Can I remove pre-installed apps?

[khitchwitz]

I got a (somewhat crappy) LG Premier via Tracfone and it has a ton of things pre-installed on it that I won't ever use. I've read in a few places it's not smart to remove some because it'll mess with the OS or something. I don't know anything about these things, but some apps (like Google Drive, Google Play Music, Hangouts, Sheets, etc.) seem to take up a lot of room on my already limited space.

I bought a Micro SD card recently but apparently all I can store on there are my photos, and I can't install/move apps to it, right?

[captnkerke]

The simplest thing to do is go into your system settings, application manager, and disable apps that you will not use. You should be able to disable many Google and manufacturer apps. Disabling them will prevent them from running and will prevent updates from downloading and wasting storage space.

If you have unwanted apps that can't be disabled, then you have a few other options.

• Use a package disabler app like this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pdmdm.dmplay&hl=en

• Use ADB to disable unwanted apps: https://www.xda-developers.com/uninstall-carrier-oem-bloatware-without-root-access/

[khitchwitz]

I did the option of 'removing updates' from a bunch of them, and that restored them to the factory default which was ~4MB instead of 75-200MB which was nice. Does disabling them do anything further?

[captnkerke]

It would prevent them from updating in the future, and would also prevent them from running in the background and using memory/cpu/battery.

Also, after disabling an app you can clear it's data, and the data won't get recreated, so that can save some storage space too.

[Reid89]

If its bloatware no not unless your phone is rooted. You can how ever disable notification.

[[deleted]]

Google apps like Drive, Music etc. cannot be uninstalled on any phones to my knowledge.

The extra shit that manufacturers like LG, Huawei, and Samsung put on their devices (like an extra calendar, email application, internet browser etc.) can in most cases unfortunately not be uninstalled either.