Root App Management

[flo28rin]

First of all I want to say Hello! as I'm new to this forum.
I recently rooted my phone, I installed Titanium Backup, and started removing some apps. So far it works great!!

The only problem (which is more of a question) I have is which apps are unessential for my Android. For example I removed (Google) Talk, Youtube, and others that seemed useless. Can I also remove apps like camera, music and calendar without affecting the operating system? I want to install other apps that do the same, only better, and want to know if they will work without the defaults.

On that same topic, do you know which apps I should under any circumstances NOT remove? Or could you at least redirect me to a list, one that could as well explain what they do?

Thank you for any info you might send me.

 

[scary alien]

Welcome to the AndroidForums, flo28rin!

I can't offer any specific advice as to which app might be best to retain or not for your device, but I thought I'd offer the advice that its better to freeze (disable) an app vs. removing (deleting) them (and renaming is also better than deleting, too).

Also, be careful about messing around with system apps--you could end-up with boot loops or a plethora of FCs if you mess with the wrong system app. Keep track of things you do so that you'll be able to un-do (put things back) should you need to for when (if) an OTA comes around and you need to have things back to where they were to begin with (assuming you're not installing a custom ROM, etc.).

Cheers!

 

[flo28rin]

Thanks for the advice!

What did you mean when you were referring to OTA? I did some googling and found it is related to firmware updates. Is that all, or will it also affect settings I get from my provider, for example the ones for 3G/MMS/etc.

I deleted some apps without backup, and forgot what most of them were (if anyone has a list of all the apps as viewed with Titanium Backup I would be grateful for it), but now I am careful with the steps I make so I can undo anything.

I managed to remove some apps (saving the backup), and replace them with some alternatives. For example, I removed the stock launcher and now only have GO Launcher, the keyboard and swype with Swiftkey X, and the camera with some other app.

Don't really have any major problems, but I would like to know if there is a way to make apps start on startup. The Swiftkey keyboard has to be opened manually every time I reboot my phone (though I believe this happened before I got rid of the stock keyboard as from what I remembered after a reboot the stock keyboard would've started automatically in apps it was needed). And there might be some other apps I would like to start on startup, so let me know if anyone knows a way.

Another inconvenience I found was that the default Gallery only works with the default camera. Unlike many apps, it doesn't give me a choice to set the default app when pressing the camera button in the gallery. Is there a way around this?

Finally, a thing that really bugs me is the fact that Titanium Backup found an "app", or a trace of an app. It's called com.tpgms.boblox. After I googled it, I realized it turned out Boblox is a game, and I might or might not have installed it on my phone at one time or another. Is it possible it wasn't properly deleted? I tried to find an apk, or a google play link, hoping to reinstall it and maybe delete it the right way. So far, I couldn't find anything. Is there another way to delete this?

Oh, and one last thing - I would probably have to reinstall my stock ROM after I'm done "playing" with my Android. From what I've read, I understand I have to flash, and install the exact same version as indicated in About Phone -> Baseband version. Am I right? Is there more to it? Is there another way?

Thanks in advance for any response any of you might give me. It would really help me understand better how this phone works and how far I can go with modifying it by myself.

PS: If the Dialler app is deleted, a message will pop up forever. Another app can't take its place entirely; maybe there's a more complicated way to completely replace it, I'll start looking into that at a later time.
PPS: If the Contacts app is deleted, you will be unable to place shortcuts of your contacts on the desktop (is that the right term for it??). Also, you will not be able to access you contacts via widgets such as GO Contacts widget.

 

[scary alien]

Thanks for the advice!

What did you mean when you were referring to OTA? I did some googling and found it is related to firmware updates. Is that all, or will it also affect settings I get from my provider, for example the ones for 3G/MMS/etc.

I deleted some apps without backup, and forgot what most of them were (if anyone has a list of all the apps as viewed with Titanium Backup I would be grateful for it), but now I am careful with the steps I make so I can undo anything.

flo28rin,

Yeah, my caution about the OTA was simply because an over-the-air (OTA) update that gets sent-out typically cross-checks various system files to make sure that they are present and enabled before it would allow the OTA update's installation to proceed.

If you delete/move/freeze/disable any of the key system files that its looking for, then your OTA upgrade will fail.

Hope that helps!

Cheers .

 

[flo28rin]

flo28rin,

Yeah, my caution about the OTA was simply because an over-the-air (OTA) update that gets sent-out typically cross-checks various system files to make sure that they are present and enabled before it would allow the OTA update's installation to proceed.

If you delete/move/freeze/disable any of the key system files that its looking for, then your OTA upgrade will fail.

Hope that helps!

Cheers .

Oh, thanks for the info. I don't think Samsung Gio will actually get any more updates (it's been a while since the last update, and I can't get further than Android 2.3.3 via an official update), unless they discover some big bug that causes major problems (which I doubt).

Thanks again