There are ways around these limitations, though. We wrote a guide a while back that taught you how to “uninstall” any pre-installed system app on your Android smartphone or tablet. The problem with that method is twofold: it doesn’t actually fully uninstall the app and return space to the user and reverting the change requires you to either sideload the APK (if you can find it) or factory reset. Still, that method is quite useful and we’ve seen dozens of forum posts and user scripts taking advantage of it to debloat their new Android devices. To help users debloat their devices in a safer way, we would like to turn your attention towards another method that will not only disable the pre-installed bloatware of your choosing but also make it super easy to re-enable them at your convenience, making any mistake a lot easier to recover from. We’ll still be using ADB commands to mess with system applications so be sure you don’t disable anything absolutely critical (use your best judgment), but this method is a lot friendlier in case you disable the wrong app.
Disable Any Pre-Installed System App On Android Without Root
1. Follow
this tutorial to get ADB up and running on your Windows, Mac, or Linux PC. ADB, or Android Debug Bridge, is a developer tool that lets you issue some powerful commands to control your device. We use it a lot in our tutorials to do things that you otherwise can’t do without a rooted device.
2. Download an app like
App Inspector from the Google Play Store.
3. Get the package name of the app you want to disable using App Inspector. Here are screenshots showing you how:
4. Launch a Command Prompt/PowerShell (Windows) or Terminal (Mac/Linux) in the directory where you stored the ADB binary. For Windows users, this can be done by holding shift then right-clicking in the folder. In the menu, select the “open command window here” or “open PowerShell window here” option.
5.Once you’re in the command prompt or terminal, enter the following command depending on your OS:
Windows Command Prompt: adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 <package_to_disable>
Windows PowerShell: .\adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 <package_to_disable>
Mac/Linux Terminal: ./adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 <package_to_disable>
6. For example, here’s what it looks like if you wanted to remove Cleanmaster (com.miui.cleanmaster) which comes preinstalled as part of MIUI on the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S:
Windows Command Prompt: adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.miui.cleanmaster
Windows PowerShell: .\adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.miui.cleanmaster
Mac/Linux Terminal: ./adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.miui.cleanmaster
And we’re done! The app should immediately become disabled and will disappear from your launcher. Do note that on rare occasions, some apps may automatically be re-enabled if the system has a function to re-enable it. For example, disabling the stock
EMUI 9 launcher on Chinese Huawei or Honor devices will result in the stock launcher become automatically re-enabled after some time. If that bothers you, try the “
uninstall” method.