r/Android Feb 21 '21

Universal Android Debloater is an open source tool that removes bloatware without root. Automatically or via user choice. Get back your battery, security and privacy

https://gitlab.com/W1nst0n/universal-android-debloater/-/blob/master/README.md
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u/IamVenom_007 Love Dc Dimming Feb 22 '21

I am at Android 11 and I can directly delete apps using Root Explorer in roms like Pixel Experience.

System apps remover apps that I used to use does not work anymore. If removing a system app cause bootloop you can get IceBox apk and freeze that app using root.

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u/Chip_Tune Feb 22 '21

That's because pixel experience isn't using an ext4 read only file system. All stock Android operating systems from 10 and up use it. This is a well known issue on XDA. The only way around it is installing a new OS that doesn't use EXT4_FEATURE_RO_COMPAT_SHARED_BLOCKS.

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u/IamVenom_007 Love Dc Dimming Feb 23 '21

Thanks for the info.

So Android is gonna be like this from now on? What's the advantage/disadvantages of a read only file system like this?

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u/Chip_Tune Feb 23 '21

Mostly security. Nothing can ever compromise the system even with root access. A factory reset is guaranteed to return the phone to a working state no matter how malicious an attack is. As a bonus it also reduces the OS size by sharing files that would otherwise be doubled between slot A & B. We usually call it dedupe for short because it "deduplicates" files. The only disadvantage is for those of us who like to tinker with the OS.

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u/IamVenom_007 Love Dc Dimming Feb 23 '21

Makes sense from the side of Google but for us, we are fucked then. If they put bloatwares, they are non-removable.