So now that I’ve rooted my device, I started removing all the bloat my carrier (Orange France) has put on it.
And there’s that mysterious app called “App Center” from orange which cannot be deleted.
When I say cannot I mean: I disabled it, removed it with titanium backup as root, removed it with adb command… etc.
No matter what I do, it auto-reinstalls itself after each reboot. I have to admit I’ve never seen such thing before. Any one has an idea how to get rid of it ?
I’m not 100% sure, but I think Google’s Carrier Services app might be reinstalling it.
Unfortunately no… Froze it as well with no effect :-/
Maybe the “App Center” is here the SIM Toolkit (located on your SIM card, so not uninstallable)?
Thought so too, froze the Sim Toolkit app without more success. Damn those carrier bloats are really hard to remove, just like viruses
Well, to judge from this recent post in the Sosh forum, the app gets installed following an invitation to “update network operator parameters” which indeed sounds SIM-related.
But from what I can gather the “App center” has nothing special to do with network operation. It looks to be bloatware-publi-junk of the worst sort and typical of Orange in my opinion. In the case cited too, the phone wasn’t purchased from Orange / Sosh, but the operator is taking it over as though it were SIM-locked!
If only Orange would spend some resources on improving the security of their mail systems, which is pathetic, instead of wasting our time with this stuff.
The only solution I see: move to another operator and do a factory reset 
Or you might possibly re-install the ROM? I’m no expert.
That is crazy !
Worst is as you said, all this app does is remind you of every single orange application available and automatically install a set of apps at reboot such as orange mail, orange phone app, Deezer (!!!) etc.
I’m surprised that even with root access there’s nothing I could do… thanks for the input anyway
https://apps.orange.com/en/FR/assistance
The paragraph on app removal just says that if it came in the ROM you can’t remove it.
In the case I cited earlier, it did not come in the ROM, it was added during a config update, but in this case too, becomes impossible to remove.
I so dislike this behaviour on the part of certain operators. It’s like an invasion of privacy.
The app comes preinstalled but is only activated on the Orange network, so it is part of the ROM. On any other operator (even on phones that have never been on Orange) it can be seen as deactivated in Settings > Apps.
This was probably a prerequisite for being able to sell phones through Orange France, which Fairphone is doing. I believe that they once said that it was too much effort to prepare special phones for Orange with this app on them.
Thanks all, I hate your answers, but thanks 
I’ll go to bed now before I go crazy trying…
There’s a Fairphone support article about the app:
Except that it’s not “offers to”, it’s “imposes upon”. Commercial speak even from FP. Yes of course under duress, I understand the importance of being able to sell through one of France’s largest operators.
And, to judge from the Sosh post I linked to above, you don’t even have to have bought your phone from Orange. It’s other phones, bought elsewhere, too.
Just makes me dislike Orange even more.
So, either one accepts (and manages to ignore) this, in support of Fairphone’s success, or one installs a different ROM (voiding 5-year warranty I suppose).
@Aaanze To make “ignoring” more easy, there is however a workaround: you can configure a second profile (or “user”) on the phone and use that instead of the owner’s profile. Have a look at the FP article mentioned by AlbertJP.
Warranty is not void if you can re-install original OS before sending phone for repair and of course there is no official support for the phone whilst using a different ROM
Have you tried masking it with Magisk? That won’t get the .apk from your phone but it will be gone nevertheless.
“There is one additional trick you can use: if you place an empty file named
.replacein any of the folders in a module’s system, instead of merging the contents, that folder will directly replace the one in the real system. This will be very handy in some cases, for example swapping out a system app.” (Source: Magisk Documentation)
Try these commands from a root shell:
# find -L /system -type d -iname '*orange*'
# mkdir -p /data/adb/modules/MyAwesomeModule/path/to/orange/directory
# touch /data/adb/modules/MyAwesomeModule/path/to/orange/directory/.replace
Or you can use a Root File Manager to create the file / folders.
Nanodroid uses that same method to “debloat” the system, works great for me.
Unfortunately, those apps are found in system/priv-app folder which appear to be read-only. Neither su shell, nor root explorer with root permissions granted could modify anything there
You don’t have to modify /system, that’s what Magisk is for.
Let me give you an example with the YouTube app:
# find -L /system -type d -iname '*youtube*' gets me the path to the YouTube app as /system/product/app/YouTube
# mkdir -p /data/adb/modules/MyAwesomeModule/system/product/app/YouTube
/data/adb/modules
/system folder. Files you put in there get overlayed by Magisk over the corresponding files in the real /system folder at boot time (not folders, that’s why we need .replace in the next step)/youtube wouldn’t work in this case# touch /data/adb/modules/MyAwesomeModule/system/product/app/YouTube/.replace creates a .replace file in that folder, telling Magisk to overlay our folder over the real /system/product/app/YouTube folder./system/product/app/YouTube will still be there, but just as a empty folder.If the YouTube app is still there, it has been updated to a version newer than the system one. Those updates can be uninstalled normally and “pooof” no more YouTube 
Masking the Orange App should be the same process.
Sir…
You are a genius. I might just say it… I love you.
Nah, I’m just a normal user, I’ve just used Linux for quite some time, so reading the documentation and bashing my head against the CLI is second nature to me.
I’ve been using linux - purely amateurly - for quite some times too, yet didn’t grasp what you clearly explained about Magisk until now. Had no idea it could do that 
Hum, thank you for this solution for rooted OS @hirnsushi !
On my side, I have decided at this time to don’t root my phone.
And, at this time, it’s not possbile to remove/block this bloatware on FP4
I’m not on orange (Belgium), I use at this time new operator(Neibo) which at this time MVNO of orange and on the future, will be independent…
I will search if on dns side, it’s not possible !
edit : for block any future install apps via app center by orange : block on dns dl.apps.orange.com (personally : *.orange.com & *.orange.be & *.orange.fr blocked on my dns server)