How to Safely Debloat the LG V40 Without Root

The LG V40 is the latest flagship phone from LG, released just last month. It features a 6.4” OLED screen at 3120×1440 resolution, 6GB of RAM, and the awesome Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. It also has LG’s Hi-Fi 32-bit Quad DAC, which is absolutely amazing for audiophiles – in fact, the only companies that rivals LG’s DAC sound quality is perhaps ZTE and Sony, with their Axon and Xperia brands respectively.

In any case, the LG V40 does come with a bit of bloatware. If you want a totally clean, optimized phone, its always a great idea to debloat it. Thus, in this guide we will show you how to safely debloat the LG V40, and remove a lot of the pre-installed packages – this includes packages from the Sprint carrier in the US.

Requirements

 

  1. First enable USB Debugging on your LG V40. Go into Settings > About Phone > tap Build Number 7 times, until Developer Mode is activated.
  2. Next go into Settings > Developer Options > enable USB Debugging.
  3. Connect your LG V40 to your PC via USB, and launch an ADB terminal on your PC (hold shift + right click inside your main ADB folder, and choose ‘Open a Command Window Here’).
  4. In the ADB terminal, type: adb devices
  5. You may need to accept an ADB pairing dialogue on your LG V40 screen, and type adb devices again, but this command should display your LG V40’s serial number. If your serial is not displayed, or ADB returns “No devices found” or “Device offline”, you may need to reseat your USB cable, or troubleshoot your USB drivers.
  6. If ADB successfully recognizes your device, we can proceed with debloating.

There are two ADB commands you can use to debloat an Android device. They are:

pm uninstall -k --user 0: Will force you to perform a factory reset if you want to undo

pm disable-user --user 0: Safer way, can be undone without factory reset

You can also type pm list packages | sort, which will display every package installed on your LG V40.

Its up to you which method you will use (pm uninstall or pm disable-user), but we are providing a comprehensive list of the apps / packages which are considered ‘bloatware’, and can be safely disabled without negatively effecting your device’s operations.

Sprint Zone Launcher. com.sprint.zone
Preferred Activity Setter. com.sprint.w.prefact
Sprint ID. com.sprint.w.installer
Carrier Setup Wizard. com.sprint.psdg.sw
Sprint Hub. com.sprint.ms.smf.services
Sprint Device Manager. com.sprint.ms.cdm
Caller ID. com.sprint.ecid
Mobile Installer. com.sprint.ce.updater
App Stack. com.pinsight.dw
Gadget Guardian. com.lookout
360 Video. com.lge.vrplayer (not planning to use vr)
Video Wallpaper. com.lge.video.vr.wallpaper
com.lge.upsell
Update Center. com.lge.updatecenter
SprintService. com.lge.sprintserver
SprintMobileFrameworkSupport. com.lge.sprintnativewfc.smf
SnapPage. com.lge.snappage
LDB. com.lge.mlt
LG Health. com.lge.lifetracker
LG Pay Qlauncher. com.lge.lgpay.qlauncher
FOTA Update. com.lge.lgfota.permission
Software Update. com.lge.lgdms.clientspr
Software Update. com.lge.lgdms.clients
G-DEC. com.lge.gdec.client
GCUV. com.lge.gcuv
Gaming. com.lge.gametuner
360 Image Wallpaper. com.lge.gallery.vr.wallpaper
Collage Wallpapers. com.lge.gallery.collagewallpaper
Exchange. com.lge.exchange
Email. com.lge.email (not working for me)
Parking Assistant. com.lge.carfinding (I know where my car is)
App Updates. com.lge.appbox.client
AnimalResource. com.lge.animal.resource
Software Update. com.lge.android.atservice
AppCloud. com.ironsource.appcloud.oobe
ARCore. com.google.ar.core
YouTube. com.google.android.youtube (I use Vanced)
Google Play Movies & TV. com.google.android.videos
Print Service Recommendation Service. com.google.android.inservice.recommendation
Google Play Music. com.google.android.music
Gboard. com.google.android.inputmethod.latin
Device setup. com.google.android.apps.work.oobconfic
Google Pay. com.google.android.apps.walletnfcrel
Duo. com.google.android.apps.tachyon
Photos. com.google.android.apps.photos (trying out lg gallery)
Google News. com.google.android.apps.magazines
Slides. com.google.android.apps.docs.editors.slides
Sheets. com.google.android.apps.docs.editors.sheets
Docs. com.google.android.apps.docs.editors.docs
Cloud Print. com.google.android.apps.cloudprint
Facebook App Installer. com.facebook.system (using alternative FB app)
Facebook. com.facebook.katana
Facebook App Manager. com.facebook.appmanager
Voicemail. com.coremobility.app.vnotes
com.android.voicemail.omtp
Print Spooler. com.android.printspooler
Default Print Service. com.android.bips
Prime Video. com.amazon.avod.thirdpartyclient
Mobile Device Information Provider. com.amazon.appmanager
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kamil Anwar


Kamil is a certified MCITP, CCNA (W), CCNA (S) and a former British Computer Society Member with over 9 years of experience Configuring, Deploying and Managing Switches, Firewalls and Domain Controllers also an old-school still active on FreeNode.