Last Updated on April 9, 2017 by Mathew Diekhake
The Motorola Droid Turbo announced October 28 of this year is a brand new smartphone. As such, many users are just starting to learn how to use the smartphone properly with all of its features. Part of the features you have likely spent time exploring so far is the Motorola default apps. Each device manufacturer has its own set of default apps that helps distinct their device away from the competition. Since most of them run Android stock operating systems, the default apps play an important role for the companies. However, as you well know, the more programs we install on a device the slower it performance. Moreover, they often result in a decrease in battery performance. The only reason they stay is because they are an integral part of the business side of things and help bring in revenue.
Luckily for end-users we can customize our smartphones and tablets to remove the bloatware and free ourselves from the default applications that are taking away from our ideal device performance. After you remove the bloatware you’ll find your Motorola Droid Turbo running faster, the battery lasting longer and reduced lag when browsing the OS. Often we associate these parts with software updates and bugs in the existing software. However, that isn’t always the case.
It’s imperative you understand that removing bloatware is an unofficial process. That much is obvious because it’s the Motorola and Google partnership that install what we are calling the bloatware apps, security and more processes that take it away from stock Android to the specific Android operating systems running on the Droid Turbo. That means you must read up on a list of essentials before starting the steps just like you would any other unofficial guide with Custom ROMs etc.
Just like other unofficial operations, uninstalling bloatware comes with risks. The separate risk this time is we are removing default apps and sometimes if you don’t know what you are doing you can accidentally delete a program file you didn’t want to lose. The system relies on these files to work properly. That’s a new way for you to brick your phone. Basically, if you don’t know what the name of the file is you should not touch it. Only remove the ones you can identify as stock apps you want gone.
Many of the default apps you can exclude include the Amazon series such as Amazon Kindle, Amazon, Amazon App Store, Amazon Music and loads from the Big red including My Verizon Mobile, Verizon Navigation, Verizon Family, stock Verizon and many more. Of course, you can always install the same from the Play Store if you change your mind instead of using the SDK feature or the app at the bottom of the page to enable them once more. There’s a range of other apps that you can remove such as Droid Zap, VZ protect, NFL Mobile, Vcast media manager, Motorola care internal and Motorola Demo mode. Let’s face it, who wants any of those other than the NFL app perhaps?
- We recommend you backup the smartphone before running the steps. You can back up to the phones internal storage. That way it doesn’t get wiped if you need a factory reset. The internal storage is different from the ROM. Use Google Drive’s free limited GB’s of space if you are running low of space from the mobile. As promote helium for Android because it’s amazing for syncing the phone contacts, backing up market apps and even the SMS texts.
- You must have a notebook, computer or laptop with a USB slot mounted in the side for this operation to work. Furthermore, you must stopover at the Developer options menu from the Droid’s settings menu. Now enable the USB Debugging Mode.
- The turbo comes with USB charging as a stock feature much like most modern-day smartphones.
- If you have root access already you can try Titanium. titanium is better than helium but only available for those with the system internals unlocked.
- You must have Android SDK setup and ready to rock on your computer. You can setup SDK for most modern operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple’s Mac.
How To Remove Bloatware From Motorola Droid Turbo
- Download the “block bloatware” zip file here.
- Connect the Turbo to the computer using a USB cable.
- Check your phone charger if you cannot find the wire.
- Unzip the file on the desktop and run the block-boat-ware .bat file.
- From there you follow the instructions from the screen, It runs you through the default programs you can uninstall on your Turbo.
- Remove extra programs from the Droid-Turbo-Block-Bloat-Ware/tools folder.
- Open the command line and type “adb shell pm block <app name>” – replace “app name’ with the app you want removed.
– use this command every time you wish to block an individual application. - To reverse the operation and make them working once more you want to type : “adb shell pm unblock <app name>”
– notice the difference is with the “block” and unblock’ names.
Those of you wanting to try the No-Bloat Free application from the Play Store by visiting this link.