Root [MetroPCS & T-Mobile] [GUIDE] Remove about 500 MB of bloatware from stock ROM

[Whyzor]

Here are all of the bloatware I have safely removed after rooting with Kingo (Saferoot also works). It's almost up to 500 MB total! Since this phone only has 1.27 GB of internal ROM available to start, that is a huge chunk. Also freeing some of these apps, allows more RAM for active apps, I get a little over 400 MB used after rebooting.

The easiest way is to use "ES File Explorer" free from the market after rooting, and copy the files to an SDCARD or save to your PC in case you want something back later. Use the "Root Explorer" feature, also make sure to tap the setting to bring up the RW mount option and mount /system in Read-Write mode.

The list (as of version MetroPCS-MS65910C or TMobile-P65910B):

/system/3rdparty/*
/system/apps/bootup/*
/system/media/* (Keep only what you want & use)

/system/app (.apk & .odex):

Books.*
ChromeBookmarksSyncAdapter.*
ChromeWithBrowser.*
ECID-release.*
Gallerybin.* (Quickpic is way better)
Gmail.*
GMS_Maps.*
GoogleDrive.*
GoogleTTS.*
Hangouts.*
LGBackupbin.*
LGBrowser_JB.* (Chrome or Opera is better)
LGEIMEbin.* (Install another keyboard first)
LGEmailbin.*
LGHome3_Theme_* (Install another launcher first)
LGOnScreenPhone3_JB.*
LGSetupWizard_JB.*
LGSetupWizardApp.*
Magazines.*
Memobin.*
MemoWidgetbin.*
MetroAppStore.1.8.1.*
MobilePosse_MetroPCS-release.*
Music2.*
MyMetro.*
PhotoAlbumWidgetbin.*
PlayGames.*
PlusOne.*
QMemobin.*
Rhapsody.*
StreamingPlayerbin.*
Street.*
Tasksbin.*
UniMessagebin.*
Velvet.*
VidClipbin.*
Videos.*
Videosbin.*
VuTalkbin.*
VVM-release-MPCS.*
WeatherMultiCPbin.*
YouTube.*

Most of these apps have updates from the Play Store anyway, so the version in /system/app will just be sitting there taking up space. Except the LG* & QMemo, if you like something, just keep it, the list is what I have removed & still have a fully functioning phone.

A tip for adventurers trying to remove other stuff, make sure you turn on Debugging Mode in Developer options, in case the phone doens't boot up right, you can plug it into PC & use 'adb' to restore files. I almost bricked my phone modifying /system/build.prop (be careful!), had to use LG Mobile Tool on my PC to re-flash the whole 650 MB stock ROM.

 

[afroag]

I tried to delete but it says it's read only. How do I do the RW mount option and mount /system in Read-Write mode.

I have the latest version of ES file explorer. I don't know if they took the feature out or not

And it looks like you removed google maps. What do you use as your alternative map?

 

[Whyzor]

I tried to delete but it says it's read only. How do I do the RW mount option and mount /system in Read-Write mode.

I have the latest version of ES file explorer. I don't know if they took the feature out or not

And it looks like you removed google maps. What do you use as your alternative map?

In ES explorer, tap on the upper left icon to bring up the menu, scroll down to 'root explorer' and tap on the WORDS, not just the on/off switch. Then select 'Mount RW', and choose /system.

As for google maps, just remove it from installing an outdated version in /system. You can redownload it from the play store so it will only store the latest version. I use CoPilot for GPS navigation myself, which is a paid app and work offline completely.

 

[afroag]

In ES explorer, tap on the upper left icon to bring up the menu, scroll down to 'root explorer' and tap on the WORDS, not just the on/off switch. Then select 'Mount RW', and choose /system.

As for google maps, just remove it from installing an outdated version in /system. You can redownload it from the play store so it will only store the latest version. I use CoPilot for GPS navigation myself, which is a paid app and work offline completely.

Can you clarify this for me please. So you're saying to uninstall maps from the system directoty and then go to play store to redownload maps?

Oh and how do you freeze apps?

 

[Whyzor]

Can you clarify this for me please. So you're saying to uninstall maps from the system directoty and then go to play store to redownload maps?

Oh and how do you freeze apps?

The Maps (& other built-in apps) are installed in /system/app dir, Play Store downloaded apps are stored in /data/app. As soon as a newer version is downloaded, the /system/app version is not used anymore, only the /data/app version, but it's still there taking space, which is why the /system/app version should be removed and redownload will only replace newer versions in /data/app going forward.

To freeze apps, go into settings -> apps -> Downloaded or All tab, tap the app, and the 'disable' button (not all apps can be disabled).

 

[afroag]

The Maps (& other built-in apps) are installed in /system/app dir, Play Store downloaded apps are stored in /data/app. As soon as a newer version is downloaded, the /system/app version is not used anymore, only the /data/app version, but it's still there taking space, which is why the /system/app version should be removed and redownload will only replace newer versions in /data/app going forward.

To freeze apps, go into settings -> apps -> Downloaded or All tab, tap the app, and the 'disable' button (not all apps can be disabled).

What does freezing apps do? So it's safe for me to delete all the google apps in system/app, I do use gmail, maps, and drive?

Did you delete these directories lol or just stuff in them?
/system/3rdparty/*
/system/apps/bootup/*

 

[Whyzor]

What does freezing apps do? So it's safe for me to delete all the google apps in system/app, I do use gmail, maps, and drive?

Did you delete these directories lol or just stuff in them?
/system/3rdparty/*
/system/apps/bootup/*

Freezing apps is like uninstalling them, so they don't use up CPU or RAM in the background, but they still take up storage. It's used for system apps without having root access. Also easier to revert if you're not sure about a system app. With root access, it's better to remove them completely so they don't take up ROM memory.

Yes it's safe to remove gmail, maps, & drive. Just keep the Play Store app and reinstall newer versions from there. I removed the contents under those dirs to be safe and kept the empty directory structure.

 

[judyq]

Whyzor, Great post!! I uninstalled everything you posted above (hopefully)..

When you use CoPilot how do you get the maps downloaded? Do you download on computer and move to your SD card? The ones I would use take up a gig!

I have my system ram on cleanmaster at 67%... I have a few apps downloaded, trying to figure out how to lower that number. Can I uninstall MyExtras?? And what do you use for your text messages?
Thanks!! J

 

[Whyzor]

Whyzor, Great post!! I uninstalled everything you posted above (hopefully)..

When you use CoPilot how do you get the maps downloaded? Do you download on computer and move to your SD card? The ones I would use take up a gig!

I have my system ram on cleanmaster at 67%... I have a few apps downloaded, trying to figure out how to lower that number. Can I uninstall MyExtras?? And what do you use for your text messages?
Thanks!! J

I download CoPilot maps from the app itself on wifi (but PC should also work). It creates a directory called /sdcard0/com.alk.copilot.mapviewer and the maps get stored in there (mine is about 400 MB for U.S. midwest). There's an undocumented feature that if you move that whole directory to /storage/external_SD/com.alk.copilot.mapviewer, and delete the /sdcard0/ version it still works, and automatically uses the external_SD path.

I don't remember having to uninstall MyExtras, & just checked my phone doesn't have it either, so maybe it got installed for you at some point later. It seems like an unnecessary extra adware anyway, so safe to remove.

For text messages, I use Google Voice, or Hangouts has it integrated too.

 

[dozyaustin]

Soo... Does removing the system/app files free up data for data/app?

Is seems to me that when I was messing around there before, I did not gain much in terms of overall storage.

When I last updated(wiped my phone and got the tmo b update) I ended up with apps taking 0mb of space. So the system apps were not taking up any space. . all the updates to the system apps (gmaps etc) started taking up space ..

That makes me think that we are allowed 1.2gb and deleting stuff from /system does not change that. Am I missing something?

 

[Whyzor]

Soo... Does removing the system/app files free up data for data/app?

Is seems to me that when I was messing around there before, I did not gain much in terms of overall storage.

When I last updated(wiped my phone and got the tmo b update) I ended up with apps taking 0mb of space. So the system apps were not taking up any space. . all the updates to the system apps (gmaps etc) started taking up space ..

That makes me think that we are allowed 1.2gb and deleting stuff from /system does not change that. Am I missing something?

/system/app, /data/app, & /sdcard all use internal storage (1.2 GB). If you remove a /system/app and don't install it again from the play store, then it is completely free'ed up. If you install it again from Play store, it will take up space, but you will only have 1 copy and not 1 inactive copy in /system/app and most updated version in /data/app as before.

I saved a copy of all the files (.apk & .odex) removed and all the subdirs take up about 500 MB total. Right now I have all of my apps (no games) installed and use a little over 400 MB with about 600 MB free in the Settings -> Storage info.

 

[judyq]

copilot won't install for me, it shows up on the sdcard0 but fails to open, any idea? Could it be something I removed? I only removed what you have in that list above..

 

[Whyzor]

copilot won't install for me, it shows up on the sdcard0 but fails to open, any idea? Could it be something I removed? I only removed what you have in that list above..

It shouldn't have anything to do with what was removed since it doesn't depend on LG's software & is supposed to work on any Android phone. Try uninstalling it and reinstall again, open up the app so it unpacks itself. Then BEFORE downloading any maps:

1) Quit CoPilot (hit the power icon, not just home button)

2) Use ES File Explorer and move everything from /sdcard/com.alk.copilot.mapviewer to /storage/external_SD/com.alk.copilot.mapviewer (make sure to delete the /sdcard copy after)

3) Restart CoPilot and proceed to download maps.

Step 2 is optional, could try to skip it, which will take up a lot of internal space. (US Midwest map is about 400+ MB), some other regions could fill up the entire internal memory on this phone.

 

[Telperion]

/system/app, /data/app, & /sdcard all use internal storage (1.2 GB). If you remove a /system/app and don't install it again from the play store, then it is completely free'ed up. If you install it again from Play store, it will take up space, but you will only have 1 copy and not 1 inactive copy in /system/app and most updated version in /data/app as before.

I played around with this and I think you're only partially correct, at least on my T-Mobile version.

/data/ is what the phone considers "internal storage" for the purposes of what is reported via the Settings > Storage "Total Storage". /system/ is completely separate and is not reported or calculated by any native app on the phone. On my phone, /data/ is 1.27GB and /system/ is 1.19GB. Deleting from /system/ does not increase my available space on /data/, as checked via before and after in both the phone storage and Link2SD's storage overview.

The upshot of this is that if you use something like Link2SD, there is 0 benefit (so far as I can determine) from clearing out /system/ files since that has no effect on what's available in /data/.

 

[kentchristopher]

Relevant to this thread, and in case anyone's curious, here the basic partition structure of the 4 GB (3.7 GB actual) internal storage of my F3.

Total internal storage size: 3696 MB. No '/' in front of the name indicates that the partition isn't mounted.

/firmware 64 MB

boot 12 MB

/sns 8 MB

/system 1215 MB (685 MB used / 530 MB on my device)

/cache 788 MB (15 MB used / 773 MB free on my device)

/data 1301 MB (552 MB used / 748 MB free on my device) -- contains /sdcard0

recovery 12 MB

fota 32 MB

misc 16 MB

/mpt 32 MB

grow 118 MB

There are numerous smaller partitions, each less than 10 MB, which make up the rest.

As for what to do with free space on /system, at the very least, this can be used for personal ringtones and notifications, i.e. installing stock Jellybean / Kitkat sounds. Might have to reboot in order for the system to see them (I did). Perhaps wallpapers as well?

 

[Whyzor]

Relevant to this thread, and in case anyone's curious, here the basic partition structure of the 4 GB (3.7 GB actual) internal storage of my F3.

As for what to do with free space on /system, at the very least, this can be used for personal ringtones and notifications, i.e. installing stock Jellybean / Kitkat sounds. Might have to reboot in order for the system to see them (I did). Perhaps wallpapers as well?

Yeah you could also store some music or video files that you'd like to keep in there on a more permanent basis, even when sdcard is removed.

 

[AquaVolt]

OK I found LGSearchWidgetProvider.apk with a picture of google search. Is the google search that appears in recent apps? The blue "G" google logo in the center.

 

[Kasenomateru]

OK I found LGSearchWidgetProvider.apk with a picture of google search. Is the google search that appears in recent apps? The blue "G" google logo in the center.

That would be the google now button

 

[misgnomer]

Following this guide I removed the two Gallerybin.* files and installed QuickPic as a replacement.

Removing those files seems to result in at least one unintended consequence in that it's no longer possible to change the Lock Screen wallpaper. Settings > Lock Screen Settings > Wallpaper now crashes Lock Screen Settings and returns the error, "Unfortunately, Lock Screen Settings has stopped."

Unfortunately for me I hadn't backed up the two Gallerybin.* files. Would someone please upload the APK file from the stock ROM so we can restore them to /system/app?

A Google search yields a copy of some version of Gallerybin.apk here (hxxp://pan.baidu.com/wap/link?uk=219255906&shareid=440043&third=0) though I'm unsure if it's the correct file.

Many thanks!!

*Update*
I installed the Gallerybin.apk from the above URL and Lock Screen wallpapers are selectable once again. All else appears to be working normally.

 

[dewild1]

Hi. I stupidly deleted the things you recommended without backing them up first :-(
Could you please upload them someplace so I can download them. I have the ms659. Or maybe, is there another rom I could try that still has wifi calling but a larger internal storage?

Thank you for your time.

 

[kentchristopher]

Hi. I stupidly deleted the things you recommended without backing them up first :-(
Could you please upload them someplace so I can download them. I have the ms659. Or maybe, is there another rom I could try that still has wifi calling but a larger internal storage?

Thank you for your time.

Follow the unbrick guide and restore your phone back to stock ROM.

It will probably leave your contacts and other user data in place, but hopefully you've learned with this experience the importance of making backups. So back up your contacts and other important data first.

 

[Squidder]

I may not be a developer but I am pretty sure Chrome is not supposed to be 85.88MB Big!Thats almost a whole wasted GB..Now my Phone doesn't have the luxury of space it's an LG Optimus F6. But I love the phone, its fast enough for me & the battery lasts forever, I have it rooted and have link2sd with a fat32 partition for my music and photos, and the other partition is EXT4 that I use to set symbolic links from the internal storage to the SD card and it works fine, plus I have ES file Explorer on it my problem is I don't know where or how to find the proper folder to delete the old crap and just have the latest edition of Chrome installed. Can some kind soul point me in the right direction? I've been at this for 3 days cleaning out old stuff left behind, and removing bloatware, my problem started when I messed with google maps, & I had a long hard journey to install again for me. It kept saying insufficient storage when I have 14 GB of storage on my SD card and over 500 MB on my internal storage which is where I leave Maps and Chrome because they run better there.

I have been reading this website for days and you guys have helped me root my phone, I took recommendations from posts on what apps to install, I just can't seem to find anything to solve my Chrome problem or I'm just to burnt out at this point so I finally gave in and posted a question. I usually don't like to bother people, & can usually find the answers just by reading through posts and threads but this one has got me.
Thanks for reading and Thank You for any help!

 

[Whyzor]

I may not be a developer but I am pretty sure Chrome is not supposed to be 85.88MB Big!Thats almost a whole wasted GB..Now my Phone doesn't have the luxury of space it's an LG Optimus F6. But I love the phone, its fast enough for me & the battery lasts forever, I have it rooted and have link2sd with a fat32 partition for my music and photos, and the other partition is EXT4 that I use to set symbolic links from the internal storage to the SD card and it works fine, plus I have ES file Explorer on it my problem is I don't know where or how to find the proper folder to delete the old crap and just have the latest edition of Chrome installed. Can some kind soul point me in the right direction? I've been at this for 3 days cleaning out old stuff left behind, and removing bloatware, my problem started when I messed with google maps, & I had a long hard journey to install again for me. It kept saying insufficient storage when I have 14 GB of storage on my SD card and over 500 MB on my internal storage which is where I leave Maps and Chrome because they run better there.

I have been reading this website for days and you guys have helped me root my phone, I took recommendations from posts on what apps to install, I just can't seem to find anything to solve my Chrome problem or I'm just to burnt out at this point so I finally gave in and posted a question. I usually don't like to bother people, & can usually find the answers just by reading through posts and threads but this one has got me.
Thanks for reading and Thank You for any help!

Chrome's apk is actually in /data/app (must be root to see it). It uses about 30 MB. The rest are cached data from browsing, and I believe Android controls that and no way to adjust it.

 

[Squidder]

Ya, I figured there was something fishy there. I got rid of the apk. It downloaded a newer version, now I got an 89 MB browser. Any suggestions on an, alternative? I probably won't be able to find the rest of the pieces that make up this bloat of a browser anyway.. Smh thanks for the confirmation though, at least I know I was on the right track.

 

[Squidder]

Whyzor,

I hate to bother you but it never hurts to ask..Do you have the .apk &.odex files you can give me a link to for the LGOnScreenPhone3_JB & LGHome3_Theme? After uninstalling them I can't change my lock screen settings or access my Home folder in settings it crashes the settings. I checked and the lock screen .apk & .odex files are still in there but for some reason using my Apex Launcher I can't change my lock screen settings that were originally there since removing those files. if you have a link for them I would greatly appreciate it, I can install them manually then. I don't want to mess up all the work I did just so I can change my unlock screen settings every now and then.

I know I should have backed up first, but don't want to back up now while everything is not working right..I'm very close though..