Database Develop

[Q] Apps safe to remove / debloat guide?

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*
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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.

Considering trying xposed...

Ive come across a couple of root apps that want exposed, to either do more things or to work entirely.
Ive been wanting to try the swypetweaks app, to make the symbols appear on the newer themes, but it needs xposed.
Would installing xposed remove anything or stop anything i currently have from functioning? or does it simple allow more things to function? Id plan on making a backup before i started trying anything anyway, but i was just wondering if its supposed to wipe anything or not??
if something did get messed up and i had to recover from my backup from before i installed it, would it be uninstalled/totally removed once i restored??
basicallyi want to try it out but im afraid to mess anything up lol

Pawprints1986 said:
Ive come across a couple of root apps that want exposed, to either do more things or to work entirely.
Ive been wanting to try the swypetweaks app, to make the symbols appear on the newer themes, but it needs xposed.
Would installing xposed remove anything or stop anything i currently have from functioning? or does it simple allow more things to function? Id plan on making a backup before i started trying anything anyway, but i was just wondering if its supposed to wipe anything or not??
if something did get messed up and i had to recover from my backup from before i installed it, would it be uninstalled/totally removed once i restored??
basicallyi want to try it out but im afraid to mess anything up lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xposed is basically a middleman. As stated in the thread, do a backup in recovery before installing in case you have issues, you can restore imediately. It doesn't change anything on your phone in any way that would affect how you use it by itself. You can think of it like when you use a java app on your computer. The java app doesn't know how to talk to the computer, it talks to java, and that does the work for it. It works on most roms, stock and custom. I've been using it for years, and have had minimal troubles, other than a bootloop when I installed the wrong version, or did something dumb. Basically keep the uninstall in your downloads folder, and a backup of your rom, and just try it out. If something goes wrong, try the uninstall, and if that doesn't fix it, clear cache (dalvik too) and restore the rom backup, and you are running like always. The modules can't do anything or affect your system when you remove xposed. Any more questions, please ask. If you quote my post, I'll notice faster and respond within an hour usually, or one of the other awesome members can help out too!

kdb424 said:
Xposed is basically a middleman. As stated in the thread, do a backup in recovery before installing in case you have issues, you can restore imediately. It doesn't change anything on your phone in any way that would affect how you use it by itself. You can think of it like when you use a java app on your computer. The java app doesn't know how to talk to the computer, it talks to java, and that does the work for it. It works on most roms, stock and custom. I've been using it for years, and have had minimal troubles, other than a bootloop when I installed the wrong version, or did something dumb. Basically keep the uninstall in your downloads folder, and a backup of your rom, and just try it out. If something goes wrong, try the uninstall, and if that doesn't fix it, clear cache (dalvik too) and restore the rom backup, and you are running like always. The modules can't do anything or affect your system when you remove xposed. Any more questions, please ask. If you quote my post, I'll notice faster and respond within an hour usually, or one of the other awesome members can help out too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you noticed any more noticible ram being sucked up by something else running? Or does it only run when called for, like java? I know lots of people use it so i cant imagine its a ram hog, but im only working with 1 gig of ram.
the app i originally wanted to try it for, i found a better (severely under rated) keybaord that i like, even better i think, and all the themes arent extra purchases either. but I know greenify, and something else has asked me about exposed too, but i just kept saying no, cuz i was afraid to mess up. lol.

Pawprints1986 said:
Have you noticed any more noticible ram being sucked up by something else running? Or does it only run when called for, like java? I know lots of people use it so i cant imagine its a ram hog, but im only working with 1 gig of ram.
the app i originally wanted to try it for, i found a better (severely under rated) keybaord that i like, even better i think, and all the themes arent extra purchases either. but I know greenify, and something else has asked me about exposed too, but i just kept saying no, cuz i was afraid to mess up. lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xposed itself doesn't seem to take much ram at all. I have run it all the way back to devices like my HTC Incredible, which was released on 2010. That has 512MB RAM and it seemed to run fine. As for modules, they tend to use very little ram. Greenify takes 10MB and powernap takes 3.7MB on my oneplus one. To compare that, Swiftkey takes 49MB and ran just fine even on the incredible with only 512MB RAM. Do a backup, try it out, and if it doesn't work out, restore /system and it's uninstalled. Well, then uninstall modules. For me, it's a must have personally, and I always try it out, even when I know things may or may not work, because it's so easy to remove if things don't go as planned. Make sure you have a backup, and you are golden. Super easy fix on he rare occasion something breaks.

kdb424 said:
Xposed itself doesn't seem to take much ram at all. I have run it all the way back to devices like my HTC Incredible, which was released on 2010. That has 512MB RAM and it seemed to run fine. As for modules, they tend to use very little ram. Greenify takes 10MB and powernap takes 3.7MB on my oneplus one. To compare that, Swiftkey takes 49MB and ran just fine even on the incredible with only 512MB RAM. Do a backup, try it out, and if it doesn't work out, restore /system and it's uninstalled. Well, then uninstall modules. For me, it's a must have personally, and I always try it out, even when I know things may or may not work, because it's so easy to remove if things don't go as planned. Make sure you have a backup, and you are golden. Super easy fix on he rare occasion something breaks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, other than the possible odd app that may directly ask for it, does it do anything for the overall phone differently? I think i read that it replaces dalvik, which i also dont quite understand. i know the dalvik cache is like windows prefetch files, but as for dalvik it self, im not too sure. is it better than dalvik? (or, did i read the wrong information somewhere?)

Pawprints1986 said:
So, other than the possible odd app that may directly ask for it, does it do anything for the overall phone differently? I think i read that it replaces dalvik, which i also dont quite understand. i know the dalvik cache is like windows prefetch files, but as for dalvik it self, im not too sure. is it better than dalvik? (or, did i read the wrong information somewhere?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't replace it so much as hook into it. Think of how cheat programs can hook into games, or like the steam overlay on games. It hooks in and modifies. Basically, unless you run a module,Aka, an app that needs xposed, then you won't even notice a single bit of difference. Almost 0 ram impact, no discernible performance drop, nada. It's basically a resource hook that allows other apps to hook in to the system. It has different versions for ART and Dalvik (Depending on android version) because they do things differently, so it basically just hooks as needed, and the modules (xposed apps that you want to work) just borrow what xposed knows how to do so each single app doesn't have to figure it out. It's known as a framework. It's just a tool for things to use. Xposed modules can all use that framework to make changes to the system that you ask them to, but otherwise, if you have none installed, it just straps on the system, then does basically nothing as it doesn't really do anything by itself.

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.
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.

My stock N6 32GB becomes laggy after about 2 days use and requires rebooting

I have this strange problem with my N6 in that after about 2 days use it becomes quite laggy and unusable requiring a restart. When this happens the camera becomes unusable as with HRD+ off, taking a picture from pressing the shutter button to an image being captured can take several seconds. This isn't really acceptable.
And every now and then I clear the cache also which helps but seems a bit drastic.
Can anybody think what might be causing this? It's quite annoying as you might expect and didn't appear to be like that when I first bought the phone.
I don't run anything fancy and use a standard wallpaper (no active ones) and very few if any background tasks apart from the usual Google ones.
Maybe when (and if) Nougat comes out for it, it might improve but it seems strange that a phone would do that.
Thanks

lchiu7 said:
I have this strange problem with my N6 in that after about 2 days use it becomes quite laggy and unusable ......
Can anybody think what might be causing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An app or Google play services.
Try Advanced Task killer and uninstall the Google services updates.

Flash a custom ROM and use a good Kernel... Problem solved.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA-Developers mobile app

If your phone doesn't run hot without reason, you should backup your important internal stuff to PC or USB and flash a clean factory image to wipe the phone totally.
First i would try shayneflashindaily's advice.

Thanks. I installed Advanced Task Killer and killed a few tasks that I didn't know were running and that seemed to help. Not clear to me how to uninstall Google Drives l Services Update.
It does run hot sometimes for no apparent reason but while I'm happy to do factory reset I'm not sure I want to flash a custom ROM or kernel.
Doesn't a different kernel require root? The bootloader is unlocked but I never was able to gain root and given I use credit card payment over NFC I think root would break that.

I had the same problem and i've opened the very same thread.
No matter what advice i followed or what app i used to fix the problem, neither truly fixed it 100%. You will experience the same problem after a bit, along with low battery and general hotness of the phone.
Only one cure to it: decrypt your phone. It's the only way and that fixed 100% my problems. So you need a force encrypt disabled rom such pure nexus and Fed Patcher. That means you need to install also TWRP.
The main culprit is the forced encryption.

lchiu7 said:
Not clear to me how to uninstall Google Drives l Services Update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Settings - Apps - select Drive and uninstall.
Do this with all apps you don't use.
I use credit card payment over NFC I think root would break that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root will break NFC paying, but some managed to unroot add card number and root again.
Decryption will speed up a bit the performance, but you need root access.
A prerooted stock rom of Danvd is a good choice, but take care with rooting as long as you need apps that refuse to work with rooted phones.

NLBeev said:
Settings - Apps - select Drive and uninstall.
Do this with all apps you don't use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The poster said remove Google Play Services. That's what I am not sure about how to uninstall. On my phone the options Disable and Force Stop are both greyed out.
NLBeev said:
Root will break NFC paying, but some managed to unroot add card number and root again.
Decryption will speed up a bit the performance, but you need root access.
A prerooted stock rom of Danvd is a good choice, but take care with rooting as long as you need apps that refuse to work with rooted phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That seems like a bridge too far for me. The only reason I considered rooting the N6 before was to enable the notification light which apparently does exist on the N6 but requires Root for LIghtflow to use it. I decided the alternative of the Amoled notifications was good enough and provided more information

lchiu7 said:
The poster said remove Google Play Services. That's what I am not sure about how to uninstall. On my phone the options Disable and Force Stop are both greyed out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to check out the Android device manager in Settings - security - device administrators.
For more info - follow the link.
https://www.androidpit.com/google-play-services-what-is-it-and-what-is-it-for

The link doesn't work but I can't see anything about who is a device administrator - just a few services like Gmail, Android Pay and Android Device Manager

lchiu7 said:
The link doesn't work but I can't see anything about who is a device administrator - just a few services like Gmail, Android Pay and Android Device Manager
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the link again; the last slash is removed. It should work now.
Device admin... Uncheck Android device manager.

I disabled Android Device Manager but still cannot disable Google Play Services as it's greyed out.
Might leave it as I do need Google Play Services

Deleted (wrong thread)

Maze Alpha X shipped with adware?

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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you please say what scanner did you use?

dangerous666 said:
Could you please say what scanner did you use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.