Database Users

How to UNINSTALL unwanted stock/preinstalled apps from G1

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 !

Serious unexplainable issue with my rom

Hey, i'll make this brief. Whenever I use an update
Or try and push an apk over to /system/apps
It doesn't stick.
For example I removed the browser.apk, and replaced it with my own (using root manager and adp both) rebooted my phone and I have no browser.apk anylonger cant put one in regardless of how I try...
Another example, while installing and update to HTC_IME.apk (Black theme) It sticks to the phone until i reboot it...
Any advice?

Do a search on the missing apk. Just to be sure.
Not much help huh?

Its like the missing apk completely disappeared... no traces of it.

on your phone try going to the superuser and there should be a + /system/sh push it and it should disappear then try the adb push method

XxsydenxX said:
Hey, i'll make this brief. Whenever I use an update
Or try and push an apk over to /system/apps
It doesn't stick.
For example I removed the browser.apk, and replaced it with my own (using root manager and adp both) rebooted my phone and I have no browser.apk anylonger cant put one in regardless of how I try...
Another example, while installing and update to HTC_IME.apk (Black theme) It sticks to the phone until i reboot it...
Any advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were trying to push to /system/APPS That might be a problem. I don't know alot, but if I'm not mistaken, the correct directory for apps is /system/app/
Try this.
Code:
adb remount
adb push browser.apk /system/app/
Also, if you're using A2SD.. it would be /system/sd/app
Let me know if it worked.

Ok well, I checked for root access just to be sure, And of course, I have it lol..
But none of these methods work.
Edit: I mean ive done it before, I dont know what the hell is wrong...

Why not do a simple mount of the sdcard , no adb.
Then copy the file to the card. Use a rooted terminal emulator or even root explorer to copy/move it.
BTW I know that on some systems the ".foo" files ( beginning with a . ) can be invisible and on other systems they can be designated as temporary, I don't know the convention for linux/android.
I do know that I would push a file which has been disappearing and then do a ls -af xxxx on it in a rooted terminal emulator to see it's permissions and "real" name.

^Tried using a rooted file manager to move it..it simply doesnt show up in the tray and when i go back..it's gone like always.

XxsydenxX said:
^Tried using a rooted file manager to move it..it simply doesnt show up in the tray and when i go back..it's gone like always.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So it's on the sdcard?
Use a terminal emulator and do a
$su
#ls -af filename.

Eh you know what, I'll just wipe and reflash a fresh rom. I'm not putting in anymore effort lol...
A mod can close this now.

ADB Push

I searched around and couldn't get a clear answer. I'm a noob at anything command prompt/terminal related.
I was screwing around with adb last night after figuring out that I can remove program .apks with the rm <com.whatever.program> command. I got a little trigger happy and removed things that I don't use, just to test it out. I made a nandroid backup before I started. The phone runs fine, but now the Market won't download anything. It just sits on the Starting download... screen.
One of the .apks I removed was GmailProvider.apk. Whether this is the problem or not, I'd like to reinstall it for practice. I can always nand restore later.
So my question is... How can I use adb push to reinstall an apk?
I tried:
Code:
adb push C:\GmailProvider.apk
adb install C:\GmailProvider.apk
adb install C:\GmailProvider.apk \system\app
And about every variation of the 3, in and out of the adb shell.
It didn't work, and I'm at a loss to do anything else. So does anyone have any suggestions?
EDIT: I think my "\" should be "/". I got this
Code:
BusyBox v1.15.2 <2009-12-02 TIME EST> multi-call binary
Usage: install [-cdDsp] [-o USER] [-g GRP] [-m MODE] [source] dest|directory
Copy files and set attributes
Options:
Then some usage stuff here.
Then I looked at the command prompt and made a face like .
Suggestions?
It might help to say that I'm using EvilEris 2.0.1, Windows 7.

Just reflash your ROM after doing a titanium backup. Easiest fix.

try this after putting GmailProvider.apk in your sdk\tools dir:
Code:
adb remount
adb push GmailProvider.apk /system/app
remount marks the system directory as read/write

silverramsrt said:
try this after putting GmailProvider.apk in your sdk\tools dir:
Code:
adb remount
adb push GmailProvider.apk /system/app
remount marks the system directory as read/write
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Beat me to it. ADB is powerful and pretty cool if you know some good commands, but you can really mess up your phone if you know what I mean. Not mess up like brick (unless you really try) but more like phone won't load gmail now, phone won't get past the htc screen. As long as you have a nandroid backup you SHOULD be fine, the push, pull and rm commands are really the first step of rom building. If you know what files you pushed and rm'd you can make your dream rom.

CPCookieMan said:
Beat me to it. ADB is powerful and pretty cool if you know some good commands, but you can really mess up your phone if you know what I mean. Not mess up like brick (unless you really try) but more like phone won't load gmail now, phone won't get past the htc screen. As long as you have a nandroid backup you SHOULD be fine, the push, pull and rm commands are really the first step of rom building. If you know what files you pushed and rm'd you can make your dream rom.[/QUOTE
i am installing htc facebook.apk on a rom that has had all the Bloat removed.do i need to do something after i have pushed a apk file into system/app?? i have tried rebooting the phone and the program isnt there,ive tried going in the phone with root explorer and tried installing while having it in r/w and r/o and still cant get it to install.im not sure what im doing wrong.any help is apreciated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

i am installing htc facebook.apk on a rom that has had all the Bloat removed.do i need to do something after i have pushed a apk file into system/app?? i have tried rebooting the phone and the program isnt there,ive tried going in the phone with root explorer and tried installing while having it in r/w and r/o and still cant get it to install.im not sure what im doing wrong.any help is apreciated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do not have to do anything after an adb push.
What rom? Some roms have been modified to the point some htc apps will not work. Addionally a copy of the htcfacebook.apk from an eris build may not work on a sprint based or g1 based roms do to signature variations
Sent from my Eris using XDA App

zach.xtr said:
You do not have to do anything after an adb push.
What rom? Some roms have been modified to the point some htc apps will not work. Addionally a copy of the htcfacebook.apk from an eris build may not work on a sprint based or g1 based roms do to signature variations
Sent from my Eris using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im running xtrom 3.0.......i just went ahead and installed the social app flash and deleted what the ones i dont uses,but thanks for the help anyways.i was looking into pushing friendstream into it but found out its only works in sprint base builds

Apks safe to uninstall on Liberated FR series ROM?

I need to uninstall as many apks as I can from my phones memory and download them off of market and install on my sd card to free up memory. My phone memory is pretty full and seems to be causing it to lag.... What are the safe ones and unsafe ones to remove?

Tenacious--M said:
I need to uninstall as many apks as I can from my phones memory and download them off of market and install on my sd card to free up memory. My phone memory is pretty full and seems to be causing it to lag.... What are the safe ones and unsafe ones to remove?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can find the app in the market then its safe to remove. If its in the market that makes it optional. However removing google apps can have adverse affects on other google apps, but your phone will still continue to function just fine, and most if not all the google apps can be found in the market (with the exception of the market itself, dont remove that!). Apps such as the music app and clock apps can be replaced entirely by market apps. Preinstalled wallpapers can also be removed from the rom. Another thing i remove is any ringtones I dont think I"ll need. I dont know about liberated, but cm6 has WAY more ringtones than I need/want, so I just delete em. I also now remove the boot animation from the ROM before installing it to save a few MB. You just get a black screen where the bootanimation would normally show up until the phone boots.

Whats the easiest way to remove files? Ive tried to use Root Explorer and Titanium Backup but they show back up when I restart... Im hoping there is an easier way to remove than adb.....????

Tenacious--M said:
Whats the easiest way to remove files? Ive tried to use Root Explorer and Titanium Backup but they show back up when I restart... Im hoping there is an easier way to remove than adb.....????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
adb is pretty easy actually. Search the forums for making a cmd shortcut for adb, or if someone remembers how they could post it (this will make life infinitely easier). Then you just boot into recovery and plug in the phone, type the following without the apostrophes:
'adb shell' hit enter.
'cd /system/app' enter.
'ls' enter. (this will pop up a list of the apps you have)
'rm name of app.apk' and its gone forever.
Just keep repeating that last step for every app you want removed.

Can i do this via Terminal Emulator?

yes but the command is different...id give it if i knew it...

CallMeAria said:
adb is pretty easy actually. Search the forums for making a cmd shortcut for adb, or if someone remembers how they could post it (this will make life infinitely easier). Then you just boot into recovery and plug in the phone, type the following without the apostrophes:
'adb shell' hit enter.
'cd /system/app' enter.
'ls' enter. (this will pop up a list of the apps you have)
'rm name of app.apk' and its gone forever.
Just keep repeating that last step for every app you want removed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im having a hell of a time removing apps from my Liberated Aria. I have installed ADB and the necessary software. I am able to get into CMD and get a listing of files (apk's), but they do not remove... what commands do I need to use?
Ive tried
rm /youtube.apk
rm /system/youtube.apk
rm /system/app/youtube.apk
They are still there... maybe Im not mounting the drive? Or its not in Read/Write mode?

Tenacious--M said:
Im having a hell of a time removing apps from my Liberated Aria. I have installed ADB and the necessary software. I am able to get into CMD and get a listing of files (apk's), but they do not remove... what commands do I need to use?
Ive tried
rm /youtube.apk
rm /system/youtube.apk
rm /system/app/youtube.apk
They are still there... maybe Im not mounting the drive? Or its not in Read/Write mode?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
make sure your bored into clockwork recovery. Then go to partitions and mount system. then just follow those same directions I posted above. To remove the app you would type:
rm youtube.apk
Exactly like that, with a space after rm and no /.

hm...
Some times I use SystemApp Remover.
Its pretty easy to work.

[Q] Motoblur home process failing

Hello All,
I would really appreciate help on this issue I have been having. I recently rooted then unlocked the bootloader of my device. I downloaded a root uninstaller and may have somehow killed the home process from running. Now, when i turn on the device, i get the error
The application Home (process com.motorola.home) has stopped unexpectedly
It does not go away and comes repeatedly back, not allowing me to change any settings whatsoever. I don't know what to do. I tried going into android recover mode and both wiped the device and cleared the cache, but the problem persists. I also tried putting a cyanogenmod version on the devices SD card but cant get it install because for some reason I can't get clockwork mod installed correctly. I cannot turn on USB debugging mode because I can't get into the settings. I tried using the .sbf to flash it but it is the .sbf I used to unlock the device so I am not sure that is the right one or if the right one would even do the trick, I fear that the system files that run the home application may be corrupt, deleted or permanently inactive. I would appreciate any ideas people may have to help me.
Also, becuase I factory reset the device, the bootloader is unlocked, but it is no longer rooted, and I cannot root it at this time becuase I cannot turn on USB debugging mode.

I was looking at the guide here;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1302423
And was wondering why it didn't work when I tried to install CWM, then I noticed something I didnt see;
"DO NOT FORGET TO DO THIS PART: After the install of RomRacers recovery boot up your phone. Open up your favourite file browser (I used Astro file manager to do this ) and navigate to /system/etc/ and delete the file called 'install-recovery.sh'"
Is there a way to do this from the PC as I wouldn't be able to on my device? Or is the fact that it is not currently rooted going to stop me from doing anything?
Thanks,

heronpj said:
I was looking at the guide here;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1302423
And was wondering why it didn't work when I tried to install CWM, then I noticed something I didnt see;
"DO NOT FORGET TO DO THIS PART: After the install of RomRacers recovery boot up your phone. Open up your favourite file browser (I used Astro file manager to do this ) and navigate to /system/etc/ and delete the file called 'install-recovery.sh'"
Is there a way to do this from the PC as I wouldn't be able to on my device? Or is the fact that it is not currently rooted going to stop me from doing anything?
Thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are familiar with ADB, the basic commands would be:
Code:
adb remount rw
adb shell
While in the ADB shell:
cd /system/etc
rm install-recovery.sh
exit
that should cover it.
let me know if this works for ya.

Thanks for your response. The only problem is my phone isn't in USB debug mode, and I can't set it to be. Any idea of how to get that turned on without being able to get into the settings?
FaithCollapsing said:
If you are familiar with ADB, the basic commands would be:
Code:
adb remount rw
adb shell
While in the ADB shell:
cd /system/etc
rm install-recovery.sh
exit
that should cover it.
let me know if this works for ya.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

heronpj said:
Thanks for your response. The only problem is my phone isn't in USB debug mode, and I can't set it to be. Any idea of how to get that turned on without being able to get into the settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you boot into recovery?

FaithCollapsing said:
can you boot into recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can, and have down a wipe data as well as cleared the cache, problem persists.

Solved!!! I was able to basically button mash until somehow the screen to log into the play store came up. Download launcher pro and that got me back into my phone! Thanks for your help