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?