This guide will allow you to debloat any Android phone that has access to the Developer Settings menu.
Preparation
Install one of the following from F-Droid:
If you're running Android 14 I recommend NetGuard because App Manager lags on that version. Android 13 is okay for App Manager.
***NOTE: You do not have to activate NetGuard. You can if you want, but just be aware that NetGuard (if active) uses the single VPN slot on Android, and at that point you may as well just block the data that app uses.
Enable Developer Options. Do this by going to your phone's Settings, go to About Phone, and press "Build Number" 7 times.
NOTE: This may vary depending on your model. I know Samsung Galaxy phones hide it in a weird place. After that go into Developer Options (again, location will vary on phone model) and select "USB Debugging."
On your computer, download ADB Platform Tools:
Connecting to your phone via ADB
First, plug your phone in via a USB cable. Ideally the one it shipped with, but any cable with at least one end being USB-C will do (so it can plug into your phone).
On Windows and macOS:
On Linux
On all 3 operating systems:
You should see something like this:
If you get anything other than "device" ("recovery" if your phone is booted in recovery), check your phone for ADB dialog. If nothing is there on Windows, you may need to manually install the drivers that can be found in the platform-tools.zip file. Certain models will need you to switch your phone's state from "USB Charging" to "File Transfer".
On Linux, you may need to manually reset your rules.d folder. Just type in the following command string:
NOTE: I just reinstalled Linux on my machine and set up ADB using the above instructions and everything worked without further setup. The below instructions are for the benefit of those who have to set this up manually.
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger
If that doesn't work, you'll need to manually install /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules which can be found anywhere on Github then change the permissions using the following Terminal command:
sudo chmod a+r /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
Just execute in the "sudo udevadm" command string above after installing it.
If you see a readout on the Command Line similar to either "No Permissions, check your phone" or "unauthorized," then you will need to confirm the connection on your phone via the popup window that will ask you to allow debugging (I recommend that you also check "Always trust this computer" so you won't have to confirm this every single time). Once you do that, try it again and the Command Line readout should say "device" instead of the aforementioned errors.
If you see "device" regardless of what computer you're using, then it means that your phone is ready to connect.
Type the following:
You should be seeing the following on your computer based on your phone model:
YOU ARE NOW READY TO DEBLOAT YOUR PHONE.
PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.
On your phone, open the app you downloaded at the beginning of this guide (either App Manager or NetGuard) and find the apps you want to uninstall. You have to remember the package name of the app (e.g. Google Play Store's package name is com.android.vending, YouTube is com.google.android.youtube, Google Chrome is com.android.chrome, Google's Files app on Pixel devices is com.google.android.apps.nbu.files, etc.). On NetGuard you will have to press the "down" arrow on the left of the app name.
Below I'm giving you all of the commands you will ever need to get rid of bloatware from Google, Samsung, OnePlus, Motorola, whatever. To use them, just copy them to your terminal and replace *package name* with the package name of the app you want to remove. It's that simple!
pm list users
List the users on your Android phone. This is useful for when you have work profiles installed. All profiles, running or not, will be displayed on this readout and you can substitute the number in subsequent commands with the number next to the user from whom you want to debloat.
pm list packages | grep *OEM/Carrier/App Name*
Shows you a list of all apps with the given keyword in name, e.g. "google" will show you apps like com.google.android.apps.photos, com.google.android.gms etc. Searching for "ads" will show you Google's adware apps.
pm uninstall -k --user 0 *package name*
Uninstalls the given app
pm disable-user --user 0 *package name
Disables the given app
cmd package install-existing *package name*
Reinstalls a system app if you accidently uninstalled it (apps that you downloaded yourself cannot be reinstalled by this method)
pm default-state *package name*
Please try this reinstallation method if the one above doesn't work
pm enable *package name*
Enables the given app
For example, if you want to uninstall Chrome (and there's no reason to have Chrome installed) you'll type in the following:
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.chrome
IMPORTANT NOTES:
This may break over-the-air (OTA) updates. You may have to manually flash any updates for your phone. For Pixel phones, your updates can be found at https://developers.google.com/android/ota and if you need the factory images for whatever reason you'll select the appropriate link on the left-hand side of the page. If your phone no longer receives OTA updates and you don't care about tap-to-pay or banking apps, you may as well go to the LineageOS download page, look for your phone (if it's supported), and flash the latest LineageOS build per the instructions that should be linked with said build so you can at least receive the latest Google security update.
SECONDARY NOTES:
If you are uninstalling the default "Files" app from OnePlus, Google, Samsung, etc., then please leave the AOSP File Manager app alone. It should say either com.android.documentsui or com.google.android.documentsui. Either one of them is more safe than the default file manager. If you're still using a stock ROM and the shortcut for the AOSP file manager isn't there, download this shortcut from either Google Play or your favorite frontend so you can access the app.
If you still need Gmail, then use FairEmail from F-Droid. I used to recommend K9 Mail but Mozilla, who recently became an adtech company, bought the project and have added opt-out analytics to the code.
Both Brave and Vivaldi are nearly drop-in replacements for Google Chrome and will not only tell websites you're visiting that you're using Chrome but also block ads with zero setup.
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