path: root / src / blog / managing-apps-with-adb-without-root / index.du

# Managing apps with ADB (and without root)

'define expected-reading 8 min
'define created 25 February 2023
'define edited 25 February 2023
[$pagenav]

.contents
.numbered
1. [url #installing Installing]
2. [url #opening-a-shell-and-connecting-to-your-device Opening a shell and connecting to your device]
3. [url #managing-applications Managing applications]
4. [url #what-to-remove What to remove]

Often new phones, especially Samsung ones, come with a whole lot of bloatware, which usually cannot be uninstalled from within the phone.
This could be circumvated by rooting your phone, essentially gaining full administrative control over the device, however this process can be somewhat involved and could [url https://www.xda-developers.com/samsung-galaxy-z-fold-3-unlock-bootloader-broken-camera/ cause issues].

A better solution is using the Android Debug Bridge (ADB), a developer tool with which you can more fluently control your device.
Of course, you still won't get full control, but it is as close as it gets, without requiring any permanent and involved configurations.

If you're having trouble, [url https://www.xda-developers.com/install-adb-windows-macos-linux/ XDA's article], as well as [url https://www.maketecheasier.com/uninstall-system-apps-without-root-android/ these] [url https://www.maketecheasier.com/get-started-with-android-debug-bridge-adb/ maketecheasier] [url https://www.maketecheasier.com/enable-developer-options-in-android-42/ articles] go into more detail and show pictures.

## Installing

Windows:

.numbered
1. Download the official platform tools from [url https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools-latest-windows.zip here]
2. Extract the files in a folder and navigate to it

Linux (or MacOS):

.bulleted
- With your package manager, it should be called [`android-tools`], [`android-tools-adb`] or [`android-platform-tools`]
- Worst case scenario, download and extract it from [url https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools-latest-linux.zip here] for Linux, and [url https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools-latest-darwin.zip here] for MacOS.

## Opening a shell and connecting to your device

ADB is very powerfull, so by default phones don't allow you to connect to the device with it.
First, we'll allow such a connection:

.numbered
1. Go to [`Settings/About phone`] (depending on your Android skin, this might be located in a slightly different place)
2. Tap "Build number" 7 times, until a message says you're done
3. Navigate to the Developer options, which is often in [`Settings/Developer options`], but could also be inside the [`Settings/System`] menu
4. Enable the "USB debugging option" (if a popup appears, click OK)

ADB is a command-line only tool, so first open a terminal inside the platform-tools directory:

.bulleted
- On Window, Right-click in the directory and press "Open PowerShell window here" or "Open command window here" or "Open in Terminal" (different OS versions show a different option)
- On Linux (and MacOS), open a terminal window and [`cd`] to the platform-tools directory

Connect your phone to the computer with a USB cable, change the transfer mode to "File transfer" and in the terminal enter:

```shell
adb devices

On your phone you should get a poppup asking "Allow USB debugging?", press OK.
You should get a "List of devices attached", and it should have one entry (a line below it, with some number and letters and then the word "device").

'footnote interactive-shell You could just run every command like [`adb shell COMMAND`], which wouldn't give you an interactive shell, so it is less convinient

Now, we'll open a shell[$interactive-shell], a program with which to directly enter commands that the device understands:

```shell
adb shell

## Managing applications

There are 3 general commands that you would want to use:

```shell
pm list packages

Which prints the internal names of all applications that are installed on the device.
All of the other commands use those names (without the leading "package:", if it exists) for referring to applications.

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 PACKAGE

Where PACKAGE is an aforementioned application name.
This command just uninstalls the app for the normal user, meaning it will be brought back on factory reset.

```shell
pm disable --user 0 PACKAGE

Disabled PACKAGE, so it wouldn't work but you wouldn't need to reinstall it (just enable it).
Beware that, if it shows some sort of error (anything that isn't "Success"), you'll probably need to use [`disable-user`], rather than just [`disable`].

After you're done, you can pretty much just unplug your device, but remember to [=turn back off the "USB debugging" option!=]

## What to remove

This is a lost of commands, which remove a whole lot of arguably unnecessary apps.
Use [=AT YOUR OWN RISK!=]
Although they shouldn't, they might cause problems [=FOR WHICH I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE!=]

:unordered
- Facebook

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 package:com.facebook.services
pm uninstall -k --user 0 package:com.facebook.katana
pm uninstall -k --user 0 package:com.facebook.system
pm uninstall -k --user 0 package:com.facebook.appmanager

- Netflix

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.netflix.partner.activation
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.netflix.mediaclient

- Microsoft apps

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.microsoft.skydrive
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.skype.raider
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.microsoft.office.excel
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.microsoft.office.word
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.microsoft.office.powerpoint

- Google apps

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.gm
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.tachyon
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.music
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.docs
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.maps
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.chrome
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.photos
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.vr.vrcore
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.youtube
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.videos
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.talk
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.books
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.magazines
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.plus

- Windows 10 Phone comanion

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.microsoft.appmanager

- AR Emoji

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.aremoji

- Bixby

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.agent
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.es.globalaction
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixbyvision.framework
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.wakeup
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.plmsync
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.voiceinput
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.systemui.bixby
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.agent.dummy
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.settings.bixby
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.systemui.bixby2
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.service
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.routines
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.visionintelligence
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.spage

- Samsung Pass/Pay

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.samsungpassautofill
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.authfw
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.samsungpass
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.spay
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.spayfw

- Samsung Kids

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.kidsinstaller
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.camera.sticker.facearavatar.preload

- Samsung Game Launcher

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.game.gamehome
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.enhance.gameservice
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.game.gametools
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.game.gos

- Galaxy Friends

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.mateagent

- Samsung Smartthings

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.easysetup
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.beaconmanager
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.oneconnect

- Carmode

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.drivelink.stub

- Stickers

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.sec.android.mimage.avatarstickers

- Samsung Global Goals

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.sree

- Samsung Members

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.voc

- Samsung LED cover

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.ledbackcover
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.sec.android.cover.ledcover

- Samsung TV

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.sec.android.app.withtv

- Knox

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.knox.securefolder
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.knox.vpn.proxyhandler
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.knox.keychain
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.sec.enterprise.knox.cloudmdm.smdms
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.knox.analytics.uploader
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.sec.enterprise.knox.attestation
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.knox.containercore

- Samsung DEX

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.sec.android.desktopmode.uiservice
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.desktopsystemui
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.sec.android.app.desktoplauncher

- Samsung Browser

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.sec.android.app.sbrowser
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.sbrowseredge

- Samsung Email

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.email.provider
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.wsomacp

- Samsung Smartthings

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.easysetup
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.beaconmanager
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.oneconnect

- Gear VR

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.hmt.vrsvc
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.vrsetupwizardstub
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.hmt.vrshell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.vr.vrcore

- Printings

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.bips
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.printservice.recommendation
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.printspooler

- Upday news

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 de.axelspringer.yana.zeropage

- Verizon

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.vcast.mediamanager
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.vmmhux
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.vzw.hss.myverizon
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.asurion.android.verizon.vms
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.motricity.verizon.ssodownloadable
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.vzw.hs.android.modlite
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.vvm
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.vznavigator.[You_Model_Here]

- T-mobile

```shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.mobitv.client.tmobiletvhd
pm uninstall -k --user 0 us.com.dt.iq.appsource.tmobile


\n

More information on available package commands can be shown with [`pm help`].
You can learn more about the adb tool from [url https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/adb developer.android.com].