So I recently purchased a Z-flip 4 which I am pretty pleased with, but nevertheless I needed to get rid of some of the bloat/spy ware.  Of particular annoyance was Upday/Samsung Free and Google discover so If you are interested in getting rid of them (or probably nobody is ever going to read this, but I end up needing to remind myself how to do it next time) this is the trick:

First thing to do is put it in developer mode and enable usb debug mode.  To do this

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Select System.
3. Scroll to the bottom and select About phone.
4. Scroll to the bottom and tap Build number 7 times.
5. Return to the previous screen to find Developer options near the bottom.
6. Scroll down and enable USB debugging.

optional – Disable adb authorisation timeout

reboot

On your linux box install adnroid-tools

sudo pacman -Syy android-tools

Kill the server and restart it (may not be necessary but I had issues connecting the first time)

sudo adb kill-server
sudo adb start-server

Plug the phone in and it should ask if you wish to accept debugging (it will provide an RSA fingerprint)

check the phone is connected

sudo adb devices

should list a device name with the word “device” next to it; If it says “unauthorised” try restarting the server and rebooting the phone again.

The absolute bollocks that I want rid of is Google Discover; Samsung Free and Samsung Upday.  To dump these apps

Google Discover:

sudo adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox

Upday:

sudo adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 de.axelspringer.yana.zeropage

Samsung Free:

sudo adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.spage

If you happen to go criminally insane and want to reinstall the apps then

sudo adb shell pm install-existing com.somePackageName.blah

Incidentally if you wish to remain in a shell then you can start it by issuing the command

sudo adb shell

The you just need the appended commands to remove or install the offending packages.

To get rid of the rest of the bixby junk:

pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.agent
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.es.globalaction
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.wakeup
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.spage
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.visionintelligence
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.agent.dummy
pm uninstall -k --user 0 samsung.android.app.settings.bixby
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.systemui.bixby2
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.service

See https://technastic.com/remove-samsung-bloatware-safe-to-remove-apps/ for more info.

The quickest way to find a package name for a give package is to install an app called “package name” from the playstore.

 

Feel free to take your phone out of developer mode when you are done.  Thankfully updating the phone works fine and the bloatware seems to stay away.  PS.  You can use this to get rid of just about anything on your phone that you don’t want there and cannot uninstall in the conventional manner.

 

Government emergency broadcasts

If you want to remove the government emergency broadcast application (which I do) then it is called com.google.android.cellbroadcastreceiver

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.cellbroadcastreceiver