On a number of Android smartphones and tablets, the manufacturer installs a number of apps out-of-the-box. These apps are called Bloatware and this posts describes how to uninstall pre-installed apps on any Android device without root, without root access. You may want to remove these kind of apps because they take up disk space on your Android device (Samsung, OnePlus, Huawai, …) and removing them can free up some valuable space. Because not all system apps can be moved to an external SD card. Removing is the best option for the default apps if you never use them.
Other things that people may be looking for:
- uninstall OEM apps from Android
- remove carrier apps from Android device
- remove android system apps without root
- uninstall system apps using pc
- uninstall any android system app
- debloat android via adb
- no root remove app android free up disk space
Uninstall versus disable
First of all, maybe you have already tried disabling the apps you don’t want on your phone. You can go to the details/info screen of the concerned app(s) and click the ‘Disable’ button. However, this will only disable this standard app on your phone, making it no longer accessible to you. But the app is still there, taking up space on your phone or tablet.
You want to completely uninstall the app so that the app and all the Megabytes it is using are completely removed from the device.
Uninstall bloatware from Android via ADB
First of word of advice: when removing certain apps from your smartphone or tablet, you device may begin to act strangely. Some system apps are vital for the well-functioning of your device. Luckily, for most type of apps, you can uninstall them without an issue or negative effect. The Facebook pre-installed application is a good example of this, so I will take this app as an example for the rest of this post.
Before you begin the work, I always suggest to take a backup just in case. If something goes wrong, you always have a working version of Android ready to put back on your smartphone.
Download Package Names Viewer on the Google Play Store
The very first step (other than taking a backup), is to download Package Name Viewer from Google Play and install it.
This app will allow you to see the ‘real names’ of all Android apps currently installed on your device. If we take our example app Facebook, than this becomes com.facebook.system. Another example could be Mi Cloud, which is com.miui.cloudservice. We will need this name later on in the process to remove it.
These apps can be safely removed:
- Samsung: Dropbox, Facebook, Flipboard, Memo, OneDrive, OneNote, Peel Smart Remote, Rechner, S Health, S Voice, Skype
- Google Apps: Docs, Sheets, Slides, Play Movies & TV, Notizen, Duo, Play Music, Play Games
- Huawai: Health, Tipps, Übersetzer, Spiegel, Smart Controller, Kompass, Backup, Phone Clone, Booking.com, Instagram, Facebook
Download, unpack and run the Google SDK
The second stap is to download the Google SDK from the Platforms Tools website on your MacOS or Windows computer/laptop.
- If you use Windows, download via this link
- If you use MacOS, download via this link
You can download it to your desktop and from there, unpack/unzip it (via Peazip, WinRar or any other program – often your operating system has this build-in).
Hold the SHIFT button on your keyboard and Right-Click on the folder called ADB. Then choose to open PowerShell (or Terminal for MacOS).
Execute the command to remove the bloatware
On your Android smartphone or tablet, in Developers Mode/Menu, enable USB Debugging. Now connect your phone/tablet to your computer via the Micro USB or USB Type-C connector.
In the PowerShell window, type: ./adb shell (don’t forget to DOT at the beginning), press ENTER and now type pm uninstall -k –user 0 com.facebook.system to remove the Facebook app. If you want to remove another app, you simply replace com.facebook.system with the system name as displayed by the Package Name Viewer app.
Restore removed system apps
In the (rare) case something went wrong while removing the bloatware / OEM apps / carrier apps on your Android: perform a factory reset and these apps will all be back.
The above all works on almost any Android, including: Samsung Galaxy, OnePlus, Huawai, Xiaomi, OPPO, Motorola, LG, Vivo, Lenovo, Sony, Asus and many smaller Android manufacturers.
thanks!! I’ve been trying to remove some virus from my cell phone, I didn’t want to re-set it. I’ll try this method instead. Best regards
…Removing system apps don’t offer space back for non root users; disabling them removes their user data counterparts to free up apace. The system app partition is simply for system function; some system apps don’t need to store their apk counterparts on the user space (very small apps.. With only one version usually)
Hi do u mean that disabling apps provides the same memory benefit as using this more complicated procedure ?
Thanks! This guide is very helpful! Only one thing,there are 2 errors in this post:
1)In this part “Hold the SHIFT button on your keyboard and Right-Click on the folder called ADB. Then choose to open PowerShell (or Terminal for MacOS).” The folder is not called ADB but platform-tools
2)In this other part “In the PowerShell window, type: ./adb shell (don’t forget to DOT at the beginning), press ENTER and now type pm uninstall -k –user 0 com.facebook.system to remove the Facebook app.” the command to uninstall an app is not “pm uninstall -k –user 0” but “pm uninstall –user 0”
PS C:\Users\Name\Desktop\Samsung\platform-tools> pm uninstall -user 0 com.facebook.system
pm : The term ‘pm’ is not recognized as the name of cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.
spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:1
+ pm uninstall – user 0 com.facebook.system
+~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound (pm:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiederrorId : CommandNotFoundException
Please Help with this i try this method it seems the pm command is not the command or em i doing something not right???
Try this :
adb shell pm uninstall -k –user 0
here [-k] refers to keep the app by disabling it not removing it so that when you reset your device it will be back on.
>the command to uninstall an app is not “pm uninstall -k –user 0”
>but “pm uninstall –user 0”
The -k flag keeps the data and cache directories after the package is removed. I typically would not use it if I were trying to remove bloat from my device.
This method is not working in samsung smart phone . what will i do now.
It seems some internal error .
:))) this procedure is disable the app, not uninstall… you canot delete apps from your phone or android device without rooting
simplest way is to go to your app managment and disable it
The app I am trying to disable is Samsung Internet. You cannot disable it. I keep getting games that popup and overlay other apps — making noise, too. I have tried so many things. I just keep getting errors in the PowerShell. Any more ideas?