Cleaning up the stock rom - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Questions and Answers

Hey there.​
I was thinking about uninstalling all the useless apps that came preinstalled on my device. My problem is that I don't know what's necessary for it to run smoothly.
There are lots of Samsung apps, and other strange apps (at least for me) that I don't find useful at all. What I usually use my phone for is Youtube, Facebook, Messenger, Camera, and some games.
So... if anybody knows what's important to keep, or whats "junk" I would appreciate a list or something about the necessary apps.
Thanks!​

Related

[Q] How to sideload apps on the Desire Z

I know this is a pretty retarded question but I did some googleing and found nothing on the desire z about sideloading and I'm not sure if following the steps for another phone would be a good idea. I was also wondering about getting rid of the bloat ware, what kind of apps do I need to do that and do I need to sideload those apps?
This is my first android phone. My last phone was a palm pre and all their homebrew stuff was very simple and put into 1 app you can download and get everything from (apps, overclocking, themes and custom kernels all from 1 place) so this is kinda big step because it seems to involve a lot more then 2 or 3 taps on a screen.
Thanks for any help you can give a newbie!
if you search you will see some info about how to remove bloatware, but its not pretty (IMO) and I think you need to root your phone.
As for side loading, if you go to setting>applications>manage applications there is a check box that allow you to load apps from any source. Just be sure its checked. I downloaded an app (TN5250 emulator) from www.mochasoft.dk and it installed just fine.
After you downloaded it did you have to move it to the SD card? Or are you able to download right to the phone?
Edit: Also, does anyone know if you can install stock android? What benefits would you get from doing so? The only thing I would care about is not having 40 pre loaded useless app/shortcuts. A few of them are uno, tv & radio, tunes & apps, twitter, superuser, search people (i can just go into people and press the search button, what is the point of this undeletable sortcut?), peep, navigation, lets golf, learn more. This is an awesome phone but there are so many useless things added and it makes it hard to find the handful of apps that I would actually use. Some of these "apps" are just shortcuts to webpages, why do I need this and why can't they go away?!

[Q] Trouble with applications

After using the S7 in the A1 version for a while, there is a couple of questions arising to me:
I did the mistake of installing Twidroid PRO which now withstands all attempts to get removed. Even worse, it will start in the background every time I restart the device. I really want to get rid of Twidroid.
Whatever I do, I cant get any QR reader to work. After googling for the problem it seems, that some other S7 users experience the same trouble, while others dont. Maybe depending on the type of camera installed. Any ideas?
Some very basic applications, like Google Goggles, are not visible for S7 users in the Android Market. A few can be found on alternative sites and do work fine, but most apps stay unreachable. Is there a way to get those apps ?
Thanks for any hints to get more happy with my S7.
as for twidroid, root your device and uninstall it once its rooted, I will take a look at getting google goggles tonight and let you know
Thanks for your help. I did root the S7 and after some more fruitless attempts to delete Twidroid, I found the reason - but not the solution:
Twidroid disguises as a system file that resists any attempts to delete or to uninstall. Basically, the typical behaviour of malware.
This makes me even more worried about Twidroid and its "mission".
Removing system apps
Hey Ossyris,
Did you check out:
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=942166
He seems to be removing twidroid "rm Twidroid.*".
Personally have not done this yet... but I will soon.

[Q] safe to remove stock apps?

Hello,
Just a quick question:
Anyone tried yet and can report back whether it is safe to remove various stock apps that came with the TF? And if so, which ones have you had complete success removing, which ones haven't, etc...
And just to be clear, I'm talking removal via means of Titanium Backup, or any other similar function app.
And I'm also talking about apps, such as Zinio Reader, Layar, etc that don't appear to be critical to the system, rather than borderline critical Google apps (gmail etc), or user critical apps (settings etc).
But even if you tried to remove any gapps or otherwise important apps, feel free to report back your findings.
poltak11 said:
Hello,
Just a quick question:
Anyone tried yet and can report back whether it is safe to remove various stock apps that came with the TF? And if so, which ones have you had complete success removing, which ones haven't, etc...
And just to be clear, I'm talking removal via means of Titanium Backup, or any other similar function app.
And I'm also talking about apps, such as Zinio Reader, Layar, etc that don't appear to be critical to the system, rather than borderline critical Google apps (gmail etc), or user critical apps (settings etc).
But even if you tried to remove any gapps or otherwise important apps, feel free to report back your findings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All ASUS apps are safe to freeze/remove even the ASUS keyboard. You can also freeze the Honeycomb keyboard if you don't use it. IMO, just freeze them, doesn't waste much space anyway and you can unfreeze if you ever need to.
Alright, thanks for the quick reply
Well I froze a bunch of apps I don't use just then and no problems what-so-ever (yet). Will use it for a day or few, and remove them and see how it goes.
on rooted rom i removed a load of the apps without any problems i followed the link here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1091442&page=1

Apps and services running

When it comes to my phone (GS4 SGH-M919) I am extremely serious about what's running or installed and why. There is nothing installed on my phone that I didn't personally install or allow to run. I like a nice clean phone with nothing wasting resources. I'm sure I'm not alone in this way of thinking, so I ask, what are you guys doing to minimize apps and wasted services running? How are you keeping your phone running at it's absolute best?
Uninstall anything that isn't important to the correct operation of the phone.
Freeze or greenify anything that you don't want constantly running in the background (like Google play or Facebook+Facebook messenger).
I'm the same in my mindset I don't like background processes running when I don't have a use for them right there and then. I freeze a few apps with titanium, I have everything that's not related to downloading, playing or streaming music greenified. I always have sync off and run AFwall+ controlling internet access. sometimes if a free app needs net access I'll try hunting for it's ads processes with this http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cn.wq.disableservice
I really wish they'd start allowing users to have more control or total control over their devices without using 3rd party apps. Especially with high-end devices. When are they going to learn that we don't want unneeded apps and functionality ramed down our throats. I guess they still believe that even though we bought the device, it still belongs to them.
Tommy807 said:
I really wish they'd start allowing users to have more control or total control over their devices without using 3rd party apps. Especially with high-end devices. When are they going to learn that we don't want unneeded apps and functionality ramed down our throats. I guess they still believe that even though we bought the device, it still belongs to them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
we are not the majority. it's more likely that instant updates arriving from facebook are valued more highly than comprehensive control of our device by most. I read that android device ownership is at 1 billion devices but XDAmembers is just over 7 million.
It's true, most people just care about the phone being able to send a text, but there's no reason all apps and services have to be locked down and not removable. That doesn't atfect the casual user. They choose to lock things down. They choose to make it so uninstalling trivial apps breaks the OS. Short of deleting OS files or drivers, they don't need to make it so my hands are tied.
I'm going to do what I want to do one way or another. All they're doing is pissing people off.
..
lol, to be fair the whole trend of a separate Gapps package is all about giving us that choice in the first place. hell I didn't even have gmail in the last version I used.
I use the browser to check my email, and facebook, and xda, and pretty much every other website.
I would even use the browser for YouTube if it weren't for the OGYouTube app which allows me to download the videos.
If anyone is interested in combining the sms, Facebook messenger and WhatsApp apps into one single app, try Disa. It can replace all 3. Unfortunately you have to give up the chatheads of messenger.

[qualcomm] (not rooted) list of apps safe to disable and how to backup stock

I have the unlocked version, am able to root, but I'd rather not break the warranty till I've used the phone for a bit and found it's ok. Is there a list of apps that are ok to disable, including both google and motorola apps? I don't know that I want to disable every package that contains the word 'motorola', or google... Plus I'm sure there are some that don't contain those words.
From what I've been reading google seems to collect all sorts of data from the phone whether you have set up an account or not. I'm trying to increase privacy on the phone in the meantime. I'm installing other open source apps in the place of the google ones (for maps, calendar, gallery, contacts, video, etc) and disabling the play store. I've noticed that I can disable a number of apps via settings-->apps or by using adb pm uninstall. I'm not sure if using pm uninstall via adb is better? It looks like it just uninstalls the app for the current user, which implies there are other users that can use the app? Is there a user other than me running behind the scenes?
If I remove the google apps can google still sync or read my contacts, calendar, app activities etc even when using different apps?
Sorry if these are dumb questions, I'm trying to understand how this works. It is interesting, but it is very different to try to understand something when you're not a programmer or don't have the tech background. I'm not terribly technical but I would like to understand what goes on. If this is the right place please let me know where to ask. I have been searching for info as well but not found answers.

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