Cleaning up a Rogers HTC One without rooting

[mset]

Hello

I see this isn't a very busy area of the forum but I'll try anyhow.

I just got a Rogers locked HTC One. I bought this phone privately, it was sold one month ago by Best Buy. However, when I was setting it up (it was factory reset by the previous owner) I got a message saying that this was a 'test device' and some action that I was asking for (turning off location services maybe?) couldn't be done.

Anyhow, I was looking at an HTC One Tips and Tricks article and it suggested turning off apps that I don't need running, to improve battery life. I am coming from a Nexus 4, and I was pretty shocked to see the list of apps that are running now. It seems to be literally 100++ apps.

I want to shut some of these off and/or uninstall them. Of course, every time you go to disable an app you get that message saying 'Other things may not work if you do this'. I am not a programmer and don't want to root the phone.

Can anyone help me clean this up by telling me what I can and can't disable? I found this Youtube video

Remove Preinstalled Apps (Bloatware) from Your HTC One [How-To] - YouTube

which shows how to use Titanium Backup to bulk uninstall a bunch of apps, but most of the discussion about bloatware seems to be focussed on AT&T phones.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Andrew ONeill]

I like 'easy battery saver' on the play store, it made quite the difference in battery life for me.
Titanium back up is for rooted users I believe, are you rooted? The best you can do for apps that are pre-installed is disable them but if the warnings you get are a worry and you feel your phone is bogged down then instal 'memory booster ' or another app like it. These apps temporarily shut down apps not in use.

 

[mset]

Thanks, I just checked back here. I stored the HTC One while I was travelling and just got the SIM back in it today. Battery life is really sucking but maybe that's because it needs a day or two to get all settled down again.

I am not rooted. I wouldn't mind trying it but I don't have the time to do all the research. If anything I'd try it on my Nexus 4.

I've figured out that these apps can't be uninstalled. When I go to disable things, that warning always pops up about 'Are you sure you want to do this? Stuff might become unstable if you do' and I always hesitate but I think I'm going to just do it and if something goes wrong I can always factory restore.

I installed Easy Battery Saver just now and I'll use it to see what's up. It's been running for an hour or so and Android Services have taken up 99% of the battery, which is still draining almost so fast that I can see it clicking down from 100%.

 

[Andrew ONeill]

Sounds weird, my battery stats after 2 hours today:
Android system -69%
Dialer-9%
The rest is a combination of HTC and Google services and a little internet and I'm still at 86% battery life.
It looks as though "android system" includes screen on time which is by far the biggest battery drainer. That said, I always keep my screen brightness at 100% and I don't use the battery saver setting on the phone, just the easy battery app I mentioned before. That app I have set to 'custom' because I want my Wi-Fi on at all times. According to the widget on the drop down area I'm getting 1.3% battery or about 1/3 improvement. You can choose other modes that save much more than that if you want but if your phone is indeed a test model it may never have been set up for battery conservation in the first place or the battery it's self is no longer capable of holding a charge well do to all the testing/on time it's seen. If that's the case then you can't do much about it as spent battery is non-removable.
Over all I'm happy with the battery life on this phone. It compares roughly the same as my Galaxy S3 but it doesn't charge up quite as fast as the Samsung device. Hope you get your problems sorted out!

 

[mset]

Sounds weird, my battery stats after 2 hours today:
Android system -69%
Dialer-9%
The rest is a combination of HTC and Google services and a little internet and I'm still at 86% battery life.
It looks as though "android system" includes screen on time which is by far the biggest battery drainer. That said, I always keep my screen brightness at 100% and I don't use the battery saver setting on the phone, just the easy battery app I mentioned before. That app I have set to 'custom' because I want my Wi-Fi on at all times. According to the widget on the drop down area I'm getting 1.3% battery or about 1/3 improvement. You can choose other modes that save much more than that if you want but if your phone is indeed a test model it may never have been set up for battery conservation in the first place or the battery it's self is no longer capable of holding a charge well do to all the testing/on time it's seen. If that's the case then you can't do much about it as spent battery is non-removable.
Over all I'm happy with the battery life on this phone. It compares roughly the same as my Galaxy S3 but it doesn't charge up quite as fast as the Samsung device. Hope you get your problems sorted out!

Yes, I recharged the battery and let the program analyze the performance from a full charge. Phone has been on for 7.5 hours. Light use and I have 66% battery left which is way better than yesterday. At this rate I should have no problem getting a 14-hour day with moderate use.

Android system using 66% and Google Services using 23%. As you said, Android System is obviously screen on time as well. I might give power saving mode a try.

Good to know you're not having battery issues. I'm not sure what the 'test device' thing really means. I know I can't uninstall all that Google stuff but I am going to try disabling it. Overall, enjoying the phone.

Thanks again for the info.