Disabling Google Play Books App

giffordal

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Aug 9, 2017
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Hello,

My name is Al and I just have a few quick questions relating to deleting Google Play Books data on my Samsung phone.

I have a 16 GB Samsung SM-G900V which runs on Android version 5.0. I have had this phone for about 3 years now and it has always worked great until recently when I tried to download an app, but was prevented from doing so by a lack of storage space.

I have identified the "storage hog" in my system that is causing me to not have any space left on my phone and that is Google Play Books. When I look at the App Info for Google Play Books on my phone it reads:
Version 3.8.41
Total 2.00 GB
Application 29.79 MB
Data 1.97 GB
There are also tabs I can press called "Force Stop," "Uninstall Updates," "Disable," "Show Notifications," and "Clear Data."

I have done some research online, and I am confused about the steps I should take to remove the large amount of data from the Google Play Books app. Am I correct in assuming that if I disable this app and clear the data that all of the space taken up by the app will be freed and that no further books will be added to my phone as long as the app remains disabled?

Do I first press the button in the App Info menu called "Force Stop," then press "Uninstall Updates," then press "Clear Data," and then press "Disable." Does the order I press these buttons matter? If so, what should the correct order be? Also, once I am done and have removed the data should I uncheck the "Show Notifications" button? Is my assumption correct that once the app has been Disabled that the Google Play Books app will not sync or download any more books or updates to my phone?

If I do decide to disable the Google Play Books app on my Samsung phone and stop Google Play Books from syncing to my phone, will this affect any other operations my phone needs to function normally? If I later change my mind, can I re-able or restore the Google Play Books app on my phone without having to do a manual factory reset? From research I have done online, I understand that I should not mess with the Google Play Services app which is different than the Google Play Books app - is this assumption correct?.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you for reading this post and for any assistance you can provide.

Al
 
Last edited:

hallux

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Jul 7, 2013
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Welcome..

First - that's a lot of books downloaded in that app - 2 GB!
Here's what those buttons do:
Force stop is just that - it stops any processes the app has running in the background (does not impact storage used)
Uninstall updates - restores the app to the earliest version delivered on that device (minimal impact on storage space)
Disable - disables the app. This has a minimal impact on storage space and usually forces removal of updates. This stops any prompts to update the app, prevents it from running in the background.
Clear data - deletes all downloaded data associated with the app. This includes books downloaded.

So - if you don't care about that 2 GB of data that's in there (did you download books?), clear the data, uninstall the updates and disable the app. Once the app is disabled you can go into your app manager and you should have a "disabled" section where you can enable the app again, but any data you had in the app will no longer be there since you cleared it. This particular app is perfectly safe to disable, don't worry about it.

Did I cover it all? There was a lot in that post...
 

giffordal

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Aug 9, 2017
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Hallux,

I read your response to my questions and it was very helpful and I appreciate your comments.

I just have 1 follow-up issue: if I clear the all of the 1.97 GB of data in the Google Play Books app, is it correct to say that they will be merely removed from my phone? Will the books still be in "My Library" when I open my home laptop computer to read a book at Google's site at https://play.google.com/? In other words, deleting the data from my phone does not mean I am permanently removing the Books from my Google account, correct?

Thank you for helping me clarify this one final issue.
Al
 

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