The bloatware that comes pre-installed on many of our devices can be a major pain. While such apps can be easily uninstalled on most computers, deleting them on smartphones, however, it might be a little tricky and complex affair. Bloatware is generally bundled in the form of system apps that cannot be uninstalled directly using the standard uninstall procedure. Yesterday I wrote a tutorial on the topic that intended to show you some easy ways you can delete, hide and disable bloatware from your Android phone. Here is another tutorial that will guide you as you attempt to delete such apps that you cannot uninstall directly from the Application Manager of your phone.
If you have a rooted Android phone, the task becomes very easy as you can download any good root explorer app from the market and delete the desired system or stock app from system/apps folder on your phone’s internal storage. But what about those do not have a rooted Android phone! Well, e should be grateful to XDA member Broadways who has come to the rescue with a stock recovery-flashable zip file that removes bloatware from the stock Android recovery. Yea, you can delete all desired bloatware just by running a script by installing the bloatkill.zip file.
Actually, the script was originally written for the Samsung Galaxy Y, but it has been confirmed working on other Android smartphones too. Recently I tested it on my Samsung Galaxy S3 and it worked perfectly. Before we begin, do remember that the system/app partition on Android houses all the critical components of your device, that is required for it to function properly. It is very important, therefore, that you take care that the app you are going to delete is not associated with some essential function.
How to Remove Stock Apps
If you are a seasoned Android phone user, the procedure might seem to you very easily, but if you are new to such things, make sure you follow the steps described below to the letter.
- Download the recovery flashable BloatKill script in a zip. Do not extract it: bloatkill.zip
- Download and install a zip manager program on your computer, such as WinRAR or PowerArchiver.
- Double click the bloatkill.zip to open the zip
- Now browse over to META-INF\com\google\android\
- Right-click the “updater-script” file and extract the file to the desktop. You can also extract this file by dragging it to the desktop.
- Open the file with a suitable program like NotePad++, or Adobe Dreamweaver.
- The opened script file should look like this:
- The area inside the red box where every command lines start with “delete” is what you will have to edit as per your needs. Just replace the names of the Apk and Odex files with that of those you want to remove from your phone.
- When the editing is over, save the changes and exit NotePad++ or the editor you are using.
- Now drag the “updater-script” file back to its place: META-INF\com\google\android\ folder in bloatkill.zip
- Now copy the bloatkill.zip file to the root/main directory of your phone’s SD card.
- Open phone Settings and enable USB Debugging Mode from Developer Options.
- Turn off your device and boot it into Recovery Mode. The method involves a special combination of hardware keys that are pressed simultaneously and differ from device to device.
- In the recovery mode use the volume keys to scroll/highlight and the Power key to select an option.
- Scroll to an option called “apply zip from sd card” and select the bloatkill.zip file. Confirm your choice by selecting “yes”.
- Finally, select “reboot system now”
When your device wakes up, open the app drawer only to be surprised that the bloatware has gone. If they are still present there, it means you did not type the app names correctly in Step 8.
Do not forget to share with us how it went for you.
Read Also: 15 Best Offline Games for Android
Please include a link that the zip file is from. IOW give the correct credit to the developer. Thanks.
**EDIT:**I finally got the source link to connect with XDA.
I have a problem at the discontinuous reading the sim and even for bleutooth lg g2 d800
If you are so well versed in English literature, then why does your sentence near the end that says, “Do not to share with us how it went for you, ” seemingly is written in correctly? Sounds more like what a translator would screw up.
Well, I did made a mistake by missing a word. Anyway, thanks for bringing that to notice. I have corrected the mistake. 🙂
How do you find the hardware key combination to get into Debug? I have an obscure LG for Tracfone (LG L34C). I downloaded the manual but there is no mention of this and most results of Googleing give info on more wide use phones like Galaxy.
This doea not look much safer than ROOT. Going to Debug mode probably gives you temporary SuperUser rights, and that is what ROOT does.
Thanks for any help.
I used this but still have all my bloatware :/
what language is it in because i am using Notepad++
How to Remove more apps like..
1. S Health
2. Samsung Hub
3. DropBox (built in)
4. Calendar
5. S Planner
Please tell me..
Ok I tried this with Galaxy S4 with proper & updated file names & It’s not working.
Thank You!
This guide does not work on newer firmwares. Try these instead: https://www.droidviews.com/tag/remove-bloat-on-android/
Thank You!
Only an idea, but isn’t there a command like move() or rename()? So you won’t loose the apk completly.
The idea is good but might be a little complicated. However, you can manually access those apk files using a root explorer in system>app folder and add .bak extension to them. When you later need them, just remove the extension. Try it-
http://droidviews.com/2013/how-to-deleteremove-unwanted-stock-apps-or-bloatwares-from-android-phones/
You’re posting a non root solution and your answer now is to root the device. Nope, I don’t want to root 😉
Because system files can’t be renamed without root.
But they can be deleted. Sorry, but I can not believe that. The update package has root rights so it is able to delete the bloatware. So why shouldn’t renaming work.
I knew this will be next question. LOL
Such scripts usually require root too, but this one somehow manages to dodge the device system.
I don’t think this works for galaxy s2. I also have an s2 and I’m getting the same error as Ryo. But thanks anyway
i need some help please, i can’t find “apply zip from sdcard” in recovery menu, (USB debugging is enabled) I see only “reboot system now”,”apply update from ADB”,”apply update from external storage” & factory reset
i tried with “apply update from external storage” but i don’t see the file
P.S i have an I9105P Galaxy S2+ with android 4.1.2
Use: update from external storage
I accidentally put the file in the internal memory (not the sd card) now I see it but i get an error when i select it:
“E:failed to verify whole-file signature
E:failed to verify whole-file signature
E:signature verification failed”
what can i do ??
Choose reboot system now, copy the file to external SD, and try again.
i tried but i still get the same error
“E:failed to verify whole-file signature
E:failed to verify whole-file signature
E:signature verification failed”
You might have made some mistake in editing the script. I have tested it more than 2 times.
tried remaking it but i still get the same error
i downloaded it again, edited the “updater-script” file, did everything right but still got the same error 🙁
i tried to sign it with ZipSigner (from the market) but i still get the error but it says “E:failed to verify whole-file signature” only once (normally it will appear twice)
I tried to do it again a few times and i still get that error. what can i do ? 🙁
In that case, you should root your device and try it.
thats the thing i need to do it without rooting it
Actually I, and many others, did it without root but it seems not working for some users.
is there any way to sign it (again) ? i tried with signapk but i have no idea how to work with cmd tool
I’m getting Installation aborted error,
I can’t see any update from zip
there is only update from sd card.
can you help me out?
Thank You so much. It worked for me 😀 i was really looking for this. Once again thanks a lot 😉
Good to hear that! Enjoy!
and what if i lose all the data on my phone and sd card???? and it gets bricked???? plz reply soon!
I do not think removing bloats will brick your device. As for losing data, it is always safe to backup your device regularly and keep a copy of it on PC.
is this safe ?? what if my mobile phone gets bricked???
i tried on my Lenovo A690 and it says
Signature verification failed
Signature verification failed
installation aborted
I tried with WinRAR, PowerArchiever and used notepad++ for editing. How do I fix it??
gcp420
Not sure why it failed but I had tested it on S3 at the time when I wrote this.
i tried and it says >>>
E:Signature verification failed
Signature verification failed
installation aborted
<<<<
i am using Q mobile noir A2 and unable to root it using different tools.. tried this one but seems useless…
hey!!! very nice article and helping. can you please tell that where can i find this directory “root/main”.
do i have to create a folder with such a name.
and in recovery mode i dont find any such option “apply zip from sd card”. although i have enabled usb debugging. actually i have whatsapp pre-installed and whenever i start it . it says “inaccurate date and time” . although my date and time are correct. i cannot remove it. please help!!
regards
Root/main means just directly out it on sdcard. Show me the picture of your recovery mode.
That is an interesting method for those who do not want, cannot or are afraid to root. However, how reversible is it? If you reset/wipe your device, do these applications come back? Or do you need to reflash the ROM (e.g. with Odin) to have them back as they were in the first place?
It is not reversible as you will need another flashable zip with all missings apps and libs and corresponding configuration in updater script. As I have mentioned, you can edit (add/remove) the apps before running it. To push the apps back you will need root and you can do that by pushing the APKs to system/app folder.
Reflashing the ROM is another way of getting them all back without root.
Thank you.
Been looking for a (reasonably!) quick and simple way to do this for a while – thanks a lot for the info, much appreciated 🙂
Nice that it worked for you.