• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Root what else besides CityID can be uninstalled without ill effects?

jasonb1985

Android Expert
Jan 5, 2010
987
67
ok, so we all hate CityID and hate the fact that HTC and Verizon stuck us with this crap. well now it can be removed with root. what else can be safely removed? can we remove backup assistant as well? it always starts up when the phone boots but its something i will never ever use.
 
I killed FootPrints, FriendStream, and Peep. with no ill effect so far....

I did while root in recovery:
/system/bin/rm /system/app/HtcFootprints.apk
/system/bin/rm /system/app/FriendStream.apk
/system/bin/rm /system/app/HtcTwitter.apk

nice! i figured because it was all part of sense that we couldn't get rid of them. i use friendstream but i doubt i'll ever use footprints.
 
Upvote 0
For those who took out footprints does your Nav still work? I know on the eris they had to do a lot of recoding to be able to take Footprints out and keep Nav working. Just FYI.


I have not tried, I'll test this out...

UPDATE: Seems okay to me. I had my phone navigate to two different places. Seemed just fine to me. But to be honest, this was the first time I used the navigation.... Can someone else confirm?

Also, I have noticed that my phone is still showing the widgets for these removed apps. Anyone know how to remove them?
 
Upvote 0
Has anyone tried removing to Stocks(app&widget), Backup Assistant, and Visual Voice Mail?

Any known ill effect if I remove these? I do not use any of them

UPDATE: Do NOT remove Backup Assistant from Verizon. Accounts&Sync in settings with force close.

I have removed without noticing any ill effect(Does not mean that there is not, just means that I have not found one)...
FriendStream
FootPrints
Peep
Stocks
Stock-Visual(or Verizon, not sure) Voice Mail <-I use google voice
QuickOffice
FaceBook <-Updated Version in market
Facebook Integration
YouTube <-EVO has better version IMO

The PDF Viewer is next on my list....

I'm also going to see what happens when I do a factory reset, just curious what will happen. :p
 
Upvote 0
Has anyone tried removing to Stocks(app&widget), Backup Assistant, and Visual Voice Mail?

Any known ill effect if I remove these? I do not use any of them

UPDATE: Do NOT remove Backup Assistant from Verizon. Accounts&Sync in settings with force close.

I have removed without noticing any ill effect(Does not mean that there is not, just means that I have not found one)...
FriendStream
FootPrints
Peep
Stocks
Stock-Visual(or Verizon, not sure) Voice Mail <-I use google voice
QuickOffice
FaceBook <-Updated Version in market
Facebook Integration
YouTube <-EVO has better version IMO

The PDF Viewer is next on my list....

I'm also going to see what happens when I do a factory reset, just curious what will happen. :p

thanx for this info, i'm also curious what will happen after the reset
 
Upvote 0
SWEET! I really thought that I would loose root after a factory reset(Via Recovery). But I did not! I still have it!


Before I did the reset, I had icons in my app drawer from uninstalled apps, spacers for the widgets I removed, odd little remnants of the uninstalled apps in the Application Manager, and force closes in Accounts&Sync from removing BackUp Assistant.

Now, everything is great! No icons for uninstalled apps, no spacers for widgets I removed, and no force closes in Accounts&Sync. I also removed the default PDF viewer.

Now, since I have everything almost the way I want it. I'm off to do a nandroid backup of my "perfect" incredible phone!
 
Upvote 0
SWEET! I really thought that I would loose root after a factory reset(Via Recovery). But I did not! I still have it!


Before I did the reset, I had icons in my app drawer from uninstalled apps, spacers for the widgets I removed, odd little remnants of the uninstalled apps in the Application Manager, and force closes in Accounts&Sync from removing BackUp Assistant.

Now, everything is great! No icons for uninstalled apps, no spacers for widgets I removed, and no force closes in Accounts&Sync. I also removed the default PDF viewer.

Now, since I have everything almost the way I want it. I'm off to do a nandroid backup of my "perfect" incredible phone!

cool
thanx for posting this
 
Upvote 0
SWEET! I really thought that I would loose root after a factory reset(Via Recovery). But I did not! I still have it!


Before I did the reset, I had icons in my app drawer from uninstalled apps, spacers for the widgets I removed, odd little remnants of the uninstalled apps in the Application Manager, and force closes in Accounts&Sync from removing BackUp Assistant.

Now, everything is great! No icons for uninstalled apps, no spacers for widgets I removed, and no force closes in Accounts&Sync. I also removed the default PDF viewer.

Now, since I have everything almost the way I want it. I'm off to do a nandroid backup of my "perfect" incredible phone!

wow, I'm jealous... I may have to do my first root with Android. Never had a reason to, but I really hate that CityID junk
 
Upvote 0
SWEET! I really thought that I would loose root after a factory reset(Via Recovery). But I did not! I still have it!


Before I did the reset, I had icons in my app drawer from uninstalled apps, spacers for the widgets I removed, odd little remnants of the uninstalled apps in the Application Manager, and force closes in Accounts&Sync from removing BackUp Assistant.

Now, everything is great! No icons for uninstalled apps, no spacers for widgets I removed, and no force closes in Accounts&Sync. I also removed the default PDF viewer.

Now, since I have everything almost the way I want it. I'm off to do a nandroid backup of my "perfect" incredible phone!

how r we doing nandroid backups? i wasn't aware of us having a custom recovery yet.
 
Upvote 0
I killed FootPrints, FriendStream, and Peep. with no ill effect so far....

I did while root in recovery:
/system/bin/rm /system/app/HtcFootprints.apk
/system/bin/rm /system/app/FriendStream.apk
/system/bin/rm /system/app/HtcTwitter.apk

I have rooted and am running root explorer, can I just remove these .apk's via root explorer? what about the .odex file?
 
Upvote 0
I have rooted and am running root explorer, can I just remove these .apk's via root explorer? what about the .odex file?


While we can remount the /system partition, it is still NAND locked. Meaning we do NOT have write permissions. One the NAND gets unlocked, then yes. We could just delete them with root explorer.

I also removed the odex files.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jratzo
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones