Thanks to the OP for this. Appreciated.
After skimming through and finding people who have broken their phone I decided to poke around on "the Google" for more info before I attempt this. I did remove some things on the OP's list which I was 'almost' certain shouldn't cause a problem. I like this post I just found. I will do more research later to trim my phone as much as possible. I will post the content in case the page goes away some day (is that legal here?):
Source:
https://selivan.github.io/2020/02/25/removing-bloatware-from-xiaomi-miui-android.html
Removing all unnecessary bloatware from Xiaomi MIUI 11/12 (Android 9/10) without root
androidxiaomimiui
Feb 25, 2020
TLDR: If you just want the list of bloatware app package names for Xiaomi MIUI - scroll to the end of the artice.
UPDATE 2020-05-09: Added SIM Toolkit description.
UPDATE 2020-07-04 Added some apps, thanks to
@thecrazyblack.
UPDATE 2020-11-23 Updated list of apps, thanks to new comments by
@toast254,
@swiesmann, @MarcelloDM,
@satnited.
Xiaomi phones have impressive parameters for given price, but they come with a lot of unnecessary software. It eats battery and memory, sometimes shows annoying advertisement, and may have security issues. You can not uninstall this pre-installed apps like usual ones, and you can not even disable them from settings like in earlier Android versions.
Here is how to remove or disable unnecessary software without rooting phone. Works for MIUI 11 and 12 (based on Android 9 and 10), should work for other phones for recent Android versions. Thanks to this very useful but severely under-voted stackoverflow answer.
NOTE: I do not guarantee that this instructions won’t break your phone, blow it to flaming pieces or cause a sentient machines rebellion against humanity. You were warned.
To manage phone from command-line via USB you need adb - Android Debug Bridge, part of Android platform-tools. You can download the recent one for your OS here. If you are on Windows, you also need USB drivers for your device.
Settings - About phone. Tap “MIUI version” multiple times. Now Developer Options are unlocked.
Settings - Additional settings - Developer Options - [
] USB debugging.
Connect the phone to your computer via USB. Choose “File Transfer” mode instead of default “No data transfer”.
Open console in a directory where you unpacked platform tools.
./adb devices
Phone will prompt to add your computer’s key to allowed, agree to it.
./adb shell you have a shell on your device.
Now you need app package names, like com.miui.yellowpage for Mi Yellow Pages.
Settings - Apps - Manage Apps. Tap on application, then tap info(
) button in the right corner. There you can see “APK name”, that’s what we need.
There are 2 options: disable app and uninstall app. I prefer disabling them, it’s easier to enable them back if you’ve broken something.
# Disable app
pm disable-user app.package.name
# Re-enable it
pm enable app.package.name
# Uninstall app
# Sometimes uninstall command may not work without -k option on un-rooted devices
# -k: Keep the data and cache directories around after package removal.
pm uninstall --user 0 app.package.name
# Install uninstalled system app
pm install --user 0 $(pm dump app.package.name | awk '/path/{ print $2 }')
# Another way to install uninstalled system app
pm install-existing app.package.name
More details here: pm commad manual.
To be able to install apps back, you need to enable
Settings - Additional settings - Developer Options - [
] Install via USB
On Xiaomi phone to enable this setting you need to sign in into Mi Account. You may just use your Google account to sign into it and then sign-out when you don’t need it anymore:
Settings - Mi Account - sign-out.
Here is a list of Xiaomi and Google apps that I find unnecessary:
UNSAFE TO DISABLE/UNINSTALL
com.xiaomi.finddevice Result: endless boot loop, some time after it will ask to erase the phone and start over. Guess how I learned that?
com.miui.securitycenter Result: phone reboots only in recovery mode
com.android.contacts Result: you lose the phone icon
com.mi.android.globalminusscreen Xiaomi App Vault. Result: if you are logged in with Mi account, device becomes locked, to unlock you should bring it to Xiaomi Services Center. Settings -> Home Screen crashes Settings app. See comment by
@satnited.
Xiaomi:
com.miui.analytics Mi Analytics (Spyware?)
com.xiaomi.mipicks GetApps - app store like Google Play from Xiaomi. The most annoying one, periodically shows advertisement.
com.miui.msa.global MIUI Ad Services - also responsible for showing ads.
com.miui.cloudservice com.miui.cloudservice.sysbase com.miui.newmidrive Mi Cloud
com.miui.cloudbackup Mi Cloud Backup
com.miui.backup MIUI Backup
com.xiaomi.glgm Games
com.xiaomi.payment com.mipay.wallet.in Mi Credit
com.tencent.soter.soterserver Authorize payments in WeChat and other Chinese services, useless if you don’t live in China.
cn.wps.xiaomi.abroad.lite Mi DocViewer(Powered by WPS Office)
com.miui.videoplayer Mi Video
com.miui.player Mi Music
com.mi.globalbrowser Mi Browser
com.xiaomi.midrop Mi ShareMe
com.miui.yellowpage Mi YellowPages. Some kind of caller id app.
com.miui.gallery MIUI Gallery - if you use another gallery app WARNING:
@nihalanand697 reports disabling it isn’t safe. But I had no problems after uninstalling it.
com.miui.android.fashiongallery Wallpaper Carousel
com.miui.bugreport com.miui.miservice Mi Bug Report - if you not using this feature
com.miui.weather2 MIUI Weather. I prefer another weather app.
com.miui.hybrid com.miui.hybrid.accessory Quick apps.
com.miui.global.packageinstaller MIUI package installer. Without it Play Store app will be used. It shows ads, but I like that you can manage app permissions before starting it.
com.xiaomi.joyose ?? Some junk
Google:
com.google.android.gms.location.history Location History
com.google.android.videos Google Movies
com.google.android.music Google Music
com.google.android.apps.photos Google Photos
com.google.android.youtube Youtube - I prefer to use a browser
com.google.android.apps.tachyon Google Duo - video calling app
com.google.ar.lens Google Lens - identify things on camera
com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox Google search box - I prever to use a browser or widget
com.google.android.apps.wellbeing Digital wellbeing
com.google.android.apps.googleassistant Google Assistant
Facebook:
What the @#$%? I just got a fresh phone, didn’t install any Facebook apps and I still have a bunch of Facebook services eating my battery and memory.
com.facebook.katana Facebook mobile app
com.facebook.services Facebook Services
com.facebook.system Facebook App Installer
com.facebook.appmanager Facebook app manager
Default Android Apps
com.android.browser Default Browser - not necessary if you use Firefox or Chrome
com.android.wallpaper.livepicker Wallpaper live picker
com.android.dreams.basic Screen saver
com.android.dreams.phototable Screen saver
com.android.providers.downloads.ui Downloads UI. Periodically show notifications about files you downloaded. I find no use for it.
Miscelanneous Promoted Apps
com.netflix.partner.activation Some Netflix stuff
com.zhiliaoapp.musically TikTok
ru.yandex.searchplugin Yandex Search
com.yandex.zen Yandex Zen
com.ebay.mobile com.ebay.carrier Ebay Store
ru.ozon.app.android Ozon Store
com.alibaba.aliexpresshd Aliexpress Store
sg.bigo.live Some social media
ru.auto.ara auto.ru app
And some additional steps to disable Xiaomi ads and collecting data:
Settings - Passwords & Security - Authorization & revocation. Revoke authorization from msa(MIUI System Ads) application. Not necessary if you already disabled com.miui.msa.global.
Settings - Passwords & Security - Privacy. Disable “User Experience Program” and “Send diagnostic data automatically”.
Settings - Passwords & Security - Privacy - Ad services. Disable “Personalized ad recommendations”.
SIM Toolkit
Some Russian mobile operators use SIM card built-in application to promote paid services. They show pop-up windows with OK/Cancel buttons. Hit the wrong button - and you are suddenly subscribed to some freaking SMS horoscope with daily fee.
com.android.stk SIM Toolkit
com.android.stk2 SIM Toolkit for the second SIM card
Note, that some mobile operators may use SIM toolkit for useful things, and you will lose that functions. In my experience I have never seen anything useful there.
Another good articles on de-bloating MIUI:
technastic.com/xiaomi-bloatware-list-miui/
devcondition.com/article/removing-unneeded-miui-applications/
will it clean my house?
