What's needed, what's not

[jblackfish]

My Verizon Bionic seems to have acquired a LOT of apps without my intervention over the past year and is running slow as molasses, I suspect, partly because of all that stuff running or just being there. Is there any way to deter what I can safely disable since it won't allow me to uninstall most, or all, of the apps it's shoved down my throat. I don't know what most of it is - I DO know it wasn't there when I first got the phone!

I don't know how to root, etc. and I'm not interested in doing that since I don't want to get myself into more trouble or problems than the slow operation I already have. I'm running 4.1.2 and I have moved all the apps possible to my media card. I reboot fairly often. I deleted the task killer app - someone said it was more of a problem than a help. I don't have a big log of text messages in memory. I'll be glad to answer any other questions if that would help.

Any help?

 

[jblackfish]

You know what? Someone posted the answer to making my Bionic run faster (on another forum) and it's so simple it's like it was tailored for someone like me. Here it is:

1] Go to Settings > Developer Options
2] Scroll down to Limit Background Processes, click here and select 4.
3] Enjoy your speedy new Bionic!

 

[leeshor]

Though that doesn't address your apps questions, that same solution works for most Android phones, and tablets as well.

 

[jblackfish]

Though that doesn't address your apps questions, that same solution works for most Android phones, and tablets as well.

Right, and I'd still be interested in knowing the answer to my apps question. However, the main reason that I wanted to know was to be able to disable the non-essential stuff to improve the speed of my phone.

It's very annoying that Verizon - I guess all the vendors do this to a degree - download so much unwanted crap you your phone. I feel like I pay A LOT for this service and I don't want it cluttered up with their junk too.

 

[jhom]

Right, and I'd still be interested in knowing the answer to my apps question. However, the main reason that I wanted to know was to be able to disable the non-essential stuff to improve the speed of my phone.

It's very annoying that Verizon - I guess all the vendors do this to a degree - download so much unwanted crap you your phone. I feel like I pay A LOT for this service and I don't want it cluttered up with their junk too.

If you do a search on this forum for bloatware, you will find what others have disabled or deleted from their bionics. You can disable many of the apps that came with each OS update by going to settings>apps>all.

 

[aaf709]

If you do a search on this forum for bloatware, you will find what others have disabled or deleted from their bionics. You can disable many of the apps that came with each OS update by going to settings>apps>all.

For some reason, that was only available in ICS. With JB, the best you can do (if unrooted) is uninstall updates.

 

[jhom]

For some reason, that was only available in ICS. With JB, the best you can do (if unrooted) is uninstall updates.

I just checked my rooted and my wife's unrooted Bionic. Both allow me to disable the bloatware.

 

[leeshor]

For some reason, that was only available in ICS. With JB, the best you can do (if unrooted) is uninstall updates.

In some apps, after uninstalling the updates you can then disable the app. I repeat, SOME APPS. Even unrooted.

 

[aaf709]

Yeah, you're right. I uninstalled the updates, but when I went back to the apps, it still appeared. If I had gone back in I would've seen the Disable option.

Thanks!