Root [MetroPCS/CDMA] Unistalled stock apps, they left behind "ghost" widgets

[ktchong]

I uninstalled some stock apps that were pre-installed on my S3. Titanium Backup show that those deleted apps left behind widgets that could not be removed or unistalled:

android.googleSearch.googleSearchWidget
(associated with Google search, which I removed)

com.sec.android.app.moreservices
(I have no idea what which app was associated with this widget - does anyone knows?)

com.sec.android.widgetapp.ap.yahoonews
(associated with Yahoo News)

com.sec.android.widgetapp.ap.yahoostock.stockclock
(associated with Yahoo Stock Ticker)

Does anyone know how to remove them??

 

[ktchong]

I suppose I should have removed those widgets before I uninstalled the main apps. But now that the main apps are gone, there is no way for me to remove those widgets. Maybe I'd need to reinstall the main apps, delete those widgets, and then uninstalled the main apps again.

 

[mrpnut]

I suppose I should have removed those widgets before I uninstalled the main apps. But now that the main apps are gone, there is no way for me to remove those widgets. Maybe I'd need to reinstall the main apps, delete those widgets, and then uninstalled the main apps again.

Just reboot your phone.....

 

[ktchong]

Just reboot your phone.....

I did.

 

[dulal18]

If you don't mind resetting your touchwiz launcher, then go to application settings, all app find touchwiz home then click it then clear data, it will be all clear and fresh just gotta customize it again which should take less then a minute. Good luck and that is also weird that never happened to me or us I guess.

 

[ktchong]

If you don't mind resetting your touchwiz launcher, then go to application settings, all app find touchwiz home then click it then clear data, it will be all clear and fresh just gotta customize it again which should take less then a minute.

Tried it. Didn't work.

All those freaking files are still there.

 

[ARocker]

Have you read this?
http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?p=5401995
Theres a video that shows how to delete system apks.

 

[ktchong]

Okay, I found away to remove the "ghost" widget files that got left behind... which turned out to be odex files.

I moved/reinstalled the associated apks back into the system folder. Then I used Titanium Backup to uninstall those apks. The last time I used the phone's Application Manager to uninstall them. The problem was Application Manager did not uninstall the odex files that were associated with the apks. Titanium Backup did. It was the odex files that got left behind.

(I know. I could have just deleted those odex files myself.)

P.S. I recovered all the stock apks (which I had uninstalled) from this thread, which really should be pinned to the top.