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[Q] Removing Bloat

Hi, I (finally) updated my VZW Dinc phone to wildstang's 4.08.xxx ROM. Was much easier to do than I anticipated, so thank you wildstang. Forgot to backup my footprints before doing so and lost them all Anyways, my questions are as follows:
1. There are a series of apps which I thought I moved into app.disabled, however they still show up as being on my phone and have the icons in my apps list (e.g. 3G Mobile Hotspot, Amazon MP3, Apps (VZW), Twitter, and VZ Navigator). I'm guessing I must have missed a series of files and/or directories? Can someone please let me know what I need to do to move these?
2. Each and every time I turn off my GPS and then back on, I get this annoying message telling me "Standalone GPS Services: ...you are enabling access to all location information by any third party through the web,...." How do I remove that message/prevent it from being displayed?
Your help with these is much appreciated and thank you ahead of time.

I don't know about your device so I cant answer #2 but for the apps you can do a couple of things, uninstall it using titanium backup, delete it using root explorer from system/app or you could delete the apps from the rom zip and reflash it.
Press the thanks button if I have helped.

Play Store will auto undisable some apps so the only way to get rid of them is to uninstall them.

Contact Storage Issue

Recently I rooted my phone and want to get rid of some system apps. So I deleted some apk-s from \system\app
Unfortunately I have deleted some contacts related apk-s (may be)!
Now when I open the dialer and open the thumbnail of the contact to ‘View Contact’, ‘Send SMS’, etc., I’m getting the following error message.
The application Contacts Storage (process com.motorola.contacts) has stopped unexpectedly Please try again.
Now, literally I’m not able to view any contact only. The only thing I’m able to do is to make a call to direct dial number.
Note: I haven’t taken any backup before deleting these apks.
I’ll be great if some of you guys using Atrix 2 (rooted) publish the contact related apk files in \system\app
Thank you!

coolpeter86 said:
Recently I rooted my phone and want to get rid of some system apps. So I deleted some apk-s from \system\app
Unfortunately I have deleted some contacts related apk-s (may be)!
Now when I open the dialer and open the thumbnail of the contact to ‘View Contact’, ‘Send SMS’, etc., I’m getting the following error message.
The application Contacts Storage (process com.motorola.contacts) has stopped unexpectedly Please try again.
Now, literally I’m not able to view any contact only. The only thing I’m able to do is to make a call to direct dial number.
Note: I haven’t taken any backup before deleting these apks.
I’ll be great if some of you guys using Atrix 2 (rooted) publish the contact related apk files in \system\app
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Without knowing EXACTLY which apps you removed, this will be a futile task, because we could give you a ton of apps and none of them fix your issue...
Your best bet is to return to stock using the FXZ.
Look here, and look for how to flash the fxz, about half way down the first post, and make sure you patch the update with the zip file:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1396650
Here is a list of all of the fxz files for the A2:
http://sbf.droid-developers.org/edison/list.php
Make sure you use the right one, the one linked in the beginners thread is ONLY for AT&T US phones.

Also, I recommend using this motto: "When in doubt, FREEZE your apps -don't throw them out!) There's plenty of Market apps that you can use to "freeze" apps and defrost later if need be.
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium

Bloatware Apps

Has anyone created a list of bloatware that can be removed safely for the vzw version?

I can give you a list of apps Disabled:
Allshare controller
Allshare Play
Apps (VZW)
Color
Google Play Books
Google Play Movies
Google Play Music
Google+
Kies Air
Music Hub
My Verizon Mobile
S Suggest
Samsung Account
Samsung Backup Provider
Samsung Cloud Data Relay
Samsung Cloud Syncadapters
VCAST Tones
Verizon SSO engine
VZ Navigator
Yahoo Finance
Yahoo News
I havent rooted yet, but these apps should be able to be completely removed without any negativ effect

I disabled most of those thru Application Manager! I love ICS!

That's a neat feature. I suppose now I know that I can remove them safely too. I just have to figure out how to mount system in r/w mode

If you root, and freeze whatever bloat it lets you freeze but not touch what it doesn't, you will NOT get the white unlock "I have screwed with my phone eyesore" boot screen. If you start renaming apk's that System ICS doesn't let you freeze, such as My Verizon.apk you WILL get the bootscreen white lock watermark. This does not change anything on your device, its just a way Verizon in store techs can see you have messed with the system files. Again, if you just root (at least as far as I remember) I did not have that white lock watermark untill I started renaming apk's in the /system/app folder.
Do NOT remove Samsung Setup Wizard or Setup Wizard! First off adding them back forces you to go through and reactive your headset, then run through setup again, as soon as you reboot the phone. Second, there is a possibility that renaming them is what broke my dialier and not renaming a Verizon app.
Notes:
Verizon SSO Engine - I had it renamed w/ .bak; when I renamed it to .apk Avast Virus Scan for Android reported it as MALWARE. com.motricity.verizon.ssoengine
Mobile Hot Spot - Built into settings. Even if you remove the apk's, app will show up in menu's. Icon will always be in app tray even if apk's are deleted/renamed.
Backup Assistant - Built into settings. Even if you remove the apk's, app will show up in menu's. Icon does not show up in app tray after apk deletion/rename.
My Verizon.apk has app dependencies and will not show up in the app tray unless they are also installed. Even if you add these back, the My Verizon app will not show up again. The apk will be there, but you will not be able to run the app.
Reflashed (with root system image) and it did nothing, all of my apps were still there, I still had the white unlock watermark, dialier still broken.
Did a factory reset (still using root image) and the white unlock watermark is now gone!
Dialier now works again. Still Rooted. Ok I will do a write up soon, but as of now do not start renaming bloatware in any system folder unless you want the white unlock boot watermark to show up and basic phone functionality to start breaking. I did not rename anything mission critical, just bloat like My verizon. Verizon's Security Check (virus) they have on this phone checks for Verizon apps and then starts causing problems if they have been modified.

Google Play Books and Google Play Movies need to be removed after each reboot. Anyone knows why ?

Bagbug said:
Google Play Books and Google Play Movies need to be removed after each reboot. Anyone knows why ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Freezing them does nothing, they keep coming back. I had to rename the apk's to bak's in /system/app to get them to go away for good.

Careful. I froze some stuff and now all of my voice recognition is broken, like my S-Voice but also my voice recognition when I use my keyboard (I use Swiftkey but I don't think it matters).
Rebooting seems to have fixed it, so it may be like what you guys are talking about with them coming back. So if you permanently kill that stuff and your voice recognition stops working, you now know why

I think there is a ROM with all of the 'bloat' taken out of it...

akdoyle said:
I think there is a ROM with all of the 'bloat' taken out of it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1759642

bumping this thread for hopefully more apps that can be frozen with zero effects on other apps

Thalinor said:
If you root, and freeze whatever bloat it lets you freeze but not touch what it doesn't, you will NOT get the white unlock "I have screwed with my phone eyesore" boot screen. If you start renaming apk's that System ICS doesn't let you freeze, such as My Verizon.apk you WILL get the bootscreen white lock watermark. This does not change anything on your device, its just a way Verizon in store techs can see you have messed with the system files. Again, if you just root (at least as far as I remember) I did not have that white lock watermark untill I started renaming apk's in the /system/app folder.
Do NOT remove Samsung Setup Wizard or Setup Wizard! First off adding them back forces you to go through and reactive your headset, then run through setup again, as soon as you reboot the phone. Second, there is a possibility that renaming them is what broke my dialier and not renaming a Verizon app.
Notes:
Verizon SSO Engine - I had it renamed w/ .bak; when I renamed it to .apk Avast Virus Scan for Android reported it as MALWARE. com.motricity.verizon.ssoengine
Mobile Hot Spot - Built into settings. Even if you remove the apk's, app will show up in menu's. Icon will always be in app tray even if apk's are deleted/renamed.
Backup Assistant - Built into settings. Even if you remove the apk's, app will show up in menu's. Icon does not show up in app tray after apk deletion/rename.
My Verizon.apk has app dependencies and will not show up in the app tray unless they are also installed. Even if you add these back, the My Verizon app will not show up again. The apk will be there, but you will not be able to run the app.
Reflashed (with root system image) and it did nothing, all of my apps were still there, I still had the white unlock watermark, dialier still broken.
Did a factory reset (still using root image) and the white unlock watermark is now gone!
Dialier now works again. Still Rooted. Ok I will do a write up soon, but as of now do not start renaming bloatware in any system folder unless you want the white unlock boot watermark to show up and basic phone functionality to start breaking. I did not rename anything mission critical, just bloat like My verizon. Verizon's Security Check (virus) they have on this phone checks for Verizon apps and then starts causing problems if they have been modified.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you show an image of this watermark

Help - deleted stock dialer

Hi, I am running Cyanogenmod 11.0-InstallerXNPQ32P on Android version 4.4.4 on a Samsung Galaxy S4.
I stupidly removed the dialer app and various others that I didn't think I needed (calendar etc) using the System Uninstaller (Root) app which I got from the Google Play Store. I didn't think I needed the stock dialer app as I use another dialer version which I downloaded from Google Play Store. I now know this was wrong!
Now, whenever someone calls me, the screen illuminates (showing my home page) and the phone vibrates as if it is notifying me of the call. However, I am not informed who is actually calling me and I am not given the option to answer or reject the call etc.
When I open the dialer that I use (True Phone) I can dial a number or call a contact etc as I normally would. However, instead of taking me to the screen to hang up, access the dial pad etc it stays on the True Phone page. I therefore cannot hang up the call. So if the person I am trying to call doesn't answer or the call goes to their answer machine I cannot hang up without selecting airplane mode or restarting the phone.
When removing the apps I thought I would be reasonably safe as the app I used to remove them (System Uninstaller (Root)) from the Google play store states that the 'deleted' apps would remain in its recycle bin and could be restored at any time. Maybe I should have known better. When I press on the recycle bin button within the app it says there are no removed apps - even though there are. If I navigate to the recycle bin folder using ES File Explorer I can see all of the backups of the apps that have been removed. But, annoyingly, the app will not recognise the backups - even though it made them itself! The backups are .conf.backup format.
I have emailed the app developer numerous times asking for help but he/she is ignoring me.
I have been researching how to get the dialer app back etc but have now discovered there is also a problem with part of my system. While I can install apps from the Google Play Store, trying to install any other apk file leaves me with the message, "Unfortunately, Package Installer has stopped."
If I go to Settings/Apps/All and select Package Installer I get, "Unfortunately, Settings has stopped" and it kicks me back out to the main Settings page.
I would be extremely grateful if someone would be kind enough to point me in the right direction as to how to fix these problems and get my phone back working as it was. I know I have been stupid in removing the dialer in the first place.
Unfortunately I am not really that great when it comes to the various mods and will require layman's terms if possible... Sorry
Sent from my GT-I9505 using XDA Forums

dont worry! the same happened to me. just download the stock rom, extract the apk from system.img its named as like phone.apk or dialer.apk , and install it. this should solve your issue

Thanks very much for replying my post. The post is quite old now and I have sorted it. I had to flash the stock rom back on (i had cyanogenmod installed). It was a pain and took a while but I got there in the end. Thanks again though. I don't know how to close this thread
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

OK fine

how do i get rid of a pop up ad?

This pop up ad appears many times a day.
Can't figure where its coming from and how to get rid of it.
Any help would be appreciated.

Download Malwearbytes and run a scan. Looks like adware.

Malwarebytes found nothing ugg

What happens if you go to your pull down from top notifications? I'd think it will show the running process. Hold your finger on it and should go to the 'notifications' setting for the app.

Start deleting questionable apps you downloaded recently.

I had an update recently installed on my Samsung s8. When I tried to play my music, my phone said I had to download Samsung Music Player, since then I've had ads popping up every 5 minutes. Every ad has the System UI logo and an app that I downloaded to monitor app usage confirmed it also. When I go into advanced setting or admin settings the buttons are blocked. Some say to delete any unusual apps, but how can I tell which apps or stock apps I really need?

Which music player did you install?

I agree with the Malwarebytes, you might also want to check out your skin theme. Some have sneaky ways of rolling out ads to your phone.