while I was surfing the Older forums, i found one deep burried but useful post that mentions Which all apps are safe to remove from /system/apps folder. THANKS TO THE GUY WHO ACTUALLY POSTED THIS -- IonAphis
Please know that removing certain system app may interfere in smooth functioning of your phone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The list below describes all stock S5360 - S6102 (may be some app not listed) apks under /system/app. You can see this folder via RootExplorer or FileExplorer or the like, or see them through Titanium Backup, although they might be out of order and with different names (they will use the display name rather than apk name on Titanium).
YES -- Indicates an application can be removed, but please don´t remove them without reading the description.
NO -- Means an application is essential or pretty important for the functionality of your phone.
Some of these descriptions have been based off of Insanity´s I9000 Galaxy S ROM, however all of these have been tested on the S5360 S6102 (this is not just a copy paste, rather I based my original understanding of this list in his).
Use at your own risk, I cannot be held responsible if you break your phone.
If your are going to attempt this, first your should have some knowledge of flashing your phone via ODIN, because if you happen to delete something that was important to you, you might need to reflash.
Keep in mind you don´t need to delete apps right off the bat. You can rename them from Application.apk to Application.OLDapk or whatever. This will prevent your phone from recognizing them as applications without you having to fully remove them. When you are sure of your choices and want to free up space, go ahead and delete them.
Some firmware versions will have .odex files with the same name as the .apk. When deleting and apk, delete it´s respective .odex. If you are going to rename an .apk, then rename the .odex as well (aka Application.OLDodex)
AccountAndSyncSettings.apk -- NO, Sync settings, this is required, even if out don´t sync, this is because it syncs more than just calendar and contacts, it is the effective sync to your google account, required for just about anything.
ApplicationsProvider.apk -- NO, required for application installation and uninstall.
audioTuning.apk -- ?, not really sure about this one. I guess this is an automatic sound adjustment according to background noise, however I´ve never seen this into effect. If you´re feeling lucky, you can try removing it, however I´ve never monitored this actually showing up resource managers.
AxT9IME.apk -- YES, This is the stock Samsung keyboard. You can remove it, but even if you have swype, swype doesn´t have all of the keyboard layouts. I´d leave it, to my opinion, this is kind of essential.
BadgeProvider.apk -- NO, Something to do with messaging and email. Removing this causes SMS and email related apps to force close. Even if you manage to keep the program open for long enough without it foce closing, you won´t be able to send messages, they´ll just be stuck on "sending".
Bluetooth.apk -- YES, incorrectly named, this apk actually manages the Bluetooth printing rather than the bluetooth itself. If you have no need for bluetooth printing, this won´t ever be missed or will never bother you in any occasion.
BluetoothOPP.apk -- NO, this apk actually manages file transfer between phones. Remove this and you´ll never be able to transfer files. This actually includes streaming music through Car bluetooth and headsets, since they effectively speaking, file transfers.
BluetoothServices.apk -- NO, provides general framework for Bluetooth. If you´re going to use bluetooth for any reason, this apk is a must. Removing this one breaks all other bluetooth applications.
BluetoothTestMode.apk -- YES, this is activated when you need to test the fidelity of your bluetooth. You can do that by going into the test section by typing the secret code *#*#197328640#*#*. Removing it is possible, however, some BT connections actually test the bluetooth to measure how much data is transfered. This way, it calculates the buffer size it needs to use, and at what quality media can be streamed. Removing it can disrupt communications with those BT terminals or you can experience fade-outs, where while listening to songs, the sound will fade every few seconds, because of inadequate bandwith. (this can occur even with this application left as is, if your BT terminal doesn´t have the auto regulation feature)
Browser.apk -- YES, removing this will make you lose your browsing ability (not internet as a whole). If you have firefox or opera for android, and like those best, you can remove this without any problems.
BuddiesNow.apk -- YES, this is just that widget offered by the TouchWiz launcher. If you don´t use it, remove it.
CallSetting.apk -- NO, do you like to use your phone for... umm calling people? This is kind of essencial, it will allow call setting to be edited. Stuff like call waiting and forwarding will not work if you remove this, as well as other stuff I didn´t have time or willingness to test, as soon as I confirmed dialpad and other things while calling had been disabled.
Camera.apk -- NO, this is the camera application. If you find an alternative one (I don´t think there are any on the market) you could remove it.
CameraFirmware.apk -- NO, this is the actual ROM (if you will) for the camera. Without this, camera.apk is useless.
CertInstaller.apk -- NO, Installs certificates for the apps you install. I assume without this, you cannot give permissions for apps to do things and access certain folders and files. I´m guessing if you don´t have this installed, you couldn´t even install root on your phone. So in short, no.
ClockPackage.apk -- YES, however this controls the alarm clock, stopwatch, world time and timer. There are alternative applications online if you want, but this seems to do the job pretty well and all under the same apk.
Contacts.apk -- NO, this controls the contacts application (the contacts / groups / history / activities tabs). Removing this will make you have to call everyone by physically inputing their number.
ContactsProvider.apk -- NO, this controls contacts sync. Pretty useful if you still don´t use google contacs sync, you should try it. In theory if you don´t use it, you could remove it, but I don´t know what effect it would have on your contacts.
CSC.apk -- NO. This breaks CSC. According to insanity, this can be removed after first successful boot, but if you ever have to hard reset or restore factory settings, this will not allow you to boot successfully.
DataCreate.apk -- NO.
DialerTabActivity.apk -- NO. This controls the dialer. Even if you have all your contacts already stored, you cannot call them without this app.
Divx.apk -- YES. This is some licesing information for the video player. I don´t really watch alot of videos on my phone, but after removing this I´ve never had any problems. If you do remove it, and have problems, post it on the comments.
Dlna.apk -- YES. This is allshare. Never had any use for it, and it shall not be missed.
DownloadProvider.apk -- NO. Handles file downloads and market downloads.
DrmProvider.apk -- NO. In theory, you cannot remove it, it will break your ability to play DRM protected files, aka, Ringtones and SMS notifications. I´ve been in the process of de-DRMing my ringtone files. I would imagine, if you don´t have a reason to play DRM protected files, this could be removed. However keep in mind all DRM protected files will not be able to play. This apk takes up a lot of memory and stays on all the time on the background. It is one of my most hated apks, it serves no function rather than to protect you from copying or editing the stupid samsung ringtones.
DrmUA.apk -- NO, see above.
DualClock.apk -- YES. Dual clock widget. If you don´t need, remove it.
Email.apk -- NO. According to insanity, removing this will break things.Haven´t tried it yet though.
EnhancedGoogleSearchProvider.apk -- YES. This controls that ability to hold the menu button for a second or two and the search menu pop up. I usally keep it.
FactoryTest.apk -- YES. Removed it without any problems. If you have ever run autostarts, you´ll realize how much of a hog this apk really is during some actions.
FlashPlugin.apk -- YES. This allows flash content to be displayed, so even though you can, I don´t recommed it.
FlashSVGPlayer.apk -- YES. As far as I know, this is the player which provides you to view the flash content through the plugin above. Removing this might break your flashplugin.
FMRadio.apk -- YES. Radio player.
Gallery3D.apk -- YES. This is a battery hog. It´s that fancy 3D accelerometer enhanced gallery. If you remove it, you won´t be able to easily access photographs though. If you want a good replacement, I would suggest QuickPic, it does the job, it´s fast and doesn´t hog memory (although its not fancy like the 3D Gallery)
GlobalSearch.apk -- YES. This is the search function on your phone. Remember the Enhanced search this above, well, that actually accesses this to do the search. That can be removed and this will be fine (although you´ll have to access the search feature by the app drawer). But if you remove this, the enhanced search will be useless.
Gmail.apk -- YES. Don´t use gmail? It can be removed, but will break Talk.apk as well.
GmailProvider.apk -- YES. I guess it is tied to gmail.apk. See above.
GoogleApps.apk -- ?. This is didn´t even come installed on my phone, so I guess it´s not that important.
GoogleCheckin.apk -- ? Same as above.
GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk -- YES. Syncs contacts through google. This can be removed, but you won´t be able to sync contacts.
GooglePartnerSetup.apk -- NO.
GoogleSearch.apk -- YES. This is the google search widget you can add onto your launcher desktop.
GoogleSettingsProvider.apk -- NO.
GoogleSubscribedFeedsProvider.apk -- ?. Don´t know, this is not on my phone.
GpsSetup2.apk -- NO. This sets up GPS configurations.
gtalkservice.apk -- YES. You might have this as talk.apk or gtalkservice.apk, although it´s all the same thing, it´s Google Talk.
HTMLViewer.apk -- YES. No side effects were noticed when removing this.
HwCodec.apk -- ?. Don´t have this on my phone.
IcsService.apk -- ?. Don´t have this on my phone.
InfoAlarm.apk -- YES. This is the daily briefing widget. Don´t need it remove it.
InputEventApp.apk -- NO.
Layar-samsung.apk -- YES. Layar. Seems awesome on paper. Never has been of any use in reality.
LbsTestMode.apk -- YES. GPS testing mode. Can be accessed via *#*#197328640#*#*, but not needed per se.
lcdtest.apk -- YES. Removing this will cause your screen to not turn off when you lock your phone. By installing spare parts you can fix this, however if you don´t use spare parts for any other reason, that´s just replacing a passive apk for one that invades your phone on all levels. So I rather just leave it and not worry about it.
LogsProvider.apk -- NO. Lots of things will crash and force close if you do.
Maps.apk -- YES. Google Maps apk. If you don´t use it, remove it, but it is pretty useful, since it has gps navigation as well.
MarketUpdater.apk -- YES. Safe to remove but when the market gets updated you won´t be recieving the update.
MediaProvider.apk -- NO. Needed to access media files and ringtones.
MediaUploader.apk -- YES. This uploads pictures to picassa (facebook as well?). If you don´t need it, remove it.
Memo.apk -- YES. Remove it and you won´t be able to write memos though.
Mms.apk -- NO. This controls MMS sending and recieving on the phone.
MobileTrackerEngineTwo.apk -- YES. This app and the next control the tracker ability on your phone. What this does is if you lose your phone you can use this to track it down and find it. If it gets stolen, you can use this to lead the cops to the thief. Although this is an awesome idea, if you don´t live in a perfect world, it would be wiser not to go after the guy who stole your phone in case he decides to, hum..., go kill you afterwards... Besides, I live in Argentina, and the cops cannot be trusted to do this kind of job... they´ll tell you they can´t do anything. These things stay on memory all the time and really consume battery, so if you don´t care about this feature and really just take care of your stuff, you´ll not be needing these two apps.
MobileTrackerUI.apk -- YES. See Above. I forgot to mention though an extra feature this offers though. If you have these 2 apks installed, you have the samsung apps and singin (you´ll see them later further down), you can use another apk called wipereciever.apk to remotely wipe all the data on your phone, in case you are very privacy concious. However, removing any of these 2 apks, removing samsung apps and not setting up a samsung apps account before your phone gets stolen, this feature becomes disabled. Really in my opinion, its too much stuff to be worried about, and my phone doesn´t contain any nuclear launch codes. So I rely on my lock screen password to protect my data. (Most thieves don´t have the knowhow to crack the lockscreen protection and access the info inside the phone. At most they´ll get bored and might find the info on how to flash a new ROM or reset to factory settings, where your info will be deleted and your privacy sensitive stuff with it).
MtpApplication.apk -- YES. Required to sync with Kies. Do you flash your ROMs rather than update through Kies, this is useless to you then. (Updating through Kies is the equivalent of upgrading from XP to windows 7. It does the job, but it never works as well as installing from scratch.)
MusicPlayer.apk -- YES. This is the music player. If you remove this, you can still preview sounds and stuff through the SoundPlayer.apk. This can be effectively replace by PowerAMP and Winamp. In fact, if you have a stable music player alternative installed, I would recommend you delete this, since it could cause clashes and you might even get both players playing different songs at the same time via Bluetooth.
MyFiles.apk -- YES. This is the default file viewer installed by Samsung. If you use RootExplorer, this is kind of pointless. However, I sometime do things on the go and need to access things fast. I usually use this for everyday use and leave RootExplorer just to do alterations such as what we are doing in this list, so as to not delete important things by accident.
NetworkLocation.apk -- YES. This is the semi-accurate GPS simulation. It uses Cellphone Cell information to estimate your location, rather than using the battery hog GPS antenna. If you remove this, things like automatic weather location will be broken (you´ll have to input your location manually). I usually leave this on, because since it uses the very GSM network used by the phone, it seems like hitting two birds with one stone. Using the real GPS will force you to have two antennas working together. This wastes a lot of battery, and really most of the time the network location does a pretty good job of narrowing down your location. If you use GPS A LOT, I recommed just buying one of those TomToms or Garmin GPS, it has better maps, better accuracy and the very device is optimized to use only the GPS antenna, therefore wasting less battery, and not wasting your phone battery life.
OtaProvisioningService.apk -- NO. According to insanity, this is required. However see wssyncmlnps.apk to get more of an idea.
PackageInstaller.apk -- NO.
Personalization.apk -- NO.
Phone.apk -- NO. Remove this and you won´t have the dialer application. Even though your phone will theoretically work, you just won´t be able to dial out or view missed calls and stuff.
PhoneCrashNotifier.apk -- ?. Don´t know, my phone doesn´t have this.
PhoneErrService.apk -- NO.
Phone_Util.apk -- NO.
PicoTts.apk -- YES. This is part of the text to speech (not speech to text). If you´re blind, this is kind of important, because the phone will read via a a robotic voice things to you. This is also part of the Google GPS application where it will tell you "turn left" "keep right". If you remove this, GPS navigation will work, you just won´t have someone talking to you. If you decide to remove this, remove TtsService.apk as well.
Preconfig.apk -- NO.
RilFactoryApp.apk -- ?. The galaxy 3 seems to be the only phone in the world that has this. Nowhere I have seen is this apk mentioned. I have no idea what this does.
SamsungApps.apk -- YES. Samsung apps, if you remove this, you can remove signin.apk as well. If you remove this, and you manage your music and have apps via Kies, they might not work, however Kies will still connect (if you want to update firmware via Kies). By removing this, your samsung and touchwiz widgets will still work.
SamsungWidget_CalendarClock.apk -- YES. Calendar clock widget.
SamsungWidget_FeedAndUpdate.apk -- YES. Feeds and Updates widget.
SamsungWidget_StockClock.apk -- YES. Stock clock widget.
SamsungWidget_WeatherClock.apk -- YES. Weather clock widget.
SecDownloadProvider.apk -- NO. I believe this has to do with the maket, so I´d just leave it alone.
serviceModeApp.apk -- NO. Required for secret codes and service tasks, such as those accessed by secret codes.
Settings.apk -- NO. Isn´t settings explicit enough?
SettingsProvider.apk -- NO. Some Carriers will send you settings via sms or internal message. This is mostly for those people who don´t really know how to configure their phone (anyone not reading XDA ). Although it seems banal, it could be useful at some point, and some people have reported things force closing because of this
SetupWizard.apk -- NO. In theory can be deleted after first successful boot. However this could cause problems if you need to factory reset
shutdown.apk -- NO. Tells you your battery is low and manages shutdown notifications.
signin.apk -- YES. See SamsungApps.apk
SisoDrmProvider.apk -- NO. Has to do with the DRM. If you successfully manage to remove DRMUA and DRMService, maybe this can be removed as well. Don´t know, haven´t been able to rid my phone from drm still.
SnsAccount.apk -- YES. Does the feeds sync with facebook and twitter. Without this, you won´t be informed of new tweets of your friends saying "OMG! I´m at the toilet reading cosmo magazine. LOLZ".
SnsProvider.apk -- YES. See above.
SoundPlayer.apk -- YES. This, not to be confused with MusicPlayer.apk plays sounds and previews ringtones. Even though it can be removed, you´ll be pretty limited if you do, since it works a bit faster and to the point than MusicPlayer. It doesn´t genera playlist, history and has no visualization. It just plain to the point plays sounds. Even if you have Winamp, PowerAMP, cubed or whatever I recommend keeping this.
Stk.apk -- YES. You know those annoying menus your carrier offers you, you know, to inform you about your hororscope (no I didn´t misspell it), roaming information or traffic information, making you send a message so they can send you the info back? This is the menu apk for that. Don´t want to download your carrier (payed) games or apps telling you bad jokes? Delete this.
Street.apk -- YES. Streetview for Google Maps. Removing it will not break google maps, but you won´t get to view street pictures.
Swype.apk -- YES. Swype keyboard, and awesome alternative to samsung´s. It does a good job at predicting text, but not essential if you like to manually type all words out.
syncmldm.apk -- YES. Device Management. I read something somewhere but don´t really remember what it was. I deleted this accidentally while trying to delete syncmlds.apk but nothing has broken yet...
syncmlds.apk -- YES. This has to do with the Synchronize page options in the settings menu. If you don´t use it, it has no meaning in your life.
Talk.apk -- YES. Google Talk. There was some chatter about removing this breaking Gmail or the Market. As far as I´ve read, this can be removed, although I still haven´t gotten around to trying it out.
TalkProvider.apk -- YES. See above.
TelephonyProvider.apk -- NO.
thinkdroid.apk -- YES. This is the mobile version of a microsoft office clone. Removing this will not let you open .doc or .xls or .pps on your phone.
TouchWiz30Launcher.apk -- NO. Even though if you use Zeam or LauncherPro or GoLauncher, removing this is kind of dangerous. Let me explain. A while ago when I was a virgin at ODIN flashing and new to the phone, i deleted this because I was using LauncherPRO. I had also deleted something that made my phone force close all the time. I didn´t trust flashing yet, and in my haste, I decided to restore factory settings. The thing is, when you do that, it deletes all non stock apps and reconfigures the phone to use stock apps. When I that, even though the phone booted, I couldn´t access anything, because launchers also control the appdrawer. My phone was literally blank, although if was working. The problem is, if you factory reset, the settings that control your USB connection as MODEM or PDA go back to its original settings. As mine did. So I couldn´t get to anywhere on my phone and couldn´t get my computer to recognize the phone. Until I flashed it via Odin (after a 7 hour desperation overnight, and finding some miracle Samsung USB x64 drivers for mobile phones on a forum) the phone was in effect soft bricked.
If you remove anything from this list and have problems, you can factory reset or prepare you contacts and apps for a flashing via ODIN. If you delete however, you won´t even be able to prepare yourself or backup anything. I wish this upon no one, so I advise keeping this, just to be on the safe side.
TouchWizCalculator.apk -- YES. Calculator app, although can be removed, it´s pretty cool and functional.
TouchWizCalendar.apk -- YES. Calendar app, although can be removed, it´s pretty cool and functional.
TouchWizCalendarProvider.apk -- NO. This has something to do with calendar sync and seems to be the connection between the calendar app and the phone´s internal calendar and date settings.
TtsService.apk -- YES. See PicoTts.apk
TwWallpaperChooser.apk -- YES. Wallpaper Chooser. If you have 3DGallery or QuickPic installed, you can use those to set wallpaper, even though there are some wallpapers (internal to this apk) you won´t get.
UNAService.apk -- ?. I have no idea what this is, and so doesn´t insanity.
UserDictionaryProvider.apk -- YES. You know when you add new words, like names and nicknames to your keyboard prediction? This is where those are kept. Delete this and you´ll have to write like the English Academy of Words wants you to write. LOLZ and WTF won´t be recognized as words and you´ll have to write them out everytime you write them, rather than it being available to you via prediction.
Vending.apk -- NO. Part of the Android Market. Actually this IS the Market.
VideoPlayer.apk -- YES. Video player. Do as you wish.
VoiceDialer.apk -- YES. Allows you to dial by speaking someone´s name. Most people´s names when I say them, tend to return something entirely different from what I was looking for. Sometimes though, it surprises. For some reason this sometimes doesn´t work if you don´t have mobile internet activated, making me believe this actually sends via internet the recording, and an algorith somewhere in the Google empire sends the decodification back... Very ineffective.
VoiceRecorder.apk -- YES. Allows you to record your voice. Some people complain the quality is too low, however I use this as a notepad, rather than writing my to-do list, I speak them. Much faster and much easier. Don´t see why something such as this would need audiophile levels of quality.
VpnServices.apk -- YES. VPN for Android. Perhaps gMote or applications that allow you to control your phone via PC desktop might require this. I don´t , so I delete it, and it doesn´t break anything.
wipereceiver.apk -- YES. Remember mobile tracker? This is the apk that lets you wipe your data remotely.
WlanTest.apk -- YES. Tests wireless settings, via the same test menu mentioned on the above test apks. Required for OTA updates.
WriteandGo.apk -- YES. Write and Go application.
wssomacp.apk -- NO. Required for SMS messaging.
wssyncmlnps.apk -- YES. This is Over The Air Programming. What this does is if your provider decides it has a better way to configure your device or alterations to do to improve something, they´ll send you a message telling to dial such and such number. Your phone will go into download mode and somethings will be updated. My carrier never has done such things, and really I trust the guys from XDA to configure my phone way better than my carrier. I usually remove this.
YouTube.apk -- YES. Since android has limited flash support, this application allows you to take the full youtube experience, rather than having to access youtube through the browser. Delete it if you don´t watch videos.
thanks! really helpful!
Thanks bro nice one
Sent from my GT-S5360 using xda premium
that list needs a rename of some sort. There's apps there that my phone doesn't have or are named different, making it very difficult to follow along which apps to remove and which to keep.
i felt like reading a bible
nice one
nice i will try this.
i'm afraid this list is outdated. we already have the updated one for sgy.
kurotsugi said:
i'm afraid this list is outdated. we already have the updated one for sgy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes friend i found it other forum ..so.i posted hare.....plz pm me updated one i update my thread with credit.....
Sent from my GT-S6102 using Tapatalk 2
you can check the newest one on FAQ section.
Thanks bro. It's helpful.
wo ho ho...
such a long list ...
nice...
but ut reminds me of somethimg that i want to ask..
recently my phone was auto-bricked ...
i was not able to acces any apps like dialler or msgs...
however menu and home screen were working...
but after some time..
evem home screen force close..
nd my phone shows nothing else than black screen....
thought restart gonna make everything okay i made a restart..
nd boom..soft brick..
odin made it back to life but i still want to know what was the reason..
was it because these apps got del. bythemself...
can a virus do that.?
(just to be sure)...
rooting is new for me...and i am noob to root...
check this out :
very reliable !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wohooo....gonna update my script to this
Checkout my signature
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1993601
tagged thread on the same subject
Thank You Sir! It's pretty helpful
Nice work
Very helpful
Can u tell me why some apps force closes when installed in system??
Sent from my GT-S5360
Ohh yes..
Good job man.
Helpful.
Sent from Earth
Accidentally deleted account&sync by titanium backup
Dear sir accidentally i deleted account&sync by titanium backup and when i install new account&sync.apk it was not installing .Please help me ASAP.
10-3-21: As of late September 2021, Google has denied login access to devices older than Android 3 (Honeycomb). That pretty much puts the kibosh on the presence of GApps on the NST/G. You get login errors for existing accounts every time you connect to WiFi. Even Maps misbehaves. If you have a pre-GApps backup you can get rid of GApps easily. If not...I'll be working on a removal strategy and will post it in this thread when I get it done. I have removed all the linked downloads and instructional material from this post. No point encouraging people to mess us their devices. It really is over.
Removing GApps from your NST/G
The easiest way to do this, as mentioned above, is to revert to a pre-GApps backup. If you have one that does not mean you would be happy to go back there because a lot may have been done since then. That is my case, so here's a guide to manual removal. You'll need a good file manager with root access (ES File Explorer is what I used) and you may want sqlite, although I don't think it is absolutely needed. More on that later.
1. Navigate to /system/app. Remove this entire list of apks (you may not have all of them, but remove those you do). If your file manager allows you to multi-select files for an operation, I encourage you to do so. Otherwise, at least one of the removals is likely to cause a soft reboot.
GoogleApps
GoogleBackupTransport (may cause soft reboot)
GoogleCheckin
GooglePartnerSetup
GoogleSettingsProvider
GoogleSubscriberFeedsProvider
gtalkservice
Maps
NetworkLocation
SetupWizard
Street
Vending
2. Navigate to /system/framework and remove:
com.google.android.gtalkservice.jar
com.google.android.datamessaging.jar
(you can also remove the jar file related to Maps, if you wish, but this is one of the files needed to run any of the Tasker-generated apps I have made, so I left it. It does nothing if you leave it there, but Tasker--or a "kid" app--always looks for it and will not install without it.)
3. Navigate to to /system/etc/permissions and remove:
com.google.android.gtalkservice.xml
com.google.android.datamessaging.xml
(same deal as above on the xml file related to Maps)
4. Navigate to /data/system/sync. Inspect the file "accounts.xml". It's just plain text, so try to do this on your device but otherwise copy it out to your PC to have a look at it. It should be "empty", looking like this:
Code:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8' standalone='yes' ?>
If there's anything else there, delete it until your file looks like above. Be sure to save any changes.
Delete "pending.bin" if it exists.
[Wishing you just reverted to a pre-Gapps backup yet?]
5. Navigate to /data/data and remove all the folders listed. Again, you may not have every one of these, but remove those you do. Note, if you installed either Maps or Street as user apps, these can just be uninstalled with the App Manager.
com.android.setupwizard
com.android.vending
com.google.android.apps.gtalkservice
com.google.android.apps.maps
com.google.android.apps.backup
com.google.android.apps.gm
com.google.android.apps.googleapps
com.google.android.apps.location
com.google.android.apps.partnersetup
com.google.android.apps.providers.gmail
com.google.android.apps.providers.settings
com.google.android.apps.providers.subscribedfeeds
com.google.android.apps.servercheckin
com.google.android.street
6. Navigate to /data/dalvik-cache and remove all the files there corresponding to ALL of the apks and jars you removed in steps 1 and 2.
7. Reboot.
After I had done all of this I was surprised to see zero-byte "ghosts" in the App Manager for the system apps I had removed (and in the user app section!). So I went through and "uninstalled" them all. You cannot, in case you are wondering, just change the filter on the App Manager so you can see the system apps and uninstall them that way. There is no "uninstall" option for system apps.
Optional
When GApps was installed, patched copies of two files: services.jar and framework.jar were copied onto the device (/system/framework). These were patched mainly to establish device ID's and allow the SetupWizard to work. These minor changes seem to have no other effects. You may find that during GApps installation the original files were renamed as "service.jar.gappsorig" or similar. If that's the case, you could delete the patched ones and rename the old "gappsorig" ones. If you do this, you should delete the entries in the dalvik-cache as well and reboot.
Finally, accounts.db still holds information about whatever Google accounts you had on the device. Again, this probably is not really an issue. If you want to remove these entries, you will need a copy of sqlite3. Check /system/bin. If you have it, you're good to go. Otherwise, you need to download a copy, move it into /system/bin, set permissions to rwx r-x r-x and reboot. Sqlite is accessed within the adb shell. So establish an adb connection with your device (USB or WiFi, doesn't matter) and execute the following:
adb shell
sqlite3 /data/system/accounts.db "DELETE from accounts WHERE name LIKE [email protected];"
.q
reboot
Of course you substitute your account for "myacct".
Mea culpa
When I put together the update package for NTGAppsAttack I just assumed that the patched jars for FW 1.2.1 (framework.jar and services.jar) would be the same for FW 1.2.2. And, in fact, I've not had any issues yet.
But in tracking down an, as it now turns out, unrelated issue, I had cause to look more closely at the jars from the two firmwares. They are close, but not identical. This made me a little nervous because I don't want to mess up peoples' devices
So, with guidance from @Renate NST I have patched the jars from FW 1.2.2. These can now be found at the attachment section of the first post in this thread.
The good news is that you don't need to reinstall GApps. You can just "hot swap" these files:
Code:
adb push framework.jar /system/framework/
adb push services.jar /system/framework/
After I had done that I deleted the dalvik-cache files for the same two jars (found in /data/dalvik-cache near the end of the listings), and then completely shut down. Boot on powering up is alarmingly slow, but it does happen and then everything is back to normal.
As always, you might want to make a back-up first if doing this makes you a little nervous. Or, you could just ignore the whole thing. It may not matter.
Changes added to first post.
nmyshkin said:
It's ironic that I picked up this project since I've been posting about the death of GApps for the NST/G and telling people who ask that calendars, contacts, etc., won't sync--never mind the loss of the old Market. Back in 2013 when @straygecko brought GApps to the NST/G in a nice, neat package minus the hand-waving of previous schemes it was a great thing. But time and Google have been unkind to the package.
I thought about the issue only a little, although each time someone asked about some feature or described some ill-fated attempt to sign in I wondered a little what they were experiencing, unwilling to sacrifice my installation to find out. Then I got my second NST.
NTGAppsAttack is back.
Well, maybe it should be called NTGAppsSkirmish. In my wanderings I was lucky to come across an old CM5 ROM as well as several sets of GApps for the HTC "Passion" device. I spent a lot of time reading in the Nook Color forum (Eclair was the initial OS) and this forum. I tried a LOT of things. Some worked. Some didn't.
What works
Upsync (from the device to Google) for Contacts and Calendar (and, of course, Gmail)
Downsync (from Google to the device) for Contacts and Calendar (and Gmail)
Network location
Maps and Street
Potentially other apps that work with Google account sync and/or use NetworkLocation
What doesn't work
The stock contacts app (yes, I found one--finally)
Autocompletion of email addresses in ANY mail client I tried (Gmail, K-9, stock)
Market
Google Books
Google Drive
Just about everything else
What can be worked around
Go Contacts EX 1.0 works fine as a contacts replacement but only for the principal Google account.
Yalp Store makes an excellent replacement for Market (really, it's better).
Edit: Yalp Store appears dead as of June 2019. Word has it the developer has abandoned the app.
The stock calendar is really pitiful. Hard to believe anyone ever thought that would be useful. aCalendar works and looks great.
How to update NTGappsAttack
The biggest hurdle seems to be getting the custom addon installed properly on the NookManager card. Lots of questions about this in the original thread. I have to say it was not clear to me as a noob years back and even when I recently returned to it I had to scratch my head a bit. So here's what to do:
1. Download NTGappsAttack.zip from the original thread.
2. Insert your prepared NookManager card into the card reader slot of your PC.
3. Unzip the NTGappsAttack file with the destination being the root of the NookManager card.
(In other words, don't copy the zip file to the card, don't unzip to your PC and copy the result to the card. Don't do anything except let your PC unzip the file and dump the contents onto the NookManager card without your intervention. This allows the folders/files to merge on the card and sets things up where they belong.)
Once the original NTGappsAttack is installed onto the NookManager card, you can update the GApps files:
1. Download the zip attached below which contains additional/replacement/optional GApps.
2. Place the NookManager card in the card reader slot of your PC.
3. Remove the following GApps from custom/files/NTGAppsAttack/gapps/system/app:
--Calendar
--GenieWidget
--Gmail
--GmailProvider
--MarketUpdate
--Talk
--TalkProvider
4. Replace/add the following apps from the zip file I have provided (the ones marked with * are optional)
--Gmail
--GmailProvider
--Maps*
--NetworkLocation*
--Street*
Of course, Calculator in the original package is also "optional".
If you are installing GApps on a FW 1.2.1 system, the patched jars that came with the package are fine. However, if you have previously patched your framework.jar for full spectrum audio recording via USB Audio, the patched jar from GApps will overwrite your file. To address this, I have attached below a copy of framework.jar with both patches. You can copy this into custom/files/NTGAppsAttack/1.2/system/framework, overwriting the file already present.
If you are installing GApps on a FW 1.2.2 system, the patched jars for FW 1.2.1 that came with the package are similar but not identical to the jars from FW 1.2.2 (especially framework.jar). I initially used these old files on a FW 1.2.2 system with no problems, but as I have prepared a set of patched files for FW 1.2.2, you might as well replace the ones on the card with the ones provided in the zip file below. Copy them into custom/files/NTGAppsAttack/1.2/system/framework, overwriting the files already present. The framework.jar in the zip is also patched for audio recording. If you never use USB Audio, it doesn't matter, but if you decide to someday, it will save you a step.
Installing NTGAppsAttack and signing in
BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP!!!!
DID YOU MAKE A BACKUP?!
1. Start WiFi
2. Shut down NST/G
3. Insert NookManager card with NTGAppsAttack
4. Power on NST/G
5. No to Wireless
6. More
7. Custom
8. Install NTGappsAttack
9. Back
10. Back
11. Exit
12. Wait for reboot (long time...so long it goes to screensaver...gave me the heebie-jeebies the first time...)
13. If Wifi does not start, start it, being careful not to touch rest of screen.
14. Touch Android
15. Begin
16. Next
17. Skip (no sign-in or new accounts)
18. Google Location options: YOU MUST CHECK BOTH
19. Next (Setup closes)
21. Open Gmail
22. Using Menu button access "Accounts"
23. Add account--the primary Google account you want to use for the device
24. Sign-in
25. Gmail closes and you may catch "signed-in" flashing by at the top of the screen; sync arrows show in status bar
26. If you have a second (or more) account to add, sign in. You'll see the various sync options. Check/uncheck the ones you want. If something fails to sync, uncheck it and check it again until it syncs. (Anytime you want to check an account for sync options, just add a "new" account but make it the same one. It won't add again, but you'll see the sync options. Make sure all you want have synced. Might as well check the initial account you started with while you're there. Make sure everything you want synced.)
27. Exit Gmail.
*Ignore the Market app. I left it in because during my testing I noticed the system wondering about it (logcat) when I had left it out. So it's there, but just to keep the system mollified.*
Getting things working
Contacts
Install the Go Contacts Ex 1.0 app I have attached below. It's the only thing I could find that syncs in both directions and doesn't crash. However, stay away from the Backup and Recovery/Account Sync settings. These will cause a reboot because of the tight security around accounts.db that B&N built into the device. Gmail is the only way into those settings.
If you enter a new contact or edit one on the device, upsync is almost immediate. Downsync is another matter. This is the most reluctant of the apps to sync and the only one that does not have a manual sync option. A solution under "Sync" below.
Calendar
I'm not a calendar user myself, so I can only go on what is pleasing to my eyes and what seems to behave logically. I think aCalendar is good (attached below). It will pick up the calendar from your primary account as well as holidays, etc. It also seems to want to sync contacts although I'm not sure what the calendar wants with those. Like Go Contacts, upsync of events you generate on the device seems to be nearly instantaneous (and "silent"--no sync arrows). Unlike Go Contacts, there is a manual sync option if you're in a hurry.
Gmail
Settings for Gmail are pretty much like those of the stock email app, although there is no "check mail" frequency setting since Gmail is supposed to sync at random when mail becomes known to the server. Supposed to... It has a manual sync ("refresh") option. You can set a signature for each account. You can decide which mail folders are synced and how many days worth of mail is synced. Unlike the version in the original GApps package, this one appears to be OK, continuing to send mail reliably.
Reading through the Nook Color forum it is clear that autocomplete of email addresses in the To: field bedeviled the early hackers. They suggested a lot of kludges, none of which worked on the NST. With FW 1.2.2 there is a teasing grey bar that appears when you type two or three letters of an email address that is in the contacts, but nothing happens when you tap on the bar. With FW 1.2.1 there is no grey bar. So that's a project for someone. I used up my spare little grey cells on this particular issue. You can, of course, open your contacts and choose one to send mail to.
Maps and Street
When I first discovered a NetworkLocation app in one of the GApps packages I thought "oh, that will never work". There was also a Maps app so I just put them into one of my test batches and...it worked! That's actually pretty amazing. The location accuracy is perhaps not the best (I've gotten anywhere from 30 to 100 m reported), but it's still pretty crazy. The first Maps I tried was nice in that the streets actually had names, unlike the version of Maps you can still get for Android 2.1 from the Yalp Store. But this version was so old that Places had not yet been integrated. Also missing was the ability to pre-cache map areas for off-line use. So I went searching.
I finally came up with a good version with visible street names, Places, and a Labs option for pre-caching (and these don't expire, unlike in the current PlayStore Maps version). Directions also work.
The first Street app I had didn't run at all and I had pretty much given up--I mean, it's pretty silly--until I came across one more package and decided, what the heck? Sure enough, it actually worked.
Edit: some people have expressed frustration with Street, indicating that it is often greyed-out or simply gives a black screen. I recently discovered two things: 1) it does not have to be installed as a system app, i.e., you can install as a user app, and 2) it never fails to show starred (favorited--is that a word?!) places. I'm not sure whether that is intentional or just the vagaries of all these disparate GApps trying to work together, but if you add a place as a favorite and then call it up from your favorites list, Street will not be greyed-out and will actually show what you want to see. Who knew?
Maps can be pretty CPU hungry. It likes to annoy with messages like "Application Maps is having a hissy fit. Do you want to wait or force close?" (paraphrase ). I have a "solution" that, while somewhat draconian, works well: turn it off when not using it. I've written a little toggle app that alternately disables and enables/launches Maps. So you need to remember to tap the icon again when you are finished with Maps, but if you can get into the habit you will have the use of Maps without the annoyance of Maps. Attached below, "Google Maps". Use this to launch Maps (which may in fact disappear from your app drawer when disabled, but will return when enabled).
Sync
Now we get to the make-or-break part. Upsync from contacts, calendar and Gmail (sending) works like it should. It's "silent" (no arrows) and appears to be nearly immediate. Downsync is reluctant, at best. I've seen it happen on its own, perhaps twice in one day, but not always. The app Quick Sync (attached below) is a one-touch app with no settings that forces a manual sync of all accounts it finds on the device. I tried a variety of other apps (Synker is popular) but none worked as reliably as Quick Sync. Still, it's kind of lame, right? Wouldn't it be better if the NST/G behaved like the big boy's (and girl's) toys and did a quick sync when Wifi started? Yes!
I've made two apps to address this. Download and install one or the other. The attached app WiFiSync runs the Quick Settings dialog just like normal but adds an auto-run of Quick Sync after an appropriate pause. Use NookTouch ModManager to assign the app to "Clock" (that's the absolute last entry of the various buttons that can be reassigned). This generally updates everything although occasionally contacts are sulky and you may need to tap on the Quick Sync app and give it another go, but typically not.
The WiFiMenu_Sync is a special edition of my WiFi Menu app and functions as described in the link but also does an auto-run of Quick Sync. Also best when assigned to the "Clock" using NTMM.
*Even if you decide later not to use it, you should install and run WiFiSync or WiFiMenu_Sync at least once, if only by tapping on the icon. On first run it sets the AutoSync flag just in case it didn't get done in all the previous to-do. There's no other way to access this setting.*
Edit: one more option, my Quick Tiles app includes a WiFi/sync option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am going to use this in my office for the calendar feature to access my appointments quickly via the awesome, low energy, easy on the eyes e-ink of the nook. Thanks so much for everything you do!
---------- Post added at 07:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:27 PM ----------
@nmyshkin If I want to keep the stock calendar app, will that cause any problems? If I don't like it, can I remove it without issues?
ALinkToTao said:
If I want to keep the stock calendar app, will that cause any problems? If I don't like it, can I remove it without issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try out the stock calendar app without any issues. As long as the calendar sync app is enabled, it should work OK. If you decide against it later, simply remove the app from /system/app and reboot. For complete cleanup, also delete the stock app folder from /data/data/app and also the cache for the app from /data/dalvik-cache
Thanks, man.
@nmyshkin I've been playing with this, and it's working really well for my purposes. Paired with USB host and a keyboard, it's a great energy efficient and distraction resistant tool for the office. The only issues I've seen so far are these:
1. I just installed the GoContacts app. (I didn't install it at the very beginning). For right now, it doesn't seem to want to sync. I tried forcing sync with your app. I feel like it will eventually work. Or perhaps maybe I should have installed it at the very beginning of this process?
2. The calendar works great-mostly. I use it in my office to quickly see my schedule at-a-glance for patients that are coming in. For some reason, it syncs 80 to 90% of the calendar entries from my google calendar, but not all of them. There will be holes in my schedule that aren't actually there. Every week there are often entries of 35 or more appointments. Perhaps there is a limit as to how much can be synced at once. The stock calendar app seems to work the best for my purposes. I have the aCalendar app as a back up as its features are different and still useful.
Thanks again for all the work you did on it. I'm definitely enjoying the benefits of it.
ALinkToTao said:
@nmyshkin I've been playing with this, and it's working really well for my purposes. Paired with USB host and a keyboard, it's a great energy efficient and distraction resistant tool for the office. The only issues I've seen so far are these:
1. I just installed the GoContacts app. (I didn't install it at the very beginning). For right now, it doesn't seem to want to sync. I tried forcing sync with your app. I feel like it will eventually work. Or perhaps maybe I should have installed it at the very beginning of this process?
2. The calendar works great-mostly. I use it in my office to quickly see my schedule at-a-glance for patients that are coming in. For some reason, it syncs 80 to 90% of the calendar entries from my google calendar, but not all of them. There will be holes in my schedule that aren't actually there. Every week there are often entries of 35 or more appointments. Perhaps there is a limit as to how much can be synced at once. The stock calendar app seems to work the best for my purposes. I have the aCalendar app as a back up as its features are different and still useful.
Thanks again for all the work you did on it. I'm definitely enjoying the benefits of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm afraid I'm not going to be of much help here. For me, contacts and calendar were an exercise to see if I could get things to work, given Google's abandonment of Android 2.1. I don't really use either, although I occasionally will use contacts to start up an email address I can't recall.
First, let me remind you that Go Contacts only will sync with contacts from the principal device account (so the first Google account you logged into GMail with). I just created a fake contact on my PC this morning as well as a fake calendar entry. Neither of them was picked up by just a simple wi-fi connection. Both were immediately picked up with a tap on QuickSync. I can't speak to the stock calendar app. Besides finding it difficult to read, I vaguely recall other issues. There were so many things to test, it's all pretty much magic now. So I settled on acalendar which I had seen someone recommend and found it to work as far as my testing went. Its manual "synchronize" function also brought up the new calendar event without the use of QuickSync.
As to multiple events, well I just didn't try whole bunches, so I just don't know.
Does Go Contacts not bring up anything? For settings, I have only Google accounts showing, but if you have contacts without phone numbers you'll need to include that also or you won't see any. I'm not sure about the "phone contacts" setting. Mine is unchecked. You just want to stay away from most of the other settings. Generally when I have installed the app it's already got all the contacts picked up by the time I get around to looking at it. I'm sorry I can't be of more help. The whole GApps thing is pretty weird in that anything works at all, but it's not of much use if it's not consistent for you.
nmyshkin said:
I'm afraid I'm not going to be of much help here. For me, contacts and calendar were an exercise to see if I could get things to work, given Google's abandonment of Android 2.1. I don't really use either, although I occasionally will use contacts to start up an email address I can't recall.
First, let me remind you that Go Contacts only will sync with contacts from the principal device account (so the first Google account you logged into GMail with). I just created a fake contact on my PC this morning as well as a fake calendar entry. Neither of them was picked up by just a simple wi-fi connection. Both were immediately picked up with a tap on QuickSync. I can't speak to the stock calendar app. Besides finding it difficult to read, I vaguely recall other issues. There were so many things to test, it's all pretty much magic now. So I settled on acalendar which I had seen someone recommend and found it to work as far as my testing went. Its manual "synchronize" function also brought up the new calendar event without the use of QuickSync.
As to multiple events, well I just didn't try whole bunches, so I just don't know.
Does Go Contacts not bring up anything? For settings, I have only Google accounts showing, but if you have contacts without phone numbers you'll need to include that also or you won't see any. I'm not sure about the "phone contacts" setting. Mine is unchecked. You just want to stay away from most of the other settings. Generally when I have installed the app it's already got all the contacts picked up by the time I get around to looking at it. I'm sorry I can't be of more help. The whole GApps thing is pretty weird in that anything works at all, but it's not of much use if it's not consistent for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I tried changing it to Google only, and it still isn't syncing. No problem, man. I really appreciate it. I'm seeing which functions are working smoothly and keeping those only.
Is there any version of Google books with syncing that works?
And also gDrive?
And does it make a difference if it's UK version or US version?
Thanks
frittahubris said:
Is there any version of Google books with syncing that works?
And also gDrive?
And does it make a difference if it's UK version or US version?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, and no, and no. Sorry.
That's a shame. Are there any eReader apps that have syncing that work with this mod? Otherwise I don't see much use for this unless it's your only reading device.
frittahubris said:
That's a shame. Are there any eReader apps that have syncing that work with this mod? Otherwise I don't see much use for this unless it's your only reading device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that FBReader can use your Google Drive to sync books. I have tried it recently and it works. It's all handled within the reader app so you don't actually need a functioning Google Drive app on the device. I believe that AlReader also has this function.
Edit: here are instructions that worked for me with FBReader: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3957311