Unfreezable apps?

[Johnnytron]

Has anyone else found that no matter what you do, "Play Books" and "Play Movies" remain in the app drawer? I have disabled, uninstalled updates, etc. numerous times but they come back after a reboot with out fail. I even froze them with TB but they still return. Everything else stays frozen and hidden.

 

[JeffDenver]

Has anyone else found that no matter what you do, "Play Books" and "Play Movies" remain in the app drawer? I have disabled, uninstalled updates, etc. numerous times but they come back after a reboot with out fail. I even froze them with TB but they still return. Everything else stays frozen and hidden.

I have a Rezound, so I don't know for sure if this will work for you, but...

I went into app manager and uninstalled updates for "Play Books". This changed the name of the app to "Books". I could then disable this app. Neither app appears in my app drawer now.

 

[Johnnytron]

I wonder if I could just delete them. I figure this would take me off the update path, but worse case senario I could simply reinstall ICS 211 and get back on if I need to.

 

[MattyP]

Yeah, same here. I emailed Titanium Backup support about it, but haven't heard back from them. And if you delete them, any future OTA updates will fail. Also ... I read on another forum that if your phone is rooted and you try to get a movie from Google Play Movies, it will tell you "you cannot view this movie because your device appears to be rooted".

 

[thaDroidz]

Rename the apk to playmusic. Apk. Bak
Basically just add ".bak" to the end of any system app you want gone. Later rename to original to get an OTA..

I am rooted ota ics, and just watched a rented movies on play this morning, but I haven't frozen any apps yet!

----posted MAXXED OUT WITH dessert----

 

[Johnnytron]

Rename the apk to playmusic. Apk. Bak
Basically just add ".bak" to the end of any system app you want gone. Later rename to original to get an OTA..

Um, ok, but when I tried to rename the apk file it said it was a system file and could not be renamed. I'm not real familier with renaming the files, could you specify exactly which file needs to be renamed and how to go about doing it?

 

[MattyP]

Um, ok, but when I tried to rename the apk file it said it was a system file and could not be renamed. I'm not real familier with renaming the files, could you specify exactly which file needs to be renamed and how to go about doing it?

If you're rooted you can do it with a file manager, there are two files for each one, in two different folders.

data/app/com.google.android.apps.books-1.apk
data/app/com.google.android.videos-1.apk

The other two are in:

system/app/BooksTablet.apk
system/app/Videos.apk

Long press on each one, then tap "Rename" and then add .bak at the end of each. Don't change any of the original name. If you ever need to take an OTA just remove the .bak.

It worked for me

 

[thaDroidz]

Um, ok, but when I tried to rename the apk file it said it was a system file and could not be renamed. I'm not real familier with renaming the files, could you specify exactly which file needs to be renamed and how to go about doing it?

Sorry was assuming you were rooted since you use titanium backup...

----posted MAXXED OUT WITH dessert----

 

[MattyP]

Sorry was assuming you were rooted since you use titanium backup...

----posted MAXXED OUT WITH dessert----

Sorry ... I assumed the same thing ... I didn't know TB had a non-root version.

 

[Johnnytron]

Well, I'm supposed to be rooted, I used Matt's utility with the root option. All my rooted apps work fine, but after using several file managers I still get denied because of permissions. I think I'm missing something...:blink:

 

[thaDroidz]

I use root explorer it has a ro /rw toggle near the top while browsing system folders.

Other explorers have an option to enable rewrites or root access or similar in the settings menu.

----posted MAXXED OUT WITH dessert----

 

[Johnnytron]

Ok, finally got that issue resolved, never did find the first two files but when I renamed the second two they went away.

Thanks for the help!