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Root Full list of apps and apks that are removable and non-removable with root (Pre-Gingerbread)

just redid this after sbf'ing my phone, and i love having this ability (not that i should need it) but man does the apps list run faster without all that crrrrraaappppp
i renamed and moved to a SD folder
3g hot spot
emergency
kindle
amazon mp3
news
news and weather
visual voicemail
need for speed
fm radio + service
blockbuster
cityid
vz nav
dlna + service
global unplug (the one that says to disconnet your charger when you unplug)
quick office
skype

ahhh nice clean os!
i dont mind blur to much so i didnt delete all the widgets and such
 
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Here is my list of removed aps:

AdminFeedNotifier
Adservice
AudioEffectSettings
Blockbuster
BlurSNMessagingEngine
CityId
ClockWidget
cmas
com.vznavigator.DROIDx
FriendFeed
GlobalUnplug
HelpCenter
HomeSyncWizard
MediaGallery
MessagesWidget
Messaging
Music* (not suggested because of soft reboot issue)
Mynet
NewsWidget
PhotoWidget
Protips
QuickContactWidget
QuickOfffice
SocialMessaging
StatusWidget
StickyNoteWidget
Swype
ToggleWidgets
UniversalInbox
VideoPlayer
VoiceCommands
Vvm
WeatherWidget


The Droid X loads faster, reacts faster, and I have since eliminated a couple of bugs with the OS that were driving me crazy, including the dreaded 'file type won't play' audio issue. Sakes alive. I really can't recommend rooting enough and can't believe that I had waited this long to do so. Wifi tether alone is phenomenal.

*UPDATE: I have reactivated the Music.apk. I wanted to get rid of it since it is associated with that "file error during play" issue and I use a third-party media app with great success. But, I think that having it disabled was creating a problem for other music apps with widgets on the lock screen and causing soft/fast-reboots. It's been one day since I reactivated it and I haven't had that daily reboot since. I'll keep you posted.
 
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I rooted for the first time tonight. It took me a while to get it done. I've been reading the forum on what to do. I downloaded Titanium Backup and backed up a few files. I'm not sure what I can get rid of.
I got rid of the Social Network apps. That does not affect the facebook and twitter apps I have, does it? I got rid of the Amazon mp3 and the motoblur new and weather widget.
I had 2 Backup Assistants listed, 1.0 and 2.2. I got rid of the 1.0 but kept the 2.2. Does that mess up anything?

Is it safe to remove any of these?
Zoom Mode 1.0.2.
Work Contacts 2.2
WmdrmPush Reciever 1.0
Weather 2.2
VPN Services 2.2
AdService 1.0
AtCommandServices 1.1
blur.res.2.2
Certificate Installer 2.2

Those are some of the stuff I'm not sure about. I got too many others to list I have questions on.
 
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so i renamed and moved messaging and socialnetworking, but they both still show up, along with DLNA which i thought I killed off a while ago.
Where are the stragglers? What file names should I be looking for?

Using Root Explorer or a terminal, you need to rename from .apk to .bak the following files (no need to move them out of the system\app directory):
-DLNA.apk
-DlnaSystemService.apk
-SocialMessaging.apk
-SocialShare.apk
-BlurSNMessagingEngine.apk
-MessagesWidget.apk
-Messaging.apk

That should resolve your issues.
 
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Using Root Explorer or a terminal, you need to rename from .apk to .bak the following files (no need to move them out of the system\app directory):
-DLNA.apk
-DlnaSystemService.apk
-SocialMessaging.apk
-SocialShare.apk
-BlurSNMessagingEngine.apk
-MessagesWidget.apk
-Messaging.apk

That should resolve your issues.
Oh i heard if you just renamed them, google could still figure out they were there..
Either way, i moved
-DLNA.apk
-DlnaSystemService.apk
and my Media Share icon is still there.. :/
Ill check after another reboot as i just moved out BlurSNMessagingengine and social share...
thanks
 
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You didn't mention mediashare last time so I didn't answer on that one....it is:

-HomeSyncWizard.apk

Android will not find them if you rename them to '.bak'. I keep them in the same directory in case I want to quickly rename them in the event that I run into a problem down the road. See my edited post above about the music app.
Cool - I was leaving them there - I had a hellva time when i needed to update, as I have uninstalled a bunch. .bak was working but with a few stragglers, i thought it would be easy enough to put em in one other directory, but then i started moving files from /data/app and now im worried i wont know what goes where. so Good to know!
Thanks!
 
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One of the apps i removed was blurhome. I was running launcher pro and didnt need it. It ran fine as far as i could tell without it but when I reset the phone, it booted up and activated just fine but i had no home screen. I thought i was screwed but I ended up plugging the phone into my dock and it brought up my dock screen. From there I was able to access the market and i downloaded Launcher Pro again. I saw that the blurhome app was in the right spot but it still wasnt working. I had to install it before it worked. But the thing is, it installed it to the data/app folder. But none of my other system apps are in that folder.

So what actually happens when you boot up w/out BlurHome after a reset? If you don't have the dock, is there another workaround to activate a custom launcher? Wouldn't reinstalling the launcher from a backup be sufficient?

~
 
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So far I've only renamed these:

AdService
CityID
Blockbuster
HelpCenter
NeedForSpeed (uninstalled)
NewsWidget
Protips (Home Screen Tips)
StickyNoteWidget
ToggleWidgets
Vvm.apk (Verizon's Visual Voice Mail)
com.vznavigator.DROIDX.apk (VZ Nav)
WeatherWidget


Can these be renamed without any issues?

Alarm & Timer (using another clock)
FileManager (using Explorer)
Latitude (where is this?)

Interestingly, I didn't need Root Explorer at all to rename the files in /system/app. I was able to rename them using Term Emulator or the free version of Explorer. Even though Explorer said it was logged in as R/O, I could rename the files in /system/app without any problem. I am rooted, of course. However, I couldn't access the /data dir with Explorer alone.

I do seem to have more available memory at a given time than before, but other than that, I don't really notice much difference. I just renamed some stuff that I simply do not use and seemed to be safest, though I may add a few more to the list.

Oh -- one other question. Some apps have their .odex files along w/the .apks. Does anything need to be done with those or just leave them alone?


~
 
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Crboone, FileManager can be renamed without issue. I use Astro and Root Explorer as my main file managers instead.

I never removed Alarm and Timer because I use that as an alarm, but I believe that you shouldn't have an issue (based on the fact that I have removed MANY stock Motorola apps without an issue....excepting the Music app of course, which I just never use for fear of that 'file error' issue).

As for Latitude, I'm not sure. Do you use Google Maps? I would worry that the integration would be too tight and might result in an error. But, I don't think it would be unrecoverable so give it a shot if you don't use it. I have never activated it in Google Maps, for the record, either.

Your last question about .odex files: just leave them there. There are basically a storage module that assists execution of the .apk files. Left to their own devices, they are harmless since I doubt you are having internal storage issues.

As for the benefit of all of these changes, man, the phone just starts up, loads, and runs so much more noticeably faster and smoother. It's such a shame that they don't come stock from the factory, but candidly, I would probably want to root and remove vanilla froyo anyway. Always something on there I'd never use.
 
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Crboone, FileManager can be renamed without issue. I use Astro and Root Explorer as my main file managers instead.

I never removed Alarm and Timer because I use that as an alarm, but I believe that you shouldn't have an issue (based on the fact that I have removed MANY stock Motorola apps without an issue....excepting the Music app of course, which I just never use for fear of that 'file error' issue).

As for Latitude, I'm not sure. Do you use Google Maps? I would worry that the integration would be too tight and might result in an error. But, I don't think it would be unrecoverable so give it a shot if you don't use it. I have never activated it in Google Maps, for the record, either.

Your last question about .odex files: just leave them there. There are basically a storage module that assists execution of the .apk files. Left to their own devices, they are harmless since I doubt you are having internal storage issues.

As for the benefit of all of these changes, man, the phone just starts up, loads, and runs so much more noticeably faster and smoother. It's such a shame that they don't come stock from the factory, but candidly, I would probably want to root and remove vanilla froyo anyway. Always something on there I'd never use.


Thanks for the comprehensive reply. I may not notice much difference since I haven't renamed a lot of the bloatware. I will probably see what else I can rename but go more slowly since I don't exactly what's what, and to be sure I'm not likely to use it or that it won't cause problems.

I do use Google Maps and Nav, so I'll just leave Latitude alone.

~
 
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Thanks for the comprehensive reply. I may not notice much difference since I haven't renamed a lot of the bloatware. I will probably see what else I can rename but go more slowly since I don't exactly what's what, and to be sure I'm not likely to use it or that it won't cause problems.

I do use Google Maps and Nav, so I'll just leave Latitude alone.

~

You can rename or delete the alarm/clock without any issues. If you have questions about what .apk file is for what app just let me know.
 
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You can rename or delete the alarm/clock without any issues. If you have questions about what .apk file is for what app just let me know.

Thanks. Sometimes I have no idea what's just an "app" and what might be an essential service to run that feature on the phone. Are there any apps that are front-ends for a service so that you shouldn't remove them? Like if I were to rename the Gmail client, wouldn't that impact my use of K-9 even if I don't use the Gmail client? I realize this is probably a stupid question...

I have a smallish list of a few more items I'm thinking of removing. I'll post it when I get a chance (but I'll check this thread to see if they're listed already first).

EDIT: Correction to a previous statement. It only *appeared* that Explorer allowed me to change the name of the file from .apk to .bak. But I found once I exit and go back in, the .apk extension hasn't been changed after all. There was no warning that it hadn't actually been changed. I thought that didn't seem right ... :)




~
 
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