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Possible Duplicate:
How can I uninstall applications that are locked by phone vendor?

Is there an easy way to remove pre-installed apps on my HTC Droid Incredible?

  • Amazon MP3
  • Car Panel
  • City ID
  • Footprints
  • Friend Stream
  • Skype mobile
  • Stocks
  • Teeter
  • VZ Navigator

Are there risks involved in removing them, such as a voided warranty?

Thanks.

Community
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Emmett
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  • I wonder if there's anything handset-specific about this question? I have the same question about a Droid X and it looks like the answers are equally applicable. – Chris Conway Sep 24 '10 at 13:59
  • Unless you use a non HTC based ROM, I wouldn't recommend removing Peep and FriendStream. Devs that have always end up putting them back in because of the issues it causes removing them. If you are going to use a CM based ROM you should be fine for sure. – Webs Sep 29 '10 at 12:41
  • @Webs - Why? HTC Sense does not require those apps. I've removed them before. – Arda Xi Sep 29 '10 at 16:47
  • I'm not really sure, but any ROM developer for the HTC Evo that has removed them from an HTC Sense based ROM has ended up putting them both back. For some reason they seem to be threaded in HTC Sense. Fresh, Damageless, and Virus have ended up putting them back in their ROMs and one of them stated on their XDA thread they put it back due to issues and FCs. – Webs Sep 29 '10 at 17:03

1 Answers1

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You can only fully uninstall pre-installed applications by using ADB. You need to find out what the package name is for the specific app, and enter this in the ADB prompt:

adb uninstall <package.name>

For example, to remove the Maps application:

adb uninstall com.google.android.apps.maps

So far I haven't found an easy way to figure out the package name for an app though.

Arda Xi
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  • Do this require a rooted phone? – Chris Conway Sep 24 '10 at 14:00
  • @Chris - As @Bryan said above, yes, it does. – Arda Xi Sep 24 '10 at 21:37
  • This isn't 100% true Arda. Many devs now have flashable zips you can run in recovery that will remove apps for you. In fact there is a whole thread for the Evo where someone wrote a script that allows you to create your own flashable zip and choose what apps it will remove. – Webs Sep 29 '10 at 12:43
  • @Webs - Guess what rooting is? Flashing a zip like that is basically running software as root. – Arda Xi Sep 29 '10 at 15:57
  • My comment was directed toward your Answer, not comment, which states that "You can only fully uninstall pre-installed applications by using ADB." I was attempting to state that such a statement is not 100% true. – Webs Sep 29 '10 at 16:45
  • @Webs - Oh right. ADB is a lot less involved though. – Arda Xi Sep 29 '10 at 16:46
  • Agreed, ADB is less involved for experienced users like us, but for people that know nothing about ADB, but have a rooted phone, flashing a zip in recovery might be easier. – Webs Sep 29 '10 at 17:06
  • @Webs - Less involved than flashing a recovery image, booting it and flashing a zip? It probably changed for some ROMs (what with ROM Manager and all) but most users who got their phones rooted some time ago will already have installed that rec-image using ADB. – Arda Xi Sep 29 '10 at 17:49
  • True for older users yes. But most root methods that have come out in the last 4 months don't require ADB, but it does vary from phone to phone. – Webs Sep 29 '10 at 17:57
  • @Webs - It's pretty dangerous to let someone root their phone without having access to ADB though, especially if their rec-image's nindroid breaks for some reason and you need to do it manually. – Arda Xi Sep 29 '10 at 20:10
  • I'm not sure one method is necessarily more dangerous than another, just depends on the exploit the root method is attempting to take advantage of. I personally like using ADB because I know exactly what is happening to my phone, versus Revoked, which does things in the background. – Webs Sep 29 '10 at 20:55
  • @Webs - Not being able to use ADB when rooting can result in not being able to recover when things go south. – Arda Xi Sep 30 '10 at 18:20