Hello, i have checked the forum but i found nothing about this problem.
After the update i have a file "com.htc 2.1-update1" on my phone, it is 18.774Kb size, and now i run out of memory.
Can i delete it without remove the last update ? I think the update is in rom now, this is only a cache file ?
deleting a 18kb file will barely do anything to your memory why is it so vital to delete this?
if you've run out of memory then uninstall some apps or use aps2sd
i think that's 18mb not 18kb..
sorry it is 18774Kb = 18Mb
i have 2 file, this one and "system Android 2.1-update1" 5182Kb
I can see they only with "Uninstaller" program.
I don't want root it now, i am waiting froyo.
Does anyone know if there's any answer re. this query? I've also got both "com.htc 2.1-update1" (18MB) and "Android System 2.1-update1" (5MB) listed in Uninstaller - the latter sounds like the actual installed update, is there any chance of being able to uninstall the former? (am hoping someone has given in a shot already!)
A.
Hello fellow XDAers,
My wife replaced her Samsung Gravity Smart with the T-Mobile MyTouch Q, AKA the Huawei U8730 (not the older LG C800 model w/ the same name). She gave me the task of cleaning the junk APKs off of it to de-clutter it.
Rooting the phone was the first task. This method worked perfectly for me without any fuss (the app will return error 64, but after installing Superuser and rebooting, I had root access). I was able to use Titanium to remove much of the crap ware, but the most annoying bits gave the error "cannot find APK." Weird.
After digging around, I took an inventory of the apps in /data and /system.
The T-Mobile junk wasn't there.
I threw busybox on the phone and used the 'find' command, and I found where the apps were hiding: /cust/t-mobile/us/apps, which is a loopback-mounted ext3 partition. I tried to remount it read/write, but got 'permission denied' error. I figured something had the filesystem locked, so I ended all the apps that were running and tried again, but no luck.
However, I was able to remount the volume that held the ext3 image file read/write. It mounts to the /.cust_backup directory.
IMPORTANT NOTE: For those who will be following these steps themselves, at this point you will want to make sure to go into the Applications manager and uninstall any updates downloaded for the crapware you are going to remove. I will explain why below. It's not absolutely critical, but it will save you some head-scratching.
I remounted the partition read/write, grabbed the image file (located in /.cust_backup/image/cust.img), and uploaded the image file to a linux server.
On the linux server, I mounted the image, nuked the unwanted APKs, and unmounted the filesystem.
I created a backup of the original cust.img file, then overwrote the one in /.cust_backup/image
Last step was to reboot the phone, and most of the junkware was gone.
Here's where the head-scratching came in. A couple of the apps were still there, and I didn't know why. I double-checked the phone, and the APKs were in fact deleted. Then I realized: the app had received an update and I was seeing the update. When I uninstalled the update, the uninstall "failed" but the icon still disappeared. However, I had to reboot the phone again to fully remove it.
So, here's the process in a nutshell:
1. Uninstall all app updates for the crapware you plan to remove
2. Root the phone using This method .
3. copy down /.cust_backup/images/cust.img
4. Using a linux system, mount cust.img as a loopback device, then delete the unwanted APKs (they will be in t-mobile/us/apps)
5. Unmount the image (this writes your changes back into the cust.img you mounted in step #3)
6. On the phone, remount /.cust_backup r/w
7. overwrite /.cust_backup/images/cust.img with the modified version
8. Reboot the phone
That's it! Enjoy your uncluttered phone!
I know it's been a while since the original post, but I was wondering if OP has had any problems with the phone since then, or if anyone else has tried this with the Huawei u8730 and had success. My wife also wants all this crap removed from her phone, but she would probably murder me if I bricked it in the process.
Thanks!
Just on a side note here as I'm still using this device. How did you get around the non-working tethering on this device? Both the USB and Wifi hotspot won't work unless you've subscribed to the T-Mobile Smartphone Mobile HotSpot app option on your account? Mine is unlocked and being used with another carrier, but only recently wanted to tether to it so I can't figure out how to correct this one. Also still looking around for any working custom ROM for this. Thx.
In /data/app folder make a new folder with name com.android.vending-1.apk
(to make the folder use a file manager app or the command "su" followed by "mkdir /data/app/com.android.vending-1.apk" with a Terminal Emulator app and Busybox installed.
NOTE: Making a new folder in /data partition require root permissions so the Andriod system must be rooted first)
That's it!
Hello everyone,
owners of smartphone with very limited internal storage, like Galaxy Y, will likely end up to be concerned of every single MB of free space lost; and the more the concern as the free space is getting closer to zero.
So there I am too.
I've put lot of effort to optimize the use of my Galaxy Y internal storage (/system, /data and /cache partitions all together) and I'm proud to have more than 50% of internal storage free and I like to have it that way for as long time as possibile.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
One day, few weeks ago, I got very disappointed when I realized that I suddenly lost 15% (actually 15MB) of free space for some unknow reason
Later, it turned out that the reason was that the Google Play Store had been silently updated in the background without any notification.
Actually the footprint of newer version of Google Play Store is only 4MB bigger but as the previous version was installed in /system partition then the update process doesn't actually perform a replacement of the old installation with the new one, but it just add the newer app leaving the old installation untouched (that means leaving in place the old apk file along with its davilk-cache file) but marked as disabled.
Uninstalling the update (that in my opinion, for my needs and usage, was useless) was just a matter of tapping one button... but then another background update would have happen soon after.
So, as I didn't find any related option in Google Play Store settings, I immediately started a Google search to find a way to prevent/avoid/stop any further self update.
What I've found is only two solutions:
- one is about to freeze/disable the app that manage the update of Google Play Store; but this app doesn't longer exist or it's used as the latest Google Play Store app handle the self update by its own.
- the other one is to make a "dummy" file in /data/app that will make the installation of the update to fail as the required name for the new apk is already in use by the dummy file.
Unfortunately for those smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy Y, where the /data partition is formatted RFS (Robust File System from Samsung; basically a FAT 16/32 based file system with a sort of journalling system on it) this solution doesn't work because RFS doesn't support the immutable file attribute and therefore the "chattr +i" command will fail.
If the dummy file isn't set as immutable then the installation task will be able to delete it and make the new apk in /data/app folder.
As an attempt to make the second solution, the "dummy file solution", to work with my Galaxy Y, I made the immutable dummy file in another partition then I created a link in /data/app pointing to that file.
But that didn't work... same as for the not immutable dummy file, the link can be deleted by the installation task that will then proceed till completion.
So what to try next?
From what I've read around seems that there's no solution; owners of Galaxy Y (that didn't reformat the /data partition with a Ext2/3/4) and other smartphone with RFS filesystem are simply out of luck.
True?
No! False!
I then remembered the days I used to make a autorun.inf folder in the root of my FAT32 formatted USB thumbdrive to prevent removable drive spreading viruses to make their own autorun.inf file in the thumbdrive.
So... why not to try the same trick to make the installation of the Google Play Store update to fail due to the impossibility to make it's own com.android.vending-1.apk file in /data/app folder?
Tried it...
and tested...
SUCCESS! :victory:
As a side note I want to point it out that this trick doesn't prevent the Google Play Store to try to self update and download the latest installer in the /cache folder.
Anyway I've observed that after the first failure of the update there are no further update attempts neither new downloads... at least for a while (maybe till next new version will be released?)
I don't know how long it takes, after the first update failure, for the downloaded apk in /cache folder to be automatically deleted... if ever; so I advise you to give a look at the /cache folder and manually delete it if still there.
That's all folks!
Bye!
Why don't you just integrate update to system with link2sd app
It will just replace the system app with the new update - you get the latest update and you not using any extra space with two versions of the app
Root required & restart after integrating (or it will force close)
That could be done, of course, but still there's a loss of 2MB of free space in /data and 2MB in /system due to the bigger footprint of the latest version.
Anyway is completely up to a personal choice if to upgrade or not.
The point here is that if someone doesn't want Google Play Store to self update now there's a known way to do so
Another way to do this is to did a modded play store apk here on XDA. A modded apk has been signed with a different key and therefore it cannot be updated by Google.
Uninstall any updates to the Play Store and put the modded apk in the system apps folder replacing the one on your phone, make a backup just in case. Reboot and you should have a play store that doesn't update.
Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk
good trick bro :highfive:
save quota internet
vin2m said:
good trick bro :highfive:
save quota internet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:highfive:
Thanks for the highfive bro
Anyway I'm afraid that, as I pointed out at the bottom of my 1st post, even if the trick makes the update to fail (same as per the immutable "dummy file" trick) but it doesn't prevent Google Play Store to download the newer version (9MB of data or more) for the upgrade attempt; so the Internet quota is still affected.
How to stop updating play store WITHOUT root .. I need to have 4.x.x. installed but it auto updates to 5.x.x how to stop it
(cannot root my phone)
thnx
I'm sorry but I'm afraid that without root privileges there's no way to avoid the self update of Google Play Store as this app is designed to self update and doesn't expose any option/settings that the user might use in order to disable that function.
So, as the self update can't be disabled by power of user account, it's required to operate at system level and therefore root privileges are needed.
halnovemila said:
I'm sorry but I'm afraid that without root privileges there's no way to avoid the self update of Google Play Store as this app is designed to self update and doesn't expose any option/settings that the user might use in order to disable that function.
So, as the self update can't be disabled by power of user account, it's required to operate at system level and therefore root privileges are needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fuking google bas****ds are they ?
Wow, sneaky! This is obviously a far superior solution to my chattr method. Wish I'd thought of it!
this fix is no longer working it still forced the new version right after the commands
RemixedCat said:
this fix is no longer working it still forced the new version right after the commands
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi RemixedCat,
I've tried just now to install the latest version of GPS (6.0.5) and the installation fails with the usual "Out of space" error (as shown on the video I published) due to the presence of the empty dummy folder.
If the folder is removed the installation completes without errors.
So the trick still works.
If it doesn't work for you maybe your Android configuration is different from mine, or you made a mistake on following the given instruction.
In order to figure out why in your case the update still take places and then try to give you some advices, please tell us:
- what's the Android version running in your phone
- if it's rooted
- what's the GPS version installed
- if the GPS currently installed is an update or not
-if you want to keep the current update or not
- if the GPS currently installed is installed as System app or User app
- what's the apk filename of the currently installed GPS.
You might want to install Link2SD to check the informations related to the currently installed GPS.
LOL
Very funny... all the people that post here or on my video comments saying that the trick doesn't work, once they get an answer from me with few advices on how to make it to work, they almost never care to reply again.
Did my advices worked out so that the initial statement of "it doesn't work" has proved wrong? or they didn't even care to read my reply or to follow my advices or to give positive feedback in case they finally have been able to have the trick to work as supposed?
Only God knows
I'm having trouble with this as well. I have replaced my preloaded GPlay store apk under /system/priv-app/Phonesky with a 8.10.30 apk - and created folders in /data/app/ named "com.android.vending" "com.android.vending-1" "com.android.vending-2" and the same with .apk on the end of the file name. I used terminal emulator and the su command, and even tried chattr +i - but still, google Play Store silently updates itself after a while and I get a new "com.android.vending-3" folder with the new apk in it. I'm at my wits end at this point. I don't want any newer versions of the store because they cause horrible battery drain on my M7, whereas 8.10.30 gives me no trouble. But without the folder trick working, my only hope seems to be to use LuckyPatcher to try and disable autoupdating that way.
And I honestly am yet to see a download source for LuckyPatcher that looks the least bit trustworthy.
Aaren11 said:
I don't want any newer versions of the store because they cause horrible battery drain on my M7, whereas 8.10.30 gives me no trouble
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Aaren11
I don't know a single thing about M7, except that it's not a Galaxy Y phone and that for sure, according to what you said, the Android version running on your phone is different from the stock Galaxy Y Android version which is Gingerbread 2.3.1.
In Android 2.3.1 user apps apk file are stored in /data/app folder while in your case, according to your post, the app apk is stored in a subfolder of that path, so instead of /data/app/com.android.vending-1.apk you have /data/app/com.android.vending-1/<something_here>.apk
This changes the scenario quite much.
I did a bit of search on Google to figure out what's your Android version and what's the default apps apk store folder without having to ask to you and waiting for your reply.
What I found out is that M7 is an HTC made Android phone, and is running Android KitKat 4.4 or above.
According to what i've found in Android 4.4 the apps apk file path should be like this:
/data/app/com.android.vending-1/base.apk
where the apk file name is not <app_name>.apk but just base.apk.
Is that correct Aaren11?
Is the file name of the apk you found in /data/app/com.android.vending-3 folder, base.apk?
So, let's try to adjust the trick to match your system.
- First of all switch off your phone Wifi and uninstall the GPS update.
- Clean the /data/app folder from all the com.android.vending???? folders you previously made.
- Make this new empty foders /data/app/com.android.vending/base.apk and /data/app/com.android.vending-1/base.apk
- To try if the trick works, instead of waiting for the next auto update that you don't know when exactly is going to happen, go download the GPS apk, move it to your phone via bluetooth, or USB or SDcard and install it.
Btw my Google search didn't result in any GPS version above 6.0.5 which seems to me to be the latest so I really wonder how is possible your GPS version is 8.10.30 unless that's not the GPS version but another related number you read somewhere else.
Anyway you can download the latest GPS version APK from here http://www.androidapksfree.com/apk/google-play-store-apk-latest-version-download/
- Post here the outcome of the attempt.
If the trick works the apk installation should fail with a "out of space" error message.
Good luck!
Thanks for the reply halove,
Honestly I suspected that simply altering the tweak to fit the different file structure might work, but at the same time because every single post on this matter I've seen so far referenced the same set of folders with the .apk extension - I also was under the impression that their precise location was mandatory to the functioning of the fix. I'll try fitting with my current file structure and seeing if I have any success.
Just to answer some of your queries. The M7 runs up to Android 5.0.2, at least that's as far as HTC has deined to bless us with OTA's, anything beyond that requires a custom ROM.
And my google play services is indeeed 8.3.00, I was confusing it and my Play Store version of 5.10.30. Last I checked Play services only goes up to 8.4.89.
Yeah no luck there I'm afraid.
Doesn't matter how many 'com.android.vending' or 'com.google.android.gms' directories with 'base.apk's I make - there is always a new one created, and the update is installed. I went all the way up to 'com.android.vending-5' and it still persists creating a sixth directory and auto updating. Again, I'd have no problem with this, were it not for the fact that I get rediculously high cpu usage on anything above 5.10.30 and 8.1.14 - nevermind the inability to opt out of this update, or the rumours that Google keeps pushing new hidden features that I don't want collecting my personal information.
I've tried even intergrating the 5.10.30 / 8.1.14 apk's into /system/priv-app/ but neither copying the files directly out of /data/app/ and renaming them appropriatley, or using TiBu's 'intergrate to ROM' option seems to work.
I really am at my wits end here.
Hi Aaren11,
well, honestly I wasn't much confident the trick could work in your case (and in any Android 4.4 or above) because the failure would happen if in the folder the package installer is going to save the app apk file, there's already "something" (either a file or a folder) that already uses the same filename of the apk that has to be saved.
But given that the package installer makes a new empty folder where to store the apk, then there inside won't be anything that will interfere with the installer.
In earlier Android versions seems that the package installer doesn't recognize the existence of the dummy folder because, in order to chose the apk file name, the installer check only the existing FILES and there names, so it skip the folders... but when it's time to "write" the file, the presence of the folder with same name will make the installation to fail.
But in Android 4.4 for sure the package installer will check the folders name first, in order to chose the name of the folder that it will make to store the apk file inside.
So the dummy folder will be recognized and "skipped" by making a new empty folder with a different name.
So there's one last hope.
If in pre 4.4 Android the trick works because the installer check for existing files but not for existing folders, maybe in 4.4 the trick could work if the installer check ONLY for existing folders and NOT for existing files.
So here's the plan
Delete all the dummy folders you made.
In /data/app make a dummy file (a empty text file) and give it the name of the folder the installer will likely use (com.android.vending, com.android.vending-1).
If the installer won't recognize it, then likely it will fail when it will attempt to make the folder.
If it recognize it and will delete it first, then you have to make it undeletable by power of the "immutable" flag that you can set on the file using the chattr +i command; given that the /data partition is formatted with an Ext filesystem.
Once again... good luck!
halnovemila said:
Hi Aaren11,
Delete all the dummy folders you made.
In /data/app make a dummy file (a empty text file) and give it the name of the folder the installer will likely use (com.android.vending, com.android.vending-1).
If the installer won't recognize it, then likely it will fail when it will attempt to make the folder.
If it recognize it and will delete it first, then you have to make it undeletable by power of the "immutable" flag that you can set on the file using the chattr +i command; given that the /data partition is formatted with an Ext filesystem.
Once again... good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly, still no dice.
Even just using the installer apk for a more up to date version of Play Store, it simply creates a new folder, numerated after the files I've made. I created:
com.android.vending
com.android.vending-1
com.android.vending-2
As blank files without an extension. And the installer simply creates a 'com.android.vending-3' folder and installs there.
I'm going to try again with dummy base.apk files in the appropriate folders - but I doubt it'll work. The installer clearly seems capable of distinguishing dummy folders and files, and simply creating a new directory every time.
Edit: No luck with that route either. The installer still simply creates a new, sequential directory and installs to that. At this stage it looks like the only way to get out of either app auto updating silently would be to block that process from starting entirley, because simply trying to trick it with misleading directories clearly isn't going to work. I think I'm going to have to give lucky patcher another go. Thanks google -_ -
Aaren11 said:
The installer clearly seems capable of distinguishing dummy folders and files, and simply creating a new directory every time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah, I don't think the package installer cares about the files and folders it finds in /data/app, either real or dummy... what the installer does is just to check the existing filenames so to make a proper new one.
And the trick works only if the package installer can't "see" the dummy folder/file before its attempt to make the new folder/file.
So, seems that the package installer of Android 4.4 (and above) is a bit smarter than the one that comes with earlier versions.
I was wondering if there's a way to "hide" the dummy folder/file to the package installer so it will end up to make a new folder that will actually match the dummy filename incurring in a system error, and then the failure.
Unfortunately there's no such a "hidden" attribute to files/folders in Android OS.
Removing all the read,write,execute permissions on a file/folder doesn't prevent to list those file/folders along the rest of the directory content.
At this point I only wonder if the package installer might fail because the new folder name it has to make has a "split" number (-1,-2...) that exceed an internal limit.
So, let's say that package installer can handle names till two digits split (-99), what will happen if there's a dummy folder with name com.android.vending-99?
Will the installation fail? or the installer will go further and will make a com.android.vending-100 folder?
How about com.android.vending-999?
Can you try this?
Make dummy folders with name com.android.vending-9, com.android.vending-99,com.android.vending-999,com.android.vending-9999,com.android.vending-99999,com.android.vending-999999 and see what will happen once again
So basically i copy tv shows and movies on my phone to watch and i delete them when i'm through, Although after deleting the internal storage still shows the same free space,the same thing is happens with my sd card a,i had to format it to gain back the full capacity. It seems like whatever i copy to my sd card or internal storage it permanently takes up the space and even if i delete in it makes no difference. It happens when i delete the files from a video player,file manger,gallery or any app and also from windows explorer when i connect my phone to my pc.The default android file manger only works properly when deleting files. i tried both factory and hard reset,no luck.
Can anyone please help. I'm on Android 7.0 ,January 2017 security patch.
Should i try a custom rom to fix this? (if its a software issue)
I know you didn't mention it explicitly, but ES File Explorer enables a recycle bin by default. You have to manually disable it, or go to the recycle bin and clear it after deleting files.
thunder2132 said:
I know you didn't mention it explicitly, but ES File Explorer enables a recycle bin by default. You have to manually disable it, or go to the recycle bin and clear it after deleting files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use es file explorer and this not only happens in a file manager.i mentioned multiple places including when I delete files from my PC on my device.
ali.ahad77 said:
I don't use es file explorer and this not only happens in a file manager.i mentioned multiple places including when I delete files from my PC on my device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just making sure. I haven't checked to see if ES allows other apps/areas to write to its recycle bin (I disable it every time because it's annoying to delete my files twice after they've already been backed up).
It almost sounds like your phone isn't re-indexing after the data is deleted. If it were me I'd try to repair the file system in TWRP, if that didn't work I'd run a RUU. If you're not unlocked already and don't want to be, run the RUU first.
thunder2132 said:
Just making sure. I haven't checked to see if ES allows other apps/areas to write to its recycle bin (I disable it every time because it's annoying to delete my files twice after they've already been backed up).
It almost sounds like your phone isn't re-indexing after the data is deleted. If it were me I'd try to repair the file system in TWRP, if that didn't work I'd run a RUU. If you're not unlocked already and don't want to be, run the RUU first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have twrp,I use stock ,where can I find ruu? And how do I install it? Will any ruu work ? Can I go back to marshmallow?I'm kinda new to this. Update - okay now the free space is showing the right size,maybe it takes time to update when deleting big files especially when deleting them from other places. I would still like to know the answer to my questions about ruu though.thanks.
ali.ahad77 said:
I don't have twrp,I use stock ,where can I find ruu? And how do I install it? Will any ruu work ? Can I go back to marshmallow?I'm kinda new to this. Update - okay now the free space is showing the right size,maybe it takes time to update when deleting big files especially when deleting them from other places. I would still like to know the answer to my questions about ruu though.thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. You can find the RUU (ROM Update Utility) files for your device here on XDA or from HTC
2. Install the HTC drivers on your device (again, can be found here or on HTC's website) plug in your phone, enable ADB Debugging (settings > about phone > software > more > keep tapping build number until it unlocks developer options, go back to settings, open developer options, enable ADB Debugging) then run the exe. If you want more detail or have issues go here for an old but still good tutorial.
3. If you're stock only the newest RUU will work, you can't downgrade to MM without going S-Off. Getting S-off will cost you $25 using Sunshine for all versions except Verizon, which you need to mail in if you're on the latest firmware.
RUU will completely reset your device, it'll bring it back to being like new, so anything that's not on your SD card will be erased.
thunder2132 said:
1. You can find the RUU (ROM Update Utility) files for your device here on XDA or from HTC
2. Install the HTC drivers on your device (again, can be found here or on HTC's website) plug in your phone, enable ADB Debugging (settings > about phone > software > more > keep tapping build number until it unlocks developer options, go back to settings, open developer options, enable ADB Debugging) then run the exe. If you want more detail or have issues go here for an old but still good tutorial.
3. If you're stock only the newest RUU will work, you can't downgrade to MM without going S-Off. Getting S-off will cost you $25 using Sunshine for all versions except Verizon, which you need to mail in if you're on the latest firmware.
RUU will completely reset your device, it'll bring it back to being like new, so anything that's not on your SD card will be erased.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you check if your device shows the new storage size right after deleting something big instantly from multiple places?(not from default Android explorer in settings) Is this normal or should I actually download a ruu and flash it to resolve this.Also there are a lot of ruu , especially for u.s,mine is probably European unlocked,how am I suppose to make sure which ruu is right for my device.
That setting doesn't always update immediately. I use ES File Explorer Pro as my SD analyst for showing free space etc. If your phone is working then don't worry about the ruu