Database Info

[Q] How To Remove Unwanted Apps? (Root)

Unlocked, Rooted, Factory Image. Until the custom ROM scene get's built up, can unused apps be removed from the phone? I don't use 98% of the Google stuff. Can I just delete the apk's from /system/app and reboot? Any other locations for apps? I've disabled what I could, but I just want remove stuff and slim it down. Thx!

titanium my friend

Have it, but have only used it for backups. Care to do a quick tutorial? I'll search in the mean time, thanks!
NM, found it. Thanks mate.

Yup, just freeze or uninstall... freeze if you purchased the key.

As you said in your first post, you can just use something like root explorer or solid explorer to manually delete the apps you don't want from /system/app
That's what I've done

If yours is unlocked after rooing, please do a backup if custom recovery has been installed first - extra steps for good measures, even when we can easily restore factory image, etc.
AntTek App is my favorite, download from Play Store - when in doubt, just freeze it first so it will no longer show or display as APP in the listing. Reboot & profit, and run with a leaner factory rom - probably good for extending battery life with a few tweaks on all those unneeded background apps (i.e. Cell Broadcast Alert ... that's a good one, especially for our xda-members overseas - NOT !!)

[Q] Why Are Apps Being Restored?

Have a Samsung L720T S4. Rooted. Stock ROM. Sprint. I have deleted several APK's that are considered bloatware and after reading a description of the app, I decided I would possibly never use it, so I deleted it. (Of course beforehand, I did a full system and user data backup with Titanium, so I have no fear!) However, I found that the app is somehow being restored. I found this out when I go in to 'trim' my system of carp I don't use and will possibly never use. What is restoring these apps? Some appear before rebooting the phone, others appear after rebooting the phone. When it happens is irrelevant. What I want to know is what file do I need to delete to stop it from restoring apps?

Backing up apps and data

I notice that if you want to backup an app and it's data, the apps that do this require root.
This has largely never been of concern to me as usually within a week of a new phone I've rooted and installed a custom ROM.
But now I need Good for Enterprise on this phone so rooting is not an option. But this inability to now backup data is beginning to annoy. It seems to me as a lay person that this should be a basic feature especially if you want people to have a good experience when they upgrade their phone.
Does Google have a good reason for having designed the OS in this manner?
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3010 using Tapatalk

milomak said:
I notice that if you want to backup an app and it's data, the apps that do this require root.
This has largely never been of concern to me as usually within a week of a new phone I've rooted and installed a custom ROM.
But now I need Good for Enterprise on this phone so rooting is not an option. But this inability to now backup data is beginning to annoy. It seems to me as a lay person that this should be a basic feature especially if you want people to have a good experience when they upgrade their phone.
Does Google have a good reason for having designed the OS in this manner?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its mainly for security purposes. If apps were able to read the data of other apps just like that (without acquiring root access from the user) then it'd be quite easy for a malicious app you installed on accident to read the data from that banking app you have installed. And you wouldn't even know until its way too late.
I suppose one could argue that Google could implement it in such a way the backup apps would need to seek permission from the user before reading the data from other apps, but seeing that most users barely pay attention to what it is that they're granting permission to....its probably better to leave it out altogether.
On a final note though, maybe Google would rather have you store your precious & valuable data on their servers instead. As they do offer backup options for your contacts, calendar, passwords, and even certain app's data.

So how does iOS get around this or does the vulnerability you talk about exist?
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3010 using Tapatalk

milomak said:
So how does iOS get around this or does the vulnerability you talk about exist?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've not used iOS in a while so I really don't know. I sincerely doubt iOS has apps that can backup data though. Seeing that they're only just getting a file manager in iOS 11.

milomak said:
I notice that if you want to backup an app and it's data, the apps that do this require root.
This has largely never been of concern to me as usually within a week of a new phone I've rooted and installed a custom ROM.
But now I need Good for Enterprise on this phone so rooting is not an option. But this inability to now backup data is beginning to annoy. It seems to me as a lay person that this should be a basic feature especially if you want people to have a good experience when they upgrade their phone.
Does Google have a good reason for having designed the OS in this manner?
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3010 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the Helium app, it's worked for others but as always, your mileage may vary.
Also, the built-in Google backup feature in system settings should backup apps and data then after updating the device(s), during setup wizard, it should prompt asking if you want to restore apps, data and settings from the Google backup.
But....
If you leave the devices on stock firmware and un-rooted, then during stock updates you should only have to wipe the cache partition. Factory reset shouldn't be necessary if you're only updating stock, wiping only the cache partition during/after flashing/updating should be all that you need to do. This should update your device(s) system and leave all your settings and other data intact.
You can also try using a file manager such as ES File Explorer on android to create backups of the apps you installed (this will not work with system apps), in ES File Explorer, the backed up apps will be in sdcard/backups or storage/emulated/0/backups, or something similar. You can copy those apk backups to PC then look in internal for storage/emulated/0/Android/data folder, this folder contains folders for all of your installed apps that store app data, the names of the individual folders should correspond with the app it stores data for. You can copy these folders to PC.
To restore these apps and their data, copy the backed up apk files to your internal to the folder of your choice, then go to system settings>security>unknown sources and turn it on so you can install your apps from the apk files you backed up instead of from Google or PlayStore. Then using a file manager on android, go to the folder you copied the apk files to and click on them to install them from there, then copy the folders containing your app data to your storage/emulated/0/Android/data folder then reboot, you may have to boot to recovery and wipe the cache partition (do not factory reset, only wipe cache). This method may or may not work depending on the app being restored.
I'm not an iOS user but as far as I know, iOS is strictly dependant on Apple/iTunes, you just about can't do anything with iOS that doesn't involve iTunes, including backups probably.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

extract app data without root

I'm on stock ROM and is there any option extract app data without root? ADB doesn't work maybe app developer doesn't give permission because of sensitive data. You know, rooting process or to install custom recovery even without root cause wipes the phone data. So they'll not work for me. Is there any option to solve it that I don't know or overlook?

Unfortunately I believe it's not possible...

Hi, why not try a custom ROM ?

Better apps let you save their data. For ones like Poweramp it's a god sent.
If you're doing a hard reload it may be best not to save most app data though as it may have been the cause of the crash.
Use a separate data drive if phone supports a SD card. Always keep critical data at least 2x backed up ie to laptop or a hdd.
Use AkpExport to make copies of all user apps and system updates to use during reloads. That way there's no guesswork and no Playstore is needed. Makes reloads much faster too.
I can reload and be 99% done is about 2 hrs now.
Lol after 2 back to back forced reloads I streamline the process. Doing a reload now is easy. Reloads aren't needed often but they are eventually necessary.
Plan ahead as all it takes is one unstable app or very rarely a virus, trojan etc.
For PC clones I use only the base app load and configure the system/homescreen settings. All data is kept on a data hdd not the OS hhd. Apps like antivirus are never on the clone.
That way my clone copy is always relevant.

Backup app data on non rooted devices?

Hey guys,
I want to update to Android 12 on my S21 Ultra. But since I'm not rooted, I can't use my lovely TitaniumBackup from back in the time.
Last time I made a backup, some people said not to use SmartSwitch because it's causing problems on the newer OS and may slow down recovered apps.
I also want to know if SmartSwitch saves all the app data such as settings inside of apps etc.
Are there any better options on backing up app data without root?
Greez,
skrippi

skrippi said:
Hey guys,
I want to update to Android 12 on my S21 Ultra. But since I'm not rooted, I can't use my lovely TitaniumBackup from back in the time.
Last time I made a backup, some people said not to use SmartSwitch because it's causing problems on the newer OS and may slow down recovered apps.
I also want to know if SmartSwitch saves all the app data such as settings inside of apps etc.
Are there any better options on backing up app data without root?
Greez,
skrippi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are ways to backup app data for user apps without root but not ways to backup system data. Also, if you're switching from one device to another, backing up system app data would not be useful because restoring system app data from one device to another would probably cause issues. In this case, backing up only your user app data is what you need.
Here are two relatively simple methods.
1) You can connect the device to your PC, then use Windows file explorer to open the device's storage, find the Android/data folder, inside that folder you will find a folder in which each user app stores its data. Make a copy of all the folders that contain app data that you want to keep and dave them on your PC. Then connect the new device and use Windows file explorer to transfer those copied folders to the Android/data folder on the new device then reboot the device. This will transfer all data for each user app, including its internal app settings.
2) You can use the adb backup method, using the proper command to backup only user app data then use adb commands to transfer that data to the new device.
[GUIDE] Full Phone Backup without Unlock or Root
Like a lot of you, I have been putting off unlocking the bootloader on my Nexus because I didn't want to have to go through the hassle of backing up everything manually and restoring individual application data; logging back into apps; saving...
forum.xda-developers.com

You can likely safely use SmartSwitch to backup at least your homepage settings.
Apps it may or may not work when going between different devices or OS versions.
On my new N10+ running on 10 I inadvertently backed up the apps to be copied from my other N10+ running on 9. It worked, including the Goodlock physical navigation buttons migrated as well.
So if you're having issues after using SmartSwitch*, do another factory reset without it.
Otherwise it may work fine even with the apps going from 11 to 12.
I would go from the full tour...
Another Adroid mad scientist experiment
*always backup critical data redundantly to at least two hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. SmartSwitch can fail miserably. Backup all critical data separately from SmartSwitch backup!!!

@skrippi
SmartSwitch is a tool provided by Samsung to transfer virtually all data you can think of from one Samsung phone to another Samsung phone via Wi-Fi.
Personally don't think it doesn't properly work: Samsung cannot afford such a disgrace.

xXx yYy said:
@skrippi
SmartSwitch is a tool provided by Samsung to transfer virtually all data you can think of from one Samsung phone to another Samsung phone via Wi-Fi.
Personally don't think it doesn't properly work: Samsung cannot afford such a disgrace.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Last time I used SmartSwitch it copied all my apps, but not the settings I made inside those apps which makes this program totally useless for me.

xXx yYy said:
@skrippi
SmartSwitch is a tool provided by Samsung to transfer virtually all data you can think of from one Samsung phone to another Samsung phone via Wi-Fi.
Personally don't think it doesn't properly work: Samsung cannot afford such a disgrace.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, you never used Samsung Kies, it was much worse

skrippi said:
Last time I used SmartSwitch it copied all my apps, but not the settings I made inside those apps which makes this program totally useless for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bare in mind the reason one is doing a factory reset is they lost control of the situation and can't troubleshoot the device effectively. It's meant to be a full nuke of user data.
Most app data isn't critical. Some of that data may be the root cause of the problem requiring the reset.
All critical data should already be backed up. Apps that don't support backup for their critical data shouldn't be used in the first place. Quality apps like PowerAmp, DIGI Clock and Color Note offer full offline backup support. Going through your other apps as you're setting them up refamilarizes you with them and allows you to correct setup mistakes made previously.
The goal of factory reset is to iron out the mistakes you made on previous loads.
This N10+ running on Pie has been factory reset 3 times (2 of those where boot loops). The last load was finally a clean one, after 22 months it remains fast, stable and fulfilling its mission with minimal maintenance. Any occasional problems since the reload were solved without a reset.
Stock Androids can be very stable and secure if you are careful what you load, and do regular maintenance as needed. I use Device Care, SD Maid, Karma Firewall, Package Disabler to do maintenance along with clearing the system cache. I never update the firmware and rarely update apps. I also keep installable copies of all apps and app updates (multiple versions) for repairs and reloading. I can do a full reload from my SD card with no internet access with no critical data loss. Intial setup with a full app load up takes about an hour.
If you put some thought into it a stock Android can be one of the best PCs on the planet. If you do a factory reset, be prepared and think it out beforehand.
Always redundantly backup critical data to at least two hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. Verify the data is readable and all there. Never encrypt or clone data drives*!!!
Go for the clean load you missed on previous loads... that's the goal of a factory reset.
*If you use SmartSwitch make sure all critical data is backed up independently of SmartSwitch; folder by folder cut/paste.