don't think there's an actual list. There are many Note9 models, some have carrier stuff, others have other stuff. If it doesn't bother you I'd say leave it alone. I removed all preinstalled apps like MS Office ones and Facebook but that was about it. Never had problems with performance or battery life if that's your reason to remove everything there is & not just what bothers you

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