Android Package Uninstaller

Caution!

• I'm not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards, thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because the alarm app failed (like it did for me...).
• YOU are choosing to make these modifications, and if you point the finger at me for messing up your device, I will laugh at you.

FAQ

Why

This project was done as a research concerning the privacy status in the software that is used by people everyday, developing finally a possible solution to this in Android devices. The solution found needed technical knowledge which not all people may have, and that's why this program was done.

It simply uses Android Debug Bridge from Google's platform-tools to:

• Let the user know which packages are installed on his device for the default user
  • Package path
  • Package apk name
  • Package name
• Filter through a keyword that can be on installation path, apk name or package name
• Uninstall for the default user the selected package

OK, but I can already uninstall all the stuff I want from my device

Yes, indeed you can. But you can only uninstall certain applications, not any package you want from the device. To be clear: all applications appear on the device as packages, but not all packages are "like normal apps". Some packages just run in the background without you noticing it. You would be surprised about the amount of packages you device has, so just give it a try and at least find out what's inside your device.

How to use it

First of all, please ensure you have:

• Developer options enabled
• Debug mode activated
• (Only macOs and Linux environments) Execution rights in the application

Open the application and you will see that a new folder is created in the same location from where you launch the application. For macOs and Linux users this will download the content in you home path. The folder is named adb and just contains Google's platform tools. Feel free to remove it after you have used the application.

After the main window appears, and ONLY for the first time, you will need to press Load packages for device. This will pop up a window in your device, asking you If you really trust the device trying to connect to the device. Press yes If you want to use the program, as this grants the later communications done between the program and the device.

Now you can press again Load packages for device, and you will see all the packages in your device. You can filter by adding some text in the box and selecting Filter, or you can directly scroll up/down to find any package.

To uninstall a package, just click on it, see that it appears as selected, and then press Uninstall package from device. Now you won't see that package installed in your device anymore.

Steps to reproduce development environment

NOTE: You need to install Python 3.8 or newer

You can simply download the project and execute it to have it running. On the file requirements.txt you can find the needed packages to run the project. As these requirements will be installed, I recommend to use a virtual env. To install them, you just need to:

pip install -r requirements.txt

After this, pip should have successfully installed all the necessary packages. Following this, you will also need to install the main project folder as a package, as it uses different modules and it was needed to properly define imports having a main module defined. To do so, you will need to:

pip install -e .

Finally, for running the project, you should just run:

python main.py

Creating standalone app for your environment

NOTE: First of all, you need to reproduce the development environment

You need to install Python 3.8 or newer along with pyinstaller. This will create a standalone app just for the environment you use to do this. E.g If you do this from a Windows machine, you will create a standalone for Windows devices.

Once you have the development environment prepared and pyinstaller installed, just type:

pyinstaller -F main.py

This will create a new directory named /dist with a file named main will appear. For Windows devices, you will see the .exe extension, while doing this from macOs or linux devices, it will create the corresponding executable file.

Other actions

You may need to do the following before getting your hands dirty. All the modifications are done by you, under your own risks. These shouldn't harm your device though...

Enable Developer Options

To enable our device's developer options we just need to get into system settings and go to software information. Inside this window, we have to search for the build number, and keep touching it until a toast appears saying that developer options have been granted.

Activate Debug Mode

NOTE: You MUST have enabled Developer Options to access this feature

Just navigate to Developer Options section and search for USB debugging option and activate it.

Give execution rights to the application

You may need to give the downloaded application execution rights. You can easily do this by opening a terminal window and typing:

chmod +x <path-to-file>

Check that you don't need to know the path to the file, just drag&drop it into the terminal (ensure that there's a space between the +x and the path) and it will be filled automatically for you. Press enter, and now you will be able to execute the application by just double clicking on it.

Thanks

All the knowledge required to do this project has been acquired reading different posts from XDA, reddit and other internet resources like Google's documentation. Thanks to all users that collaborate, help and write in different forums helping people, without you this would have never been possible.