Wednesday 19 October 2016

How to remove ZTE Blade A1 bloatware

I recently purchased a ZTE Blade A1 smartphone on ebay. It was inexpensive, but with specifications comparable to more expensive phones.

It's a pretty good, standard smartphone. Some poorly translated notifications and occasional Chinese text give it character, I think. Unfortunately, it comes with adware (and possibly malware). After using the phone for a few weeks, I started getting annoying popups.

Because the phone's fairly obscure, I can't find anything to replace the built-in software. So if you want to remove the adware (and other pre-installed rubbish), I suggest the following:

1. Download KingoRoot and root the phone (unroot it afterwards)
2. Download Disable Application [Root] and freeze the following apps:

  • superKey
  • Browser
  • TestRadarAdapter
  • SCWeather
  • Black Hole
  • com.ishow.client.android.plugin.comp...
  • Omacp
  • FM Radio
  • Bypass Settings
  • Mi Moment
  • Mi Assistant
  • One touch uninstall
  • holospiral
  • phase beam
  • print spooler
  • basic daydreams
  • zte cares
  • com.android.fakecall
  • com.zte.update
  • bubbles
  • locationem2
  • user guide
  • zte account
  • weather
  • exchange services
  • Mi-POP
  • email
  • emode
  • mieasymodeapiservice
  • mtk android suite daemon
  • mtklogger
  • androidlive wallpapers
  • com.fingerprints.service
  • system updates (com.zte.zdm)
  • phone anti-theft
  • upgradesys (com.fw.upgrade.sysoper)
  • browserprovider
  • live wallpaper picker
  • bsptelephonydevtool
  • fingerprint service
  • gxfpservice
  • setup wizard
  • photo screensavers
  • music visualisation wallpapers
  • ume appservice
  • zdmdaemon
  • mtk nlp service
  • one time init
  • ZTEGesture
  • uim toolkit
  • launcherwidget_zte
  • location of number
  • engineercode (com.zte.engineer)
  • sim toolkit
  • atci_service
This has been tested on my own phone and it seems the apps listed above are not essential. Once I disabled them, the popups stopped.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you, the pop-ups are gone, but so did the internet..A lot of the apps aren't bloatware, some people might find them useful, like FM radio or the browser..

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  2. I had the same problem the phone came with adware so i decided to root and install new rom , very easy to do , root obtained with kingroot. Once rooted i used mobile uncle to install TWRP 3 recovery image. Downloaded this rom http://forum.flymeos.com/thread-6638-1-1.html to root of sd card . Using mobile uncle i booted into recovery , did a wipe/factory resest then chose option to install zip from sd card and the phone is just so much better

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