Database Users

[Q] Rooted my defy but unable to delete bloatware

I have a T-Mobile Motorola Defy that I have moved over to the Walmart Family Talk network (operated by T-Mobile). I am new to android but have a programming background.
I rooted the phone using SuperOneClick in an attempt to delete the bloatware but it does not appear to be working. Although Superuser is installed, there are no applications populated in the list and no way to populate them so I am not sure what I am doing wrong here.
I tried the following alternatives to delete the bloatware:
I went into Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > All > Blockbuster but the uninstall button is still greyed out so I am unable to uninstall it.
I opened the Moto Phone Portal console on my PCand went into the file manager but I do not see any of the bloatware applications to delete and cannot find any subdirectories that contain these applications.
So the question is... now that the phone is rooted, how do I delete the bloatware?
Ideally I would like to delete: AppPack, Blockbuster, DriveSmart, Kindle, Lookout Security & Antivirus, Music, News, News & Weather, Phone Portal, Slacker, Social Networking, T-Mobile My Account, TeleNav GPS Navigator for TMO, T-Mobile Visual Voicemail, Voice Command, and Voice Search. If you know of a reason why I should not delete one of these, please let me know.
In addition, I would like to remove the T-mobile account since it is always trying to sync and is unable as I am on the Walmart plan instead. Any information as to how to remove this account without deleting everything on my phone and restoring to factory settings would be appreciated.

You need an application like RootExplorer or Titanium Backup (or both). With RootExplorer you will be able to see not only your SD card content, but the internal memory of your phone.
All apps are located in /system/app - just go to this folder and delete the application you need to get rid.
NB - deleting applications might not be the smartest thing to do, as there are many apps that are related to other - important ones. For example, a coworker of mine deleted Yahoo messenger, as (in his opinion) he was not using it, but it is neccessary for the contacts app, so after deleting it, he was unable to access any of his contacts - the app was force closing right after trying to open it.
A safer way is to use TitaniumBackup to just "freeze" an app and make sure it is not going to cause troubles. This way, if you need to restore it, you can just do so...
And even this is probably not gonna give you the desired results. I would just recommend using any of the custom ROM's that are out there - stable and fast, and all Motorola's bloatware has been removed.

make sure you clear data before deleting apps just in case..

[Q] Safe to freeze apps?

Anyone have a detailed list of apps that are safe to freeze on the i337? I keep finding myself questioning whether an app is safe to freeze and then ultimately do not freeze it because I don't want to brick my phone without recovery options. TIA
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

Im waiting on this too..I have froze alot I remember from the s3
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium

It depends what you freeze. but i think the OTA updates and ect should be fine.

Here is what I have deleted (deleted not frozen) with no issues whatsoever.
Deleted apps / processes:
Active Apps manager
Adapt Sound
Alarm
AllShare ControlShare Service
AllShare FileShare Service
AT&T Drivemode
AT&T FamilyMap
AT&T Hot Spots
AT&T Locker
AT&T Messages
AT&T Navigator
AT&T Smart Wi-Fi
Blutetooth Share
BlurbCheckout
Briefing
Bubbles
ChatOn
ChatOn V
Clock
com.sec.android.app.sbrowser
Com2uSPoker
DioDictService
DirectConnectionManager
DirectShareManager
Downloads
Dual Clock (digital)
Easy Launcher
Easy Settings
Exchange Services
Face Unlock
Favorite Apps
Favorite Contacts
FW Upgrade
Gmail
Google Play Books
Google Play Magazines
Google Play Movies & TV
Google Play Music
Group Play
Google Search (search bar, not the Google Now One)
Help
HP Print Service
Internet
Kies via Wi-Fi
Live wallpaper picker
Match3VS
MobileTV
MobilePrintSvx_CUPS
MobilePrintSvx_CUPS_Backend
myAT&T
Nearby devices
Nearby Service
PageBuddyNotiSvc
Phase beam
Photo Screensavers
S Health
S Memo
S Nore Provider
S Translator
S Voice
Samsung Account
Samsung Apps
Samsung Apps Widget
Samsung Books
Samsung Games
Samsung Hub
Samsung Keyboard
Samsung Link
Samsung Print Service
Samsung Push Service
Samsung SBrowser Bookmark
Samsung SBrowser Tab Sync
Samsung SNote SyncAdapter
Samsung text-to-speach engine
Samsung WatchOn
SamsungHubUpdater
Screen Mirroring
SensorService
Share Music
SNS
Story Album
Story Album Widget
Swipe
Tags
Talk
Talkback
TouchWiz Home
Travel
Travel wallpaper
TripAdvisor
Try air move
Voice Recorder
Yahoo Finance
Yahoo News
YPMobile

^ thanks for the list.

Awesome! Thank you! Can't wait till we have this BL unlocked and get some great ROMs. Haven't used a stockish phone in years
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks for the list...very helpful.
Maybe this is obvious to others, but I'd like to point out that Bluetooth share is needed for Bluetooth to work, at least it is for me. I recently upgraded to 4.3 MK2 and rooted using saferoot. I froze most of these apps using Titanium Backup, but noticed my Bluetooth wouldn't turn on. I un-froze Bluetooth share, now it works fine.

[Q] Help me transition from galaxy S (epic 4G) to the S4

I'm coming from the epic 4G with CM 10.1 (used CM all the way back to first put on epic). I've backed up apps and data with mybackup root and titanium backup. Call log and SMS with call log and sms backup and restore. I need to restore the call logs and sms and data from a few info apps like fuel log onto thet S4. At this point I have no idea how to proceed. is it is safe to do so for any of it? Do I need to root in order to do so? If I do is it possible to safely return to out of box state if something were to go wrong? I would like to tether do I need to root to tether? And I am wanting to get rid of most if not all of the junk preloaded on the S4.
The following show as downoaded apps: 1Weather, BaconReader, CBS Sports, com.sprint.mobileid.googleiconpack, Google Play services, Google Play store, IAP, Lookout Security, Samsung Apps, Samsung Push service, Scout, Sprint - Discover apps, Sprint Icon Pack, Sprint Music Plus, Sprint TV and Movies. GP store will stay and I assume GP services are needed for it? Is there any benefit of keeping the samsung app store thing? And are IAP and samsung push services part of it? The rest appear to be safe to remove. I have no idea what sprint icon pack is, anyone know?
Flipboard, Google+, Google Talk, My Files, Play Magazines, Play Movies and TV, Play Music, Polaris Office, S Health, S Memo, S Translator, *Samsung Hub, *Samsung Link, *Sprint Worldwide, *Sprint Zone, Story Album, TripAdvisor, VPN Client, WatchOn, and CBS Sports appear to be system apps. I'm not likely to use any of these either. Will freezing them be the same as if I uninstalled them? And is root needed to do that?

Freeze apps. You can always restore them if you broke something. I am guessing that restoring apps and data from another phone, which is running a different ROM and version of software won't work very well. You might be able to restore your SMS MMS using SMS MMS backup and restore, but I don't think you're going to have much luck with other apps. See if your old apps have a backup and restore feature in settings and back up to SD card then restore on the new phone.

I rooted following QBking77's latest video. However titanium backup can't find SU where it expects to. At least that is the message I get after opening TB even after getting the prompt to give SU permission and even after rebooting after that as well.

I guess I was hasty in my previous post, I used busybox to check to see if everything as ok and it didn't appear busybox was installed. I went ahead and installed it and now TB works.

[Q] Which apps to disable?

So far, I've frozen all verizon apps, useless google apps and services (they know who they are...) and several other useless apps and services.
This is my list of disabled Samsung apps & services:
Samsung Calendar SyncAdapter
Samsung Cloud Data Relay
Samsung Cloud Quota
Security Policy Updates (probably Verizon...)
What other Samsung apps/svc can be disabled or uninstalled?
Here is the list (for copy/paste convenience):
Samsung contents agent
Samsung Hub
Samsung Link
Samsung Print Services
Samsung Push Service
Samsung SBrowser Sync Adapter
Samsung SNote3 Sync Adapter
Samsung Sync Adapters
Samsung Text to Speech Engine
Samsung Updates
Samsung Hub Updater
Samsung Sans
Any other recommended disables/uninstalls?
Thanks!

Sam Sung said:
So far, I've frozen all verizon apps, useless google apps and services (they know who they are...) and several other useless apps and services.
This is my list of disabled Samsung apps & services:
Samsung Calendar SyncAdapter
Samsung Cloud Data Relay
Samsung Cloud Quota
Security Policy Updates (probably Verizon...)
What other Samsung apps/svc can be disabled or uninstalled?
Here is the list (for copy/paste convenience):
Samsung contents agent
Samsung Hub
Samsung Link
Samsung Print Services
Samsung Push Service
Samsung SBrowser Sync Adapter
Samsung SNote3 Sync Adapter
Samsung Sync Adapters
Samsung Text to Speech Engine
Samsung Updates
Samsung Hub Updater
Samsung Sans
Any other recommended disables/uninstalls?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is a link to my post with a list showing all of the stock apps that I removed. You can delete the rest of the Samsung apps but sans is a font I believe.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=46493729&postcount=11

Thanks for the link and info. I've disabled several that you listed. Now to watch for any issues.

Sam Sung said:
Thanks for the link and info. I've disabled several that you listed. Now to watch for any issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never had any issues with all of them deleted but it depends on your setup also.

airmaxx23 said:
I never had any issues with all of them deleted but it depends on your setup also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For reference, I haven't experienced any issues. I think I'll just leave them Disabled for the moment, though, as one day I may want to try one of the Samsung protocols to link to one of our other phones for file or media transfer and find that I need one or the other.
Gladyscoleman said:
I Also have disable all this app but I am facing a issue and that is my signal strength is low now after the disabling the apps. And I am facing the issues in call connectivity.
How can I enhance my signal strength ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had any low strength issues. It may be coincidental. Does your signal strength get better in other locations?
You could review the uninstalled apps/services to determine if any of them pertain to signal and re-enable. You could also just re-enable all of the apps/services you disabled before your signal strength issues occurred to see if they go away.
It's also recommended that you nandroid (SS backup) your device before making these kind of changes. Having a nandroid, if I were to have issues, I would make another nandroid of my current (changed) setup, then restore my previous setup to see if the issue exists there.
Sam

Google account needed when no SIM?

I managed to get two s5's rooted and annoyingly enough, unless I put my sims card in them, neither gmail or the playstore will connect or login via wifi. I only have one sims activated and that is my internet connection which I tether via wifi to my other devices.
Is there a way to work around this? If this is too remedial a question or unwelcome in this thread, I apologize.
I'd like to be able to set up a freshly flashed and rooted phone to accept my gmail account and work with playstore on wifi, sans a sims installed. Do I need to create a gmail account for each and every phone I wish to set up? Will this fix the problem of doing a phone not having a active verizon sims installed? For whatever reason, my playstore access and gmail push are wonky and dubious at best when having the same account being "registered" on multiple devices and I'm not sure if it started recently when gmail for some reason started sending notices to said email account of when another device logged in.

DroidinAndStuff said:
I managed to get two s5's rooted and annoyingly enough, unless I put my sims card in them, neither gmail or the playstore will connect or login via wifi. I only have one sims activated and that is my internet connection which I tether via wifi to my other devices.
Is there a way to work around this? If this is too remedial a question or unwelcome in this thread, I apologize.
I'd like to be able to set up a freshly flashed and rooted phone to accept my gmail account and work with playstore on wifi, sans a sims installed. Do I need to create a gmail account for each and every phone I wish to set up? Will this fix the problem of doing a phone not having a active verizon sims installed? For whatever reason, my playstore access and gmail push are wonky and dubious at best when having the same account being "registered" on multiple devices and I'm not sure if it started recently when gmail for some reason started sending notices to said email account of when another device logged in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too manage two S5's, rooted and I have no problems. The one without a Sim works great off of WiFi. Playstore works fine logged into the same account.

Tulsadiver said:
I too manage two S5's, rooted and I have no problems. The one without a Sim works great off of WiFi. Playstore works fine logged into the same account.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's perversely encouraging and assures me I haven't lost my mind expecting something impossible that I thought I knew to be true. Neither of my S5's, my N4 or Z2 will reliably hook up with gmail and the play store both. This one S5 will not allow me set up a new gmail account on the device and gmail has stopped pushing to my DD S4. Remove account, clear cache, date force stop all google processes, reboot and same. Lots posted about it and I know google hasn't banned me as it is working on some devices. Besides, I behave.
Now if I can get supersu to install from an APK with a wifi connection, I can at least proceed.
Congrats on yours and thanks for confirming it should work.

Well I popped the sims card in the one, which had been flashed back to ngc from oa8 (my other one hadn't ever tried to OTA update from nk2) and playstore and gmail cooperated fine. However, SDM started downloading an update, which I'll assume is OTA to OA8 or OC4. The first time before I pulled the battery I got playstore hooked up and forced SDM to stop. Pulled the battery and SDM continued where it left off and I managed supersu and busybox. Deferred the install of the update and wonder how critical it is that the downloaded file be removed prior to safestrapping it and then OC4 rooting it with the tether addon.
The other S5 on nk2 hasn't tried to OTA update so it must be down on the list despite being readily activate-able with clean IMEI and no issues.
I wish I could figure out why google services such as gmail and playstore are being contumacious on my devices.

I had that same problem of an update trying to get on my phone before I could get it rooted ( an s4) and it messed my phone up bad. I had to finally take the update to get it working again
I would put all the files, towelroot, busybox, SuperSU, safestrap, and titanium backup on my ext SD card. Flash back to stock NGC. Don't use your Sim or log onto WiFi. Root your phone and freeze SDM.

Tulsadiver said:
I had that same problem of an update trying to get on my phone before I could get it rooted ( an s4) and it messed my phone up bad. I had to finally take the update to get it working again
I would put all the files, towelroot, busybox, SuperSU, safestrap, and titanium backup on my ext SD card. Flash back to stock NGC. Don't use your Sim or log onto WiFi. Root your phone and freeze SDM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It never attempted the OTA until the active sim card was in place. I used it on wifi many times including several times today and had even worked fine with the playstore/gmail on wifi up until recently when gmail stopped pushing to my dd period, and every other device in which my DD's sims card wasn't inserted.
The OTA update file has been downloaded, but not installed. I deferred it to 5 am and didn't check automatic. I am assuming I can defer it again although I'd somehow feel better removing it and freezing SDM until I decide if I am going to OC4 it or do a custom rom. Nice would be native call recording, native tethering and being able to overclock it a bit. A lightweight lollipop and xposed would probably do the trick other than maybe overclocking. Too much reading for one day.
It is currently on NCG, rooted, supersu, busy box, and safestrap all installed. I think I'll install a root file explorer try to find it and also do Titanium Backup while I'm at it. I wish I knew where it was and if removing it was as simple as just deleting a file.
Any ideas? I have two in the same state and think I'm going to make one of them my DD since getting root on a verizon N4 doesn't look likely anytime soon. The N4 is kinda big anyhow. I have to have tethering and would like it easier than foxfi since I feel obligated to use as much of my unlimited data as possible. I think I read the native call recording can be enable from the dialer at the cost of the "add call" which I don't use or even know what it is.

DroidinAndStuff said:
It never attempted the OTA until the active sim card was in place. I used it on wifi many times including several times today and had even worked fine with the playstore/gmail on wifi.
The OTA update file has been downloaded, but not installed. I deferred it to 5 am and didn't check automatic. I am assuming I can defer it again although I'd somehow feel better removing it and freezing SDM until I decide if I am going to OC4 it or do a custom rom. Nice would be native call recording, native tethering and being able to overclock it a bit. A lightweight lollipop and xposed would probably do the trick other than maybe overclocking. Too much reading for one day.
It is currently on NCG, rooted, supersu, busy box, and safestrap all installed. I think I'll install a root file explorer try to find it and also do Titanium Backup while I'm at it. I wish I knew where it was and if removing it was as simple as just deleting a file.
Any ideas? I have two in the same state and think I'm going to make one of them my DD since getting root on a verizon N4 doesn't look likely anytime soon. The N4 is kinda big anyhow. I have to have tethering and would like it easier than foxfi since I feel obligated to use as much of my unlimited data as possible. I think I read the native call recording can be enable from the dialer at the cost of the "add call" which I don't use or even know what it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try your root/cache folder to find your update.

Tulsadiver said:
Try your root/cache folder to find your update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Getting on that this morning. I wish I could figure out why it keeps downloading and installing playstore on wifi and still won't work until I put my sims in it. I've gone through everything short of uninstalling all of google services and reinstalling them on several devices. My wifi only z2 tab acting stupid with google would be a vexation if I let things like that bother me.
Thanks and I'm popping the sims in it and going to try cleaning it up and locking down SDM.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Installed the root browser and the update zip was in cache.
Deleted.
Went to system with the display icon.
App then deleted the SDM apk and the SDM odex file.
Hopefully that will keep it from pulling that stunt again until I decide what to do with it.
Guess I should do it with the other one and figure out why that same sims won't make gmail push to my DD or the play station work in it or why my non-pc wifi only devices won't work except through their browsers. I think there must be some conflict with which devices the playstore is recognizing as being associated with my accounts.
Must be something in my google settings and what a conglomerated octopus google services has turned into.
Thanks again. Feel free to tell me if my down and dirty bandaid overlooked anything!

Good luck to you!
The only thing weird about my google account and gmail is that the email address I login with is not the one that shows up under "accounts" and the login email address is not a gmail address. Somehow the two different email accounts are linked together.

Tulsadiver said:
Good luck to you!
The only thing weird about my google account and gmail is that the email address I login with is not the one that shows up under "accounts" and the login email address is not a gmail address. Somehow the two different email accounts are linked together.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I wish I know what Google was up to exactly. Acknowledging the 'this device logged into your account' and verifying that it's me, seems like should seamlessly eliminate issues. That doesn't appear to be the case and I think my problems started when I somehow agreed for them to send me such notices relative to the gmail account I use on my other devices, not both gmail accounts associated with my DD.
On my DD, I have two gmail accounts that I've had for ages. They have always worked fine on my android devices. Recently that changed and I'm not sure why but I know when. On my other many devices, I've just registered one of my gmail accounts to them, the same one each time, and they too all seemed to quit working at the same time, initially offering no problems to working on wifi.
However, I am curious as to your thoughts on Ricks Rom as I looked over the specs and it seems to be about what I'm looking for although for some unqualified reason, my mind has been thinking I wanted a rom based on lollipop. It says it has native or hacked hotspot and native call recording. Can it be overclocked? I don't use Facebook, Twitter or any of the gimmicky apps that come preinstalled on the phones and find most all of them, especially the Samsung redundant ones, to be annoying and intrusive.
Do you know for sure if Xposed will or will not work with it?
How many security certificates come system installed on Ricks Rom? My guess is that something like 200 come stock and I don't like the looks of many of them and wish I knew how come and why.
Thank you, I appreciate your sharing information. It is nice to gather up pieces to puzzles and hopefully being able to solve them. I'll get this gmail playstore thing fixed if it means I have to go fishing long enough to forget about it! Maybe somebody else finding themselves in a similar situation may find some of our particular details useful to fixing these oddities.

I'm running RicksRom (v19 right now) on my DD and have been using it since I first got my phone a year and a half ago. I don't have Xposed but don't know why it wouldn't work. This is a pretty lean ROM but it does have quite a few security certificates. I'm running MOAR on my spare phone that is currently on lollipop. I have this phone as a spare to play with but wouldn't run lollipop. Too quirky and I like the theming capabilities of KitKat better.

Tulsadiver said:
I'm running RicksRom (v19 right now) on my DD and have been using it since I first got my phone a year and a half ago. I don't have Xposed but don't know why it wouldn't work. This is a pretty lean ROM but it does have quite a few security certificates. I'm running MOAR on my spare phone that is currently on lollipop. I have this phone as a spare to play with but wouldn't run lollipop. Too quirky and I like the theming capabilities of KitKat better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, lean sounds fine and overclocking a bit would be even nicer! I'll dig through that thread a bit more and see if anyone has verified Xposed to work with it conflict free and if it can be clocked.
I went through my gmail account settings on my PC and under Recent Activity/Notifications and Alerts... there is no way to uncheck any alerts that have been checked. I am pretty sure my issues started when I recently checked "Email" for Suspicious Attempt to Access Account. The password change email notice has been checked since forever.
Going to the Playstore on my PC, it lists all of my devices, past and present although it has dropped some that haven't accessed for a while, and now makes me think I need to give them all nicknames since I have multiples of the same Model Number devices. However, it lists all current and recent as well reconciles. What it won't do from my PC browser, is anything but sit there doing nothing when I hit install for a selected app. It will not give a pop down menu to select which device and the playstore account settings are very minimal. I will see if nicknaming them helps since there are multiple devices with the same model number. This type of online PC install used to work fine and would prompt with a pop down menu to select which device, regardless if they were online via the sims or wifi, and then download and install if the selected device was online. I don't recall ever doing that when I had multiple devices having access with the same model number.
Another interesting thing is that Verizon must have access to the playstore and/or gmail device list. I know this from speaking with a very helpful tech rep this week about my data connection speed on my DD. She verified seeing devices on this account even if they hadn't ever had my sims card installed. Merely been online with my one email account registered and playstore accessed from it. That kinda surprised me. I wonder if there is some Google Services/Verizon conflict that may be causing this.