[GUIDE][GLOBAL]Flyme 7 update,Disable system apps,Enable night mode,Weather fix

non.verbal

Member
May 23, 2017
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First of all i highly recommend you update your phone to latest version of Flyme as of day i write this guide newest stable version is 7.0.0.0G. It brings various bug fixes as well as security update and new functions. It fixed the weather problem too when it would not appear on secondary screen. This is my experience based on the standard model with Helio P25 chip.

JUST IN CASE BACKUP ALL OF YOUR DATA FIRST

Grab it at http://www.flymeos.com/firmwarelist?modelId=88&type=1
Installation is pretty straightforward:
-switch off your phone
-now press volume up button and power button at same time, then release power button when meizu logo appears
-phone now will enter update mode, connect it to pc and it should show up as removable drive named recovery, copy the update.zip over it
-once copied tap the start button to begin. the process itself and first boot will take a while
-when done and phone boots up just log in to your accounts and set up everything as normal or whatever

ta-dah ! you should be running latest software now.

Next problem i've encountered was big number of unwanted apps and you will need working ADB for that. I've always used custom roms which did not contain bloatware. Now im giving you one of the way of disabling them (not permanent removal).
For this to be done you need to activate developer mode and usb debugging, simply go to settings->about phone->and now tap on your build number several times
After you activate it it will be available in accessibility options under developer settings. just check the usb debugging and you're good to go
DISCLAIMER: dont ask me about adb drivers for your phone, since i had issues installing them under win 10 x64 build 1803 i thought "aw f*ck it" and just did it on linux where everything worked out of the box.
The application you will need is called Ice Box (you will find it here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.catchingnow.icebox&hl=en_US) and install it.
After you install the app its necessary that you remove ALL of your accounts including your Google account. We will need to grant the app device owner permission. Also if multi-user or guest mode has been set on your device, it need to be closed or deleted.
When you have that done just type in your command line , terminal or whatever "adb shell dpm set-device-owner com.catchingnow.icebox/.receiver.DPMReceiver "
Now reboot and add your accounts back, and disable/freeze uwanted apps.

Last - the night mode. As its no longer availble in Flyme 7 if you want to use it you need to manually bring it back by installing Flyme Lab and enabling it trough quickshortcutmanager. Install both apps, then open quickshortcutmanager and search for Flyme Lab. expand it and choose the activity named com.meizu.flymelab/com.meizu.flymelab.component.nightmode.NightModeSettingsActivity .Create shortcut and open it. You should be able to enter the night mode.
 

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cris2d2

Senior Member
Feb 22, 2009
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Nice guides, thanks.
It's also nice that Flyme 7 still supports rooting, therefore I'm using Titanium Backup to freeze unwanted apps. I bought it when I was using another phone so, for me, it's still worth it. Altough, for uninstalling system apps I'm using separate ADB commands for each app.
 

non.verbal

Member
May 23, 2017
35
11
0
Kraków
Nice guides, thanks.
It's also nice that Flyme 7 still supports rooting, therefore I'm using Titanium Backup to freeze unwanted apps. I bought it when I was using another phone so, for me, it's still worth it. Altough, for uninstalling system apps I'm using separate ADB commands for each app.
Its first time for me writing a guide so good word is always appreciated. What im trying to show here is the no root way of getting rid of apps for ppl like me who dont want to root their phone. As i bought it literally two days ago and i dont want to mess with it too much and loose warranty or/and OTA updates.
I also been considering posting a root guide once i tried it myself to confirm it working.
 

cris2d2

Senior Member
Feb 22, 2009
176
27
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Sibiu
Its first time for me writing a guide so good word is always appreciated. What im trying to show here is the no root way of getting rid of apps for ppl like me who dont want to root their phone. As i bought it literally two days ago and i dont want to mess with it too much and loose warranty or/and OTA updates.
I also been considering posting a root guide once i tried it myself to confirm it working.
Well, before I discovered a rooting method for Flyme 7, I used to uninstall apps by using ADB commands. So, yes, it is possible to remove unwanted system apps without root. But now, after rooting Flyme 7, I'm only using Titanium Backup to freeze unwanted system apps, not removing them.

As far as I know, rooting Meizu phones by the official method (from Settings) does not lead to losing warranty. Only OTA updates are lost, but this is not important, at least to me, because I can always check Flyme website for new updates and, if I want to update, I just download the file and flash it through standard Flyme recovery. There is no need, for me, to maintain OTA capability. Anyhow, Flyme updates are slow to non-existent, so we can't really complain about losing an update.
 

pask876

Member
Oct 20, 2010
17
1
0
Thank you all. I'm happy with this phone at all, but software has few shortcomings and design flaws, in my opinion. Especially related to the integration with "flyme login" and Touchpal. This last one is very annoying because although I try to stop it, at each software update it comes back, more annoying than ever. So, I have some questions: which is the adb command to stop and freeze bloatware without rooting? Which is the official way to root the phone? Once rooted, is it possible to revert to the unrooted state? Some apps, actually, do not work on rooted phones. Thanks
 

cris2d2

Senior Member
Feb 22, 2009
176
27
58
Sibiu
Thank you all. I'm happy with this phone at all, but software has few shortcomings and design flaws, in my opinion. Especially related to the integration with "flyme login" and Touchpal. This last one is very annoying because although I try to stop it, at each software update it comes back, more annoying than ever. So, I have some questions: which is the adb command to stop and freeze bloatware without rooting? Which is the official way to root the phone? Once rooted, is it possible to revert to the unrooted state? Some apps, actually, do not work on rooted phones. Thanks
I can't freeze (or disable) apps with ADB commands, only uninstall.

You need [email protected], App Inspector or similar (to find exact name of package for an app) and these commands:

adb devices
adb shell
pm uninstall -k --user 0 name_of_package

Example, for gmail:
pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.gm


Regarding rooting, as far as I know, the only method that works on Pro 7 / Pro 7 Plus is also supported by Meizu (but it breaks OTA updates).
The method is described in this video (in russian) but it's quite easy.
If you want to remove root (or if root breaks functionality) you have to reflash the same ROM from Recovery (without wipe).