A
Apourv
Guest
Hi. This thread will deal with the idea of reducing the size of a CM7 theme.
CM7 themes installed on SD card don't work properly ( say when phone is connected to PC for USB storage, phone may restart, or when phone is turned on theme on SD card is not applied properly.
This will allow you to install more themes, and save internal memory.
Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for any damage to your phone. Do it at your own risk
Make sure you have nandroid backup, although this process may not damage your phone
It is very easy, just follow these steps:
1) Download a CM7 theme (.apk file)
2) Double-Click on the .apk file, Windows will ask for program to open it. Select 'Use installed Programs' and then browse to your Winrar.exe, and click OK. So from now on you will be able to open any .apk file with Winrar
3) Once you open it, go one level up and extract the .apk'
4) Now close winrar, and go inside the extracted folders. Now you'll see many icons, for various apps, for theming.
5) Delete the icons of apps which you don't have on your phone and probably will not install in future.
6) Cut the theme Wallpapers and move them outside of the apk folder. Delete Wallpaper small images. Transfer the images to sd card and you can use them as normal images
7) Now make a zip of the extracted .apk theme folder, and transfer to your phone's SD card. Make sure you make a .zip and not .rar
8) OR just transfer the folder directly to your phone's SD card without zipping. Use Rootexplorer, long press on the folder, select 'zip this folder', and then Go to zip folder.
9) Now from either step 6 or step 7, long press the zip, and rename, now just change the extension from .zip to .apk
10) Install this .apk as any other .apk
11) Apply the theme. Go to manage applications, see the size of your theme, it will be 30% to 50% size of original .apk
12) So you have reduced the size of CM7 theme
Be Careful:
1) This method may not work on some .apk themes. If modified theme does not install, and is installed but doesn't work properly, it means you've deleted some system icons. Uninstall the theme. Modify again to make it working
2) If you have LDPI phone, you may not want HDPI icons, so you can delete entire 'drawable-hdpi' but only some theme will work. Some LDPI themes do require HDPI icons
3) I've uploaded one reduced size CM7 themes with wallpapes. Open them and see which icons I've deleted, so your can get some idea of how this method works.
Original Red_Remix theme is 8MB, the attached Red_Remix theme is only 4.5MB, 44% reduction
Thanks:
Big thanks to UpwardSpiral for his awesome themes. I used your themes just to demonstrate the idea of reducing the size of any CM7 theme. If you don't want me to use your theme for demonstration of the idea, then do let me know.
Here is the XDA thread for UpwardSpiral themes: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=11768348#post11768348
Download UpwardSpiral themes from Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=UpwardSpiral
CM7 themes installed on SD card don't work properly ( say when phone is connected to PC for USB storage, phone may restart, or when phone is turned on theme on SD card is not applied properly.
This will allow you to install more themes, and save internal memory.
Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for any damage to your phone. Do it at your own risk
Make sure you have nandroid backup, although this process may not damage your phone
It is very easy, just follow these steps:
1) Download a CM7 theme (.apk file)
2) Double-Click on the .apk file, Windows will ask for program to open it. Select 'Use installed Programs' and then browse to your Winrar.exe, and click OK. So from now on you will be able to open any .apk file with Winrar
3) Once you open it, go one level up and extract the .apk'
4) Now close winrar, and go inside the extracted folders. Now you'll see many icons, for various apps, for theming.
5) Delete the icons of apps which you don't have on your phone and probably will not install in future.
6) Cut the theme Wallpapers and move them outside of the apk folder. Delete Wallpaper small images. Transfer the images to sd card and you can use them as normal images
7) Now make a zip of the extracted .apk theme folder, and transfer to your phone's SD card. Make sure you make a .zip and not .rar
8) OR just transfer the folder directly to your phone's SD card without zipping. Use Rootexplorer, long press on the folder, select 'zip this folder', and then Go to zip folder.
9) Now from either step 6 or step 7, long press the zip, and rename, now just change the extension from .zip to .apk
10) Install this .apk as any other .apk
11) Apply the theme. Go to manage applications, see the size of your theme, it will be 30% to 50% size of original .apk
12) So you have reduced the size of CM7 theme
Be Careful:
1) This method may not work on some .apk themes. If modified theme does not install, and is installed but doesn't work properly, it means you've deleted some system icons. Uninstall the theme. Modify again to make it working
2) If you have LDPI phone, you may not want HDPI icons, so you can delete entire 'drawable-hdpi' but only some theme will work. Some LDPI themes do require HDPI icons
3) I've uploaded one reduced size CM7 themes with wallpapes. Open them and see which icons I've deleted, so your can get some idea of how this method works.
Original Red_Remix theme is 8MB, the attached Red_Remix theme is only 4.5MB, 44% reduction
Thanks:
Big thanks to UpwardSpiral for his awesome themes. I used your themes just to demonstrate the idea of reducing the size of any CM7 theme. If you don't want me to use your theme for demonstration of the idea, then do let me know.
Here is the XDA thread for UpwardSpiral themes: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=11768348#post11768348
Download UpwardSpiral themes from Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=UpwardSpiral
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