Android what is freeze app

How to Freeze Any App’s Background Processes without Root on Android 7.0+

Android has always been considered the more “powerful” mobile platform when compared to iOS because of how much freedom its 3rd-party applications have. This enables a lot of automation toВ take place simply because Android applications can do more tasks while they’re running in the background. However, this comes with a downside as it opens the door for potentially more battery drain thanks to background processes running on the device.

It’s one thing to know you’re loading up your phone with applications that run in the background since you’re willing to sacrifice some of your battery life for the benefits they bring. It’s a different story if you’re just downloading traditional applications which aren’t optimized and that perform tasks in the background when you don’t want or even need them to. Google has been working to fix this by placing more and more restrictions on what applications can do in the background, and the release of Android O brings the most background process/receiver restrictions by far.

However, the vast majority of users won’t see Android O on their devices for many months from now (if at all). But if you are running Android 7.0 or Android 7.1, there’s a simple trick you can do to manually prevent an application from ever running in the background – and itВ doesn’t require rootВ or a third-party application. This is more powerful than what Greenify or apps like Brevent offer, as without root access those apps are fairly limited in what they can do. But with this trick, now you can block apps such as Facebook or Hangouts from ever running in the background – they will only work when they are actively being used!

Restrict Background Processes Tutorial

Requirements:

• Android Nougat (7.0 or 7.1) device

1. Install the USB drivers for your particular device OEM (Google provides aВ list of someВ universal USB drivers here).
2. Download theВ ADB binaryВ for your particular OS (Windows,В Mac,В Linux). These links will always point to the latest version of the binary.
3. Extract the contents of the ZIP file into an easily accessible folder on your PC.
4. Go to the Settings app on your phone and tap on the About Phone option.
5. Find the Build Number and tap on it 7 times to enable Developer Mode.
6. Go back to the Settings main menu and enter Developer Options so you can enable USB Debugging Mode.
7. Plug your phone into the computer and change it from “charge only” mode to “file transfer (MTP)” mode. This is not necessary on every device but many devices require this as a security measure before allowing ADB to work.
8. Go back to the PC and browse to the directory where you extracted the ADB binary.
9. Launch a Command Prompt or Terminal in your ADB directory. For Windows users, this can be done by holding Shift and Right-clicking then selecting the “open command prompt here” option. (Some Windows 10 users may see “command prompt” replaced with “PowerShell”.)
10. Once you’re in the Command Prompt or Terminal environment, enter the following command: adb devices
11. This will start theВ ADB daemon if it hasn’t been launched already, just wait for it to finish. If this is your first time running ADB, you will also see a prompt on your phone asking you to authorize a connection with the computer. Allow USB Debugging access here.
12. Now if you re-run the adb devices command from step 10, the command prompt/terminal will print the serial number of your device. If so, then you’re ready to move on. If not, then the USB drivers are likely not installed properly.
13. You will then need to find the package name for the application you’re wanting to freeze background processes. You can do this by installing theВ App InspectorВ application on your phone.

RUN_IN_BACKGROUND ignore

If you ever want to revert the change you have just made and allow an app’s background processes again, enter this command:В cmd appops set

RUN_IN_BACKGROUND allow

You’ll know it works if it takes you back to another ADB shell prompt and doesn’t give you an error message.

Explanation

How exactly this command works is that it allows you to restrict a hidden permission that is normally not accessible to the user in the Settings app. This permission is called the RUN_IN_BACKGROUND permission and the only way it can be modified is to use “cmd appops” which is the command line interface for “App Ops” – Google’s user-facing permission management system.

Google added this hidden ADB command that enables you to restrict any application from receiving implicit broadcast intents (ie. the app waking up in the background) and also prevent those applications from scheduling background services without using JobScheduler (ie. the app waking up at an inopportune time, draining your battery). This command is actually meant for use only by developers looking to simulate how their app would perform under low memory conditions, but thankfully we’re able to put it to our own use.

By removing dependencies on an app’s background services and manifest-registered implicit broadcast receivers, developers can optimize their application to run better on low-memory devices.В Google says applications optimized for these type devices, or ones which are in low-memory conditions, can improve both the performance as well as theВ user experience. At Google I/O this year, the company announced a modifiedВ version of Android called Android Go, that will be used for very low-memory smartphones, so we presume that this command would be useful for developers aiming at that platform.

In any case, this command can be fairly useful for the average user, but be careful what you restrict here. Apps such as Hangouts or Facebook will completely stop syncing in the background until you open them up, which if this is what you are aiming for then I’m sure you don’t mind. But don’t be surprised when your emails or messages become delayed if you run this command on an app that depends on background receivers.

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How to Uninstall System Apps on Android without Root

Android phones come with lots of pre-installed apps that may not be of any use. Since we can’t freeze or uninstall system apps on Android normally, we either need root privilege or take advantage of ADB shell pm uninstall command. If you have a rooted Android phone, you can use a system app remover to delete bloatware. The absence of a universal bloatware remover or system app uninstaller leaves with the ADB way for unrooted Android devices.

I recently prepared a list of Samsung bloatware and described the easiest way to uninstall preinstalled apps. In this tutorial, we’ll discuss how we can disable or freeze background apps and delete system apps on unrooted Android devices. Besides, we’ll also see how to re-install uninstalled apps using ADB command. In case your phone has root access, I’ll also lay out the steps to debloat Android devices using the Debloater Magisk module.

The tips given in this tutorial can help you get rid of bloatware on all Android devices including Samsung, OnePlus, Google Pixel, Xiaomi, Redmi, Huawei, Honor, Nokia, Oppo, Realme, Vivo, Motorola, Lenovo, etc. running Android 5.0 or above.

Get Android Bloatware List via ADB

We all recognize apps by their names shown on the device app drawer. However, to be able to uninstall system apps, you must know the package name of the apps you want to remove. There are 3 ways to find the package name of an Android app.

1. Visit a Google Play Store app’s page in a desktop browser. The package name is located right after ‘id=‘ in the URL. An app package name looks like ‘com.google.android.gm‘. You may not find the package names of the system apps though.
2. Try apps like Package Browser, App Inspector, Package Name Viewer, etc.
3. You can also get the full list of packages installed on your Android phone or tablet using adb shell pm list packages command.

Anyway, let’s check out how we can have the complete list of system apps present on any Android device. Please note that in order to execute ADB commands you need to set up ADB and Fastboot on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer and install the appropriate Android USB driver.

1. Download the latest Android SDK Platform-tools and extract the zip.
2. Open your device Settings and turn on USB debugging from Developer options.
3. Go to Display under the phone Settings and increase the Screen Timeout duration.
4. Now connect your Android device to the computer via USB.
5. Navigate to the “platform-tools” folder and launch a Command Prompt or PowerShell window. You can get this option in the Windows Context menu by pressing the Shift key + Right-click button on the mouse.
6. Alternatively, you can quickly open a command window from within a folder window by typing “cmd” in the File Explorer’s address bar and pressing the Enter key.

Type ‘cmd’ to launch a command prompt

When you have opened the Command Prompt, issue the following command to check if a proper connection between your computer and ADB daemon has been established.

Meanwhile, keep an eye on the display of your phone is not locked and authorize ADB access on your device when prompted.

Authorize ADB on Android

If the connection is made successfully, you’ll see the device ID in the command window as highlighted below.

You are now all set to print the list of all bloatware on your Android phone or tablet. Type adb shell and hit the Enter key.

Depending on what type of app packages you want to list, use the following commands. Using the 3rd command, you list apps from a certain vendor like ‘samsung’, ‘google’, ‘xiaomi’, ‘huawei’, ‘android’, ‘amazon’, ‘oppo’ ‘coloros’, ‘evenwell’, ‘facebook’ etc.
#1 List all installed apps
pm list packages
#2 List only system apps
pm list packages -s
#3 List apps by group
pm list packages | grep ‘ samsung ‘

Below is how I generated the list of all system apps on my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. The portion highlighted with yellow contains the app package names.

Samsung bloatware list adb

Highlight the contents of the command window and press Ctrl + C to copy it. Save this list of system apps to a text file for future use.

Due to the difference between the names of apps and their packages, it might be very difficult to recognize and app by its package. Moreover, it’s also difficult to decide which apps are safe to remove. You can google to find the list of safe to uninstall bloatware for your Android device. Another way to get the real name of an app by its package is to paste the package name in Google search box. That way, you can shortlist the system apps you can delete without encountering any problem.

I have prepared the list of bloatware present on devices from different Android OEMs.

Uninstall System Apps without Root

Once you have the list of Android bloatware ready, you can easily remove them using ADB uninstall system app command.

1. Launch the Command Prompt as described above. The easiest way to open a command window is to type “cmd” in the File Explorer’s address bar and press the Enter key. You can also launch a command window by clicking on File> Open Windows PowerShell option in the folder window.
2. Connect your Android device to the computer with USB debugging enabled and unlocked screen and execute the following command.
3. Doing so will return your phone’s code name followed by a dollar ($) sign in the Command Prompt. You just need to issue one of these 2 commands to uninstall a system app on your Android.
   #1 To uninstall an app with its data
   pm uninstall —user 0

#2 To uninstall an app but keep its data
pm uninstall -k —user 0

Now, type the command you prefer and hit the Enter key. With the removal of each system app, you’ll get a “Success” message.

You can thus uninstall as many system apps as you want.

Reinstall Uninstalled Android Apps via ADB

The pm uninstall command removes a system app only for ‘user 0‘, that is the current user. It means that the deleted app still remains available for other users of the Android device. It’s a good thing because you can easily restore an app if you uninstall it by mistake or need it later.

Don’t forget to execute adb shell before you use the above command as shown below.

app re-installation adb command

Remove Bloatware on Android (Root)

In case you have a rooted device blow are the bloatware removers for Android. you can remove system apps easily using apps like System App Remover and Bloatware Remover. Moreover, you can also delete bloatware on Android devices rooted with Magisk with a module called Debloater.

1. Install the latest Magisk Manager on your device and launch it.
2. Tap the hamburger (≡) icon and tap on Downloads in the side menu.
3. Now tap the search icon and type “busybox” and tap the download icon to install Busybox for Android NDK. When Busybox is installed return to Downloads.

Install Busybox in Magisk Manager

Now search for “debloater” and install the Deloater (Terminal Emulator) Magisk module.

Magisk Debloater module

When Debloater is installed tap on the Reboot button.

Since the Debloater Magisk module has no UI of its own, you’ll need to install a Terminal emulator app like Termux to run system app uninstallation command.

Launch Termux and grant it root privilege by running the su command as shown below. You’ll then be prompted to grant root access to the Debloater app.

Grant root access to Debloater

Now launch the Debloater module by using the following command.

On the Debloater screen, you’ll have 5 choices.

1. System Apps
2. System Priv-Apps
3. Vendor Apps
4. Enter Custom System Apps dir
5. Import Config (/cache/ import-debloat.txt )

Since our aim is to remove Android bloatware, we can choose option number 1, 2, and 3. To uninstall system apps, for instance, type ‘1‘ and tap the Enter key on the keyboard.

Debloater will scan your Android device for all system apps and give you a full list.

Debloat Android using Debloater app

As you can see, Debloater gave me the list of 100 system apps on my OnePlus 8. Suppose you want to uninstall Screen Recorder (app number 79), type ‘79‘, and tap on the Enter key. Debloater also lets you delete multiple apps by entering multiple numbers.

Freeze Background Apps on Android

Android has always lagged behind iOS in the management of the app background processes. However, with Android 8.0 and higher, Google has done a lot to put a check on apps that keep running in the background draining the battery, data, and other resources. In case you want to freeze the background apps, you can do that without root using the following ADB command. This method to freeze apps should work on all devices running Android 7.0+.

1. Launch the Command Prompt.
2. Connect your device via a USB cable.
3. Issue the following command.
4. Then execute the following command. Don’t forget to replace

in the command below with an app.

Freeze background apps using ADB

To enable the frozen app and allow it to run in the background again, you can use the following command.

Disable System Apps on Android via ADB

ADB is really a great command-line tool and it can be used several ways to perform tasks on Android that would otherwise have not been possible. Besides uninstalling bloatware and freezing system apps, ADB can also help you disable system apps easily. The following command lets you disable a system app on an Android device.

If you want to enable a disabled app later, you can use the following command.

Delete Failed Internal Error in ADB

Sometimes Android OEMs restrict the uninstallation of certain system apps using ADB commands. In such a case, you might get the following error.

Failure[Delete failed Internal Error]

To uninstall such apps, you’ll need to have root privilege. If you have a rooted device, you can execute the following command one after another as shown below.

Whether you want to disable, freeze, or uninstall system apps on Android, you can do everything using ADB shell commands mentioned above. System App Remover and Bloatware Remover may be the easiest tools for root users but if you haven’t rooted your device, using the ADB on your PC is the best way to remove bloatware on any Android device.

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