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grishka 2 days ago

The "unremovable" part is inaccurate. While you can't completely remove it because it resides on the system partition, you most probably can still disable it with an adb command:

    adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.package.name
This command is very powerful as it works for any app, even those that have "disable" greyed out in the settings. I disabled the Galaxy Store on my S9 this way for example.
hysan 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> "unremovable"

> you can't completely remove it

Maybe my English isn’t very good but that sounds like the definition of unremovable.

grishka a day ago | parent | next [-]

To be pedantic, yes, but not in a way that matters. The system partition is read-only. Mounting it read-write would require root and any modifications would break system updates. The apk will still be physically present in the file system, however, none of its code will run and it will be removed from your launcher and installed app list in settings, which IMO still counts as a removal.

Also, English is not my native language. I feel like I did get my point across anyway.

sedatk 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

There’s an enormous difference between “it can’t be stopped” and “its storage area can’t be reclaimed” though.

kotaKat a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This does not work on all phones. Some OEMs (like Motorola) leverage the 'nodisable' feature to prevent this and other APKs from being disabled.

On my 2025 Motorola RAZR 5G, in /product/etc/nondisable are a series of XML files listing carrier and activation apps for Dish Wireless, Tracfone/Verizon Value, T-Mobile, the Amazon App Manager, and two apps provided for finance providers PayJoy (who lock and disable phones for financial product recovery) and one for Claro internally (that operates similar to Payjoy).

scalableUnicon 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I had a Samsung phone and did the same with mine. Wrote a small tutorial here(https://harigovind.org/notes/removing-samsung-android-bloatw...). But even then, these apps will pop right back after system updates and those were becoming more frequent. I got rid of it shortly after, nowadays I use Moto where bloatwares are comparatively minimal.

npteljes a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Words don't just have a literal, technical meaning. If the phone itself doesn't allow a straightforward, user friendly happy-path for removal, it might as well be "unremovable" in a sense that it is indeed unremovable for most users. "adb shell etc" implies that one has a PC with this tool correctly installed, and many people don't even have a PC in the first place. Then comes the case of installing adb, setting it up correctly, and having a cable to connect the two, enabling debug mode, and doing the thing. This is much more like a service thing, than a do it yourself at home thing. Not much unlike "chip tuning" for cars.

acdha a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Samsung has an entire PR team who get paid to misrepresent things — you should at least get paid for what you’re doing. You’ve already admitted that it can’t be removed and if it takes some shell work you’re not even sure about to disable it, that almost certainly means it’s coming back on every update.

AzzyHN 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yes, but for most people (I'd guess 99% or more), they would never know to use the above, and I'm those who did find a guide might have issues using adb on their likely Windows or MacOS machine.

subscribed a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's not trivial for most and will most likely get reenabled after the firmware upgrade.

johnisgood a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How would one go about using adb? Motorola, stock Android. Do I need to root my phone for this to work or what are the requirements, or how do I perform it?

mvdtnz 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So you're saying it can't be removed?

awaisraad 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Do you know if the same apps remain installed in "Secure Folder" as well?

ehnto a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Don't even need that, you can disable it within the OS app settings.

encom a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I had a OnePlus whatever as a work phone in my last job. Every time I used adb to purge the OnePlus crap, it would somehow find its way back. Eventually I settled on disabling autoupdates from the play store, so it was stuck at whatever outdated, and hopefully broken, version the phone shipped with.

catlikesshrimp a day ago | parent | prev [-]

that doesn't work for every package. Some packages aren't authorized to be disabled this way, i.e. you can't disable them this way. * Some packages can technically be disabled this way, but they cause unrelated issues like the phone wasting processing resources, even overheating the device; or bootloops. * Less relevant, but the package is disabled, but removed. The system can still reenable it, reinstall it, or upgrade it. * Edit: I can't find a way to format this. It shows as a text block.