Removing Stock Apps From Tablet

cms331 · Jul 23, 2014

i have the samsung galaxy tablet, 4gb of internal storage, about 1gig is taken up with google play services(newstand/music/movies&TV)
*big deal 1GB, but i want it*

When you go to application manager and attempt to uninstall, you are only allowed to uninstal updates, force stop, and clear data.

I suppose you could erase the files and such, but id be afraid of creating instability with its functionality, bricking the device or wthaever.
but uhh
Will it? - is really my entire question.
or any suggestions on freeing up space?

lunatic59 · Jul 23, 2014

Welcome to Android Forums.

The only way to really get rid of the app files and free the space is to root your tablet and remove them manually. The problem is that once a system file is gone, it's completely gone and even a factory reset won[t restore it. Uninstalling Google apps is generally a bad idea as they often include necessary services for other phone/tablet functions.

Mr. Lucky · Jul 24, 2014

+1 on lunatic59's remarks
However, if the apps in question are truly of no interest to you and going unused, you can save some space by removing updates. Pre-installed system apps are stored in the /system/app folder. When there are updates, a second copy (the updated version) gets stored in /data/app. Uninstalling the update won't break anything but will free up the space occupied by that second copy.

Hadron · Jul 24, 2014

Surely the apps themselves can't be that large, so it must be data the apps are storing or caching? So have you tried clearing data?

(Disclosure: I don't use Google for media, so being rooted I don't have any of the named apps on my devices and hence can't test anything).

lunatic59 · Jul 24, 2014

I wanted to wait until I could check (left my tablet at work :eek:

) and on my Note 10.1 Google Play Services takes up a little over 45 MB. Exactly where are you seeing this 1 GB number?

Attached is a screenshot from my device. That 4 GB number is most likely due to TouchWiz launcher which can be a bit of a hog. Of course it does provide a lot of Samsung-only features that people do tend to like. You could flash a much more basic rom and reclaim a lot of storage, but you'd lose all of the TouchWiz extras.

cms331 · Jul 24, 2014

hello, thanks for the replies.
as i said, i wont delve into removing necessary files.

I meant it was about 1gb accumulative of all the stock apps (play books13mb, play games5mb, services50mb, music15mb, newstand23mb, ect)

verizons message+ is another 60mb

i was just curiious if any of these apps could be removed without ANY possibility of bricking my device.

p.s. the device is a tab 2 - 7.0

Removing Stock Apps From Tablet

cms331

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lunatic59

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Mr. Lucky

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Hadron

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lunatic59

Moderati ergo sum

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