[Q] Cleaning / wiping app for Android? - General Questions and Answers

My ICS is quite slow and I realized after checking it on the PC that there is a lot of garbage left in it after the app unistallation. Some folders are still there, some files and god knows what. I was thinking whether there is a sort of cleaner app that would remove all that garbage from the system? Similar to Windows CCleaner or something like that.
Anyone knows?

If you want to really clean it then just go into recovery and do a factory reset. I tend to do this every now and then, just to get rid of crap apps that I install and never remove.

I think you are looking for my app SD Maid .

Dark3n said:
I think you are looking for my app SD Maid .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I LOVE YOU MAN! Need to check it out! I'll update you!

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CCleaner type app for android?

Does anyone know if a app, like the ccleaner for windows is available for android?
Now I know that android is linux based, therefore there is no need for a registry cleaner, but with the constant install and then removal of apps (now i am assuming here) there must be some sort of footprint left behind which needs deleting?
thanks for any help and advice
eh...the only thing I could think of is maybe "CacheMate"
Neejay said:
eh...the only thing I could think of is maybe "CacheMate"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second Cachemate. Been using it for months now and finally bought the "Pro" version. More like donation-ware. It was especially useful when I felt I was running out of space after app installs; however, now that I'm running an AOSP rom and have the option of using Apps2SD, space on the phone is less scarce. Either way, I run it every now and then to clean things up, particularly before making a Nandroid backup.
i am not sure if this is right because i am also quite new to android, but:
android is not windows. When you install a programm there is one .apk.. probably it creates a folder on the sd.. thats it. There is no registry, programms do not mess around @ system files.
Uninstalling means deleting the apk.. perhaps you have to remove the folder @ sdcard yourself.. thats all i guess.
I installed a couple of roms without wiping and many many apps, and my system is still clean what i can see (and fast like on the first day..)
nice one!!
Thanks for that, i'll download CacheMate and have a look.
Cachemate is good, but Titanium really works (root needed)
I paid for Titanium because my brand new Samsung Galaxy S 4G started having low phone storage on the first day. Couldn't move a bunch of stuff, so I just did Superoneclick and rooted it, then installed Titanium. I was able to free up space on the phone itself (it's loaded with bloatware) by moving some stuff, but it also has a cache cleaner that got rid of another 25 MB of data that I didn't need. So, short story is, if you just need to clean you cache, cachemate is probably fine, but if you need more robust options for system maintenance, consider Titanium.
Well when you uninstall an application you not only have the .apk in /data/app/ but the application data in /data/data/ which is removed when you properly uninstall the application, not just deleting the apk. The "cache" you are seeing is browser, maps etc. data. You can manually do this in application manager by clicking the name then clear cache.
The only extra data you might have would be if the application has data on the sdcard which I find most applications do not remove if it's an external download such as skins. So there really is no need for any type of cleaning tools, none of which would clean out anything on /system/ unless it's a rooted application so there should be no need for that.
i tried cachemate and i can say that phone was reborn after it... it started to fly... 13 mb was cleared...
There was a another app called aCCleaner. It's even better
http://www.appbrain.com/app/1tap-cache-cleaner-free/com.a0soft.gphone.acc.free
If your device is rooted then you can try out SD Maid.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1013063
It deletes leftover folders from uninstalled apps from the SD card.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App
Cachemate never seems to work for me. It always say my cache has been recently cleared and there is nothing to clean although I didnt set it on auto or clean it before. Werid.
Why looking for alternatives if you can try CCleaner on your Android device, try this link http://goo.gl/TIR4pk as its in beta, but still its working fine. If you still want to CCleaner like alternatives for android try this link http://goo.gl/LMmUho
Might be this help you
Do not use applications that might spoil the phone ... after all, remember that Android is based on Linux. so it is already Optimized for his trial ... try CacheMate.
Try clean master. It's pretty good!
-Omkar

[Q] WHY can't you delete preinstalled apps?

Hi folks,
As you can tell from the title I'm a smartphone noob and didn't realise you couldn't do this (see the amount of people I've spoke to who didn't even notice you can't delete apps that come with the phone! What's with that?).
But as you can see I emphasised the 'why', 'cause I've searched everywhere but can't find a reason as to why. I'd assume it was just so you can't delete bloatware, but even the Nexus that runs on stock Android has the same issue.
Does anyone know why (or guess why) you can't delete preinstalled apps?
Thanks!
If your device is rooted, all you have to do is download Root Explorer from the market and delete the APK files from the system.
They're located in: /system/app/
You have to press "Mount R/W" on the top right of the application before you can read and write. Make sure hit "Mount R/O" in the same spot after you're done editing though. Also, make sure that what you're deleting isn't something you need and you should probably back-up the .APK files to be safe. If you mess up and don't back up, you can still just re-flash or re-download GAPPS without a problem. Have fun .
Thanks
I was thinking about rooting my phone actually, I'll check that out (I'm sooooo going to back up everything lol).
But! The question was WHY you can't delete the preinstalled apps. Does anyone know the reasoning behind it?
You're welcome mate .
Just for safety I suppose. And you should definitely root your phone, it'll open a whole new world for you!
manufacturer /operator agreements...
tmpchr said:
manufacturer /operator agreements...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That and basically without rooting your phone it's basically like a comps guest profile. A lot less can mess up if you can't play around with certain files/settings.
Makes sense.
Thanks folks
I am also unhappy that i cannot uninstall apps that came with the phone and i have yet to find a good reason as to why not. most of the apps i want to delete are free on the market, already compatible with my phone and can be deleted or uninstalled without causing any major issues.
tmpchr says "manufacturer /operator agreements..."
ok ill buy that, sounds like a good business opportunity, (i would do it) good advertising, shared/reduced costs...etc. but the end user should still have the option to remove.
I totally agree with you guys, at the very beginning I had so big apps installed on my device (motorola xt720), for instance MotoNav was about 1.5 GB and spoiled my battery life. Luckily I discovered how to root the device and now, using "root uninstaller" that you find in the market, all of them are just a memory
You could also use Titanium Backup to remove programs.

Erase app completely without changing roms?

Hi, was just wondering if it was possible to erase an app completely? In other words, say I uninstall the app but when I re-install it, it's tied to my phone still somehow. Other than changing roms completely and then installing the app, any way besides that? I have no specific app in mind at this point.
webrain said:
Hi, was just wondering if it was possible to erase an app completely? In other words, say I uninstall the app but when I re-install it, it's tied to my phone still somehow. Other than changing roms completely and then installing the app, any way besides that? I have no specific app in mind at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well u have to be more specific.
System app or non-system app?
In simple terms:
Non system apps will or can save files to ur SD card. So if u know what file it is, then if u erase the file then it will be a fresh install of the app without the automatic restore or recognition.
System apps work similarly but can get a bit more complex with the SD card file location and its deletion.
Not to mention some apps are tied into ur Google account which can get more complex if u have ever saved it to ur Google account at some time in ur phone's life span.
So, which kind of app is it?
Good luck
Vs Nexus S4G using tapatalk2
Be sure to tap "Clear Data" first before uninstalling the app.

[Q] Best cleaning app

Hey ladies and gentlemen.
Can someone tell me what is the best cleaning app?
And i mean advanced cleaning, not something like clean master and such.
SDmaid is great, but i think it doesn't clean everything.
Many thanks in advance advance and sorry if its wrong section.
By the way i have Xperia Neo running ICS stock rom rooted.
What do you want to clean? You can use the recovery mode to wipe cache and dalvik cache, advanced enough?
Or titanium backup to clear apps data and stuff.
Hope it helps .
I don't know if I have used any cleaning apps specifically. I find that normally just deleting unused applications is generally enough. Everything is sandboxes and fairly self contained. Also never underestimate the size of your image lib. Always good to backup your phone and archive off pictures at the end of each year.
So called cleaner apps are all a joke. I would avoid them. Just do some minor cleaning yourself every now and then.
Cleaner apps do the contradictory action don't download them...
If u want free RAM then use
Greenify [root]
To cleanup the cache use recovery mode..
CCleaner. I got I for free from amazon appstore. It helps with cleaning,with a few clicks you can delete unneeded garbage.
Avoid cleaning apps
I strictly recommends you not to use cleaning apps they eat up more battery and RAM.:silly:
shadowcore said:
CCleaner. I got I for free from amazon appstore. It helps with cleaning,with a few clicks you can delete unneeded garbage.
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Click to collapse
This. CCleaner is awesome. Check it out.
Khoga said:
This. CCleaner is awesome. Check it out.
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Click to collapse
Those cleaning apps dont do anything other then place ads on your screen. All effects are placebo designed to make noobs think they are doing something great.
zelendel said:
Those cleaning apps dont do anything other then place ads on your screen. All effects are placebo designed to make noobs think they are doing something great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, CCleaner has no ads, at least the version I have. Suffice to say, its a useful tool. Less menial work to do, especially when deleting many things at once.
shadowcore said:
Actually, CCleaner has no ads, at least the version I have. Suffice to say, its a useful tool. Less menial work to do, especially when deleting many things at once.
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Click to collapse
Have you even looked at what it really does. These types of apps were put to the test years ago. They were found to be mostly pointless as they mainly cleaned up DB files what we're just redone on the next reboot.
And now with Android 5.0 they are even more pointless.
360Antivirus geek. Maybe.
I agree most clean up apps don't do much for you. I do like SD maid as it allows me to toggle whether or not certain apps run at start up, duplicate finder can also be useful at times.
Also use SD Maid to check its file's recommendations out occasionally. Interesting to see and optional to remove...
DuxAS92 said:
SDmaid is great, but i think it doesn't clean everything.
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Click to collapse
It's tough to be both thorough and still on the safe side. If you send me a mail regarding what you think was missed i can look into it.
techacker007 said:
What do you want to clean? You can use the recovery mode to wipe cache and dalvik cache, advanced enough?
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Click to collapse
Dalvik-Cache, the cache partition and app cache is not the same. AFAIK no recovery targets app caches except when doing a factory reset.
IgnitusBoyone said:
I don't know if I have used any cleaning apps specifically. I find that normally just deleting unused applications is generally enough. Everything is sandboxes and fairly self contained. Also never underestimate the size of your image lib. Always good to backup your phone and archive off pictures at the end of each year.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The sandbox is pretty leaky though. Especially the sdcard is basically a huge free 4 all with developers thinking they are the most important app on the phone and stuffing files everywhere. Then there are also the cases where apps think their data should stick around because you "might" reinstall, who specifically make sure the data is not just deleted on uninstall.
If we put root into the mix, it's all fair game .
zelendel said:
So called cleaner apps are all a joke. I would avoid them. Just do some minor cleaning yourself every now and then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Most" cleaner apps are a joke, but don't put them all in the same bucket . But i do i have to admit that the majority are a joke if not even missleading or straight scummy.
zelendel said:
Have you even looked at what it really does. These types of apps were put to the test years ago. They were found to be mostly pointless as they mainly cleaned up DB files what we're just redone on the next reboot.
And now with Android 5.0 they are even more pointless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All the "RAM cleaning stuff" has been pointless since 2.2/2.3. Not sure what you mean that Lollipop has changed further, while external sdcard restrictions have been forced since 3.0 (in reality 4.4) it doesn't completely solve most issues, especially on custom ROMs or rooted devices where the restrictions are often deactivated as they are pretty inconvinient.
I'm not sure what DB files you are talking about, care to elaborate?
galaxys said:
Also use SD Maid to check its file's recommendations out occasionally. Interesting to see and optional to remove...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting to see indeed, and pretty much how i think it should be used, but people want comfort and rather have the apps make the decision for them. Can't blame em though. Android has lots of room for improvement in that deparment, not easy to solve though. If they change the whole sdcard access system they could track file access of each app and use that data for security and uninstall purposes but i guess that would be difficult to do with the differences between each handsets storage solution. Also brings some performance penalties, and storage access already is one huge bottleneck on Android.
Thank you all for your answers.
I will just keep using SDmaid its best till now.
I dont want Clean master and DuSpeedBooster craps, thanks but no thanks.
Also CCleaner is pretty simple, i think sdmaid is doing better job.
I dont know how to use recovery mode, i never made it.
I am on ICS stock rom rooted, maybe its not even possible for me to go into recovery mode.
Yeah lolipop is great but my phone wont get it and i cant get new phone so Lolipop is nowhere near me.
Cheers
Clean Master

What's the best app for uninstalling bloatware on a rooted device?

An app that will remove a system app with "ALL" its files safely and permanently.
Dylan2232 said:
An app that will remove a system app with "ALL" its files safely and permanently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are plenty of them on play store. I believe all I tried so far work good on rooted devices
Playstore SD Maid pro works very well...
Dylan2232 said:
An app that will remove a system app with "ALL" its files safely and permanently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium Backup Pro is always a good go-to. Really, there are no shortages of apps that do what you want, though. Do you have other criteria?
mattgyver said:
Titanium Backup Pro is always a good go-to. Really, there are no shortages of apps that do what you want, though. Do you have other criteria?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's about the only requirement...an app that will remove every single file that an app installed.
I factory reseted my phone yesterday and going through the memory, i noticed folders and files of apps that had already been uninstalled long ago, as well as ones that weren't but i assumed the factory reset would take care of it. So i am guessing some apps (all?) leave traces behind. Thats what i don't want.
Dylan2232 said:
That's about the only requirement...an app that will remove every single file that an app installed.
I factory reseted my phone yesterday and going through the memory, i noticed folders and files of apps that had already been uninstalled long ago, as well as ones that weren't but i assumed the factory reset would take care of it. So i am guessing some apps (all?) leave traces behind. Thats what i don't want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, almost every app will add some sort of files to folders. Places like /storage/internal/Android/ or /storage/internal/data/data/
If you go to App Info, or use Titanium Backup (TiBu), and clear data and cache THEN uninstall, you should get rid of the vast majority of folders and stuff the app(s) installed. SDMaid has CorpseFinder, which can find orphaned files.
mattgyver said:
Titanium Backup Pro is always a good go-to. Really, there are no shortages of apps that do what you want, though. Do you have other criteria?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mattgyver said:
Yeah, almost every app will add some sort of files to folders. Places like /storage/internal/Android/ or /storage/internal/data/data/
If you go to App Info, or use Titanium Backup (TiBu), and clear data and cache THEN uninstall, you should get rid of the vast majority of folders and stuff the app(s) installed. SDMaid has CorpseFinder, which can find orphaned files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, im a little OCD about this...im looking for zero trace. There's gotta be something out there that can do it. SD Maid, i dont see how it can get everything everytime because really, how can it know? Especially when the app developer doesn't want the files to be known.
Dylan2232 said:
Yeah, im a little OCD about this...im looking for zero trace. There's gotta be something out there that can do it. SD Maid, i dont see how it can get everything everytime because really, how can it know? Especially when the app developer doesn't want the files to be known.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I doubt you'll find anything that's 100% ALWAYS going to scrub 100% of everything.
You can hedge your bets and reformat your internal storage every few weeks if you get paranoid about space and orphaned data.

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