List of apps I've removed from /system (after Motoblur disable)
Original thread:
Originally Posted by Me over on AndroidForums
After using the process to disable/bypass Motoblur I posted at I now had a rooted Devour without Motoblur and a ton of bloat, and other stuff in /system/app that I didn't need anymore. So I spent a few hours seeing what could be removed and what couldn't, with minimal impact on the actual functionality of the phone.
Turns out, after bypassing Blur like that, a great deal can be done away with. Since Blur is bypassed completely, you won't be getting your email through it, and your Facebook won't be synced, so all the Blur stuff related to those can be removed. The only problem I've had so far is going into Settings->Accounts gives a force close, but that's simply because of bypassing Blur itself.
Here's a complete list of APKs and ODEXes I've removed from my /system/app folder without any noticeable problems on my phone. On the contrary, it seems to run smoother and has far fewer problems with random reboots. If anyone can point out any problems removing these does cause, I'll be more than happy to remove it from the list. You could also probably remove a lot more than this (such as Alarm Clock and Calculator) but I keep those because I use them. It's up to you.
Code:
AdminFeedNotifier-release.apk & odex - Unknown
CityID.apk - CityID (bloat)
com.verizon.handset.mim.apk - MobileIM (bloat)
com.vzw.vvm.android.apk - Visual Voice Mail (bloat)
DlnaDms.apk & odex - DLNA app (bloat, I don't know wtf it's for)
DlnaSystemService.apk & odex - DLNA services (bloat, I don't know wtf it's for)
DrmProvider.apk & odex - Unknown
Email-release.apk & odex - Blur e-mail engine, useless once Blur is bypassed.
FriendFeed-release.apk & odex - Happenings (Blur)
HelpCenter-release.apk & odex - Help Center (bloat)
MessagesWidget-release.apk & odex - Messages widget (Blur)
Messaging-release.apk & odex - Messaging (Blur), text messaging will work without this!
MotoPhonePortal.apk & odex - Phone portal (Blur), useless bullcrap when you connect to your computer by USB
Music.apk & odex - Music, I just removed it because I'd rather use Tunewiki
MusicSync.apk & odex - VCast Music Sync (bloat)
News-release.apk & odex - News (Blur)
PicoTts.apk & odex - unknown
QuickOffice.apk - QuickOffice. I actually kept this one since it's not useless!
SetupWidget-release.apk - unknown
SocialMessaging-release.apk & odex - Facebook messaging portion of Blur
SocialShare-release.apk & odex - Facebook picture/status sharing portion of Blur?
StatusWidget-release.apk & odex - Facebook status changing widget (Blur)
TtsService.apk & odex - Text-To-Speech service? TTS apps still seem to work without this…
Universal-release.apk & odex - unknown
Upgrader.apk & odex - unknown
VCastMusic.apk - VCast Music (bloat)
VCastVideos.apk - VCast Video (bloat)
VoiceSearch.apk - Voice Search (bloat?)
VpnServices.apk & odex - Virtual Private Networking, never understood how to set up this bullcrap
VSuiteApp.apk & odex - Voice Commands, see below
VZNav.apk - VZ Navigator (bloat)
The thing with VSuiteApp.apk is once you remove it, you will get infinite Force Close errors. Just restart your phone, and it will shut up. But you can imagine, it will break the Voice Command button. Well, someone already thought of that too. You know how the Devour lacks a Search button? Let's kill two birds with one stone.
Go into /system/usr/keylayout/ and open adp5588_keypad.kl and find the line "key 71 VR" and replace VR with SEARCH and save the file. Restart your phone for it to work.
Until you know exactly how removing all this crap will affect your phone, you should probably simply rename the files to have ".bak" at the end so you can restore them should you want them again. If you do go ahead and delete them, you can free up some space in /system for other things, like apps you want to keep should you have to do a "factory reset". Please post results in this thread, I'll be watching it closely. Always remember, if your phone gets "bricked" you can flash the original Devour SBF file.
Last edited by MofoMan2000; 11-09-2011 at 07:48 AM.
My 'droidz:
Samsung Stratosphere (rooted, TweakStock 1.4), Motorola Devour (rooted, retired), Acer Iconia A500, Coby Kyros MID7022
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