I open the thread in DEV because I haven't got convincing answer until now.
I found many junior ROM makers and users delete the system apps as many as possible to think it will bring a longer battery usage. I also listened someone got a faster battery drain after deleting some apps like DrmProvider.apk or others.
Could someone explain the real reason please?
Will the missed apps make the system try to read the 'file' again and again so the battery drain faster or some other reasons?
And as mentioned in the begining, deleting those apps that donot affect the system will really bring a batter battery performance?
Thanks!
I'm no dev myseld, but you might find interresting reading what I've recently posted here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=16662568&postcount=10102
Don't take my words for it, but you can always delete apks one by one and carefully watch the logcat verbose to see if the system posts any strange behavior after doing so.
*** I take no responsibilty for you doing so - and do it at your own risks! ***
For sure deleting an apk that is needed by the Android system could make the battery usage worst; DRMprovider is probably a good example of a mandatory app - unless someone never listens to any audio at all.. I don't know the specifics for every error and what kind of energy the system would put into solving a bug related to a missing app -is this really important anyway?
I've deleted 30 apks myself from the system/app directory from CM7 and I did not see any drawback in doing so. Most of them are apks installed by the gapps.zip so they are not part of my stock rom per say -hence: both the system and myself can live very well without them.
I don't care much about saving battery by deleting them as much as: 1- saving space; 2-preventing the system to ever have to read or generate thumbnail previews (or anyhing else really) for those apks and most importantly 3- seeing apks listed in my "running apks" that I've never wanted to start in the first place.
I'm sure that you've read the comment that states that task killers are not needed with Froyo because the system now manages the ram usage very well..but I still kill aps many times a day. Some might say they're just listed but not using resources; well fine! But how can they prove that? If an apk is loaded in memory, it might do an update (or what not) once an hour or once day; that takes battery - not much- but it does and if it is not needed then...
One other good example would be my xda apk: it is always listed under the running task even though I logged out and exited the program. Checking it out with an apk like Process Explorer clearly shows that it still constantly uses up to 3%of the cpu unless I kill it properly... So all this to say: removing apks might not save you so much battery but it might save you some task killing.
Bottom line is: if you're sure that the apk is not needed why have it on the phone?
Battery saving might very well be negligeable and no one can say it's the case for every specific apks. Again, I removed those apks because they're of no use to me and my system seems to live well without them. But it's your job to make sure that deleting stuff is not detrimental for the system and that is the dev part of it.
![[] AL []](/data/avatars/s/3703/3703649.jpg?1600603343){kind=avatar}
