Advice on temporarily rooting an Android tablet solely to remove apps - Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking

Apologies if I have posted this thread in wrong forum board. Its not specifically about how to root a device but and overall view of temporarily rooting a device in order to remove all other apps to use it for one purpose.
I have an Archos FamilyPad 2 which is stuck on a 4.1.1 Jellybean Android image and is really slow to use as a tablet. However its ideal to use as an e-reader using the Kindle app. The problem with the tablet is that the Plays Store app keeps updating and then eventually breaks and keeps crashing I think because the image is not updated. I want to download and install the Kindle app and then uninstall all other apps so that it is only an e-Reader device with just the Kindle app running. This is for a child to read in large print due to an eye sight problem and we don't want him going on the web or YouTube or downloading games etc
I "Think" I have successfully rooted the device using King Root and I think that I can now remove apps using JuMobile system app remover.
However King Root has lots of pop up and inserts ads on the lock screen etc.
My questions are:-
1) Once I have removed all the apps that are safe to remove can I then remove King Root which will return the device to an un-rooted state and will the removed apps still be uninstalled or does JuMobile only Kill the apps rather than remove them?
2) Will the factory restore still operate i.e. if I need to return the tablet to its normal state will the system restore still work?
3) Can I remove the Play Store App to prevent it updating and crashing the tablet all the time? Alternatively can I temporarily Kill the app and prevent it from starting (and updating) till I need it?
3) Are there any apps modules I definitely SHOULD NOT uninstall, e.g. you dont need to go onto the Play Store to buy kindle books as these are pushed to the device by Amazon as long as the tablet can be seen on the internet. So I need to ensure connectivity is maintained.
I was considering removing:- Browsers, Google apps (like gmail, maps, talk music messenger. Plus magazines etc etc)
Any advice would be gratefully received

Related

[Q] Lost Access to Newsstand/Home Bar persistent with GoLauncher after 6.3

Hi Guys. First off, what an awesome community! I check in often and enjoy learning new stuff about my device. I'm not really having issues with the root itself. Since I got the fire back in December my roots have gone flawlessly and I've fully enjoyed the freedom of a rooted KF.
I am noticing that I'm losing access to the Amazon Store newsstand. It wouldn't be so much of an issue if my wife didn't use it to access her mag subscriptions. It's telling me error "Cannot Update Library. Unable to Access Internet." when I try to open Glamour app for example. I am connected to the web of course. Her other subscriptions are not showing up either in her list of subs.
Also, (ive tried reinstalling a couple times, lame! losing all my UI setup of golauncher as a result. lol) when using GoLauncher, the Home/Back bar is persistent and doesn't go away. When I activate the stock Kindle UI though, the bar hides itself as it should.
Any suggestions as to why the newsstand subscriptions wont show/internet error/go launcher stuff?
Hey, thanks for everything! I re-rooted after 6.3 using KF tool and root explorer tells me i have access. Am able to switch to/from R/O & R/W.. KF tool tells me its rooted. I am able to use everything normally, just these two glitches.
Thanks !!!!!! Great job with the forums and site, im hooked up device hacking now and i appreciate the forum for this type of stuff! peace!!!
now if i can only master the english language
i guess i should rephraise the question..
now im noticing after flashing that suddenly my wife's books/magazines and tv shows will completely disappear from the device? any idea how to prevent this from happening?
Hey, a lot of problems with opening tabs on the kindle fire stock look is having to due with the changing of the app in the system file. Using root explorer or similar, go into system/app and reinstall kindle for otter, and or any other app that could have the slightest relation to the newsstand.
Sent from my Kindle Fire using XDA
I was trying to identify which of those could be related...I will follow your lead... ducks I want to keep root but lose access to her puchssed videos (big surprise) and all subscriptions...since 6.3 (Moravia mod) I could not access ant mag suns at all...keeps being broke by whet I assumming is some check script by amazon
Thats a bit more advanced than i know how to fix haha, once yoh try my method, if it doesnt work, i wont know what else to do. Good luck mate
Sent from my Kindle Fire using XDA
Once, I had similar problems.
I lost access to all my books at one point, plus the kindle asked me to re-register the device. The kindle market looked totally different as well - all this while i was UNrooted.
It turns out, after I rooted and installed the google market/ framework, (and unrooted), the market took it upon itself to update all my apps including audible and the kindle fire app.
This pretty much neuters anything you had installed as 'yours' from amazon. If you have google play installed, check these apps in the my apps section and uninstall any updates. This will fix the issue.
Also as others have said, root will disable amazon videos, I dont know if it has the same effect on purchased books.
subscriptions
straylight said:
I lost access to all my books at one point, plus the kindle asked me to re-register the device. The kindle market looked totally different as well - all this while i was UNrooted.
It turns out, after I rooted and installed the google market/ framework, (and unrooted), the market took it upon itself to update all my apps including audible and the kindle fire app.
This pretty much neuters anything you had installed as 'yours' from amazon. If you have google play installed, check these apps in the my apps section and uninstall any updates. This will fix the issue.
Also as others have said, root will disable amazon videos, I dont know if it has the same effect on purchased books.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Bruddah!! Good call. I turned off the update and reinstalled otter for kindle and resynced and voila! Started syncing and downloading my wife's subscriptions from amazon! Kudos bro!!
I flashed ICS (for me) and then flashed back to my wife's kindle kfu rooted 6.3 (229 i think) and the subs were broken again but all i needed to do was reinstall that apk and it was back. nice work thank you very much. you deserve a beer
also as long as i unroot with rootkeeper and restart i can run amazon video too. very nice.

Rooted Kindle Stock ROM - Not showing books.

I am not sure if this is where I should be making this post.
So I got my Kindle Fire rooted sometime around Nov. I installed Google Apps on it and was using GoLauncherEx. Sometimes I switch between the two launcher apps.
As of today morning, I noticed that none of the books I have purchased from Amazon are showing up. There is also a book that I had transferred over from USB that is not showing. When I click on the Cloud option, nothing shows up in that view either.
The other apps on the Kindle Fire are working. I am able to play with apps downloaded from Google Play as well as apps from Amazon Market.
The root explorer app allows me to read the contents of my SD card. I am able to view photos that I have on my SD card.
So my puzzle is "Where are my books and documents?" How can I get them back?
I found this happening to me once. It was fixed after I reflashed my ROM (using one of the rooted-but-otherwise-stock ROMs available)- all the files showed up.
Quick note: This might be the wrong place to be posting about a problem like the one you're encountering, it would probably be better in general.
50CalPotato said:
I found this happening to me once. It was fixed after I reflashed my ROM (using one of the rooted-but-otherwise-stock ROMs available)- all the files showed up.
Quick note: This might be the wrong place to be posting about a problem like the one you're encountering, it would probably be better in general.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did a factory reset. All my top scores (angry birds and hungry shark) have disappeared, but that's the least of my worries.
I am unable to root the device anymore.
All I want is google play side by side with amazon market.
Josepho1997 said:
Google Play updated your Kindle app. If you want your books to show up, uninstall the update.
Sent from my Kindle Fire using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I have already factory reset my Kindle. Now I need to start the rooting process again.
Books disappear
Just use Titanium to restore Kindle Fire app. All books will return.

[SOLVED] Anyone get Prime Music working under 8.4.3?

Update: I figured out a solution -- see message #4 below
I'd really like to get Amazon's new Prime Music service working on my 8.9" Fire HD. However, I'm currently on 8.4.3, and I don't want to upgrade to 8.4.9 since some people have reported difficulty rooting it.
Has anyone done this? I suspect that if I could just get my hands on the new version of com.amazon.mp3 for the Fire HD, I could get it to work. However, the version at the Google Play store doesn't work with the Kindle Fire.
Before I spend hours trying to get this work, I wanted to ask if anyone has already traversed this rat hole.
Dr. Drax said:
I'd really like to get Amazon's new Prime Music service working on my 8.9" Fire HD. However, I'm currently on 8.4.3, and I don't want to upgrade to 8.4.9 since some people have reported difficulty rooting it.
Has anyone done this? I suspect that if I could just get my hands on the new version of com.amazon.mp3 for the Fire HD, I could get it to work. However, the version at the Google Play store doesn't work with the Kindle Fire.
Before I spend hours trying to get this work, I wanted to ask if anyone has already traversed this rat hole.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've also been wondering about this. Any luck getting it to work? Have you tried downloading the update from the Amazon website and taking the amazonmp3-unsigned.apk from there and putting it on the kindle? The update has a .bin extension but it's probably just a zip. I was able to open it in 7-zip and it looks an android update.zip file.
shalom629 said:
I've also been wondering about this. Any luck getting it to work? Have you tried downloading the update from the Amazon website and taking the amazonmp3-unsigned.apk from there and putting it on the kindle? The update has a .bin extension but it's probably just a zip. I was able to open it in 7-zip and it looks an android update.zip file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did something similar: I got my hands on a Tate, updated it, and then pulled amazonmp3-unsigned.apk off of it. I uninstalled the existing system app on my Jem, verified that I couldn't go into music, and then installed the new APK.
Result: it doesn't provide Prime benefits, but does allow me to access the my non-Prime music. I don't know if that's because of some other necessary component, or because the new APK includes a check to see whether the Kindle has been rooted. I know that some of Amazon's Kindle software has incorporated such checks in the past.
I figured out a solution to get it working. I should have thought of it earlier.
I uninstalled the amazonmp3-unsigned.apk system app using ES File Explorer. I then used Google Play to install the new com.amazon.mp3 APK as a user app. Somehow I had gotten it stuck in my head that it would need to be a system app to work with the rest of the Kindle software. Duh.
It seems to work perfectly. I can access Prime music just fine, and it seamlessly connects to my Amazon account. The only downside is that the app from the Play store is designed for phones and locks the app into portrait mode, whereas the native Kindle version supports landscape. But, hey, that's a small price to pay.
Amazon is clearly checking to see if the tablet is still an unmodified Kindle Fire.
I tried loading Kindle Reader on a CM-upgraded KF, with no luck. Then, I used Build-Prop Editor to change the property 'name' to Asus, and the 'model' to Nexus 7. That's all it took for Kindle Reader (and my book account) to work properly.
Try that next time something 'Amazon' doesn't work as it should.
When you install using google play does that automatically install as a user app? I'm assuming so, but the fix isn't working for me. I am using 8.1.4 however.
Coming_down said:
When you install using google play does that automatically install as a user app? I'm assuming so, but the fix isn't working for me. I am using 8.1.4 however.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the Play store will only install user apps. You uninstalled amazonmp3-unsigned.apk first?
Is the app not working at all, or not giving you access to Prime Music? I wonder if enough changed from 8.1.x to 8.4.x that the services for Amazon account authentication don't work.
Dr. Drax said:
Yes, the Play store will only install user apps. You uninstalled amazonmp3-unsigned.apk first?
Is the app not working at all, or not giving you access to Prime Music? I wonder if enough changed from 8.1.x to 8.4.x that the services for Amazon account authentication don't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the first thing I did was just update the app using google play before I even read this thread. Weird thing is it opens and acts just like it should untampered. Landscape mode, automatically logged me in and all. But as soons as I try to access the library it shuts down. So I uninstalled back to stock amazon music using google play, uninstalled that system app using ES, and then installed fresh using google play. And it does the exact same thing. Landscape mode enabled, auto sign in. Acting like an amazon app.
Coming_down said:
Yeah, the first thing I did was just update the app using google play before I even read this thread. Weird thing is it opens and acts just like it should untampered. Landscape mode, automatically logged me in and all. But as soons as I try to access the library it shuts down. So I uninstalled back to stock amazon music using google play, uninstalled that system app using ES, and then installed fresh using google play. And it does the exact same thing. Landscape mode enabled, auto sign in. Acting like an amazon app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd recommend that you uninstall again, and verify that the app is really uninstalled. I was able to get my tablet to a point where I had no MP3 player installed at all, and going to the Music tab from the Kindle launcher would result in an error. If you uninstall and still see this app, then there must still be a copy of the APK installed somewhere you're not seeing it.
I wish I could help with more details, but I no longer have the stock OS installed, and am now using Cyanogenmod. Prime Instant Video was the main reason I was keeping the stock OS, and now that's available for Android generally.
Yeah, after I uninstalled the app using ES but before installing a fresh copy, hitting music resulted in an error. ..and I didn't back up the original file. Lol. Not that I had any music there anyway. But yeah, I hear you on CM. I would be using that too, but it's my wife's main tablet and she likes the kindle lending library. Now if they put that on android, there would be essentially no reason to ever use the FireOs again.

Google Play does not play well with Fire

Well, after getting the android SDK and Kindle Fire adb driver set up, the phone has the Play Store icon on the launcher.
Sadly of course, amazon locked it down and it crashes before it can sync with google.
I'm going to make it my weekend project to see if I can get it to run. Before I do, I assume the play store app needs to have root, correct?
I can't even read scripts on /
So that means no play store, nothing worth mentioning yet.
ionbladez said:
Well, after getting the android SDK and Kindle Fire adb driver set up, the phone has the Play Store icon on the launcher.
Sadly of course, amazon locked it down and it crashes before it can sync with google.
I'm going to make it my weekend project to see if I can get it to run. Before I do, I assume the play store app needs to have root, correct?
I can't even read scripts on /
So that means no play store, nothing worth mentioning yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
see if you can get a logcat, maybe you missed some other apks or just installed playstore as a data app (playstore needs system permissions)
Google Play Solution
ionbladez said:
Well, after getting the android SDK and Kindle Fire adb driver set up, the phone has the Play Store icon on the launcher.
Sadly of course, amazon locked it down and it crashes before it can sync with google.
I'm going to make it my weekend project to see if I can get it to run. Before I do, I assume the play store app needs to have root, correct?
I can't even read scripts on /
So that means no play store, nothing worth mentioning yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you also have to install Google Play Services to make it work.
True, I'm only realizing that now that gplay runs a daemon, which is probably going to be blocked or somehow jailed from running on fire (even with root).
I've been messing around with towelroot but I think this whole thing about not being able to root it has to do with some kernel features.
I can't wait to be able to take this off my buddy's at&t plan, though. Unlimited data with tmobile
at&t can shove it for telling me I can't unlock it.

S4 Mini behaves strangely

I apologize for my English, I'm Brazilian, and they told me to go to XDA to solve my problem.
In this case, I'm using Google Translate.
Hello, I have an S4 Mini, which is behaving in a very strange way and I already tried to make the two solutions that I found, that would be to put the Stock Rom, and the Hard Reset but that did not solve.
The symptoms I have noticed in him so far are:
1 - Battery behaves strangely (Sometimes I turn on and off the battery comes back with another charge). And it gets very fast when I'm using it. But the battery is new.
Android takes actions alone, for example, it is 0% I connect it, it unlocks the screen alone, and opens the native browser the "Internet", and goes to a page that is like a map, and starts to Write random things, like, McFWjham; KAMV.
3- The use of data has remained high when it is active.
4- Sometimes when it is working normally, it opens native programs for no reason, the most common is the "Internet".
So I do not know what else to do, the cell phone is very well preserved, no visible problems, no crumple of drops, the problem is just in time to use kkk. Help me pls.
#Edit :The screen when active uses 40% to 50% of the battery according to Android.
The "Android System" occasionally gets to spend 60% of the battery.
When the battery is locked it tends to remain, but when I use the smartphone, the battery tends to decrease with the second ones very fast.
The battery is new.
Please help me T.T
Luan532 said:
I apologize for my English, I'm Brazilian, and they told me to go to XDA to solve my problem.
In this case, I'm using Google Translate.
Hello, I have an S4 Mini, which is behaving in a very strange way and I already tried to make the two solutions that I found, that would be to put the Stock Rom, and the Hard Reset but that did not solve.
The symptoms I have noticed in him so far are:
1 - Battery behaves strangely (Sometimes I turn on and off the battery comes back with another charge). And it gets very fast when I'm using it. But the battery is new.
Android takes actions alone, for example, it is 0% I connect it, it unlocks the screen alone, and opens the native browser the "Internet", and goes to a page that is like a map, and starts to Write random things, like, McFWjham; KAMV.
3- The use of data has remained high when it is active.
4- Sometimes when it is working normally, it opens native programs for no reason, the most common is the "Internet".
So I do not know what else to do, the cell phone is very well preserved, no visible problems, no crumple of drops, the problem is just in time to use kkk. Help me pls.
#Edit :The screen when active uses 40% to 50% of the battery according to Android.
The "Android System" occasionally gets to spend 60% of the battery.
When the battery is locked it tends to remain, but when I use the smartphone, the battery tends to decrease with the second ones very fast.
The battery is new.
Please help me T.T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you have a malware infection (though can't be 100% sure) maybe adware, I would guess. Factory reset should have fixed it and reinstall stock rom would definitely fix it even if malware rooted your phone. So that means there is an easy way for reinfect to happen.
Reinfection can happen many ways eg via bad app, through your google account, cloud storage, wifi, other network you have joined etc. Unfortunately it can be very hard to stop if you don't know how it's happening.
1st lets assume it's a bad app you installed, try run a good antivirus like Avast, does it show malware? Clean anything it finds. If you are lucky it will only be adware app that you reinstalled yourself after the new rom, once removed you will be OK and phone clean. But if it comes back by itself then it will take more work to find how it happens.
[Note: You can also boot phone into safe mode which will only allow system apps to run, it is a way to test if it is a bad 3rd party app, is the problem stopped now 3rd party apps can't run?. (though if your phone has been rooted by malware and bad app installed as system app, then bad app will still run). If you think it might have been rooted, download a root checker app to test]
Change the software.
IronRoo said:
Sounds like you have a malware infection (though can't be 100% sure) maybe adware, I would guess. Factory reset should have fixed it and reinstall stock rom would definitely fix it even if malware rooted your phone. So that means there is an easy way for reinfect to happen.
Reinfection can happen many ways eg via bad app, through your google account, cloud storage, wifi, other network you have joined etc. Unfortunately it can be very hard to stop if you don't know how it's happening.
1st lets assume it's a bad app you installed, try run a good antivirus like Avast, does it show malware? Clean anything it finds. If you are lucky it will only be adware app that you reinstalled yourself after the new rom, once removed you will be OK and phone clean. But if it comes back by itself then it will take more work to find how it happens.
[Note: You can also boot phone into safe mode which will only allow system apps to run, it is a way to test if it is a bad 3rd party app, is the problem stopped now 3rd party apps can't run?. (though if your phone has been rooted by malware and bad app installed as system app, then bad app will still run). If you think it might have been rooted, download a root checker app to test]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have avast installed, and cleaned, but not changed at all.
My device was already rooted by me, when I gave the hard reset and soon after the exchange of the rom stock, the root was undone,
I installed Root Checker and it said root was not properly installed.
And as for the security mode, I turned the phone on in safe mode, and when the screen was unlocked, it automatically opened the "internet" browser, on the same page as always.
What should I do?
Luan532 said:
I have avast installed, and cleaned, but not changed at all.
My device was already rooted by me, when I gave the hard reset and soon after the exchange of the rom stock, the root was undone,
I installed Root Checker and it said root was not properly installed.
And as for the security mode, I turned the phone on in safe mode, and when the screen was unlocked, it automatically opened the "internet" browser, on the same page as always.
What should I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ummm .... I was expecting it was just going to be a bad app serving ads, this is going to be hard
OK, that should rule out 3rd party apps (assuming you have avast set to find all PUP/PUA, etc & nothing white listed) but not finding anything may mean malware is embeded in ROM or malware was able to open port on your system but then uninstall itself or just that there is a line of code that points browser to a server that is serving adware so antivirus is not finding it. Some malware is able to hide from anti virus software in different ways. Try this app, it is not true antivirus, you run it manually, don't worry if one or two antivirus companies like white armour identify malware, they do often even on clean phone.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.funnycat.virustotal
You can also submit any unknown app to virus total white this app for testing. Also you must submit the bad url your browser is connecting to for testing, this will help it spread to all anti virus database.
Good news is you do not appear to be rooted. But the ROM you flashed may still be bad. Where did you get the stock ROM you flashed? I would only use a trusted source like sammobile.com/ but even that is no guarantee. You could try flash another ROM, though as this happened on previous ROM it's probably a good ROM, unless you are getting all your ROM from same site that is not well known as trusted.
So that would suggest they are able to get easy access to your phone either via your google account, cloud service, local network at home/work/public, or through your modem/router.
Check your local network doesn't have a neighbour or other unknown device connected with this app Fing
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.overlook.android.fing
Of course even if you recognise all devices that doesn't mean your brothers etc phone is not the source.
Do the same with other networks you have access to.. Talk to work, any one else infected? Change you password. If using public wifi always use a vpn.
Likely source is your modem/router, Log into your modem router check for updates for it, (if old and not supported you may need a new one), update or if latest firmware do a factory reset, now reboot and use a new password (do this at the same time you reset ALL your passwords, or you might just allow them to find new passwords and reinfect you)
Check your goggle account does not have someone else set for account recovery and/or two factor authentication. (set it up if not already on) Change password and ALSO change password on any other recovery account (write them down )
do the same for cloud storage, and scan storage for virus if possible eg dropbox local folder on pc. Unlink cloud storage from mobile until you are clean to block this route of reinfection.
Update any other device software & change passwords eg xbox, printers etc
I think there's something I'm forgetting
Now reflash stock ROM ( I would also suggest then flashing an up to date custom ROM with most recent security patches)
Things you can do that may help temporarily .....
Install a firewall app like netguard and block internet access to browser, through may not work as root etc is open by default. Oh yes, that reminds me of one thing I forgot, check your DNS has not been hijacked, netguard shows dns url in settings, change if you cannot find who dns server your phone is using, use google 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4 if you don't know what to set.
Use an app like Link2SD, Titanium Pro to freeze apps, but you will need root for this.
It's a lot of work (& I think there is something I am forgetting), you may get away with just factory resetting your modem or something as it appears to just be adware so they probably don't have access to your accounts etc, but I tried to cover everything.
Hope I'm making sense through goggle translate!
Phone with mind of its own may not be hacked or haunted. It can in fact happen when it's exposed to moisture or water. Try putting the phone in a bag of rice for several hours, this will draw out all moisture. Hairdrayer may damage electronics because overheating.
If hacked, I would do following steps:
- modem update with odin (manuals search XDA)
- update latest TWRP (dito on XDA)
- start phone in Recovery mode and wipe everything, also Format Data on SD and external SD. Simple Factory reset my not delete it (use Advaced wipe)
- Install LOS14.1 from arco (check compatibility first, other version available for double SIM) It comes with latest security patches.
- Install Open GApps nano or pico. Install other Gapps later if you need.
- start phone, skip setting for WLan to see if everything works without Network.
Does it work? ...then an open WLan could be hacked, try a secure first or mobile network.
Good luck
Hello guys!
The battery drop problem is a common failure with this i9195 phone. I did a research but you have to help me as well by providing IMEI S/N (located under the battery) in PM to me!
New battery doesn't helps!
My current research: If your phone made in Vietnam in the 1-line ~2013, then you will have a dead motherboard soon, before that battery issue is occuring.
So please give me your details and I will look after it.
Do anyone know when they stopped producing i9195 and i9195i ? I need to buy the latest version, because my i9195 was made in 2013 and have that battery drain issue even with new batteries...
Thanks.

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