[GUIDE][FAQ] Decrapify your Android

[sam]

NOTE: I searched and went through many different guide on various sites. Credit goes to the original authors. I have only added some extra descriptions to better understand the uses, removed unavailable apps, did testing to check for stability and divided the list so it becomes easy to find the correct app.

Important point: This guide is made with Cyanogenmod 9 as base (Android 4.0.4). So some new apps are there that mayn't exist in Cyanogenmod7 or any Froyo/Gingerbread based rom. Also some apps that are available in Cyanogenmod 7 are missing for the same reason as above and will be added in coming days.

General FAQ:

Q: Is cleanup/decrapifying a must?
A: NO. If you are happy with your existing stock/custom rom, then keep using it. There is no reason for you to remove some apks and cause instability.

Q: Can this guide be applied to stock rom?
A: Stock rom should have most of these apk's in common and so can be removed at the users risk. They also come with a lot of their own crap apps that i won't cover.

Q: Why do we need to cleanup a custom rom when they are designed for stability, battery life and to be free mobile from bloatwares?
A: Custom rom carries many apps & stuff that you may never use or use just once. These eat your valuable space, eats up your mobile ram, battery life and may cause sluggishness at times.

Q: What are the possible side affects of removing apk's from a rom?
A: Rom may fail to boot. May give you force close as soon as rom boots. Some apps mayn't work as their dependent file is now gone. etc. But as i have tested it on my own mobile for quite sometime, unless you try to reason about the non-usefulness of a certain file, there shouldn't be any problem.

Q: What will i get after i decrapify my mobile?
A: Free ram, free space (in system/data) & more battery life but all depends what you remove. I am using a stripped down Cyanogenmod 9 rom since a few weeks having 60Mb smaller size and with the added advantage of almost no wakelocks (events that doesn't allow mobile to sleep) and this has lead to a substantial increase in battery life by 20-30%.

Q: Any precautions to follow before removing apps?
A: ALWAYS & ALWAYS take NANDROID backup. In case some app causes the system to go into a bootloop, reflashing rom, installing all app can be quite a PITA.

Q: Other than apks what else can i remove?
A: Currently i am doing a bit of search on this thing. Some library files should be safe to remove but i'll test it first before adding any vague info to the guide. If case your mobile doesn't support any NFC, you may remove NFC files (optional folder) from GAPPS zip. Also, you can further increase space by deleting unnecessary media files from alarms, notifications, ringtones, UI found in system/media/audio. But take caution in removing files from ui as removing the wrong file can cause the lockscreen to disappear. I'll suggest to leave the ui folder as it is. Also in case you don't use Text to Speech service, you can delete the tts folder under system without impacting your rom stability.

Q: In the app list, what is the difference between SAFE TO REMOVE and BLOATWARES?
A: Safe to Remove contain files that you can remove without impacting your mobiles usability. Also alternates are present in market so you can replace the removed app at a later date. Whereas as BLOATWARES are app/files that you can simply get rid of as i find most of them to be of absolutely no use other than eating though your internal memory. But do check the description before doing anything silly.

[sam]

APKs, their purpose and risk in removal:

Don't Remove:


Safe to Remove:


Bloatwares:

[pramudit]

nice guide....

[pratzgh1]

Very detailed info bro. superb.

[Vyom]

Thanks SAM for another great work.
Btw, I recommend leaving Spare Parts on, since it helps to find out the apps which maybe causing wake locks.

[sam]

@everyone, hope this will be useful

@Vyom, spare parts starts by itself all the time. I'll suggest using Better Battery Stats from XDA (paid app in market) and provides more detailed graph.

[Blue Ripazah]

Awesome guide bro

[fz8975]

thanks for the guide sam

[pramudit]

can i remove samsung apps from my galaxy Y...? its just a bullcrap store with 5years old games...

[Vyom]

^ Of course you can. Just root the phone and remove them.
Try searching for the Galaxy Y thread, where you should get all the information you need!

[vyral_143]

Very good guide Sam
I have a SGA and I have modified my ROM in this my own way. Phone is little more fast since then. Launcher is replaced by LauncherPro.

[sam]

^^ nice to know. i'll be adding the CM7 apps shortly

[sam]

UPDATE:

CM7 apps added. checking stock Android apps now (AOSP).

[Anorion]

oh wow nice list
very handy

[ajayritik]

Thanks Sam will definitely give this a try!

[hNs]

Very useful guide specially because I have been thinking of making a lite rom for my phone for a long time.

[sam]

Now integrated with the custom rom and rooting guide here: The 1-STOP Android Guide: Rooting and Custom Rom.

Closing and unsticking it.