Remove system apps from Xiaomi devices
The guide describes one method that allows you to remove system apps, or any other application for that matter, from Xiaomi devices.
I bought a Xiaomi Mi4c last year to replace my trusted but underperforming Motorola Moto G first generation Android smartphone.
While I could have picked a flagship phone that would set me back six hundred or even more Euro without contract (I only buy direct and without contract), I decided to save money without sacrificing much in the process.
Having used the phone for more than six months now, I can say that it is an excellent phone both hardware, software, and security-wise.
Remove system apps
There are a couple of minor things that are not ideal though. Apart from making it really difficult to unlock the device to gain root access, those are mostly software-based if you ask me.
- The device ships with Chinese applications. I imported the phone, and while most apps and all settings are available in English either directly or after flashing an English ROM, some are only available in Chinese which make them useless to me.
- Some apps display advertisement when you open them. This is for instance the case if you are using the built-in media player. This is easy to avoid though as you can use another media player instead.
- You may get notifications from built-in applications, like the Virtual SIM app, from time to time with no option to disable them.
The first and third point are the main reasons why I have decided to look for ways to remove system apps from the device as I have no intention of using them.
Note: The following method requires root. It should work with the majority of Xiamoi devices and the latest version of Miui.
Warning: Backup your device before you remove any application on it as you may run into issues otherwise if you have no restoration options available. You can use Xiaomi's PC Suite for that or any other backup application.
Download the application Device Control [root] from Google Play or another store it is available in. The application is very powerful and provides you with lots of features to gain greater control over hardware or software.
One of the features is the ability to disable or uninstall applications including system apps.
To remove or disable, one or multiple system apps from the device, do the following:
- Start Device Control after you have given it root permissions on your device.
- Tap on the menu icon in the upper left corner of the screen.
- Scroll down until you find app manager and select that option.
- Device Control lists all user installed apps by default. Switch to system at the top instead to display system apps.
- Tick the checkbox next to the apps you want to disable or uninstall.
- Make sure you have created a backup!
- Select disable or uninstall from the prompt that appears.
You should get a success or failure message right afterwards. Please note that you may not be able to remove some system apps as they are essential for the operation of the device.
Uninstall removes the application completely from the device while disable keeps its files but turns it off instead.
I have used Device Control to remove system apps from my Xiaomi Mi4c device that I don't use and are not required for the device to function properly.
Now You: Have you rooted your Android device?
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?