Develop Bugs

[Q] Which Sprint & Sense apps can I remove without borking my phone?

I want to remove the following from my phone;
Footprints,
Friendstream,
Teeter,
Stocks,
Peep,
HTC Mobile Guide,
News & Weather,
Weather
But when I go in through TB to uninstall I get a message saying that these are system packages and uninstalling them can trash things.
What effect will this really have my phone? Do I need any of them? I don't think I've ever used any of them, and don't think I will, although I do have facebook synced, and I use Beautiful Widgets for weather.

I used Titanium Backup to remove all of the aforementioned programs plus the Mobile NFL app. I would not touch anything related to the weather though since I have no idea what effect that would have on the rest of the system because I have not tried it myself.
One thing I can definitely tell you not to remove is anything and I mean ANYTHING related to Google Talk. I can tell you from experience how badly removing Talk can f'up your phone. The Market, as well other major apps and functions somehow all seem to be tied in with it for what reason I do not know (wtf Google?!).
You will lose Market if you remove Talk!
That said, before you remove anything, I suggest you back it up. TB will even allow you to "Freeze" an app before removing it to see what effect the removal will have.
Best of luck removing the bloatware!

bludragon742 said:
I used Titanium Backup to remove all of the aforementioned programs plus the Mobile NFL app. I would not touch anything related to the weather though since I have no idea what effect that would have on the rest of the system because I have not tried it myself.
One thing I can definitely tell you not to remove is anything and I mean ANYTHING related to Google Talk. I can tell you from experience how badly removing Talk can f'up your phone. The Market, as well other major apps and functions somehow all seem to be tied in with it for what reason I do not know (wtf Google?!).
You will lose Market if you remove Talk!
That said, before you remove anything, I suggest you back it up. TB will even allow you to "Freeze" an app before removing it to see what effect the removal will have.
Best of luck removing the bloatware!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm curious what kinds of ill effects you saw from removing Talk? I wonder if HTC may have changed the integration of Talk within froyo, as I have seen no ill effects from removing talk. Maybe there is some kind of heinous error I am overlooking?

bludragon742 said:
I used Titanium Backup to remove all of the aforementioned programs plus the Mobile NFL app. I would not touch anything related to the weather though since I have no idea what effect that would have on the rest of the system because I have not tried it myself.
One thing I can definitely tell you not to remove is anything and I mean ANYTHING related to Google Talk. I can tell you from experience how badly removing Talk can f'up your phone. The Market, as well other major apps and functions somehow all seem to be tied in with it for what reason I do not know (wtf Google?!).
You will lose Market if you remove Talk!
That said, before you remove anything, I suggest you back it up. TB will even allow you to "Freeze" an app before removing it to see what effect the removal will have.
Best of luck removing the bloatware!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the input - I'm trying to nail down an app that seems to be draining my battery, and I don't know what it is.

HTC/Google may well have changed the integration in FroYo but I know in Eclair everything was tied in with it. I'm going to freeze it and see what happens.
Edit: It appears the GTalk provider that was heavily integrated into previous versions of Android is no longer included in FroYo making it possible to safely remove the Talk app. Woo-hoo!
nukedukem said:
I'm curious what kinds of ill effects you saw from removing Talk? I wonder if HTC may have changed the integration of Talk within froyo, as I have seen no ill effects from removing talk. Maybe there is some kind of heinous error I am overlooking?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I rooted my phone and kept the stock Eclair for about 2 weeks, till I had the time to check out the roms. I removed all of those AND GOOGLE TALK immediately after rooting. I never received the 1st error/problem from uninstalling Talk. If I remember correctly, there were 2 Talk items(service and storage...I think) that I removed. If you only removed 1, maybe that's where there errors were coming from.
I also removed it in a stock Froyo with no negative effects.
EDIT: Didn't remove the weather though. I left that on.

When I was on stock Eclair I removed both the service provider and the app which caused the Market and other system apps to stop working. How many times do I have to repeat myself? Look it up, it is a common issue!

When I was on stock Eclair I removed both the service provider and the app which caused ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to stop working. The Market and other system apps WORKED PERFECTLY FINE. How many times do I have to repeat myself? I don't need to look it up, it was not an issue for me!......as it may not be for some others......

Whoooa there seems to be some blue-dispute going on in here! My money's on the dragon cause a dragon would take a beast any day. J/K guys...
Seriously though, OP you can remove all the ones you've listed safely except the last two weather and news/weather. I don't know how your phone would react because I've never removed those. You could make a custom rom yourself based off one of the stock roms and remove everything you think you want gone and then nandroid your current rom and flash the experimental and see what shakes loose. Just an idea.

Using Launcher Pro, looking to uninstall unneeded Sense

Since I use Launcher Pro instead of the default sense I was wondering if someone could let me know which things would be safe to uninstall?
So far..
Rosie.apk

POQbum said:
Since I use Launcher Pro instead of the default sense I was wondering if someone could let me know which things would be safe to uninstall?
So far..
Rosie.apk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've done this same thing, removed all HTC* and Sense* apps and services from my phone. I staged it using Titanium to freeze them all first, then after a week of no crashes, no FC's , and having the kernel I wanted, I removed them all.
The problem I'm having is how to convey this info to you. Titanium backup will produce a list but it seems a bug will only list the user apps, not the system ones in the resultant email.
I think I could just do a complete listing from adb of the content of /system/app, and you can diff it with your own to produce things that do no harm when removed.
If you're interested, let me know. There is , I think, no "sense" left when done with this. Compared to say the Rom called Senseless R., it has much less apps & services (that are all social networking garbage) installed and it runs very well. Normally, at any given time, it is running 8-18 services & apps, compared to ~50-60 before I did this.
I guess I'd rather make my own mistakes then install someone else's. (which might make you think twice about doing anything I recommend )
Of course, as always, do a full nandroid backup before starting on this type of thing. Remove one wrong thing and you're likely not going to be able to reboot, but I think if you freeze them first with TB, then you might be able to boot using 'safe mode' (see XDA) and still unfreeze the culprit keeping it from rebooting (use logcat to figure it out if you can).
--

Thanks for the tips.
I'm using 'root uninstaller' that shows all apps and 'com.android' stuff.
I did a full backup and am experimenting uninstalling different things.
One of the .htc uninstalls resulted in crashing mms, 3g and just about anything major like the dialer.
Slowly and surely I'm doing a full backup everytime I get to a point where I uninstalled a few things and everything still works great.
I haven't been keeping track of exactly what I've been uninstalling so I guess I can't help out anyone in the future :/

[Q] Have question after root

I finally got the nerve up to root. Wow simple thanks to all the advice here at XDA.
Now, the question, and yes some what of a noob , but hey, I rooted, with no questions. LOL
I was under the impression that the Sprint bloatware, when removed with Titanium would free up storage (internal).
I have deleted , football, kindle and a couple others and have not seen any change.
And also what is safe to remove. I followed a link and it showed about 8 progs.
Thanks to all, I am a real good computer hacker. going back to the 90's, but for some reason get nervous doing the phones.
BTW love my EVO
had g-1 and nexus 1

It should show for internal however the apps you are removing might not be that big.
You can remove sprint TV, voicemail, football, nascar, (sense), radio, sprint app updater, Nova, Amazon mp3, stocks,all corresponding Widgets, basically everything sprint puts on the phone. One thing to remember is you need peep if you sync Facebook otherwise you will constant sync.

Thanks for the reply. How about you tube?

You could also flash a different ROM. I know from reading that there are close to stock ROMs that have all of the bloatware removed & even in some cases, Sense, but they're still Sense-based ROMs. I stuck with stock for a while, but finally switched to Cyanogenmod & was amazed at the amount of free ram compared to stock. I'm not sure about internal storage, but I don't move any apps to the SD (even though I could move all of them, minus widgets, if I wanted) and I have a ton of apps downloaded with ~250mb left in internal storage. I'm not sure how this compares to you, or if you'd want to change ROMs, but I suggest making that jump.
Edit: YouTube is safe to remove. You should, however, freeze them instead of uninstalling if you want to stay on stock & potentially accept an ota update in the future. If you've already removed some, then go ahead and remove them all.

Thanks, I plan I flashing in the near future. But damn, there are so many to choose from. It does seem CM is popular. Right now (one step at a time) just getting rid of bloat and duplicates.

wd20293 said:
Thanks, I plan I flashing in the near future. But damn, there are so many to choose from. It does seem CM is popular. Right now (one step at a time) just getting rid of bloat and duplicates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess what I'm saying is, if you plan to flash anyway (at least in the near future), removing bloat is redundant. Custom ROMs don't have bloat installed anyway. I know it sounds like a daunting task, but with the right amount of general technological knowledge/experience you'll do just fine. I was nervous too but after my first flash, I switched recoveries (I prefer Amon Ra over CWM), flashed a custom font and a theme within a week.
Just be sure to make a backup, and if you don't like it or something goes wrong you can just switch back & you'll be right where you left off.
But if you're not ready or you don't want to, that's perfectly fine. If you need someone to guide you through it & help you with the step by step, feel free to pm me when you're ready. There are plenty of other members here that will do the same.

wd20293 said:
Thanks, I plan I flashing in the near future. But damn, there are so many to choose from. It does seem CM is popular. Right now (one step at a time) just getting rid of bloat and duplicates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was once a newbie, just to let you know out of all the roms. CM has been the best, super fast great battery life. and the best of all now it has 4G. Before it didnt however CM7 RC2 now supports it.
Flashing a new rom is super easy just reboot the phone into recovery, (holding down the power button and vol down button on boot) make sure you have your rom zip file on the SD and flash it. DONE reboot and enjoy.
You can backup your text messages but i dont because its just more stuff to reload on the phone
In other words JUST DO IT!! I've never looked back since i started to flash my phone. and i hope you dont either.

Ya like the guy said above , freeze the apps dont delete them. And as far as a rom goes i would recommend the Destroyed Gingerbread Rom.. it owns!!!

barnacles10 said:
It should show for internal however the apps you are removing might not be that big.
You can remove sprint TV, voicemail, football, nascar, (sense), radio, sprint app updater, Nova, Amazon mp3, stocks,all corresponding Widgets, basically everything sprint puts on the phone. One thing to remember is you need peep if you sync Facebook otherwise you will constant sync.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is news to me. Can you or someone elaborate on this? I removed Peep a long time ago and I haven't noticed any issues with Facebook.

Finally got the nerve, CM is on. Gotta go play, get back later with my experience of it.
Thanks for the encouragement to all, so simple. Ha ha

It doesn't matter quite as much now that you're on CM, but just FYI, deleting apps that came with the stock ROM (or any rom for that matter) usually doesn't give you more space to install other apps -- at least not directly. Your phone has different partitions. Apps you install go to /data. Apps that come with the rom are in /system. Deleting from /system doesn't give you any more in /data.
You will save a little space on /data because it won't store the dalvik cache of that app (at least it will if you remove it. I'm not sure if freezing keeps it from caching the dex).

so I've rooted my OGP. Now what?

Rooted it today. First android phone I've ever owned (though been jailbreaking since 2009).
I installed Ttanium Backup, and i think i backed up my apps and data, but not exactly sure where to, as i don't have an SD card in it yet. If I backed up to the phone, I'm guessing that's mostly useless. But I'm new to this stuff so i don't really know.
So, now that i have root access, what apps should i be installing?
What stuff should i be uninstalling or freezing?
What cool things can i now do that i couldn't do yesterday?
Anything specific to the OGP that i should or should not do?

andygold said:
Rooted it today. First android phone I've ever owned (though been jailbreaking since 2009).
I installed Ttanium Backup, and i think i backed up my apps and data, but not exactly sure where to as i don't have an SD card in it yet. If I backed up to the phone, I'm guessing that's mostly useless. But I'm new to this stuff so i don't really know.
So, now that i have root access, what apps should i be installing?
What stuff should i be uninstalling our freezing?
What cool things can i now do that i couldn't do yesterday?
Anything specific to the OGP that i should or should not do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can block ads, search adaway here on xda since Google recently rid the store of all ad blocking apps. You can use programs like sqlite editor to enable hotspot even if you're not subscribed to a plan that supports it. You can use xposed framework also here on xda (under our phones themes and apps) to apply themes to the phone. You can disable built in apps using titanium backup. Also, you should install Cwm under android development for our phone and make a nandroid backup in case you ever screw up your phone.
Best of all, you can install greenify root to make your battery last a lot longer. It hibernates apps for you that would normally run in the background.
When we have our bootloader unlocked is when the real fun will start though.
Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk 2

lessthanzach said:
You can block ads, search adaway here on xda since Google recently rid the store of all ad blocking apps. You can use programs like sqlite editor to enable hotspot even if you're not subscribed to a plan that supports it. You can use xposed framework also here on xda (under our phones themes and apps) to apply themes to the phone. You can disable built in apps using titanium backup. Also, you should install Cwm under android development for our phone and make a nandroid backup in case you ever screw up your phone.
Best of all, you can install greenify root to make your battery last a lot longer. It hibernates apps for you that would normally run in the background.
When we have our bootloader unlocked is when the real fun will start though.
Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you!
Couple more questions...I was able to do a search for adaway, and found it, but you mention (under our phones themes and apps), and could not find that. Is there a section that just has XDA Apps in it? All I was able to find was forums, and not repositories (don't know if that's the right word).
Basic newbie question...if an app is listed as being for Jellybean 4.1, can we use it even it was made for a Galaxy S3 for example? If it's Jellybean 4.1 is it good to go?
As to adaway...if you disable ads, will some programs refuse to run?
Is the hotspot app, safe for my phone bill?
If you "disable" apps using titanium backup, does it remove them from the phone, or just hide them? What is freezing an app? And if later you want to have them back (let's say for a trip to the cell store) are they readily returned to view?
I was under the impression (probably wrongly) that CWM at this point could brick our phone. Am I mistaken? And where does the nandroid backup get stored? Hopefully not on the phone...
I ask a lot of the above questions as being a new android user (2-weeks now), I'm clicking or checking out everything I see on the phone (and in the store(s) to learn about what it can do. I'm also installing a ton of apps that are new to me, and I've also gone to some non-Google Play stores to DL some stuff. I know that sooner or later I'm going to want to restore the phone to factory stock to get rid of conflicts, viruses (virii?), and anything that does not play well with other stuff. So, during this learning quest, I assume I'm going to frag the phone in some way, and will have the need to return it to stock (hopefully without needing to go back to the store)!!! I just want to have a bit of assurance that with everything I do, I can get back to stock.
Lastly, is there anything somewhat similar to iTunes that will make a restore a bit less time consuming. Is Titanium Backup what I"m searchnig for?

Wasn't aware of greenify root.. will give that one a go right now!
Sent from my LG-E980 using xda premium

lessthanzach said:
You can block ads, search adaway here on xda since Google recently rid the store of all ad blocking apps. You can use programs like sqlite editor to enable hotspot even if you're not subscribed to a plan that supports it. You can use xposed framework also here on xda (under our phones themes and apps) to apply themes to the phone. You can disable built in apps using titanium backup. Also, you should install Cwm under android development for our phone and make a nandroid backup in case you ever screw up your phone.
Best of all, you can install greenify root to make your battery last a lot longer. It hibernates apps for you that would normally run in the background.
When we have our bootloader unlocked is when the real fun will start though.
Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for mention greenify root, I install it. It's a hit!!

Now that I'm rooted (and installed some associated apps) I've noticed some laggy operation. When I'm on pretty much any of the home screens, and click on the app drawer icon, I'm brought to the page where I see "Apps", "Downloads", and "Widgets" at the top, but occasionally I have a blank screen below that. It stays blank for anywhere from one to three seconds and then the apps and folders appear. Sometimes they will show up instantly, but quite often there is a few second lag. The only things I've installed since rooting are Root Checker, Titanium Backup and Greenify. I'm not sure whether it is the root or the new apps, so I guess I can uninstall the three apps and see.
I also seem to be getting the circling "please wait" message more often than in the past.
Anybody else experiencing this? And does this sound like a root issue or an issue from one of the three apps?

For the Millions of Pixel 4a's sold , not much going on here.

I would have expected more activity here......

seems like people are happy with their devices out of the box... so there isn't much need for mods, custom ROMs and stuff like this?!

I think the modding scene died as stock Android progressively chipped away at the best major features of custom ROMs. Better privacy controls, power savings, night & dark modes, quick tiles. Those were pretty much the biggest selling points for me. The only other custom ROM features people liked were PIE controls and and silly animations.
And with the Pixel you'd lose so many of the Pixel extras if you flash a custom ROM. (recognizing music, probably live transcribe, the nifty Live Wallpapers, etc.
I've been occasionaly racking my brain to figure out if there are any value-added features left to pursue. Say, for LineageOS- they could replace all of the stock audio files with some high quality and very unique sounds, get some interesting wallpapers (a fresh coat of paint.), improve the stock launcher, bundle F-Droid, and offer Google Cloud Messaging and location svcs alternatives. They did/are add(ing) an online backup solution called SeedVault.
It's a difficult thing to think of any original ideas. I also have this per-app fuzzy location idea I submitted to Google issue tracker (which iPhone also came up with recently. I think they call it Approximate Location.)
It used to be more exciting to be a flashaholic but every time I look at the custom ROMs these days they don't "do anything" for me. More minuses than pluses.

jawz101 said:
And with the Pixel you'd lose so many of the Pixel extras if you flash a custom ROM. (recognizing music, probably live transcribe, the nifty Live Wallpapers, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have all these working on derpfest but I generally agree with your point. Im mostly modded for some personal QoL changes that might not be worth having SafetyNet broken, im weighing it atm

I rooted for about 2 weeks until a security update happened. It's such a pain to update without TWRP, I went back to stock. Only thing I miss with root is backing up data with Swift BU. There are a few other things that are nice with root, but not necessary (mainly custom accent colors, and fonts). I know I'd love to be back on Derpfest, but until a stable TWRP is available, sticking with stock.

Just got mine. Love it. Going to enjoy the stock pixel before playing around with root and roms.

Bought the Pixel 4a precisely to avoid all this root and modding stress. And I was not disappointed, everything runs perfectly.

My last 2 phones ran stock with root. This phone is no exception. I'd be on a custom ROM if the stock wasn't AOSP (eg. Samsung, MIUI, etc). Magisk fixes up any annoyances.

tcat007 said:
I rooted for about 2 weeks until a security update happened. It's such a pain to update without TWRP, I went back to stock. Only thing I miss with root is backing up data with Swift BU. There are a few other things that are nice with root, but not necessary (mainly custom accent colors, and fonts). I know I'd love to be back on Derpfest, but until a stable TWRP is available, sticking with stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I just bought a Pixel 4a, downgraded it to A10 and install Magisk and TWRP.
It seems to be running fine so far (1 week).
But I am concerned with your comment above about a security update breaking your root.
Is this right?
If so, then is there a way to stop auto-security updates?

JohnC said:
Hi,
I just bought a Pixel 4a, downgraded it to A10 and install Magisk and TWRP.
It seems to be running fine so far (1 week).
But I am concerned with your comment above about a security update breaking your root.
Is this right?
If so, then is there a way to stop auto-security updates?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it is recommended to turn off auto updates. Go to developers settings > turn off automatic system updates

Royalfox said:
Yes it is recommended to turn off auto updates. Go to developers settings > turn off automatic system updates
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will do. Thank you.

a1291762 said:
Magisk fixes up any annoyances.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What Magisk modules would you recommend?
I am coming from a Samsung S4 and I liked that the built-in Samsung apps each had a different material color header (Phone - green, Email - blue, SMS - Yellow), but the phone app and message app are just mainly all-white screen apps. But this gripe is theme related.
What other non-theme issues have you used magisk to fix?

I would still root for privacy and security reasons, but I can see why the regular schmegular joe wouldnt need to care. Pixel4a is a great phone stock or modded.

JohnC said:
I am coming from a Samsung S4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you and I have different ideas about what needs to be fixed. Adding busybox, updated tz files, removing system from apps so they can be suspended in the background. That's the kind of stuff I have.

a1291762 said:
I think you and I have different ideas about what needs to be fixed. Adding busybox, updated tz files, removing system from apps so they can be suspended in the background. That's the kind of stuff I have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant like what modules/apps do you find indispensable?
I am using XprivacyLUA, +AFwall Titanium Backup, Autostarts and Gravitybox to keep privacy up and to keep running apps to a minimum.
I'm pretty happy that I was able to find a phone that I could install the apps needed to get the control over it as I wanted.

a1291762 said:
removing system from apps so they can be suspended in the background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know how to freeze apps using TB, which totally disables them. But it sounds like you are just removing their background running permission, but still let them run when you want.
How do you do that?

JohnC said:
I know how to freeze apps using TB, which totally disables them. But it sounds like you are just removing their background running permission, but still let them run when you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android has the ability to block any app from running in the background. It's a battery saving feature. But you can't do it to system apps. The primary system app I've seen abusing this inability to block it is Google maps. It works just fine as a user-installed app. Magisk debloat apps (I used terminal debloater) remove system apps (without actually having to modify /system) allowing you to install them as user apps.

Another easy way is to grab the system app apk from /system/app or priv-app and copy it somewhere, delete original folder, reinstall the apk, this time it will be a user app with the original your phone used rather than an online dl
JohnC said:
I know how to freeze apps using TB, which totally disables them. But it sounds like you are just removing their background running permission, but still let them run when you want.
How do you do that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

jawz101 said:
I think the modding scene died as stock Android progressively chipped away at the best major features of custom ROMs. Better privacy controls, power savings, night & dark modes, quick tiles. Those were pretty much the biggest selling points for me. The only other custom ROM features people liked were PIE controls and and silly animations.
And with the Pixel you'd lose so many of the Pixel extras if you flash a custom ROM. (recognizing music, probably live transcribe, the nifty Live Wallpapers, etc.
I've been occasionaly racking my brain to figure out if there are any value-added features left to pursue. Say, for LineageOS- they could replace all of the stock audio files with some high quality and very unique sounds, get some interesting wallpapers (a fresh coat of paint.), improve the stock launcher, bundle F-Droid, and offer Google Cloud Messaging and location svcs alternatives. They did/are add(ing) an online backup solution called SeedVault.
It's a difficult thing to think of any original ideas. I also have this per-app fuzzy location idea I submitted to Google issue tracker (which iPhone also came up with recently. I think they call it Approximate Location.)
It used to be more exciting to be a flashaholic but every time I look at the custom ROMs these days they don't "do anything" for me. More minuses than pluses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great post,cause i was thinking the same

I just picked up Pixel 4a this month and I am really wondering if I wanna be rooting or not. I previously have always rooted my devices (had Essential Phone as my last one). Root gets me AdAway (adblock), Swift Theme Installer and YouTube Vanced working but thats all really. Trying to weigh up if its really worth it with the Pixel 4a... original plan was to run it stock with root but now not so sure.