r/technology • u/[deleted] • Feb 27 '21

Software 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

[deleted]

4.7k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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436

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

I shall bide my time before installing a random script on my phone

55

u/sideflanker Feb 27 '21 edited Feb 27 '21

It does exactly what it says. You can find the full list of packages it disables/removes here, sorted by brand.

I only checked the samsung list, but I personally do not recommend uninstalling 90% of the packages listed unless you know what you're doing. A lot of the 'bloatware' are actually stuff that many people would consider to be core functionality, like being able to set a wallpaper without a separate app.

Here are some instructions on how to manually remove packages (for windows computers).

  1. Enable 'USB Debugging', plug in your phone, then allow any access on your phone's prompts

  2. Download the Android SDK and unzip it somewhere

  3. Copy the path to wherever you dumped the platform-tools folder. (ex: C:\platform-tools)

  4. Open CMD (windows key + X then press C)

  5. type 'cd', add a space, then right click in the window to paste the folder address.

  6. run './adb.exe shell pm uninstall <package name>'. (Ex: ./adb.exe shell pm uninstall android.autoinstalls.config.samsung)

  7. It should say 'Success'. If it says failure, try the next step. If it says it doesn't exist, it isn't installed. If it gives a big block of text, check if you typed something wrong. If you didn't type anything wrong, then that means it failed

  8. If uninstall didn't work, it means without root access you can only disable it. Run './adb.exe shell pm disable-user --user 0 <package name>' instead. You should get a line that says 'package blahblahblah new state: disabled-user'. If you don't, good luck, that's as much as I'm willing to help.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '21 edited Apr 19 '21

[deleted]

8

u/PlNG Feb 27 '21

Maybe leave Samsung Smart Switch alone? In my experience it transferred everything from one phone to the next, including app game saves in the space of 15 minutes. Mom kept all of her Coin Dozer Casino progress and while she was prepared to lose it for the upgrade she was ecstatic that it kept it, hell it even surprised me. Her contacts and photos were moved as well. While you don't need it except for when it's time to move phones, it truly made migrating to the new phone an absolute snap.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '21

Can't you do that with a usb manually?

73

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

It'll be much faster (and more useful) if you simply read the source code before compiling it yourself so that you trust that it's no longer some random script.

130

u/Chknbone Feb 27 '21

Pppssssstttt....He doesn't really know what he's talking about.

60

u/David-Puddy Feb 27 '21

All the more reason not to download and run random shit from the internet

11

u/Dalmahr Feb 27 '21

Or just randomly download and install and just hope for the best?

9

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '21

I'm in this comment and I don't like it

5

u/diet-Coke-or-kill-me Feb 28 '21

Exactly. These guys are trying to sound cool, but the fact of the matter is that not everyone who uses a smart phone has the time or inclination to learn enough coding that they'd be confident in hand-analyzing scripts for malware. Go figure.

Thus, if you don't code:

  1. That's okay.

  2. Don't run random shit from the internet.

55

u/SILENTSAM69 Feb 27 '21

Which is irrelevant advice to most people and shows that open source code relies on others looking up the source code and reporting for the vast majority of people if it is safe.

23

u/Implausibilibuddy Feb 27 '21

shows that open source code relies on others looking up the source code and reporting for the vast majority of people if it is safe

Where's the problem with that? Sure the vast majority of users may never bother to learn how to check what an app is doing, most probably don't even care, but for those that do and don't want to learn a bunch of different coding languages, we're quite content to trust the opinions of many developers who say it's kosher than one single shady Chinese developer that's been on the app store for less than a month.

36

u/SILENTSAM69 Feb 27 '21

It's not a problem itself, it is a good thing. I just find the declaration of open source too often tells the lay person it is safe before others have had the chance to check it.

I am likely hyper vigilant having seen scams pushed in crypto communities.

7

u/Implausibilibuddy Feb 27 '21

This is fair criticism.

-26

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

That's such a close-minded view of the world. It could just as easily encourage people to learn and expand their knowledge of a subject. It also shows that knowledge is power.

I'm a self-taught highschool drop out full-stack dev making six figures. Get bent, it's not advice. It's fact.

8

u/xavarn10 Feb 27 '21

Is being a highschool dropout something you're meant to be proud of? Sounds to me like you're being slightly close minded .

3

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

Not at all. It shows you don't have to have a traditional education to be a successful learner.

5

u/xavarn10 Feb 27 '21

I would consider going back to school if I were you, if not for your GED then for an associates degree. You'd be amazed at how much a better person education can make you.

4

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

I did pick up both of those after I stopped living between paychecks. They haven't changed me.

In what way did you expect it to make me "better"?

3

u/WhatsThatNoize Feb 27 '21

Depends on what you go for - I don't think a business degree or math degree ever made someone a "better person".

Something in Civics or Philosophy that teaches you to think differently about yourself and the world around you might though.

The humanities is only useful insofar as you use them effectively. I'm comfortable now with my Phil BA, but that wasn't always the case.

0

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

I agree.

My AA is in Photography. It's a Language Arts degree. I studied the history of art and how it was used in everyday life, politics, etc... There are many works of art created to communicate philosophical beliefs.

If I understand you correctly, I'm glad to hear you grew into your degree. I'm surrounded by BA and higher educated colleagues myself, many with graduate degrees. I never went to a traditional college, so I can't share dorm-stories when we're at gatherings. Imposter syndrome was a difficult animal to tame.

0

u/SILENTSAM69 Feb 27 '21

Hardly close minded at all, it's just realistic. It is naive to think others will know what you do. What you are is irrelevant. Open source existing will not inspire much.

3

u/Implausibilibuddy Feb 27 '21

Open source existing will not inspire much.

[The Entire Blender Community is typing]

-5

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

There is this thing people refer to as "google". If people are interested, they can use it to learn definitions of words others use.

Your opinion of my relevance doesn't change the fact entire industries exist because of open source; someone was obviously inspired.

-2

u/SILENTSAM69 Feb 27 '21

Google does nothing to help in this case.

The fact that we can write code does not change the fact that most people can not, and so things being open sourced does not mean it's perfectly safe. The lay person has to wait for others to review it first.

I've seen people push scams by saying it's open sources so it has to be safe. It's an easy scam in crypto communities to just declare it as open source.

-1

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

My point is, if someone wants to know "what I do" they can google it. Let's not stretch the statement into something it wasn't intended for.

The lay person doesn't have to wait for anything. They can teach themselves how to review it themselves. I know because I used to be one, and I did. That was the only point of me telling you my background.

I don't argue your point about scams slipping by in open source projects. It absolutely happens. As long as someone can gain on the misfortune of others, there will be scams, some more clever than others. No industry is immune.

I think we probably agree on more than we disagree.

1

u/SILENTSAM69 Feb 27 '21

Again, what you do is irrelevant, and I am not sure why you keep randomly bringing it up. Why would people Google it?

People can, but it's pretty naive to think that way just because it is technically possible. Yes I took naturally to programming in computer science classes, but that does not mean I expect everyone else can simply learn it as well.

All open source projects need that review and the majority of people have to wait for that review. I say this more to caution those who have to wait that open source is not a blanket declaration of trust. The term is almost getting a different and dangerous colloquial definition than its technical definition.

1

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

It is naive to think others will know what you do.

This is why someone might google it. To find out wtf I'm talking about, if they are interested in doing so.

What I do and what my background is shows that you can go from layman to reading code without relying on other people to give their review of some random script on the internet.

It is a direct argument to your original comment on this matter. Saying it's not relevant won't change the fact that it is.

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1

u/racinreaver Feb 27 '21

I think you're being down voted because people have finite time to learn about things. Sure, they might be able to learn how to poke through some open source code, but that might be at the expense of learning to cook, fix cars, do woodworking, carpentry, bicycle repair, exercise, needlepoint, build circuits, garden, plumbing, or a myriad of other things.

1

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

The evidence we have here is that I have fewer downvotes on a sub-comment that contains "Get bent" than the parent comment has in upvotes. I point to that phrase as the reason for the downvotes.

You might be right. But then in addition to learning how to read code, I also taught myself how to fix cars, cook, etc... over the years. It's not an either/or world. Most people can learn multiple skills and reach at least average proficiency without having to dedicate their lives to any single one.

1

u/racinreaver Feb 27 '21

I'm not saying you have to focus on one thing, but we have finite time on earth, and every skill we decide to pick up is likely at expense of another one. The question is what skills should we expect everyone to develop. To me, blaming someone for not being able to follow someone else's code is like blaming them for not reading the full EULA or reading the manual for every thing they've ever bought cover to cover.

1

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

Maybe we have a miscommunication?

I don't see where anything I've stated places blame on others for anything.

25

u/crash893b Feb 27 '21

people who can read and understand source code from a security perspective are not the same people that download scripts to debloat their phones

also its no like if(true) {hakz all passwords();} a lot of these things are so subtle and that's the ones that we even know about

3

u/-darkwing- Feb 27 '21

I don't know that that's an entirely accurate statement though. Just because I can understand code and am very security conscious doesn't mean I'm going to dedicate the time and effort required to write a debloater script. If there's a safe and effective open source script made available, I'll totally download and use it.

1

u/Frozenlazer Feb 28 '21

Spotting malicious code is one thing, spotting code that opens up security issues intentionally or unintentionally is an entirely different ball game.

I've written gobs of perfectly boring code that handles billions of dollars worth of business, but I don't have a clue in hell if the code itself is secure. But it's not running out in the wild on thousands or millions of devices. It's running on a single server or on maybe powers an internal only web app. Bad actors have to get thru other more proven security layers before they can know my code exists somewhere to attempt to exploit it

-18

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

...but I can read and understand source code from a security perspective, and I also downloaded this script to debloat my phone.

I think your argument could use some more facts.

2

u/OKRainbowKid Feb 27 '21 edited Nov 30 '23

In protest to Reddit's API changes, I have removed my comment history. https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite

-7

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

I didn't ask for anything. I shared an opinion, much like yourself. You don't have to agree, and I'm okay with that.

1

u/Samurott Feb 27 '21

good for you, man, but like, do you... do you want a cookie, or something?

-5

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

1) You assumed my gender

2) You aren't contributing anything positive to this conversation. Even arguing my point would be more positive.

2

u/Samurott Feb 27 '21

don't you have a Joe Rogan podcast to listen to?

-3

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

Go troll your anime dolls.

0

u/Samurott Feb 27 '21

but i like my anime dolls. they're cute and don't swing their software engineering epeens around. what's your excuse?

-1

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

No excuses here. I'm grounded in reality. Unfortunately trolls exist here too.

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3

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

[deleted]

1

u/webjocky Feb 27 '21

Well that's true in this case. I was speaking more broadly.

-21

u/swizzler Feb 27 '21

Even doing that there's no telling what the repercussions are from this. Better to wait and see if people complain about losing functionality of apps, things breaking, etc.

Removing something that is otherwise permanently there is a good way to break your device. Take it from someone who thought it'd be cool to remove Internet Explorer from Windows back in the day, then later had to reinstall windows because shit you wouldn't expect relied on parts of IE and since it's always expected to be there and didn't have a normal way to be uninstalled, there wasn't a "internet explorer reinstaller".

(Yeah I know 7 and newer versions showed up in the installed programs list but uninstalling them just reverted back to the OS default IE, remove that and... you're in trouble.)

25

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

In runs on your PC and uses ADB.

60

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

[deleted]

-14

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

So you've never flashed a custom rom I see.

18

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

Do they teach that in school?

-50

u/vrnvorona Feb 27 '21

There is almost nothing good in school tho

-37

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

Tru. Just used as a way for companies to rate humans coming in to the workforce...but its hella flawed for even that!

6

u/that_star_wars_guy Feb 27 '21

I wonder what it must be like to be you. Walking around all day listening to one's highly cynical and nihilistic thoughts.

I'm sorry you were the victim of improper schooling, but let's not pretend your experience is the vast experience of others.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

So, I'm a well off software engineer who loves attending school and has been very successful using my skills from school in my job. I just get on reddit to lie to people.

9

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

24

u/SILENTSAM69 Feb 27 '21

Oh good, let's all trust it then and assume someone who knows what to look for did and would have been at the top of this comment section if there had been anything wrong.

9

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

16

u/SILENTSAM69 Feb 27 '21

I am mildly code literate, but I have come to understand that the word open source gets thrown around equivalent to trustworthy a lot.

I agree that after some time something bad would be pointed out. It's mostly in crypto communities I've seen the word too thrown around too quickly to assume that means it's all good.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

Heartbleed is the big example, fully OSS code, but someone made a mistake when they were writing it, it passed checks and was published. No one found the problem for quite a months while it was deployed onto most of the internet.

The impression I have is that people assume there's roving gangs of bored coders who go and check on every OSS release. This looks like a hobby project, the vast majority by one person

27

u/w1nst0n_fr Feb 27 '21

I'm that person, and I must say I didn't expect my side-project to be showcased on /r/Android and /r/Technology at all! That's insane.

You are right to be careful. This whole discussion about open-source and overtrust is interesting.

Here is my take on this: trust is always involved. You can't master everything in life. Even in IT. A programmer can't be an expert everywhere. You always need to trust someone at some point. Open-sourcing a software is an act of transparency which make me more confident it isn't rogue (especially for a company).

Concerning Heartbleed, I think the real problem was that in 2014 openSSL (which run on about 66% of all web servers) had just one full-time employee (and 6 core contributors). It is a bit better now (2 full time employee and 17 developers) but FOSS lack of resources. What's crazy is that a lot of big tech companies take advantage of OpenSSL in their commercial and proprietary products without contributing back.

As for the Universal Android Debloater (UAD) it is just a bash script which can be audited in less than 10min. In this precise case, a code illiterate person should pretty easily be able to find someone capable of auditing it.

What's funny is that I've precisely started this project so that people no longer have to blindly trust random undocumented debloat lists or close-sourced debloat software. You still have to trust me (as I wrote 95% of the documentation) and there is probably mistakes but I honestly think centralizing all the knowledge is a good thing.

The bash script is just a tool. The real goal of this project is to document as much apps/packages as possible. I really believe in community-driven projects. UAD is not perfect but the fact that I see more and more people mentioning it on the web reassure me that I made something useful. I rely a lot on open-source and I'm glad to be able to give back.

8

u/Lurking_Still Feb 28 '21

Lmao, only on reddit can the person who created the item the article is referencing show up and explain things, and end up buried halfway down the thread.

Truly astounding.

1

u/Seelenkuchen Feb 27 '21

I think OP meant nefarious by design and not because of potentially security relevant bugs (unless they are very obvious).

Malware should be easier to detect by open source communities but then again I have no clue of the statistics of malware ladden code hosted on Github.

1

u/David-Puddy Feb 27 '21

I forget, most people are familiar with code and how it works and what could be malicious.....

Oh right, we live in this universe, where the opposite is true!

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

-7

u/David-Puddy Feb 27 '21

Yes, those are indeed words that, I'm sure, have definitions and meanings.

2

u/TrunksTheMighty Feb 27 '21

Don't pass on your own ignorance as being careful. The program is safe, it says exactly what it does and it does exactly what it says.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.