Maybe someone else walked into this problem
I’ve deactivated almost all of the google apps on my FP3 (as gmaps,chrome,youtube,gmail, etc.) The only one i still installed is playstore. But everyday with some new updates, these deactivated google apps keep to reinstall themselves. Does anybody know how disable them permanently?
Second question: If i push the home-button for a second, there’s still this google-tool opening, even if it’s not working (i’ve disabled it). How can i get rid of it completely?
First of all: Disabling is not the same as uninstalling, so if the apps come back they are not re-installed, but re-enabled.
I’m guessing it’s a default Google behavior to re-enable updated Google apps. Maybe you can go to the Play Store and search for the installed apps and disable updates for them?
About the assist app: You could probably install an other one and then in Settings > Apps > Default apps (or similar; if that setting even exists - I’m on an FP2 with Lineage OS) select it as default.
To get rid of the google search bar I installed a different Launcher (mine is called Nova Launcher, I think, but there seem to be lots of them out there) that had the option to not show it and to also customize the behavior of the start button.
Yes, i know but i can’t uninstall them. And true, they are always reenabling themselves even if turned “auto-update” for these apps “off” in playstore. Couldn’t find any settings to prevent the reenabling so far. Any more hints?
Ps. I Use smart launcher. I could use Firefox as assist app, or none. but even with none, it’s still opening some kind of menu while holding the home button.
There is a way to get rid of them even more. It’s also not uninstalling, but better than just disabling afaik. Download Minimal ADB and Fastboot and connect your phone to your PC. Then go to developer options and activate USB-Debugging. Then start Minimal ADB and Fastboot and type adb shell. Now your phone should have a popup, accept it. Then you can delete apps via pm uninstall *package name*. To find out the package names, download the “APK inspector” to your device, it shows you what package name each app has.
Now you can uninstall or at least (hopefully) permanently disable almost every G00gle app. Almost, because the most evil of them all, the G00gle Play Services, probably can’t be disabled.
Unfortunately, you can’t uninstall system apps, even with the (somewhat) privileged ADB permissions. That’d mean you could uninstall the phone app, or the launcher, or the Settings app.
Of course, you can do it with root permissions, but that’s probably out of the scope of this answer (for the moment, since that’d interfere with system updates).
I didn’t try, I don’t have any system app I want to get rid of (clean LineageOS here). I got the info from the pm command help text. But it should work. At least, there’s no reason for it not to.
Anyway, to remove the app data you could use pm clear <packagename>, if the former command doesn’t work.
I just got the FP3 and as usual, the first thing I do after setup is to uninstall or deactivate apps I don’t need, e.g. Chrome, Google Photos, Duo, Youtube …
Usually I don’t have to worry about them afterwards. But on the FP3 they constantly reappear. It only takes a couple of hours and all the apps I deactivated are active again, asking for updates and stuff … very annoying. I tried several times now, deleting caches and whatnot, theyy always come back. Anyone else got this problem? I really don’t know what to do about it and right now it’s the #1 reason to return the phone.
Thanks. Good to know there is a way, even though it seems uneccessary complicated. I never had this issue before, not even with the Pixel phones, which should be totaly googlelized. Once deactivated, the apps stayed that way.
I had a similar issue when I installed a secondary language pack.
When I disabled all the google apps, they kept being re-enabled.
I let them update and let Play Store download the language packs in the background. I then disabled the apps without removing the data etc.
I then removed the Play Stores ability to modify system settings.
Settings> Apps and Notifications> Play Store> Advanced> Modify System Settings
I’ve also removed the auto-updating aspect of the play store.
I’ve not been bugged by the app upgrades etc since.
FWIW: Mac users using Homebrew can open a Terminal and execute
$ brew cask install android-platform-tools
(Disclaimer: Never execute commands you don’t understand.)
What I used in past in a script I would fire at startup which would disable all the advertising features from apps. It required root, and used the same pm command.
AFAIK you unfortunately cannot use Firefox instead.
Edit: Nevermind, just got it with the additional command --user 0 mentiond by @solanum
I tried to uninstall the nasty google stuff on my fairphone 3 using this method, but everytime I type the command pm uninstall *package name*, I get the readout Failure [DELETE_FAILED_INTERNAL_ERROR].
I tried this with several apps and a search on ecosia didn’t help me either. So I have no idea what to do now.
If you uninstall WebView and later perhaps want to try e.g. the Play Store nonetheless or just add a Google account in the settings, you will just get a black screen because WebView is missing.
Without the WebView APK to install it again you can use APKMirror …
… choose the latest “Android System WebView” which is not labeled “beta”, for the correct variant choose Architecture “arm64-v8a + armeabi-v7a” and Minimum Version “Android 5.0+” (currently, as long as “Android 10.0+” doesn’t fit the Fairphone 3).
Some apps, especially some Google stuff, may refuse deinstallation if they are defined as app for device management.
Have a look at <Security & Location >> Apps for device management> (frei übersetzt, deutsch: Sicherheit & Standort >> Apps zur Geräteverwaltung)
Disable them there and repeat the adb command.
Some time ago I had made a little script for a Huawei Mate 9 to delete some Google and other apps. I have modified it to run against my FP3. It contains the -k flag in every pm command. Thanks @Roboe for the hint about it. I’ll correct and test it later.
@Stefan
Thank you for putting the script part into shape.
@ All
If your’re willing to try it out please be careful.
I have found that the Setting “System > Systemupdate” had vanished. It could be something in the script but not necessarily. I have resetted my FP3 and now it’s back. Have to investigate …
