Uninstalling default applications?

Greg_E

Member
Nov 15, 2011
248
13
There are many of the included default apps that I want to uninstall, can this be done without rooting the tablet? If these apps can not be removed, can I disable them to keep them from ever starting?
 

spexwood

Member
May 11, 2011
229
18
Please look around this forum. Ive seen this answered many many times here. In fact, its a pretty commonly asked question.

Sent from my A500 using Android Tablet Forum
 

spexwood

Member
May 11, 2011
229
18
GAH! You're lucky I'm a nice guy and can't stand leaving people hanging when they have problems/questions. Please spend some time looking/searching through the forum though before asking repetitive questions. -_-

The answer is that you need to be rooted.
When rooted, you can either delete or freeze the apps. Deleting will remove them altogether, but then OTA (Over The Air in case you didn't know) will not install... meaning you won't be able to update. Freezing will block the apps, leaving them on the internal SD, but removing them from the Apps menu and preventing them from running. You can get OTA updates this way, but you must unfreeze them first.
If rooted, you could use Root Explorer or any file manager that gives you access to root directories to delete apps. Titanium Backup can freeze them. There is also an app called App Quarantine that freezes, but after the 3.2 update, it stopped working so I uninstalled and haven't tried it since... so no clue if it was ever fixed.
Again, all this is if you ARE rooted.


Now, if you got a 3rd party Launcher from the Market like ADW Launcher, etc, you may (depending on if the one you download supports it) be able to hide the apps from the Apps menu without root. However, doing this will replace your Launcher, meaning that you lose the default way the home screen, Apps menu, etc behaves. This is not bad, but depends on personal preference. I can't help you with what Launchers work on Honeycomb though, since I like the default.

Sent from my A500 using Android Tablet Forum
 

Icebike

Senior Member
Apr 28, 2011
1,523
186
If you go into the Application Manager, and Clear any data that these default apps have, they usually won't run.

But as others mention, if you un-install them then your future OTA upgrades won't happen.

Best to Ignore them.
 

Greg_E

Member
Nov 15, 2011
248
13
Thanks. And the keyword uninstall certainly didn't yield the kinds of results that I thought it should have given me.
 

jehdesai

Member
Aug 31, 2012
3
0
GAH! You're lucky I'm a nice guy and can't stand leaving people hanging when they have problems/questions. Please spend some time looking/searching through the forum though before asking repetitive questions. -_-

The answer is that you need to be rooted.
When rooted, you can either delete or freeze the apps. Deleting will remove them altogether, but then OTA (Over The Air in case you didn't know) will not install... meaning you won't be able to update. Freezing will block the apps, leaving them on the internal SD, but removing them from the Apps menu and preventing them from running. You can get OTA updates this way, but you must unfreeze them first.
If rooted, you could use Root Explorer or any file manager that gives you access to root directories to delete apps. Titanium Backup can freeze them. There is also an app called App Quarantine that freezes, but after the 3.2 update, it stopped working so I uninstalled and haven't tried it since... so no clue if it was ever fixed.
Again, all this is if you ARE rooted.


Now, if you got a 3rd party Launcher from the Market like ADW Launcher, etc, you may (depending on if the one you download supports it) be able to hide the apps from the Apps menu without root. However, doing this will replace your Launcher, meaning that you lose the default way the home screen, Apps menu, etc behaves. This is not bad, but depends on personal preference. I can't help you with what Launchers work on Honeycomb though, since I like the default.

Sent from my A500 using Android Tablet Forum

Hey when you say OTA updates will not work ,do you mean OS OTA updates or just the specific deleted app update....this query is abt my Nexus on 4.1.1 duno if my que is appropriate here.
spexwood legends like you keep the newbies motivated ,cheers
 

2000roadie

Member
Aug 12, 2011
40
2
If you are running Android version 4.x.x, it will allow you to disable the apps. First do as recommended from icebike and then a disable function will allow you to disable. It is found in Settings/Apps.
 

jehdesai

Member
Aug 31, 2012
3
0
The OS OTA updates will not work.

Am on 4.1.1
first question - if i delete the default app now,and then later when 4.1.2/4.2 is available, can i flash current stock 4.1.1 again to get new OTA updates .(just that i would like the OTA to come through,instead of the manual flashing)
.
Secondly if i delete the default apps will I get updates for the other apps

Thanks for the replies
.
updated "im on 4.1.1" galaxy nexus
 
Last edited:

Mrhelper

Senior Member
Apr 29, 2012
216
57
Disabling built-in apps using the Settings app provided in the stock ROM does not affect OTA.

Rooting or changing bootloaders or flashing custom ROMs can affect OTA.

Note that once the builtin apps are disabled in Settings, and data cleared for each, deleting all of the associated .apk files from the ROM only adds up to ~60MB, which is equivalent to 0.375% of the total storage in a 16GB Acer Iconia. More importantly, the builtin .apks are delivered in /system/vendor/flexrom (/dev/blk/mmcblk0p6), and that space is not available to users anyway. There is apparently no value whatsoever in deleting the .apks after each has been disabled in Settings, because users, apps, and the system do not use the freed space anyway.

Update: I remembered after posting that I didn't mention the less than 50MB of cached system and vendor apps under dalvik-cache in user storage, which again, is relatively small. This thread and post was in reference to Acer Iconia tablets, but results should be similar for others running 4+ ROMs.
 
Last edited:

Icebike

Senior Member
Apr 28, 2011
1,523
186
Disabling built-in apps using the Settings app provided in the stock ROM does not affect OTA.

Rooting or changing bootloaders or flashing custom ROMs can affect OTA.

Note that once the builtin apps are disabled in Settings, and data cleared for each, deleting all of the associated .apk files from the ROM only adds up to ~60MB, which is equivalent to 0.375% of the total storage in a 16GB Acer Iconia. More importantly, the builtin .apks are delivered in /system/vendor/flexrom (/dev/blk/mmcblk0p6), and that space is not available to users anyway. There is apparently no value whatsoever in deleting the .apks after each has been disabled in Settings, because users, apps, and the system do not use the freed space anyway.

This!

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
 

jehdesai

Member
Aug 31, 2012
3
0
i was keen on deleting default apps is cause ,apps like google current ,google talk keep running in back ground even if i dont use them so thought they would add to RAM and battery consumption.
 

Douvie

Senior Member
Jun 10, 2011
1,030
71
i was keen on deleting default apps is cause ,apps like google current ,google talk keep running in back ground even if i dont use them so thought they would add to RAM and battery consumption.
Not noticably though. Icebike has tested the battery consumption quite thoroughly. The power drain is not gping to make any difference. And as for RAM really what is so big that you're going to need the RAM.

Remember actual working RAM is 1GB. Actual storage RAM is either 8, 16, 32GB. Store movies and data on the external SD CARD.
 

FlutteringBy

Senior Member
Jul 5, 2011
51
1
One further query about AUPEO, google+, Zino, & a couple of other apps that were installed by ICS.....

These are apps that I will never use & there is no option to disable them, just the uninstall option......

Do I have to keep downloading the updates for them?.....

I'm not worried about the space etc. that these apps use......I just don't like having apps on my tab that I don't make use of....:)....
 

frapshake

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2011
244
35
One further query about AUPEO, google+, Zino, & a couple of other apps that were installed by ICS.....

These are apps that I will never use & there is no option to disable them, just the uninstall option......

Do I have to keep downloading the updates for them?.....

I'm not worried about the space etc. that these apps use......I just don't like having apps on my tab that I don't make use of....:)....

First uninstall the updates for them, then you will see the Disable button.
 
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