Xiaomi devices have begun to take over the global market, offering great features at competitive prices. However, one of their drawbacks is the pre-installed MIUI applications , also known as bloatware.
What is Bloatware on Xiaomi devices?
Bloatware is the term used for smartphone that are locked by the vendor and users are not able to remove them. Some well-known manufacturers, such as Samsung, Xiaomi, HTC, etc., use this annoying technique of locking their apps on their devices.
Unless you root your device, which is a tedious process, you can't uninstall or disable bloatware. But there are ways to do it without having to root it.
How to uninstall/disable MIUI apps on Xiaomi devices
- Hidden MIUI settings
Hidden settings in MIUI apps make it easy for developers to perform complex tasks with just a few taps. For example, they can access the notification log, which was previously a challenge.
The app has tabs for various Android, including Android 7, Android 8, and Android 9.You can select one of the Android versions, depending on the MIUI version installed on your Xiaomi device. With the help of hidden settings, you can get rid of some (but not all) pre-installed apps.
- Open the MIUI Hidden Settings.
- Select the Android version.
- Tap on Manage applications.
- Scroll and select the app you want to remove from your device.
- Tap on the “ Disable ” or “ Uninstall ” option .
- Then, tap on the “Disable App” button in the pop-up window.
- ADB and Fastboot
Removing bloatware using ADB and Fastboot works on almost all Android devices.
The only difficulty is that it requires a lot of technique. You either need to follow the steps precisely or have some prior knowledge of ADB and Fastboot.
- On your Android device, go to Settings ⇒ System ⇒ About phone ⇒ Tap Build Number five times to enable Developer options
- Go to Developer Options in System Settings ⇒ Enable USB debugging
- Connect your Android device via USB cable and switch from “Charge only” mode to “File transfer” mode.
- Go to the directory where you extracted the ADB files
- Press Shift + Right-click anywhere in the folder and select “Open Shell Window here” from the pop-up menu.
- At the command prompt, type: “adb devices“
- Grant permission to the computer to use Android device connection via USB debugging.
- Again, type the same command. This will give “authorization” to the command terminal.
- Now, type the following command: “adb shell“
- Open App Inspector on your device and search for the exact application package name.
- Alternatively, you can type “pm list packages” and copy paste it into the next command.
- Enter the following command in Windows PowerShell: “pm uninstall –k —user 0
If you encounter any errors, you can simply reset the phone and your Xiaomi device will be back to normal.
Is it safe to remove Xiaomi Bloatware?
It depends! Xiaomi itself recommends against following such practices, as they are not safe.
Apart from that, removing Xiaomi bloatware can also be achieved by rooting the phone. Actually this is a difficult method if you don't know what to do. A failed rooting process can brick phone .
