Which apps and Services can be disabled without causing problems?

Hello everybody,

I shall like knowing what are the useless services which launch automatically and which we can deactivate without risk :pensive:.
For example, I do not use either exexchange or email, I thus deactivated both services :slight_smile:.
Does exist a list of the useless services anywhere? :wink:

I also believed to notice that even in mode " root ", some services remain tipsy(tinted) and thus impossible to deactivate :disappointed_relieved:. Do I have to make call up to a typical " kingoroot " program to deactivate them?

Thank you for your help :relaxed:.

You can use any (root) backup app for that. They usually have an option to ā€œfreezeā€ an app ā€”thatā€™s the former term for disabling apps.

Otherwise, you donā€™t need any app if you know how to use the command line. Launch a terminal emulator on your phone or adb shell from your computer and run:

su
pm list packages
pm disable <app-id> # ej: pm disable com.android.browser

It may work sometimes without sudoing (root) before

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Hello Roboe,

Thank you for your help.
Your command line is usefullā€¦ i record it quicklyā€¦

But my real question is which service made what on the phone? If i disable for example com.android.sharedstoragebackup, can the fp2 still works at well?
I remember for the windows system (XP, W7ā€¦), it exists some lits of all the possible service to disable without problem for the system. So, i guess maybe also exist same for fp2ā€¦ It is a dream?

@Lintianfu Iā€™d like to change the title of this topic to something more fitting, but before I do that I have a question:

Does ā€œno google systemā€ mean that you installed #software:fp-open? (If so Iā€™ll move this topic in that category.


Btw, if you have FP Open installed and activated root in the developers options (which I gather you did) then installing kingroot similar apps has no (positive) effects.

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Hello paulakreuzer ā€œRefugees Welcome | Community Moderatorā€

Thank you for your answer. :grinning:

So, that means that fp2 is not really rooted with FP Open installed and activated root in the developers optionsā€¦:cry:

best regard.

Yes it is, thatā€™s what I meant. No need to install root anymore with a 3rd party app as the OS is already rooted.

FP Open is rooted, definitely. To adquire root permissions you need to check that option. After that, no root manager/superuser app will show up, but an option on the bottom of each appā€™s information screen will let you manage their permissions.

I think Disable Manager could assist you. This app lists apps that can be disabled.

Services I will disable

  • Dynamic wallpaper shit (com.android.wallpaper & com.android.wallpaper.* & com.android.galaxy4|noisefield|phasebeam)
  • Screen saver shit (com.android.dreams.basic & com.android.dreams.*)
  • Download manager (com.android.providers.downloads.ui, note the ui at the end)
  • One Time Init (com.android.onetimeinitializer). Wellā€¦ it will only start once (at first boot), but.

Services I wonā€™t advise to disable

Only in FP Open. FPOS has GMS and thus has Gobble proprietary replacements

  • Downloads provider (com.android.providers.downloads): downloads will broke. Just donā€™t disable this.
  • Any provider (com.android.providers.*): these apps are central storage points for contacts, calendar events, media (kind of a media registry), SMS, call logs, etc. Other apps rely on them.
  • System Webview (com.android.webview): this is the system web engine. Apps showing web content (HTML, CSS and JS) rely on it. Sometimes you wonā€™t clearly differentiate when an app is showing native or web content, so donā€™t assume any app uses it just because no app shows you a webpage.
  • Qualcomm stuff. These are part of the proprietary BLOBs needed by the SoC (and network chip). Things will broke on different manners (unless you know exactly what youā€™re doing, which is quite difficult because they are not documented)
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Interesting. I had Webview and Downloads Provider disabled for a long time and never noticed any issues.

I may be wrong, but Lightning, for example (or any other webview browser), should crash with your setup :question:

What Iā€™m sure --because Iā€™ve experienced it in first person-- is some apps will silently fail to download something just because the downloads provider is disabled. You may swear the appā€™s developer but itā€™s your fault.

P.S.: Itā€™s also possible that the system uses the services anyway, even when they were disabled by the user, but that would be truly bad.

2 Likes

Maybe IceCatMobile just doesnā€™t rely on such services? I donā€™t think I tried another browser during that time.

Since I switched to Lineage OS I havenā€™t re-disabled (;)) those services, but Iā€™ll test right now.

PS: Actually, yes Webview was disabled the whole time (I always disable it) and disabling the downloads manager doesnā€™t bother IceCat either.

IceCatMobile is a Firefox fork. Firefox uses their own web engine (Gecko for rendering and Spidermonkey for JavaScript parsing and execution) and their own downloads manager, so it doesnā€™t depend on those services, :thumbsup:

Yes, please, and report back. Lightning Browser, for example, canā€™t download anything with Downloads Provider disabled and fails silently. But it seems to surf the web just fine with System Webview disabled, :person_shrugging:


Uuuh, stop cyclic threading, please, hahaha. I said above that browsers with their own web engines and apps with their own download managers (Firefox-based ones, Chromium, Brave, etc) wonā€™t fail.

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Hello all, @Roboe

Very interesting topic,
I begin to understand how complicate it is. No real knowledge about the AndroĆÆd services, it is?

So, cā€™est la vie.
It is sure that if disable a wrong service, Android does nā€™t like it. So that mean that yet, only disable one by one and restart to testā€¦ I wish have hollidays to try itā€¦ :grinning:

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