Database Develop

Safe to remove sys-software list.

Can anybody advice, which system apps and services absolunely safe to remove after rooting?
Or, at least, describe the functions jf system apk's?

kashei said:
Can anybody advice, which system apps and services absolunely safe to remove after rooting?
Or, at least, describe the functions jf system apk's?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If i believe uninstaller for root gives a list
Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk 2

it's not a problem to get a list.
the question is to get the safe list.

Im going to add a few i know are fine:
Universal search
Launcher
Polaris office
Amazon Offers
Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

I'm a very happy user of Titanium Backup Pro (with other phones) so I immediately installed it to my KFHD after rooting.
I'm now keen to know if anybody did the same and tried "Freezing" apps.
Freeze is a nice way of temporarily removing apps (to first see if everything keeps on working fine), but it is still dangerous because if anything really bad happens preventing a full boot, it would be impossible to run Titanium Backup again and Unfreeze the app.
Any of you had the same idea and tried experimenting a bit?
I would love getting rid of some of the Amazon system apps running in the background...

degiovab said:
I'm a very happy user of Titanium Backup Pro (with other phones) so I immediately installed it to my KFHD after rooting.
I'm now keen to know if anybody did the same and tried "Freezing" apps...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course yes! Me too a very happy and maybe happier a bit user of Ultimate backup (Titanium played some dirty with market links).
And i've tried to freeze safe way.
But some apps like:
- Amazon device client platform,
- Amazon Web runtime
- DRM protected content storage... (I don't use any of amazon services)
I really afraid to experiment untill nandroid will be released for KFHD. That's why was the question.

Thanks. I followed you straight away.
I'm wondering now about:
- Amazon MP3
- Amazon Platform
- Amazon Video
- Audible
- Content Management Service
- IVONA TTS
These are all processes appearing as active (I use System Panel Lite) after a boot.
Anybody knows what these processes are about and if there is anything that can be safely frozen?

I would not mess with many of the Amazon applications at this moment in time.. But there are still some things that can be removed without hiccups.

what is the night android version?

[Q] [Nook HD+] Nook HD+ auto installs apps from B&N

I am new to this, with a B&N Nook HD+ tablet.
Let me just say, this is a terrific place with lots of knowledgeable people in Android and Nook.
I rooted my tablet, and love how it all works.
There is one nagging issue I have. It seems that B&N appeared to install 2 apps that I keep deleting, but they keep re-appearing.
Spotify and Crosswords.
I do not want these apps and wish they would stop installing themselves.
I used SQLite to set in the databases, install foreign apps, and also the other setting to not over the air, install Nook updates.
I tried to find a setting in the various databases to tell the Nook to stop installing these free apps, but cannot find it.
Does anyone know how to stop the Nook from installing these free apps?
I suspect at some point BN might install some free app automatically that might attempt to unroot this device.
Thanks,
Rob

rplourdejr said:
I am new to this, with a B&N Nook HD+ tablet.
Let me just say, this is a terrific place with lots of knowledgeable people in Android and Nook.
I rooted my tablet, and love how it all works.
There is one nagging issue I have. It seems that B&N appeared to install 2 apps that I keep deleting, but they keep re-appearing.
Spotify and Crosswords.
I do not want these apps and wish they would stop installing themselves.
I used SQLite to set in the databases, install foreign apps, and also the other setting to not over the air, install Nook updates.
I tried to find a setting in the various databases to tell the Nook to stop installing these free apps, but cannot find it.
Does anyone know how to stop the Nook from installing these free apps?
I suspect at some point BN might install some free app automatically that might attempt to unroot this device.
Thanks,
Rob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get the free Gemini Application Manager on Play Store and block the apps. It adds them to a database that says to ignore them. But that won't help with new apps.
Edit: Gemini gave the warning that ics might be able to override this setting. It did. The app came back. And I did what you did and could find no databases to stop it.
Sent from my Nook HD+ using Tapatalk

Per my new announcement here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=34478962#post34478962
I am closing this thread. Please follow the "Request a new forum" link, and let the staff know a board for the HD is needed.

Per the NEW announcement,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=34819554#post34819554
I redeclare this thread open...

Solution
Been meaning to track this down for years and finally got around to doing it. The sneaky app that's doing the reinstalls is com.bn.bnappinstaller
Use your app of choice to freeze this (on the off chance you want to have this bloatware factory run again in the future)
That's it, you can uninstall with wild abandon and they will never come back

Displacer said:
Been meaning to track this down for years and finally got around to doing it. The sneaky app that's doing the reinstalls is com.bn.bnappinstaller
Use your app of choice to freeze this (on the off chance you want to have this bloatware factory run again in the future)
That's it, you can uninstall with wild abandon and they will never come back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was relieved to find this because my husband's HD is "running in the red" because of apps like Spotify, Hulu+, etc., which come unbidden "from the cloud". He'd like to have room for apps of his own choosing (not to mention space for the OS to do its thing...).
But....I tried this and it didn't work. They are back again

Rooted, now what?

I got a new wifi S2, installed the permissive kernel and rooted it. I installed TWRP and made a backup. Now I've got an uninstall app and I've removed a few things; primarily Knox and the security logger so that it quits whining at me. I have a strong desire to never ever use the cloud, create a Samsung account, or a Google account. I really just want to load some books onto it and DLNA some music and videos.
So I want to get rid of all the stuff that I'll never be able to use but it's not clear to me how to identify all that. I'm a long time Unix guy but not at all an android guy. If something prompts me to create an account I know I want to uninstall it, but damned if I can figure out how to identify what to uninstall from what icon I touched.
I've found bloatware lists but they're all somewhat old and not for the S2, so it's not clear to me if I should trust them. I'd like to avoid trial and error "uninstall and reinstall if something doesn't work" or the even more dreaded "uninstall and find out six months later that something doesn't work". Can anyone point me at a good list of what I can remove, or where I can figure out how to determine that for myself? Thanks.

Better start freezen apps instead of uninstalling them. I use titanium backup for that, but you can use whatever you like. Just be carefull freezing or uninstalling OS related apps, you can end in a bootloop, but you always have the odin flash method to reflash your system back to normal. Just don't play around with partitions or /dev .
Right now I using my tablet unrooted and untouched, so I can't be more specific which apps you can freeze without problems.

He doesn't need odin as he has a twrp backup.
I take it you are using System App Remover (root) to uninstall system apps? If so you are pretty safe as they are backed up and can be restored any time if something goes wrong.
Also are you aware without a Google account you will lose part of the functionality of an Android device?
Samsungs account you can do without. All that stuff related to it can be deleted, but don't advise removing any of the Google core services from the stock rom.
If you really want a GAPPless rom then you're better off with a non stock custom rom like CM or AOSP.
Not much in that area of development at the moment, but there are a couple of members working on it.

ashyx said:
He doesn't need odin as he has a twrp backup.
I take it you are using System App Remover (root) to uninstall system apps? If so you are pretty safe as they are backed up and can be restored any time if something goes wrong.
Also are you aware without a Google account you will lose part of the functionality of an Android device?
Samsungs account you can do without. All that stuff related to it can be deleted, but don't advise removing any of the Google core services from the stock rom.
If you really want a GAPPless rom then you're better off with a non stock custom rom like CM or AOSP.
Not much in that area of development at the moment, but there are a couple of members working on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, thanks. If I lose functionality to avoid Google watching over my shoulder I'm all for it. I'm old and probably overprotective of what's my business and not theirs. In truth, I bought the S2 because I have a collection of chess book pdf's and djvu's that I want to be able to read while I'm sitting at my chess board. I got the 9.7 inch S2 because the old eyes aren't what they used to be. Anything I can do beyond that is icing on the cake.
I do have the app remover, and I've removed the stuff that was obvious to me (like the Microsoft Office stubs). But there are still lots of things that bring up a prompt for an account when I run them and it's not clear to me how to figure out what app to remove to get rid of that particular thing. On Linux I could use rpm -q to figure out what rpm contained a file I want to remove and I'd be good to go. I've tried googling some of the app names but the "descriptions" I end up finding are particularly unenlightening. And since this is definitely not my area of expertise I don't really want to operate in "let's remove this and see what happens" even if I can reinstall the app from its backup. I've been doing software development and sysadmin for more than 35 years now and that just doesn't seem like the way to approach this.
I was looking at CM, which seems like it might be what I'm looking for, but it's still in alpha and my skill level is probably not up to coping with that so I'm back with the problem of how to decide what to get rid of.

Multitasking & app lag/freezing...

Having a problem in which app or task reappears in the foreground after pressing the Home button. Also, if I tap the recent apps button, the list of apps appears and then just as quickly brings the most recent app into the foreground automatically again. It happens so quickly that the "x" for closing the apps in the list doesn't even have a chance to appear or let me swipe them away.
Something else that seems to happen along with this problem is that parts of any given app start freezing (i.e. unresponsive links, menu options, etc) while other parts of the app can be tapped/pressed. For example, if I'm in the android settings menu, I may not be able to select one option in a list but I can select the option right above it. This appears to be totally random. If I back out of that menu and/or clear the app from the app list, I can go back and select that same menu option just fine.
This seems to only have started after I added a second user on the phone. I guess it could be that the phone doesn't have enough memory to handle both users, but why would ANDROID then build that feature into it's phone OS?
Fixes I've tried so far (based on extensive research on forums and web search):
Restarting the phone - works temporarily but the issue(s) returns within minutes.
Clearing the phone's cache - no difference
Clearing app cache for each app - no difference
Uninstalling unneeded apps - no difference
Disabling bloatware - no difference
Clearing Google now and search - temporary fix, problem returned soon
Turning off Google now and search - temporary fix, problem returned soon
Factory reset, reinstalled from backup - temporary fix, problem eventually returned
Factory reset, setup both users from scratch - temporary fix, problem eventually returned.
I have a Moto X xt1097, Android 5.1 stock, non-rooted
Any help or responses appreciated!

dgiberga said:
Having a problem in which app or task reappears in the foreground after pressing the Home button. Also, if I tap the recent apps button, the list of apps appears and then just as quickly brings the most recent app into the foreground automatically again. It happens so quickly that the "x" for closing the apps in the list doesn't even have a chance to appear or let me swipe them away.
Something else that seems to happen along with this problem is that parts of any given app start freezing (i.e. unresponsive links, menu options, etc) while other parts of the app can be tapped/pressed. For example, if I'm in the android settings menu, I may not be able to select one option in a list but I can select the option right above it. This appears to be totally random. If I back out of that menu and/or clear the app from the app list, I can go back and select that same menu option just fine.
This seems to only have started after I added a second user on the phone. I guess it could be that the phone doesn't have enough memory to handle both users, but why would ANDROID then build that feature into it's phone OS?
Fixes I've tried so far (based on extensive research on forums and web search):
Restarting the phone - works temporarily but the issue(s) returns within minutes.
Clearing the phone's cache - no difference
Clearing app cache for each app - no difference
Uninstalling unneeded apps - no difference
Disabling bloatware - no difference
Clearing Google now and search - temporary fix, problem returned soon
Turning off Google now and search - temporary fix, problem returned soon
Factory reset, reinstalled from backup - temporary fix, problem eventually returned
Factory reset, setup both users from scratch - temporary fix, problem eventually returned.
I have a Moto X xt1097, Android 5.1 stock, non-rooted
Any help or responses appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The answer is simple, it is caused by your second user.
Sent from my XT1095 using Tapatalk

AGISCI said:
The answer is simple, it is caused by your second user.
Sent from my XT1095 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I considered that as PART of the issue, sure. But isn't Android 5.1 supposed to support multiple users? If so, what about having a second user is causing the issue?
More info. I set up the second user for my business, using a separate Gmail account; minimal apps under that user (mostly Google's business products). I kept getting the two accounts mixed up when both were logged in under the same user.

dgiberga said:
Well, I considered that as PART of the issue, sure. But isn't Android 5.1 supposed to support multiple users? If so, what about having a second user is causing the issue?
More info. I set up the second user for my business, using a separate Gmail account; minimal apps under that user (mostly Google's business products). I kept getting the two accounts mixed up when both were logged in under the same user.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does "support" it. But you must remember that everything is shared, memory, storage, processor, and network, so the phone is a limit. The better the phone, the better it works.
Even when you are not using the other account it is using all of those things in the background, it checks for emails, google play updates, and if you installed apps those apps run in the background even while you are on the other user.
It is an Android feature yes, but for example our phone only has 2GB of memory which most likely ran out from so much usage.
Personally I have 2 phones, one for business and my personal phone.
I don't know if this is true, but maybe android 6.0 would get better performance thanks to Doze. Maybe the other user account gets put into Doze mode to save resources. Just a thought, but I am only guessing.
Sent from my XT1095 using Tapatalk

AGISCI said:
It does "support" it. But you must remember that everything is shared, memory, storage, processor, and network, so the phone is a limit. The better the phone, the better it works.
Even when you are not using the other account it is using all of those things in the background, it checks for emails, google play updates, and if you installed apps those apps run in the background even while you are on the other user.
It is an Android feature yes, but for example our phone only has 2GB of memory which most likely ran out from so much usage.
Personally I have 2 phones, one for business and my personal phone.
I don't know if this is true, but maybe android 6.0 would get better performance thanks to Doze. Maybe the other user account gets put into Doze mode to save resources. Just a thought, but I am only guessing.
Sent from my XT1095 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I was afraid of that. It makes sense though.
I also noticed that the problem only occurs in the second user profile but not my original user profile; I'm guessing that this is because the Android OS gives the original user priority access to resources at any given moment. Or maybe the first user profile is more resource intensive. Just a guess really.
Well, I don't have money for a second phone right now. I'll have to figure out another way to keep those accounts more easily separated.
Thank you again for your help AGISCI!

Rather than running two user accounts you can run 2 Google accounts as a single user. Hence, all your Google business apps work is saved under your business Gmail account. I've been using it this way for years with little effect on phone resources.

kboya said:
Rather than running two user accounts you can run 2 Google accounts as a single user. Hence, all your Google business apps work is saved under your business Gmail account. I've been using it this way for years with little effect on phone resources.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks kboya. That's actually how I started out, but it started getting tricky keeping accounts straight (i.e. chrome would keep defaulting to my personal account instead of my business account when I was signing up for different services, etc.). So, I thought the 2nd user idea would solve it nicely; still would if I could get hardware to support it.

Fair play. IMO multiple users was meant for tablets (less sensor and signal stress) and those with kids who only run games. It'll do what you want, but only at a pinch, a 6P might manage it better.

Maze Alpha X shipped with adware?

Accidentally I stumbled upon the folder gangyun and pref_storekeytool inside.
I scanned the Maze with an antivirus scanner and beautysnap.apk was reported as adware.
I guess beautysnap.apk is part of the system camera?
Unfortunately no app can beautify me, so I would like to delete this app. Is it safe to do it?
TIA

bestunameever said:
Accidentally I stumbled upon the folder gangyun and pref_storekeytool inside.
I scanned the Maze with an antivirus scanner and beautysnap.apk was reported as adware.
I guess beautysnap.apk is part of the system camera?
Unfortunately no app can beautify me, so I would like to delete this app. Is it safe to do it?
TIA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What virus scanner did you use? I've just received my Maze Alpha X. There are some bad things about this phone, I'm a bit disappointed. The worst in my case is that the front camera doesn't work. It's like there's no camera at all.

Yeah unfortunately this phone is loaded with precarious apps, adupsfota for instance disguised as the ota wireless update is full of dodgy adware/spyware and if you look at the permissions your see just how worrying it is, it has permission to access banking apps, android pay, key-logger, microphone, camera the list goes on, I've disabled it several times but it manages to re-enable itself. Beautysnap is also a bad one which I have managed to disable for good, LocationEM2 is another suspect app, Fotaprovider which is also adups related. Basically this phone really needs an alternative kernel/custom rom before it can be safely used but as far as I'm aware there isn't one as yet.
The CPU usage is always very high too which is not a great sign, not good at all, I'm surprised Amazon can sell phones in this state tbh.

McSwifty said:
Yeah unfortunately this phone is loaded with precarious apps, adupsfota for instance disguised as the ota wireless update is full of dodgy adware/spyware and if you look at the permissions your see just how worrying it is, it has permission to access banking apps, android pay, key-logger, microphone, camera the list goes on, I've disabled it several times but it manages to re-enable itself. Beautysnap is also a bad one which I have managed to disable for good, LocationEM2 is another suspect app, Fotaprovider which is also adups related. Basically this phone really needs an alternative kernel/custom rom before it can be safely used but as far as I'm aware there isn't one as yet.
The CPU usage is always very high too which is not a great sign, not good at all, I'm surprised Amazon can sell phones in this state tbh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you please say what scanner did you use?

dangerous666 said:
Could you please say what scanner did you use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive used a few but the adware/malware/spyware that the phone has installed as standard on the kernal/rom it's shipped with are installed as system apps with the exception of beautysnap so you need to go through them manually. I used an app called SystemPanel2, it's a great app that gives you a really complete overview of whats running on your phone and what not, it can record system processes, memory, battery and cpu usage over a period of time as well as network stats.

McSwifty said:
Ive used a few but the adware/malware/spyware that the phone has installed as standard on the kernal/rom it's shipped with are installed as system apps with the exception of beautysnap so you need to go through them manually. I used an app called SystemPanel2, it's a great app that gives you a really complete overview of whats running on your phone and what not, it can record system processes, memory, battery and cpu usage over a period of time as well as network stats.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldn't be able to find those suspicious apps. I've run a bunch of virus/malwares scanner, nothing reported. I've installed SystemPanel2 and I didn't find the processes you list. I believe our phones run different firmwares. I've got mine from Gear Best.

dangerous666 said:
I couldn't be able to find those suspicious apps. I've run a bunch of virus/malwares scanner, nothing reported. I've installed SystemPanel2 and I didn't find the processes you list. I believe our phones run different firmwares. I've got mine from Gear Best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Under your Wireless Update system app what does it say? On mine for instance is says "com.adups.fota". If your firmware is good/clean then that's a good sign that if I put a fresh stock rom on here it should be fine, I was thinking maybe all the maze alpha firmware's were affected.

My com.adups.fota "seems" to be clean.
For hibernating apps on my rooted Alpha X I use SD Maid Pro.
Under app control you set several things
A) Hibernate the app
B) Disallow start on boot
C) Look up where all the files of the app are located
D) Remove app completely
E) etc

bestunameever said:
My com.adups.fota "seems" to be clean.
For hibernating apps on my rooted Alpha X I use SD Maid Pro.
Under app control you set several things
A) Hibernate the app
B) Disallow start on boot
C) Look up where all the files of the app are located
D) Remove app completely
E) etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No such thing as clean addups I'm afraid dude.
A newly discovered malicious app is found on China-made mobile devices running the Android OS. This is a baked-in system app used to update the device’s firmware but is found to also steal personal information, among other things. A blog is recently published about this malware by Kryptowire.
Already we have had inquiries on whether we detect Adups or not. The answer to that is I believe we do. You see, the app in question, which goes by the package name of com.adups.fota, has a couple of variants. There is an older version seen around 2014 and a newer version that emerged mid-2016. This older version we detect and have done so since 2014. I can verify that this older version was indeed pre-installed on various Chinese mobile devices bought cheaply on online stores, mainly Amazon. I know this because ever since we started detecting this older version of com.adups.fota, we have received support tickets periodically about why we are detecting a system app that cannot be uninstall—I’ll get to how to address this later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/cybercrime/2016/11/mobile-menace-monday-adups-old-and-new/
I want to know if theirs a firmware for the Maze Alpha and the Alpha X without addups baked in, I hope so because it's a great phone otherwise.