Hi folks,
I have installed the Steel web browser and like it much more that the one supplied by HTC with the phone... is it possible to uninstall it and just leave Steel?
The above is just an example, my HTC hero has lots of stuff I don't really plan to use, ever. Is there a way to get rid of them FOR GOOD?
Thanks in advance!
frandavid100 said:
Hi folks,
I have installed the Steel web browser and like it much more that the one supplied by HTC with the phone... is it possible to uninstall it and just leave Steel?
The above is just an example, my HTC hero has lots of stuff I don't really plan to use, ever. Is there a way to get rid of them FOR GOOD?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm so with you on this one...I've added Twidroid and turned off Peep but would love to completely delete it in order to avoid any conflicts. Also the default messaging program is a bit of a dog when compared to Handcent SMS.
There used to be a way on the WinMo 6 phones to change the registry values to allow deletion of TouchFlo UI programs but I've not been able to find anything online yet. Maybe it's too early in the phone's life for anyone to have cracked this.
At the moment, the only thing I can do is to make sure that notifications from default programs that I have replaced with better ones are turned off so that they only come from the new software.
I realise this doesn't help you (or me) very much but I'd pay good money to have an add/remove program that works on the default apps (ASTRO, Appmanager and OI File Manager do not seem to be able to access the default programs for uninstallation).
Does anyone with modding experience (obviously I don't ;D) have any suggestions on how to achieve this?
DBR
i have installed QuickUninstall app and it offers all the built in apps as well as the added ones....didn't try to delete any though, they don't bother me that much to toy with it just yet
Kewl...thnx for the heads up. QuickUninstall is downloaded. I'll try to get rid of Peep and the inbuilt message program and if something goes wrong I'll be back here begging for more help
DBR
I've had some success with Root Explorer - I've successfully removed the stocks app and the stocks widget.
Big pointer before you start on removing default or stock Rom apps is to MAKE A NANDROID BACKUP!! You can do this by booting the temporary Recovery image from the rooting thread here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=543571
That way, if you do mess up, you can restore the Nandroid Backup.
Just ask Auntie Dayzee (BTW I wish I was this sensible with other stuff in my life!! LOL)
I need to partition my hard drive and install Windows in order to use Nandroid and root the phone (you need to root it in order to use root explorer right?).
As soon as I find a way for the installer to find my hard drive I'll poke you for advice, thanks dayzee
Does anyone know what's the name of the web'n'walk app? Can't find it in the app folder.
It's not an app afaik, it's just a shortcut.
all it does is open the default browser to the t-mob web and walk homepage.
Oh.. do you also happen to know where I can remove it?
Nevermind, found it in the app folder as "urlshortcut.apk"
frandavid100 said:
I need to partition my hard drive and install Windows in order to use Nandroid and root the phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as i understand, ADB works in Mac and Linux as well, you just need to prefix the commands with ./
or have i missed something?? there's no point installing windows if you don;t have to....
how did you do it?
Dayzee said:
I've had some success with Root Explorer - I've successfully removed the stocks app and the stocks widget.
Big pointer before you start on removing default or stock Rom apps is to MAKE A NANDROID BACKUP!! You can do this by booting the temporary Recovery image from the rooting thread here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=543571
That way, if you do mess up, you can restore the Nandroid Backup.
Just ask Auntie Dayzee (BTW I wish I was this sensible with other stuff in my life!! LOL)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Dayzee,
noob here. i just rooted my htc hero and i have root explorer running.
can you explain how you removed those apps?
I want to ditch peep, footprints and possibly pc synchronization (if this is safe).
I am a little lost in this file directory structure...
...or could you point me to a really great link on this topic?
thanks so much,
sprinkles
had success using Paul's method on Modaco...all credit to him in my case.
http://android.modaco.com/content/htc-hero-hero-modaco-com/291521/if-you-want-to-remove-htc-sync/
Used a file explorer (astro in my case) to view the folder /system/app so that i could see what needed to be removed, but am now happily without Peep, Learn More, Stocks,HTC Sync, Mail etc.
adb remount
adb shell rm /system/app/xxxxxx
replace xxxxxx with the app you want to remove
HTC Sync - PCSCII*
HTC Stocks and Widget - *Stock*
Peep - *Twit*
Learn More - Learn*
Footprints - *Foot*
Mail - HtcMail*
there's plenty of others in there as well if you have a look. Just be sure to be careful what you delete, and remember that the app names are case sensitive.
The rooted 2.73 rom from Modaco works fine with this command, and i expect the Modaco custom roms will as well.
I used a similar method to get rid of some HTC app which kept bugging me since I upgraded to the new ROM (Peep, Stock, etc), works perfectly and no problem so far.
It's pretty straightforward, even for a newb like me, but if anyone is interested in the steps I followed :
0- Before doing anything that can mess up your phone, it's recommended to do a nandroid backup.
I'll explain how to backup each removed app individually, but we're never cautious enough !
1- Load the recovery image and mount the system:
Code:
fastboot boot cm-hero-recovery.img
adb shell mount /system
2- Get the list of app installed, spot the files you want to delete
Code:
adb shell ls /system/app/
3.a - First alternative : Backup on SDcard and delete
Mount sdcard.
Create a folder saveHtcApp.
Move (copy + delete in one go ! ) files from system/app to saveHtcApp
Code:
adb shell mount /sdcard
adb shell mkdir /sdcard/saveHtcApp
adb mv /system/app/Stock.apk /sdcard/saveHtcApp
adb mv /system/app/Stock.odex /sdcard/saveHtcApp
adb mv /system/app/com.htc.StockWidget.apk /sdcard/saveHtcApp
adb mv /system/app/com.htc.StockWidget.odex /sdcard/saveHtcApp
Then check that all worked right by doing some ls (Yeah, I'm found of double-checking)
Code:
adb shell ls /sdcard/saveHtcApp
adb shell ls /system/app/
3.b - Second Alternative : (don't do it after 3.a !) Backup on Computer and delete.
(on Windows, I assume Linux's folks won't need explanations to do the same on linux.)
Create a folder saveHtcApp : in the following example, in the working directory.
(Of course, you can make it anywhere, but it make the path smaller to work on working directory... and move the save folder afterwards)
Then pull (copy) the files from the phone to the computer.
Just to make sure, a little dir to see that all files were actually copied on the computer.
Code:
mkdir saveHtcApp
adb pull /system/app/Stock.apk ./saveHtcApp
adb pull /system/app/Stock.odex ./saveHtcApp
adb pull /system/app/com.htc.StockWidget.apk ./saveHtcApp
adb pull /system/app/com.htc.StockWidget.odex ./saveHtcApp
dir
Then, delete them :
Code:
adb shell rm /system/app/Stock.odex
adb shell rm /system/app/Stock.apk
adb shell rm /system/app/com.htc.StockWidget.odex
adb shell rm /system/app/com.htc.StockWidget.apk
4 - Reboot the device !
Hope that could help someone.
Tested on Brown French Hero, 2.73.405.5 ROM offi.
Brill stuff - I'm rubbish at the coding stuff - where does this back the apps up to? and what does the dot do? and if its pulling to the PC, does the slash have to go the other way?
Dayzee
Good question, I should have explain that a little
I'll update my previous post.
For the slash-thing... I'm always switching from windows to linux to windows, so I'm always confused between which slash use.
When I have issue with /, I try with \.
BTW, in the present case, I run all those lines on Windows 7 without any issue.
Edit : post step-by-step edited. Is it clearer ?
If anyone see anything to change or explain, just say so.
removing htc hero sucka apps
Tweedeldee said:
Good question, I should have explain that a little
I'll update my previous post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
great and thanks. while you were sleeping, i went in and did some removals; just the apk files. what about the .odex files?
I took these apps out at the knees
-peep
-footprints
-tutorial
any other suggestions?
thanks.
Hey, I wasn't sleeping ! Just finding a way to save on sdcard instead of pc and re-redacting the post ! >.<
I didn't knew what was an odex file either, so I googled it :
http://groups.google.com/group/android-framework/browse_thread/thread/70ee61a240edc84a?pli=1
They are created for a final system image. They are not required --
if they don't exist, the system will create them in /data during
boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I backuped them too, just in case...
For the suggestion, the list to remove is pretty simple : anything you don't use at all.
As long as you keep the backups, there shouldn't be any problem to put them back if there is any issue.
Of course, any app used by other apps must stay on the phone.
I removed :
Stock
Peep
Footprints
Tutorial
HTC Sync
rhedgehog says he removed HtcMail too.
removing htc hero sucka apps
Tweedeldee said:
Hey, I wasn't sleeping ! Just finding a way to save on sdcard instead of pc and re-redacting the post ! >.<
I didn't knew what was an odex file either, so I googled it :
http://groups.google.com/group/android-framework/browse_thread/thread/70ee61a240edc84a?pli=1
I backuped them too, just in case...
For the suggestion, the list to remove is pretty simple : anything you don't use at all.
As long as you keep the backups, there shouldn't be any problem to put them back if there is any issue.
Of course, any app used by other apps must stay on the phone.
I removed :
Stock
Peep
Footprints
Tutorial
HTC Sync
rhedgehog says he removed HtcMail too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks dog.
technically, if you wipe the device and start over all these apps are reinstalled from the get go.
this list is great. i am going to do some more cleaning and move onto the next task of partitioning my storage.
dayzee did a wonderful job for that newb root posting...i wish there was locked how to list that was easy enough for anyone to:
-1- root the htc hero (completed)
-2- remove and replace htc's crapware apps (maybe this thread is part 2)
-3- partition storage (not seeing an easy way yet but downloaded apps2sd)
-4- recommended replacement apps and next steps
i'd be glad to help put this together, make it easy to read, make it pretty, etc.
-sprinkles
Not a bad idea, you're on your way !
I want a pretty, clean, post with colors, pics, screencasts, videos, nice fonts...
Good luck with that !
sprinkles said:
thanks dog.
technically, if you wipe the device and start over all these apps are reinstalled from the get go.
this list is great. i am going to do some more cleaning and move onto the next task of partitioning my storage.
dayzee did a wonderful job for that newb root posting...i wish there was locked how to list that was easy enough for anyone to:
-1- root the htc hero (completed)
-2- remove and replace htc's crapware apps (maybe this thread is part 2)
-3- partition storage (not seeing an easy way yet but downloaded apps2sd)
-4- recommended replacement apps and next steps
i'd be glad to help put this together, make it easy to read, make it pretty, etc.
-sprinkles
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree - I've added Tweedeldee's method to the Hero Wiki which is here
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Hero
and has some other guides - Sprinkles, there is also a Dayzee Walkthrough for installing MoDaCo Roms, including some tips on Aps2SD partitioning methods.
Hugs - Dayzee xxx
We are a large urban school district located in southern California that will be soon be distributing approximately 11,000 android tablets to our first grade classrooms. The biggest challenge we’ve had with this project so far is coming up with a way to quickly and reliably clone the devices with all the apps and settings. The approach we’ve been attempting to take is the same as how we would handle PC’s by creating a master image that then gets copied to all the other devices.
Our first attempt at doing this was by using adb backup/restore. This process was less than ideal as it didn’t copy all the settings/preferences that we wanted and still required a lot of manual configuration to get the devices in to our ideal state. The bigger problem we had here was that sometimes it would just hang during the restore. Most of the time it did work but we’ve run in to this restore problem enough that we need something more reliable.
So our current cloning method is using Clockworkmod Recovery. Basically we flash CWM on to the device, make our backup, copy that backup to the destination devices and restore it with CWM. Seems to work great. And it copies everything on the devices so there’s virtually no manual configuration that needs to be done.
However there’s a few caveats with this process. At first we found that it was also cloning the MAC address which of course caused havoc on our wireless network. Through a whole lot of trial and error I found that if I delete /data/nvram/RestoreFlag from the data backup tar the MAC address no longer gets cloned. Thought we were good, but…
The next problem we found when attempting to enroll the devices in to our MDM system. They end up replacing each other because they all show the same UDID and GUID. The MDM app is installed in the backup image but we are waiting until after it is restored to complete the enrollment. I’m not sure if the UDID and GUID is something specific to the MDM or if that’s a global Android thing.
So does anyone know if there something else I can delete from the backup to prevent this? This also raises the question, are there any other items in a CWM backup that should not be copied between devices? Or is there a better method we could use to clones the devices?
The device we are currently using is a Lenovo A1000 (MTK MT8317). After creating the backup I’ve been removing the system and cache tars entirely and only the file mentioned above from within the data tar. So the only parts that get restored are data and boot. Any suggestions are welcome.
ttttttttttttttttt said:
We are a large urban school district located in southern California that will be soon be distributing approximately 11,000 android tablets to our first grade classrooms. The biggest challenge we’ve had with this project so far is coming up with a way to quickly and reliably clone the devices with all the apps and settings. The approach we’ve been attempting to take is the same as how we would handle PC’s by creating a master image that then gets copied to all the other devices.
Our first attempt at doing this was by using adb backup/restore. This process was less than ideal as it didn’t copy all the settings/preferences that we wanted and still required a lot of manual configuration to get the devices in to our ideal state. The bigger problem we had here was that sometimes it would just hang during the restore. Most of the time it did work but we’ve run in to this restore problem enough that we need something more reliable.
So our current cloning method is using Clockworkmod Recovery. Basically we flash CWM on to the device, make our backup, copy that backup to the destination devices and restore it with CWM. Seems to work great. And it copies everything on the devices so there’s virtually no manual configuration that needs to be done.
However there’s a few caveats with this process. At first we found that it was also cloning the MAC address which of course caused havoc on our wireless network. Through a whole lot of trial and error I found that if I delete /data/nvram/RestoreFlag from the data backup tar the MAC address no longer gets cloned. Thought we were good, but…
The next problem we found when attempting to enroll the devices in to our MDM system. They end up replacing each other because they all show the same UDID and GUID. The MDM app is installed in the backup image but we are waiting until after it is restored to complete the enrollment. I’m not sure if the UDID and GUID is something specific to the MDM or if that’s a global Android thing.
So does anyone know if there something else I can delete from the backup to prevent this? This also raises the question, are there any other items in a CWM backup that should not be copied between devices? Or is there a better method we could use to clones the devices?
The device we are currently using is a Lenovo A1000 (MTK MT8317). After creating the backup I’ve been removing the system and cache tars entirely and only the file mentioned above from within the data tar. So the only parts that get restored are data and boot. Any suggestions are welcome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try use adb from Android SDK but this method needs root
We did initially try adb but it was inconsistent during the restore phase. Sometimes it would just stop in the middle and never complete. Didn’t try it on a rooted device. So maybe that would have helped…
Anyhow I found the solution to my immediate problem. Figured out what our MDM vendor refers to as the UDID is really the Android_ID. So by deleting that row from the settings database in our master backup image it’ll generate a new one the first time the OS starts after restoring with CWM.
I’m still a little concerned we’re going to find other issues cause by this cloning method later on but I guess we’ll just have to roll with the punches as they come.
In case someone else ever needs to clone devices like this and in the interest of sharing here’s the basic steps we’re following.
1.) Setup the master device as you like with all the apps and settings.
2.) Install Clockworkmod Recovery on to the master device
3.) Boot into CWM Recovery
4.) Mount /data and connect to adb
5.) Delete /data/nvram/RestoreFlag (this step prevents duplication of MAC address)
6.) Using sqlite open the database (this prevents duplication of Android_ID): \data\data\com.android.providers.settings\databases\settings.db
execute: delete from secure where name='android_id';
7.) unmount /data
8.) Create a backup
9.) Boot the device back in to normal mode and copy the clockworkmod folder to your computer. This the backup image you’ll restore on the other devices.
10.) [OPTIONAL] I deleted the system and cache backup files from this folder and also removed them from the nandroid file. There didn’t seem to be anything in these we cared about so removing those speeds up the restore process.
Once you have the backup image here’s how to restore it on the other devices:
1.) Install CWM Recovery
2.) Copy the clockworkmod folder from your computer on to the device
3.) Boot in to CWM Recovery
4.) Restore the backup
5.) Reboot the device back in to normal mode
6.) [OPTIONAL] Complete MDM enrollment
Sorry for the thread grave dig, but thanks for posting info on how to do this. I have attempted cloning in the past and ran into similar issues. My question - is this process the same for Android Lollipop 5.0/5.1? I have some Lenovo K3 Notes I'd like to deploy and cloning would save a lot of time.
Haven’t had the need to do any devices running 5.x versions so can’t say for sure. I would imagine a similar process would work.
But I will provide a bit of an update. Our initial deployment of 11,000 Lenovo A1000 devices have been out in the field since February/March of 2014 and no trouble has come to light using this cloning method. These devices run 4.1.2
Sometime around May 2014 we did another round that was about 300 Lenovo A3000 devices. Don’t have one of these handy and I don’t remember the exact Android version but it was 4.x something.
Then starting in October 2014 we put out another 9000 or so Lenovo A3500 devices. These run 4.4.2
All around so far so good.
For the A3000 and A3500 there were two changes to the process. For step 5 in creating the backup I had to clear the entire nvram directory instead of just the one file. I don’t remember what exactly but there was something undesirable getting copied over. The result of clearing this directory is the first boot after the restore takes a little longer as each app runs through the “update” process at startup. The second change was I could not get CWM to backup and restore to/from the internal memory so instead did it from a micro-sd card. This ended up speeding up the restore process since we didn’t have to copy the backup to each device and instead just moved the sd card with the files already there.
this should be pinned in android dev
also sorry for grave digging? except this should be a maintained topic. why isnt this an ongoing thread?
Hi,
The [GUIDE] How to make a nandroid backup directly to your computer without using sdcard guide contains a promising description of performing a bit-for-bit copy of the NAND memory directly to PC. However, when I was reading it, it came to my mind that with the following assumptions (obvious?):
having the phone launched in a recovery mode (to avoid risking inconsistent backup due to partitions being mounted and potentially being written to, so I guess a reasonable assumption),
the ADB working with root privileges (default in recovery, at least in ClockWorkMod),
a simple:
Code:
adb pull /dev/block/mmcblk0
ought to do the same without the need for FIFOs, setting up FTP and such. What is the difference between the two? I'm seeking understanding of the process, as opposed to solving a specific problem now. I haven't found any related question or explanation either in that thread or outside.
Greetings all,
This is a fully should-have-had-more-coffee-before-attempting scenario, but hoping there's still a way I can get data back.
*Backstory*
Have a Pixel 2 XL. Decided to try out Android P beta through the opt-in. Used it for a while, decided there were too many bugs that affected my daily usage, opted-out of Beta. What I didn't realize was that after downgrading back to Android O, the phone would perform a factory wipe on the /userdata folder. There's a specific subfolder on that partition that I'm hoping I can do a data recovery on.
*The Story so Far*
After spending a day googling and coming up to multiple XDA posts & few blog entries about data recovery on android, I have done the following.
- gain root devices using Magisk to flash patched boot image
- found that the /userdata is located at /dev/block/sda13 symlinked from /dev/block/platform/soc/.../by-name/userdata
- see that the most probable way of getting files back is to pull the entire partition over as a raw file, then use TestDisk (or qPhotoRec) to try and perform a data recover on the file as you would a normal drive, since there are few, if any, tools that will run recovery directly on the device.
*The Problem*
The research led me to attempting to run the following command as a binary safe transfer of the partition.
Code:
adb exec-out "su -c 'cat /dev/block/sda13'" > userdata.raw
However when I run that, while it does start creating the userdata.raw file on my local machine, it gets to ~4gb, then the file just stops getting any larger and I've let it sit for over an hour. The command in adb never times out or returns to a prompt, it's like it just stops transferring the output from adb into the file. I know the size of the userdata partition is ~65gb from going into shell and looking at it.
I've also tried various chmod hacks of temp setting 777 on the file just to see if I can do an adb pull on it, however nothing I'ved tried so far yields anything other than a Permission Denied when I try that.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get a complete transfer of the userdata partition over to my local drive so I can run data recovery on it?