How to remove unwanted stock/preinstalled apps
This is not a question. This is howto
I DID search through the forum and found nothing but
Q: how to remove/uninstall preinstalled apps ?
A: no way !!!
WHAT ??? WRONG ANSWER !!!
Here is how:
First of all I’ll describe my rooted, of course, phone configuration, so if you are on the same boat you can do same trick 99% if not you’ll know where to go
- CyanogenMod 4.1.2.1 (this is latest experimental as of sept-05-09) –works very stable for me
- 4GB SD card partitioned: FAT32, ext3 (512mb), linux_swap (32mb)
(great guide how to part your sd here: http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f56/compcache-userinit-22465/index4.html#post232988 (page 4)
- CompCache with Backing Swap (here: http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f56/compcache-userinit-22465/index4.html#post232988 (page 1)
Requirements:
1) G1 rooted phone
2) Explorer with ability to explore /system folders – I use Astro (market)
3) PC/MAC
4) SDK installed on it (http://developer.android.com/sdk/download.html?v=android-sdk-windows-1.5_r3.zip)
Steps:
1) first and very important: full backup of your system.
- DO NANDROID (it’s preinstalled in Cyano, search forum for “nandroid” if you don’t have it)
- DO ext3.tar (if you use ext3)
- Make full SD copy to your PC
As described here: (yes, same tread, thanks to bdb4269) http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f56/compcache-userinit-22465/index4.html (page 4)
Now we are safe..well, almost
2) find full name for the application you want to uninstall, say for Amazon MP3 it will be com.amazon.mp3.apk
I did it like this
- open Astro explorer
- go to the very top (/)
- search “amazon”
- when search done, write down full app name
- long press trackball – chose – open containing folder – remember the path (ie /system/app)
3) Assume SDK and USB drivers are installed ( http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/device.html )
And phone is connected to pc/mac
= below guide is from http://oneclickandroid.blogspot.com/ with my comments =
- Start emulator (don’t think it is necessary, but lets follow – emulator located in SDK folder\tools\emulator.exe in my case C:\SDK_15\tools\
CMD window pops up for a second and disappeared
- open CMD prompt (in Windows: Start > run > print: cmd , hit OK/enter)
- execute "adb shell" in on terminal from SDK_ROOT/tool folder
(if you did not register SDK folder in windows variables you need to cd to this folder first:
print: cd c:\sdk_15\tools hit enter
print: adb shell hit enter, you’ll see new prompt appeared: #
- print: mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system
This will mount your system folder with read/write permission
- go to system/apps folder of your phone
(print: cd /system/apps hit enter)
*** guide says “/system/apps” but in my case it is “/system/app” ??? (remember I asked you to write down full path and name from Astro ? check your path first ***
- print: rm yourunwantedapplication.apk
i.e. rm com.amazon.mp3.apk hit enter
now, check installed apps in your phone (no reload req.) – is amazon disappeared ?
I wish to try this with app for that has a replacement from the market, like
Dialer – aTakePhone or Music – Meridian etc
Hope someone brave will do it before I do
Deleting may be unsafe if other preinstalled apps or process have links to uninstalled app
What happens in this case? wish someone knows the answer.
I dont think this trick will speedup your phone if you've moved your apps to ext2/3/4 already I just dont want to see useless apps in my phone/pc
Please reply here if you have experience of deleting preinstalled apps
sorry, english is my second languague
Good luck !
Hahahaha... all that trouble just to install a few unnecessary apps off of a ROOTED phone?! If you had searched, you'd have seen the numerous posts where we've posted instructions on uninstalling apps through Terminal. Literally 4 lines of code at most! Note that you can do this with any app you don't want. I have xROM, and one of the first things I do whenever I clean install to the latest version is replace ringtones and remove apps, including HTC Mail, Email, Amazon mp3, and Android Music. It takes me about 2 minutes to remove these apps.
Example for removing Amazon MP3:
su
mount -o rw,remount /system
rm -r /system/app/com.amazon-mp3.apk
mount -o rw,remount /data
rm -r /data/data/com.amazon.mp3
exit
exit
uansari1 said:
mount -o rw,remount /data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/data is never mounted read-only.
zelipukin said:
...
- Start emulator (don’t think it is necessary, but lets follow – emulator located in SDK folder\tools\emulator.exe in my case C:\SDK_15\tools\
CMD window pops up for a second and disappeared
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not how you start the emulator, in the window that disappears is a message telling you to start with the proper parameters, which you'd see if starting from a command line. If the emulator actually was running, then all your adb commands would then fail because it wouldn't know what device you wanted to address, you'd have to use "adb -d" to tell it to use the real device rather than the emulator.
jashsu said:
/data is never mounted read-only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info.. guess I've been doing an extra step, but this means I can do I through terminal even faster.
Easy way to remove unwanted preinstalled apps
Use Root Explorer to browse to /data/app_s and find the applications you don't want. Delete the APK and ODEX files and you are done.
Always remember to make a backup of your phone, before you start deleting.
ewaldtx said:
Use Root Explorer to browse to /data/app_s and find the applications you don't want. Delete the APK and ODEX files and you are done.
Always remember to make a backup of your phone, before you start deleting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The app_s folder is only used for Hero ROMs because there isn't enough space in /system, so it's placed in /system/sd (the mount point of the ext partition) if you have an ext partition for A2SD.
For regular google source builds just go to /system/app.
there is an app called rootexplorer it has a button to remove syatem apps. real easy to use. http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.sp...e.rootexplorer
saprano614 said:
there is an app called rootexplorer it has a button to remove syatem apps. real easy to use. http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.sp...e.rootexplorer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and it works great
Sorry to kind of hijack this but cyrket.com always shows as a blank page.
anyone know why or how to fix that?
i think simply deleting the apk files and data folder will keep an entry in some kind of registry in android. if i just delete the apk files and data folder and run fix_permissions, it shows the same number of processes.
SUFBS
is a rooted file browser and it is, by far, the easiest way of uninstalling any stock apps.
Click one button to make the system folder re-writable (same thing with data folder, just a button), navigate to the apps directory and just delete. or you can search for the app and just delete it from the search window. Voila!
Ssantos6981 said:
is a rooted file browser and it is, by far, the easiest way of uninstalling any stock apps.
Click one button to make the system folder re-writable (same thing with data folder, just a button), navigate to the apps directory and just delete. or you can search for the app and just delete it from the search window. Voila!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you talking about rootexplorer or what? elaborate a little..
i just bought and downloaded/installed rootexplorer simply to delete stock apps. upon opening it ask me to allow it. i say yes and it says my phone isn't rooted.
weird.. i just upgraded from cyanogen v4.1.999( or something around that) to the newest 4.2whatever. so how if my phone not rooted?!
blackinches said:
are you talking about rootexplorer or what? elaborate a little..
i just bought and downloaded/installed rootexplorer simply to delete stock apps. upon opening it ask me to allow it. i say yes and it says my phone isn't rooted.
weird.. i just upgraded from cyanogen v4.1.999( or something around that) to the newest 4.2whatever. so how if my phone not rooted?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try it again lol. it should work
make sure your not on the stock adp recovery
Root explorer!!!
Hi,
i'm trying ro remove stock apps for quite a few days, and i'm getting desperate!
I have everything... titatium, terminal, root explorer, etc etc
with terminal I also receive "directory not empty", but with root explorer I can delete the apk's from /system/app ... I confirm after that they are not there, bus as soon as I reboot the phone they come back.
what can I do ?
I have HTC desire with stock android, rooted .. and also a couple of programs I instaled I don't really knwo what they do.. like rom manager, clockword recovery, etc
plz help!
Sleeepy2 said:
Sorry to kind of hijack this but cyrket.com always shows as a blank page.
anyone know why or how to fix that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is because the full url path is not correct. Hover cursor over link and look at lower left corner to view the url path...it has those .... in it and will not work. We need the full exact url path.
just use titanum backup,rt click on application it will show (remove),be sure u didn't updated any stock app e.g gmail update
Regarding using Root Explorer on stock G Tab updated to 1.2-4349...
Trying to remove some of the apps preloaded and using Root Explorer get a statement - my phone not rooted.
I want to get the apps off. What to do now? Thanks http://media.xda-developers.com/images/smilies/smile.gif
Thanks for this clear procedure !
Hi,
can i download somewhere the original android contacts app? The one from HTC is very buggy
thx in advance
One option that is on my mind is to extract it from emulator as described here: http://discuz-android.blogspot.com/2008/01/extract-google-android-file-system.html
I'm just going to do that stuff, so if it goes well I will upload all apps somewhere.
...
there is even simpler method:
start emulator
from command shell run:
adb shell
ls /system/app (to see the .apk files)
ctrl+c to eit shell
than adb pull /system/app/xx.apk xx.apk
that will download xx.apk to local dir.
Extracted some apks from 2.1 emu and uploaded to http://android.fre****.pl/. Have no idea if they work on Desire (probably without root you can not replace Contacts, Email, etc). but here you go!
Contacts won't install, but email, music, dev installed successfully on desire.
Pity tha there is no way to install the contacts.apk. The htc's version sucks
What about the standard messages/SMS application?
Does anyone know what local files is an APK accessing, or at least what url it is accessing from internet when downloading files?
I have an APK that is downloading files from internet, but is doesn't give me opportunity to move the files to SD Card. It is pretty annoying, as my system/internal memory is not infinite !
As an example, there is this "Process Monitor" from sysinternals.com
that shows accessed files by a program on PC for local files.
Maybe there is such a logger for Android too?
hmmm....
anyone alive?
since i don't really know what you are trying to do some suggestions
maybe logcat is what are you looking for
search for "logcat" at the market - there are a lot of apps
or titanium backup to move apps to sd
or do you mean the working memory ?
it's an other design as at other operating systems
android loads/unloads apps as needed
there are tools as setcpu to change when android begins to unload/close apps
thanks for answering!
suppose I am downloading a book with aldiko.
how can I know the URL it is downloading from, or the file where it saved it?
I tried moving the APK with Titanium already, but seems like the books are still there, and they are taking a lot of internal memory
I also tried already "alogcat", but it's not showing me what files an APK acesses from local nor the URLs
At least on PC such logger exists but maybe there is such a logger that show this info on Android too?
For the URL I'd use a packet sniffer, either on the device or on the network. Keep in mind, there's no guarantee that the downloads happen over HTTP at all...
As for the files, the data folder for any android application is referenced from /data/system/packages.list, and is almost always "/data/data/package_name". You could probably move the larger files/folders elsewhere and create a symlink to the new location, but on a fat32 partition for /mnt/sdcard you may run into permission (or case sensitivity) problems.
rorogio said:
I also tried already "alogcat", but it's not showing me what files an APK acesses from local nor the URLs
At least on PC such logger exists but maybe there is such a logger that show this info on Android too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use the terminal app oder adb shell and run the following command
Code:
lsof | grep aldiko
to see the files aldiko has currently open. For the URL it's more complicated, the netstat (on terminal) command gives you only the connected IP's. If you want the exact URL (if it even is something like a HTTP URL) use a network sniffer or a Proxy.
nind said:
You can use the terminal app oder adb shell and run the following command
Code:
lsof | grep aldiko
to see the files aldiko has currently open. For the URL it's more complicated, the netstat (on terminal) command gives you only the connected IP's. If you want the exact URL (if it even is something like a HTTP URL) use a network sniffer or a Proxy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried this with adb from command prompt, but this is the result:
Code:
"'lsof' is not recognized as an ...operable program or batch file."
Did you mean an android terminal app?
You can use the terminal app oder adb shell and run the following command
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you have to issue the command in the adb shell
b63 said:
you have to issue the command in the adb shell
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I put this one, but it says now that grep is not a known command
(I used this formula:
Code:
adb shell lsof | grep aldiko
)
Now I have another idea --
Because I know the extension of books loaded by aldiko - .epub,
I backed up the internal memory with TWRP to look for these files on the backup file on the PC.
But I have no idea how to open on PC these files. They have a .win extension.
Is this even possible?
did following:
adb shell
# lsof | grep maps
lsof | grep maps
com.googl 2046 ??? 32 ??? ??? ??? ??
? /data/app/com.google.android.apps.maps-2.apk
com.googl 2046 ??? 33 ??? ??? ??? ??
? /data/app/com.google.android.apps.maps-2.apk
com.googl 2046 ??? 36 ??? ??? ??? ??
? /data/app/com.google.android.apps.maps-2.apk
com.googl 2046 ??? 37 ??? ??? ??? ??
? /data/data/com.google.android.apps.maps/databases/LayerInfo
#
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
used maps cause i don't have aldiko on mine
don't know something to open .win at pc
Hello
I developed an app that uses root and can read db files from other apps using SQLiteDatabase
inorder to read other apps db i copy them to the sd card using the terminal cp command
now i see that on some devices like galaxy I9300 with android 4.1.2 the cp command is missing, /system/bin dont have the file
my current options are
1) To install busy box but that will cause problems to some users so i prefer not to do it
2) Use mv command that is present, move the db to sd. copy the file on the sd, and then mv the file back, i hate that sulution and it will cause bugs for sure
Is there a 3rd option that can help me?
Thank you
ended up using
cat infile > outfile
thanks to stackoverflow ht tp://stackoverflow.com/questions/23501326/copy-system-file-without-shell-cp-command
Hi
in this thread i want to explain to everyone who want to modify (debloat, add app) to your system.img partition
First is necesary to:
-backup original system.img from your phone (make a copy to your hddpc, dvd, usb stick, disketes ... etc ... lool .. joking)
-injecting root to your system.img
this steps are explained here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/general/lg-g4-100-root-success-directives-root-t3180586
NOW: before copy and write the new rootedsystem.img image to your phone if you want to debloat or adding new app do this in your linux machine:
- mount again your new generated rootedsystem.img image
Code:
mount -o loop,rw -t ext4 rootedsystem.img operatingtable/
now browse mounted folder (operatingtable) and delete what you want from app or app-priv folder
if you want to delete startup phone sound delete from /media/audio/ui poweron.ogg and poweroff.ogg
in same mather you can add new app to app or app-priv folder but is necesary to chmod folders and files like this:
for new directories: chmod 0755 operatingtable/app/app-directory
for new files: chmod 0644 operatingtable/app/app-directory/app.apk
when you finish do this
Code:
umount operatingtable
and now you can copy and write to your phone rootedsystem.img image
as explained here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/general/lg-g4-100-root-success-directives-root-t3180586
PS: Of course this debloating could do directly from your phone after gained root with files managers ... but i think this method is easier.
PS2: If you debloated some apps (gapps ) ... Is necesary to restore factory settings because some updated apps are in /data/app folder ... or you can delete from there to.
Enjoy.
Is there a way to browse and edit an unrooted image? Does it have to be rooted to mount, browse and edit files? I'm asking because I am trying to edit build.prop only and I'm getting an error that says I'm not the owner. I copied the first command you posted, but I wasn't able to open the img. I had to drag the file into the terminal after the "ext4" to open the file, but I don't know what to do from there.
Sorry I"m a noob on linux
Hi, hope you're still active with this thread. I have a copy of system.img and I want to change a certain .apk inside /app. It is already mounted but when i try to chmod it says something like "changing permission is not permitted". Do you know how to fix this? Thanks!
aoprea said:
Hi
in this thread i want to explain to everyone who want to modify (debloat, add app) to your system.img partition
First is necesary to:
-backup original system.img from your phone (make a copy to your hddpc, dvd, usb stick, disketes ... etc ... lool .. joking)
-injecting root to your system.img
this steps are explained here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/general/lg-g4-100-root-success-directives-root-t3180586
NOW: before copy and write the new rootedsystem.img image to your phone if you want to debloat or adding new app do this in your linux machine:
- mount again your new generated rootedsystem.img image
Code:
mount -o loop,rw -t ext4 rootedsystem.img operatingtable/
now browse mounted folder (operatingtable) and delete what you want from app or app-priv folder
if you want to delete startup phone sound delete from /media/audio/ui poweron.ogg and poweroff.ogg
in same mather you can add new app to app or app-priv folder but is necesary to chmod folders and files like this:
for new directories: chmod 0755 operatingtable/app/app-directory
for new files: chmod 0644 operatingtable/app/app-directory/app.apk
when you finish do this
Code:
umount operatingtable
and now you can copy and write to your phone rootedsystem.img image
as explained here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/g4/general/lg-g4-100-root-success-directives-root-t3180586
PS: Of course this debloating could do directly from your phone after gained root with files managers ... but i think this method is easier.
PS2: If you debloated some apps (gapps ) ... Is necesary to restore factory settings because some updated apps are in /data/app folder ... or you can delete from there to.
Enjoy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can i do this thing with xiaomi mi 5.