Related
I recently downloaded LBE Privacy Guard. It is a nice app that let's the user control what permissions your apps have. One of the features it has is that it can keep a log of the apps. I noticed in this log that google maps is accessing my location a few times an hour. I'm not sure what I should make of this. Is this something I should be concerned about? What do you guys think?
Sent from my Frozen1.2 Genocided2 Epic4G
I wouldn't be concerned with it. Google's servers keep in contact with your phone for multiple reasons. Overall it is very non invasive and millions of ppl use it.
If I've helped you, please hit the THANKS BUTTON
Tasker is what kept maps looking up my location. I have a task set for when I'm at work. It kept looking to make sure I was there. I took that location out of the task and 'poof' maps didn't show up on that log any more.
Sent from my Frozen1.2 Genocided2 Epic4G
Hey! tl;dr? Click here to go directly to the fast improvements post and disable some unwanted services.
Still want more fun disabling services? Read the second post.
Hi all,
I improved the speed of my G2 recently and felt that the community might appreciate this as well. It's probably not the "best guide" for everybody, but this is what I've done and it's worked nicely for me so far.
I recently got irritated at my phone being occasionally sluggish. So, when it was sluggish one time, I went to Manage applications->Running Applications, and saw that Facebook decided it wanted to start itself up in the background.
Now, I'm as big a fan as the next guy for having multi-tasking, but randomly starting an app in the background without my consent is not what I consider to be useful or resource-friendly. I decided to "freeze" the app using SD Maid (you can do this with Titanium Backup as well). Facebook is now in a frozen state so it will not launch itself at all. Ha!
What do I do about having no Facebook now? Well, there happens to be a great app on the Market called Fast for Facebook. This is quite an improvement over the sluggish and buggy Facebook app. I installed that and am having a blast with it so far.
I wanted to check for other apps that were dawdling in the background. So I looked again in Running Applications and found that Maps decided it wants to be running too. I went to the settings for the Maps application, and turned off Location reporting. Why would I want an app sucking my resources dry to alert the world where I am? I'm not that much of a socialite or stalker prey. I also turned off Automatic check-ins.
Previously, I'd gone through a few other apps and turned off automatic sync. Things like DropSync (to sync Dropbox), Tumblr, Google+, and Twitter are not necessary for me to have reviving themselves in the background. I should be the authoritarian ruler of all of the apps over my phone- no freedom here to run around as you please.
I set up a couple apps to run at odd hours of the night. I only need to have photos and documents synced probably once a day, so I set up Tasker to do it automatically while the phone is charging and connected to Wifi at around 4am. I've set up Titanium Backup to do backups something like every Tuesday night, Friday night, and Sunday night, each at like 4am as well; and upload those backups to Box. I want to use my phone fast when I use it during the day, and at night time it can take its time with these lesser-priority tasks while I'm asleep.
Email/Gmail and Messages still have notifications and syncing, as well as the occasional Pulse RSS feed notification. All else seems to be shutting up though, which is good. What I would really like to do is have Market update its apps automatically at like 4am, so it won't spend resources checking for updates in the background. I can't find how to do that though.
One app that really gets under my skin is Amazon Appstore. This guy runs in the background too- I've turned off its notifications but I'm pretty sure it'll still sit there sapping my resources. This one's a toughie because I want to uninstall or freeze it, but I want to still be able to get good free apps from it once a day. There have been some really good apps and some really bad ones, but the good ones are worth it to me.
I might add in more things to disable. It's been faster so far, so I'll see how it goes over a couple days. One last thing I did was install SetCPU. I use that now instead of CyanogenMod 7's built-in CPU stuff. I don't know if it's a placebo or not, but I seemed to notice a boost in performance from it (not instantly, but in general I see less lag).
Hope this helps someone, best of luck with all of your phones.
-Proxin
use watchdog to spy on what apps are actually running and using cpu in the background, lots of apps can be open in the background and not using anything cpuwise
demkantor said:
use watchdog to spy on what apps are actually running and using cpu in the background, lots of apps can be open in the background and not using anything cpuwise
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Watchdog is a great idea too, I forgot to mention that.
If anyone else has recommendations they are all welcome!
Proxin said:
Watchdog is a great idea too, I forgot to mention that.
If anyone else has recommendations they are all welcome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For speed improvements, i usually use titanum backup to remove alot of useless apps i dont use (which frees up alot of ram). then i supercharge my phone and set it to agressive. And i also change up the build prop.
I need to post my additions.
I realized that by disabling Facebook, I lost my contacts that I had from there. That's no good. So I re-enabled it.
Now, Facebook has a few select services it likes to let run in the background. One specific one is MediaUploadService. This runs even when you are Not uploading anything, which is ridiculous because it hogs your resources.
However, if you disable this service completely, you won't be able to upload any photos to Facebook from your phone.
SO, I set up a script to disable all of Facebook's services like this at once, and I use the app called Llama to execute this script every time Facebook exits. I set it up to call my enable script once Facebook is started, then 5 minutes after Facebook closes it disables all of the Facebook services.
Here is what I used...
Enable Facebook services:
Code:
su -c 'pm enable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.MediaUploadService; pm enable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.FacebookService; pm enable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.BackgroundDetectionService; pm enable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.orca.push.mqtt.MqttPushService; '
Disable Facebook services:
Code:
su -c 'pm disable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.MediaUploadService; pm disable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.FacebookService; pm disable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.BackgroundDetectionService; pm disable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.orca.push.mqtt.MqttPushService; '
With this new ability to disable services, I took a look at Amazon AppStore's annoying service, and disabled it using this script with Llama like I did with Facebook:
Amazon Service Disable script
Code:
su -c 'pm disable com.amazon.venezia/com.amazon.venezia.service.UpdateService'
Proxin- note: old code said:
Next, I noticed SwypeConnect was keeping itself active, so I disabled it too (Swype never gets updates anyway, so I didn't see anything bad with doing this):
Code:
pm disable com.swype.android.inputmethod/com.swype.android.connect.ConnectClient
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's an app on the Market called StartupManager, I used that to kill off extra startup services that were not necessary. Things like Youtube, MyTracks and Maps were starting up. My view is, why do these things start when I don't start them myself? I stopped the services and have seen some pretty good responsiveness so far.
Go to the market and search for an app called gemini manager. It needs root but you can disable autostart for all apps with it.
Also get LBE privacy guard- it will block apps from using gps/data which can also increase battery life
redspeed said:
Go to the market and search for an app called gemini manager. It needs root but you can disable autostart for all apps with it.
Also get LBE privacy guard- it will block apps from using gps/data which can also increase battery life
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, I'll look into those too- thanks
@proxin:
Amazing post! how do you find the path for each of those components inside a package?
I use the same method with Tasker (instead of llama). Perform a task (run shell command) on the exit of a App profile
Also, the .Mqtt. should be all lowercase (figured out after that service would not disable), like this:
com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.orca.push.mqtt.MqttPushService
file2mail said:
@proxin:
Amazing post! how do you find the path for each of those components inside a package?
I use the same method with Tasker (instead of llama). Perform a task (run shell command) on the exit of a App profile
Also, the .Mqtt. should be all lowercase (figured out after that service would not disable), like this:
com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.orca.push.mqtt.MqttPushService
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, hope it has helped! I found them by looking up their Running service name on Google, and seeing people's logcat errors on there elaborated them for me. So I'd try a search for "com.facebook.katana*MqttPushService" and Google would direct me to the proper one.
You're spot-on with the Mqtt needing to be lowercase, I found the same issue on mine and got pissed off when I saw that the Mqtt service was still running forgot to change the post to reflect it though. Thanks for the notice
Seems like the best method for using your phone properly is to do like we're doing, otherwise applications with poor choice in how they handle resources, will clutter up the phone.
Btw, I tried Gemini App Manager and it works well for disabling autostart in apps. LBE Privacy Guard is intense in how much it locks down your phone, but that's locked down it's even a bit too much for me haha. It's a great app and will work for many people though.
I've noticed maps running in the background many times. I didnt know you're able to switch this off, thanks for the info!
Killer1desireZ said:
I've noticed maps running in the background many times. I didnt know you're able to switch this off, thanks for the info!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, I don't recommend killing off the Maps service though as it's probably needed for some location service (in my case I need the cell tower location service for some Llama profiles)
That's just my case though. Before you disable the service, maybe see if you can turn off automatic location reporting in Latitude? Go into Latitude settings->Location Settings and change Location reporting and Automatic check-ins to be Off.
Hope this helps. It shouldn't disable the entire Maps service but maybe it will reduce the amount of check-ins that Maps does without your consent.
Perhaps one of the biggest performance hits in an Mid Spec Android phone is how many App's it's carrying.
It is generally a good idea to keep the App count low. A general rule of thumb is to have no more than 40~ user apps on your Device. Since you have less apps installed (some of which could be idling or actively operating in the backround), you'll have more free RAM/space in the internal storage which in turn will mean more speed/battery efficiency.
Hope this can be of help
crestofawave said:
Perhaps one of the biggest performance hits in an Mid Spec Android phone is how many App's it's carrying.
It is generally a good idea to keep the App count low. A general rule of thumb is to have no more than 40~ user apps on your Device. Since you have less apps installed (some of which could be idling or actively operating in the backround), you'll have more free RAM/space in the internal storage which in turn will mean more speed/battery efficiency.
Hope this can be of help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've heard this said too, but I've never seen evidence that the more apps you have installed = the more apps are actively running. It's definitely a good idea to have less installed, but I don't think they'll run in the background unless they have autostarting capabilities like you can monitor with Gemini App Manager.
This is just me without even a Bachelor's degree speculating and relaying my experience though, so don't take my word for it
I notice a definite lag once I go above a certain amount of apps. I uninstall 10 or so and its a rocket! But then again I have waaaay more then 40 probably like 100 or something
Maps doesn't have that option for me. Anyways uninstalled 20 apps
New fun things to try...
I enjoy GO Launcher Ex just as much as the next guy who uses it as the default Home application, but I don't enjoy it making multiple services of itself that do, literally nothing. What I noticed specifically was a service called GOMusic, taking up about 4MB of RAM which could be used for other, more useful things.
What I did to fix it was:
Code:
pm disable com.gau.go.launcherex/com.jiubang.ggheart.apps.desks.appfunc.mediamanagement.musicplay.MusicPlaybackService
My Google Music widget still works fine, so apparently the GOMusic thing was just a waste of RAM (unless someone can explain a good reason to leave it be?)
One more addition I did was that, I keep seeing SwypeConnect as a service and I don't like it. It shouldn't need to constantly connect, for me to simply use Swype whenever I do.
I tried two things, pretty sure the second fixed this:
Code:
pm disable com.nuance.swype.input/com.nuance.swype.input.SwypeConnect
pm disable com.naunce.swype.input/com.nuance.swype.connect.ConnectClient
And next, I saw that Google Voice had a Widget service that liked to hang out and sap my resources. This would be useful but I don't have a widget set, so I disabled it:
Code:
pm disable com.google.android.apps.googlevoice/.widget.WidgetService
That worked for me. I can still send and receive messages with Google Voice, so I still have the same functionality I need without having an extra service in my list.
Note that, as usual, these are easily reversible by using using "enable" instead of disable in that code block.
Hopefully this will help someone else as well.
New experimental service disabled; I had noticed multiple Maps services running whenever they pleased. I can do with a NetworkLocation service from Maps, because I use Llama for location profiles and all, but not a Prefetcher service for it.
Here is what I used to disable the Prefetcher service...
Code:
pm disable com.google.android.apps.maps/com.google.googlenav.prefetch.android.PrefetcherService
I haven't seen any negative effects from this so far, but I will update this if I do.
@Proxin
Hi there,
I'm realy like your entries here, but i cant get through with the scripts killing facebook services. Can you be more specifc pls how to set those scripts you mentioned in Llama?
i've just tried to do things you say with facebook background services and for maps' prefetcher, but it says Segmentation Fault, as far as i know , segfaults are not normal linux program response, right? without super user privileges it just says 'Killed' [i tried both because 'pm set-install-location' worked for me only without super user]
EDIT:
ok, i'm noob, i just had to export LD_LIBRARY_PATH, now pm doesn't segfault for me as superuser
hi can any ody guide me how to use those su commands with llama?? thanks
Has anyone else noticed Maps generating a lot of wakelocks in recent versions? I'm not using Latitude, and with Maps installed, network location is always the top wakelock, even when I never open maps. When I remove maps, the wakelock goes away, and the battery life gets better.
I'm banging my head on the wall here...it wasn't like this is older versions, but lately I can't seem to do anything to calm it down, short of uninstalling/freezing it. It's not like I use it much, but it is nice for it to be there on the rare occasion that I do need it.
use an autorun manager to block it. one of the free versions allows for 4 toggles and I used them all on facebook (but for some reason maps isn't located in this program) so that doesn't really help your problem but i'll do some app research and report back. that'll probably be the only way to stop it.
edit: use gemini task manager and long click on maps and then configure auto run (root) i unchecked everything but a couple so that my geolocation for my beautiful widgets would work as well as facebook checkins although I'm not sure if maps has anything to do with this but i think it does.
I have a (4GB) Tronsmart TS7 (some times known as a Alps Glacier TS7). It's a Chinese MTK6589 based phone running Android 4.2 purchased from geekbuying.
For the most part the device is stock, there are next to no pre-installed apps apart from the usual, and the only additional apps I have installed are: Playstation, Steam, ColorNote, Shuttle+, Root Explorer DI Radio, Chrome & Gmail
The problem I have is that there are apps appearing on the device that I am not installing. So far it has been the same set of apps that appear:
Mobo Market
UC Browser
TrustGo Security
DU Battery Saver
337 Game Master
GameCenter
(there may be more)
These apps don't start appearing right after a factory reset, but start to arrive 1-2weeks later. They also seem to be packaged similarly; when I say packaged I mean opening them seems to prompt with the same menu & style (accept licence etc) before it gets to the main app. Also, after you open the app from the app drawer it then creates an icon on the desktop. Maybe opening it actually does the installing?
The apps themselves seem to be legit.
I have factory reset the device (twice), and changed my Google password but they are still appearing. They don't show up in my Play store history so they must be coming from elsewhere.
My main concern is that if it is downloading things without my permission, what might it be uploading ? Not to mention wasting my 3g data etc.
So I have a few questions:
Should I be (really) worried?
Is there a way to monitor this? eg connect to a wifi hotspot and packet capture the network traffic? or maybe use a process monitor (the ones I've tried so far haven't shown anything) to see if there is some sort of script in the background?
Can it be stopped?
Thanks in advance, I would be interested to know if anyone else has/had this problem?
I have the same problem.
I haven't tried flashing some other ROM yet, but I guess that is the only way to get it to stop installing those things.
Have you actually found any other roms to install?
For anybody's information:
You may have noticed how you always end up with a 'Tronsmart.mp4' video file appearing in your gallery app. This is damn annoying since it appears twice, once on the internal and once on the external SD card. There is an '\system\app\CopyTest.apk' file which creates both of these. Should be safe to delete it and thus prevent the file(s) appearing
I have actually decompiled this apk. It works as a service that runs when MEDIA_UNMOUNTED or MEDIA_MOUNTED is invoked, and does absolutely nothing else.
I have the same problem, those random apps installing and the video always in my gallery. I have managed to stop tge apps by using a firewall and allowing only my apps that i want to use the internet. I havent found a solution though to fix the problem. Probably tronsmart is spamming its customers...
mariosm1cy said:
I have managed to stop tge apps by using a firewall and allowing only my apps that i want to use the internet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What Firewall did you use? I might be able to use something like that to pinpoint the app that's causing this.
Sory for the late reply. I am usin "android firewall" free from google play store.
USB debugging disabled stopped it on mine
edit: not that easy, wasn't enough. made some cleanup by disabing/removing some system apps. seems to work so far although there are still some strange events like superuser crashing and right after that system downloader.apk reappearing. haven't seen any other junk coming back
these are the apk's i removed:
systemupdateassistant
systemdownloader
omacp
mtkbt
midtest
galaxy4
fusedlocation
engineermode
engineermodesim
cds_info
basicdreams.
Greetings.
as you know, even if we disable "android device manager" from settings->security->device administrators, it still can be enabled from https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager "enable lock & erase"
from one side it is good, but from other side it is bad - i don't want that my phone can be remotely erased by google
this functionality definitely resides in gmscore.apk
of course, we can just kill all google services, but we loose too much.
so : probably someone from devs here already know answer what to patch in gmscore to disable this behavior ?
with latest gmscore update ( 6.1.74 (1511752-038) ) the only message i can see, when pushing "enable lock and erase" :
GCM message com.google.android.gms 0:1414056810224892%136ddda63e77bab2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
of course, hex payload different each time.
disabling service
Code:
com.google.android.gms.mdm.services.GcmReceiverService
did job
:good:
Thanks you, I 'm searching since 10 minute.
the_laser said:
disabling service
Code:
com.google.android.gms.mdm.services.GcmReceiverService
did job
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I was wondering how to do that.
thanks, but...
the_laser said:
disabling service
Code:
com.google.android.gms.mdm.services.GcmReceiverService
did job
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't seem to find that service, heck I can't even find gmscore.apk
When I use find / -name gmscore.apk in terminal nothing came up.
Running 4.4.2 on galaxy S5, google framework 4.4.2-940549
Any ideas?
I would really not want my device wiped If my google account was compromised (really only have it for android)
as i remember, this service because build into gmscore from 4.4.4 and enabling downloading some external application.
can be wrong, though.
damn it google!
This is really frustrating. I can't find a way to disable it and I can't find 'com.google.android.gms.mdm.services.GcmReceiverService'.
This a serious security flaw, let me explain why.... I have a company account on my phone, just for the purpose of receiving gmail, and that's very important to me. This also means this account can access my phone through android device manager. So, anyone that can log in to firm's gmail can lock and erase my phone and there's no way to disable it. Best I could do was turn off location reporting and hide my phone from showing in device list. However, anyone that can log in to this account, can also change this in settings and unhide it, enable lock and erase, make it ring and.... well, lock and erase it.
This is very worrying when you have a lot of people with access to gmail account that you also have on your phone. ATM only solution I see is to remove account on my phone and search for other email app.
Anyone knows how one could deal with this and still use gmail app?
gimche said:
This is really frustrating. I can't find a way to disable it and I can't find 'com.google.android.gms.mdm.services.GcmReceiverService'.
This a serious security flaw, let me explain why.... I have a company account on my phone, just for the purpose of receiving gmail, and that's very important to me. This also means this account can access my phone through android device manager. So, anyone that can log in to firm's gmail can lock and erase my phone and there's no way to disable it. Best I could do was turn off location reporting and hide my phone from showing in device list. However, anyone that can log in to this account, can also change this in settings and unhide it, enable lock and erase, make it ring and.... well, lock and erase it.
This is very worrying when you have a lot of people with access to gmail account that you also have on your phone. ATM only solution I see is to remove account on my phone and search for other email app.
Anyone knows how one could deal with this and still use gmail app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Instead of a problem with ADM, this sounds like a massive security issue on your company's side. I don't know why your company need to share the same email account, but the more people who have access, the more likely someone will spill the beans. If I am you, getting my phone wiped will the least of my worries.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thank you, that is what I want. Great!
Ok so Im facing the same problem is there any way to disable this process ?
gimche said:
This is really frustrating. I can't find a way to disable it and I can't find 'com.google.android.gms.mdm.services.GcmReceiverService'.
This a serious security flaw, let me explain why.... I have a company account on my phone, just for the purpose of receiving gmail, and that's very important to me. This also means this account can access my phone through android device manager. So, anyone that can log in to firm's gmail can lock and erase my phone and there's no way to disable it. Best I could do was turn off location reporting and hide my phone from showing in device list. However, anyone that can log in to this account, can also change this in settings and unhide it, enable lock and erase, make it ring and.... well, lock and erase it.
This is very worrying when you have a lot of people with access to gmail account that you also have on your phone. ATM only solution I see is to remove account on my phone and search for other email app.
Anyone knows how one could deal with this and still use gmail app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
deadwolf666 said:
Ok so Im facing the same problem is there any way to disable this process ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tamuin said:
I can't seem to find that service, heck I can't even find gmscore.apk
When I use find / -name gmscore.apk in terminal nothing came up.
Running 4.4.2 on galaxy S5, google framework 4.4.2-940549
Any ideas?
I would really not want my device wiped If my google account was compromised (really only have it for android)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Install My Android Tools then go to Service>Google Play Service then disable the corresponding service.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cn.wq.myandroidtools&en
How about using a ROM without gapps?
Cyclu said:
Install My Android Tools then go to Service>Google Play Service then disable the corresponding service.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cn.wq.myandroidtools&en
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This dosent appear to be working, as after I disable all the above services, clicked on "enable lock and erase" from my google account it reactivated said services. So which service is activating and overriding the services I disabled?
Im running Android 4.4.2(goldeneye rom, Googymax kernal) on a Samsung i9505, I use Xprivacy, Android firewall, and Appmaster(app uninstaller & autostart manager)
Trying to secure an oem samsung Rom from google and its services while still using all the factory apps is going to be like herding cats...
It's similar to going to the pool and expecting to swim but not getting wet.
If you use Google apps and use the accounts feature of Android then you are going to have Google play services and other Google services running, and sadly you can stop them all you want they update and restart themselves regularly.
You just can't get away from Google, if you still use Google play, the Google mail app, Google voice search, Google account verifier, Google download manager, Google hangouts, Google plus or the host of other Google services and apps that a baked into your rom.
All you will do in find yourself with a lot of force closes from apps, and less hair more cats.
What @Cyclu said was the right way. there are several services and receivers that have "mdm" , probably what you could do is use the search function in the app while viewing the services for GooglePlayServices. at the top of the screen, click menu, toggle full, (full/short option) then tap the magnifying glass, then the search box and type "mdm" , then do the same thing under the receivers section
This is so annoying. Can you imagine disabling admin on the phone, knowing that after reading the description in that area of the settings that it cannot be used to wipe the phone? Then someone testing it to prove it and they click "Enable" and wipe the phone? Know how dangerous that is? My phone is an S5 mini, stock firmware and rooted with SuperSU. What can I do to just prevent admin mode being enabled? I want to be able to track my phone's location but I do NOT want my phone able to be remotely wiped by anyone including myself, remotely.
I tried all. Looks like there is no way to disable ADM. Even if u disable corresponding service for ADM still when u restart that service gets re-enables it self again. Had any got a solution to disable this crappy android device manager fully?? thx in advance.
Forgive me, but this thread is just pathetic. If you have Gapps, your device is not yours. It is Google's. Period. If you can't live without hangouts and similar garbage, then enjoy them, but stop *****ing about remote wipe. You can't be half-pregnant. By the way, remote wipe is not the worse thing that could happen to you. Anything could be silently installed on "your" phone, even if you somehow disable ADM. It could be done through Google play and google services framework. Not to mention thar google analytics record everything about your activities and gsf regularly reports the same "home" i.e Google.
To gmail at work guy: if you can't use another client to access your work gmail, get a separate feature phone.
even "android = google" ? much less gapps , eh ?
"all i can really do is stay out of my own way and let the will of heaven be done"
mrrocketdog said:
even "android = google" ? much less gapps , eh ?
"all i can really do is stay out of my own way and let the will of heaven be done"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android, unlike Gapps, is open source. So, you can get under the hood and clean lots of things.