How to uninstall youtube

**jhm83** · 01-23-2011, 06:28 PM

Hi guys,
I have just bought my wife a fascinate and i have managed to root it. Now she does not wnat youtube as she never uses it. Can someone tell me what the command line should be for uninstalling it or even what the apk name for it is? Thanks so much.
By the way I am a noob to android so thanks for a great site and awesome info. Here is where I learned to root.

**sdmf** · 01-23-2011, 07:39 PM

I havent gotten into any of this yet, but I assume from a command line you should just be able to rename it to whatever.

eg. "mv name.name" to "name.name.bak"

perhaps? not sure without researching.

**Japots** · 01-24-2011, 11:40 AM

sdmf has the right idea.

** You need a root-enabled File-manager or terminal **

Navigate to /system/app
Rename Youtube.apk to Youtube.apk.bak (or whatever)

Youtube app should now be gone from app list. It's still taking up space, but its best to leave it as is, as I've heard of some phones refusing to accept OTA firmware updates if all the stock apps are not found. You can just rename it back from "Youtube.apk.bak" to "Youtube.apk" if she ever wants it back / need to update stock firmware.

**jhm83** · 01-24-2011, 08:28 PM

Originally Posted by Japots

sdmf has the right idea.

** You need a root-enabled File-manager or terminal **

Navigate to /system/app
Rename Youtube.apk to Youtube.apk.bak (or whatever)

Youtube app should now be gone from app list. It's still taking up space, but its best to leave it as is, as I've heard of some phones refusing to accept OTA firmware updates if all the stock apps are not found. You can just rename it back from "Youtube.apk.bak" to "Youtube.apk" if she ever wants it back / need to update stock firmware.

ok I tried the rename command and it said rename not found. i am using terminal emulator. I also tried the /system/app and that brought up permission denied. Not sure what to do now? I think I may be using the wrong command lines or something.

**Japots** · 01-24-2011, 10:12 PM

rename command in unix is "mv"
/system/app/ folder is owned by root, hence why you need a root-enabled file-manager or terminal. I used "Root Explorer" from the marketplace, but it isnt free. I'm fairly sure theres a free alternative there somewhere.

**sdmf** · 01-25-2011, 09:01 AM

yah no rename command. If rooted you should be able to type this (provided the app you want to remove is youtube.

eg

mv youtube.apk youtube.apk.bak

**jhm83** · 01-26-2011, 09:05 PM

ok i tried the command line mv youtube.apk youtube.apk.bak. After i pressed enter it said failed on 'youtube.apk' - no such line or directory
I am now trying to use android terminal off of the market. Do I have to cd to a different directory or what am I doing wrong.
I also tried to navigate to /system/app and it said permission denied. I am rooted because i have superuser installed as well as busybox.
I also tried ls/data/app and ls/system/bin and it brought up cd: HOME not set. Sorry but I am thoroughly lost.

**sdmf** · 01-27-2011, 06:10 AM

You need to.be in the correct dir to be able to rename. If i get some time later i will investigate and report back. Ls to list diectory...

Sent from my SGH-T959D using Tapatalk

**Japots** · 01-27-2011, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by jhm83

ok i tried the command line mv youtube.apk youtube.apk.bak. After i pressed enter it said failed on 'youtube.apk' - no such line or directory

You're in the wrong directory. Are you doing the command in /system/app ? Furthermore, Unix is case sensitive, and it's "Youtube.apk" with a capital Y

Originally Posted by jhm83

I am now trying to use android terminal off of the market. Do I have to cd to a different directory or what am I doing wrong.
I also tried to navigate to /system/app and it said permission denied.

/system/app is owned by root. You need root privileges to cd into it. Check the android terminal app settings to see how you can enable root.

Originally Posted by jhm83

I am rooted because i have superuser installed as well as busybox.
I also tried ls/data/app and ls/system/bin and it brought up cd: HOME not set. Sorry but I am thoroughly lost.

It's good that you're rooted. When running an application that requires root, a notification should pop up saying "<application name> has been granted SuperUser permissions. When running the terminal or a backup app with a gui, you need to see that notification to know that it's using root privileges.

Otherwise, you're not able to access /system/app folder. You need to be in that folder before you do the mv command.

**jhm83** · 01-27-2011, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by Japots

You're in the wrong directory. Are you doing the command in /system/app ? Furthermore, Unix is case sensitive, and it's "Youtube.apk" with a capital Y

/system/app is owned by root. You need root privileges to cd into it. Check the android terminal app settings to see how you can enable root.

It's good that you're rooted. When running an application that requires root, a notification should pop up saying "<application name> has been granted SuperUser permissions. When running the terminal or a backup app with a gui, you need to see that notification to know that it's using root privileges.

Otherwise, you're not able to access /system/app folder. You need to be in that folder before you do the mv command.

Ok thanks so much. I love playing with tech stuff but am really lost with Linux.

I will try this tomorrow and let you all know how it went. Thanks again for all the great help. The people on this forum are great.

I just quick tried it here and where I was going wrong was that I did not type in su first. When i did that it granted me superuser permission. I tried the rename command ( mv ) and remove command ( rv ) and i keep getting read only file system messages. any sugestions?

**Japots** · 01-28-2011, 10:54 AM

I downloaded the terminal emulator just to try it out for myself. Used su to get superuser permissions and tried to do the mv and got the same error. Turns out the entire /system/ folder is mounted to be read-only. I used Root Explorer (paid app) to remount it to read-write so I could rename but I always assumed that was just a safety net of the app.

Try the command below at your own risk

su
mount -o remount,rw /dev/mtdblock3 /system
cd /system/app/
mv Youtube.apk Youtube.apk.bak
mount -o remount,ro /dev/mtdblock3 /system

su gives you superuser permissions
mount remounts the entire /system/ folder with read/write access which should allow the mv
second mount command returns the system back to normal

**sdmf** · 01-28-2011, 01:31 PM

Hmph - weird. Im rooted and when I try to 'su' in terminal I get permission denied. Strange days these are....

**Japots** · 01-28-2011, 02:20 PM

Do you have the SuperUser app installed? Most root methods install the app for you, but if it didn't you can download it from the market.

**sdmf** · 01-28-2011, 03:58 PM

Doh! Thats right I manually rooted. Thanks bud

Sent from my SGH-T959D using Tapatalk

**jhm83** · 01-31-2011, 10:22 AM

Originally Posted by Japots

I downloaded the terminal emulator just to try it out for myself. Used su to get superuser permissions and tried to do the mv and got the same error. Turns out the entire /system/ folder is mounted to be read-only. I used Root Explorer (paid app) to remount it to read-write so I could rename but I always assumed that was just a safety net of the app.

Try the command below at your own risk

su gives you superuser permissions
mount remounts the entire /system/ folder with read/write access which should allow the mv
second mount command returns the system back to normal

Thanks for the help. I finally got my copy of root explorer ( it took forever for the transaction to go through google checkout ) and used it to remount the system file to RW. Then I tried the command above and it gave me a no such file message. So I looked again through root explorer at the youtube app name and it turns out that on this phone it was named YouTube.apk.

So if anyone wants to do the above command and you get a no such file message just try YouTube.apk instead of Youtube.apk

Not knocking you at all Japots

Thanks for all the help resolving my isssues and putting up with a newbie.

**Japots** · 01-31-2011, 12:46 PM

You can actually rename files from within root explorer (long press on file name). I used it to rename a bunch of crap that came pre-installed. Much easier than typing on a touchscreen

I should have double checked the actual apk name before posting those instructions, haha. Either way, good to hear you finally got it resolved.

**jhm83** · 01-31-2011, 01:08 PM

thanks for the tip about root explorer. I might have to try that out. I want to learn how to use Linux code so maybe do it manually till I am a little better at it lol.

So just wondering if I rename a buch of files does it actually mean that they are no longer using memory or are they just not visible anymore?

**Japots** · 01-31-2011, 02:47 PM

Renaming .apk files is equivalent to deleting/moving them. Since the Android OS is expecting .apk extension to signify application packages, changing the extension will prevent the OS from finding/running it.

You can verify by going into Settings > Applications > Manage Applications and checking the "Running" tab.

As a result, be sure that what you're renaming is safe to disable, otherwise, you might unknowingly disable some core functionality.

**thankz4helping** · 02-26-2013, 06:04 PM

I've rooted my phone and flashed a custom ROM (AOKP) and it does come with the original YouTube app that came on our nexus 4 and I wish to install that one than the one that is on the play store. Their different because it does come with connect TV option can you please send me it at [email removed] thanks.