There are quite a few different phone users here. How many of them can
uninstall, disable, or force a stop with Chrome.

On my Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 uninstall and disable are not available, and
even force stop only works temporarily.

--

Jeff

Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:

> There are quite a few different phone users here. How many of them can
> uninstall, disable, or force a stop with Chrome.
>
> On my Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 uninstall and disable are not available, and
> even force stop only works temporarily.

On my Android phone, I installed Firefox, and it's the default web
browser. No, Chrome cannot be installed, but that's irrelevant. Even
if I could uninstall Chrome, I'd keep it as a backup to Firefox.

VanguardLH wrote:

> Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>> There are quite a few different phone users here. How many of them can
>> uninstall, disable, or force a stop with Chrome.
>>
>> On my Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 uninstall and disable are not available, and
>> even force stop only works temporarily.
>
> On my Android phone, I installed Firefox, and it's the default web
> browser. No, Chrome cannot be installed, but that's irrelevant. Even
> if I could uninstall Chrome, I'd keep it as a backup to Firefox.

Take a look at this screenshot I just made for the OP to benefit from.
<https://i.postimg.cc/8cdZ1KJ8/chrome01.jpg> Disable Chrome web browser

I would like to help the OP, being a kind-hearted and helpful person by
nature, but in doing so I'm going to have to step out on a limb and
disagree with Vanguard's recommendation to use Firefox instead.

While I disagree with Vanguard's recommendation, I fully understand why he
suggests the actions that he suggested (as they take less thinking).

My suggestion takes a bit more thought, in that I do suggest the OP disable
Chrome (for all the obvious privacy reasons) which is likely his default
web browser; and then I suggest the OP _replace_ Chrome with some other
suitable privacy based browser as the default web browser (where I don't
think Firefox is a suitable replacement in terms of sheer privacy).

*What privacy based browser would I suggest the OP use instead of Chrome?*

Well, what's wrong with "ungoogled chromium" for a starter?
<https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium-android>

As far as I know, Ungoogled Chromium is essentially the same as Chrome but
with the privacy robbing stuff removed.

Does anyone have a better suggestion for an unrooted phone?
--
Posted as always to be purposefully helpful to the op's question, and, in
doing so, to also be helpful to everyone else who has the same problem.

VanguardLH wrote:

> Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>> There are quite a few different phone users here. How many of them can
>> uninstall, disable, or force a stop with Chrome.
>>
>> On my Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 uninstall and disable are not available, and
>> even force stop only works temporarily.
>
> On my Android phone, I installed Firefox, and it's the default web
> browser. No, Chrome cannot be installed, but that's irrelevant. Even
> if I could uninstall Chrome, I'd keep it as a backup to Firefox.

Take a look at this screenshot I just made for the OP to benefit from.
<https://i.postimg.cc/8cdZ1KJ8/chrome01.jpg> Disable Chrome web browser

I would like to help the OP, being a kind-hearted and helpful person by
nature, but in doing so I'm going to have to step out on a limb and
disagree with Vanguard's recommendation to use Firefox instead.

While I disagree with Vanguard's recommendation, I fully understand why he
suggests the actions that he suggested (as they take less thinking).

My suggestion takes a bit more thought, in that I do suggest the OP disable
Chrome (for all the obvious privacy reasons) which is likely his default
web browser; and then I suggest the OP _replace_ Chrome with some other
suitable privacy based browser as the default web browser (where I don't
think Firefox is a suitable replacement in terms of sheer privacy).

*What privacy based browser would I suggest the OP use instead of Chrome?*

Well, what's wrong with "ungoogled chromium" for a starter?
<https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium-android>

As far as I know, Ungoogled Chromium is essentially the same as Chrome but
with the privacy robbing stuff removed. However, if you prefer Firefox,
what's wrong with the Tor Browser Bundle instead (in terms of anonymity)?

Does anyone have a better privacy browser suggestion for an unrooted phone?
--
Posted as always to be purposefully helpful to the op's question, and, in
doing so, to also be helpful to everyone else who has the same problem.

Jeff Layman wrote:

> There are quite a few different phone users here. How many of them can
> uninstall, disable, or force a stop with Chrome.

Google pixel 5a android 12: yes
Google pixel 3 android 12: yes
Huawei mediapad M5 android 9: yes
Samsung galaxy A21s android 11: yes
Google nexus 1 android 4: no chrome

On 10/07/2022 00:31, Andy Burnelli wrote:
> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> There are quite a few different phone users here. How many of them can
>>> uninstall, disable, or force a stop with Chrome.
>>>
>>> On my Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 uninstall and disable are not available, and
>>> even force stop only works temporarily.
>>
>> On my Android phone, I installed Firefox, and it's the default web
>> browser. No, Chrome cannot be installed, but that's irrelevant. Even
>> if I could uninstall Chrome, I'd keep it as a backup to Firefox.
>
> Take a look at this screenshot I just made for the OP to benefit from.
> <https://i.postimg.cc/8cdZ1KJ8/chrome01.jpg> Disable Chrome web browser

On my Xiaomi there are three options under the app settings for Chrome.
The "Disable" option is greyed out. I have no idea why it is. There is a
"Clear data" option - also greyed out. Oddly, Chrome always seems to
have a small amount of data in it, perhaps 3 or 4k, but as I don't use
Chrome why is there anything there at all? The only other option is
"Force stop". That I have done, and I guess it temporarily stops Chrome.
Unfortunately, it restarts as soon as anything is done to or with it.
For example, the main issue I have is with the BBC iPlayer app which
appears to require Chrome to work (I have questioned this with the BBC).
As soon as the iPlayer app is activated, it restarts Chrome.

> I would like to help the OP, being a kind-hearted and helpful person by
> nature, but in doing so I'm going to have to step out on a limb and
> disagree with Vanguard's recommendation to use Firefox instead.
>
> While I disagree with Vanguard's recommendation, I fully understand why he
> suggests the actions that he suggested (as they take less thinking).
>
> My suggestion takes a bit more thought, in that I do suggest the OP disable
> Chrome (for all the obvious privacy reasons) which is likely his default
> web browser; and then I suggest the OP _replace_ Chrome with some other
> suitable privacy based browser as the default web browser (where I don't
> think Firefox is a suitable replacement in terms of sheer privacy).
>
> *What privacy based browser would I suggest the OP use instead of Chrome?*
>
> Well, what's wrong with "ungoogled chromium" for a starter?
> <https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium-android>
>
> As far as I know, Ungoogled Chromium is essentially the same as Chrome but
> with the privacy robbing stuff removed.

There are many browsers which claim to be less nosey than Chrome, but
until the code is examined carefully, who knows? I've looked at
ungoogled chromium as a possibility. At present I have FF, Vivaldi, and
Brave as options. The original default was Mi's own browser, which can
apparently be uninstalled, but I never use it anyway.

> Does anyone have a better suggestion for an unrooted phone?

There is a way through ADB to uninstall Chrome, but I haven't tried it
yet. Info here:
<https://xiaomitools.com/xiaomi-adb-fastboot-simple-tool/>. But this is
no longer maintained, and might not work. There is a link to another ADB
project at <https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater>, but
note this comment near the end:
"NOTE: Chinese phones users may need to use the AOSP list for removing
some stock apps because those Chinese manufacturers (especially Xiaomi
and Huawei) have been using the name of AOSP packages for their own
(modified & closed-source) apps."

And even more annoying: "IMPORTANT NOTE: You will have to run this
software whenever your OEM pushes an update to your phone as some
uninstalled system apps could be reinstalled."

There is *no way* that Chrome should be an uninstallable system app. If
you like it and want it, well, the Play Store will always have it.

--

Jeff

Jeff Layman wrote:

> On my Xiaomi there are three options under the app settings for Chrome. The
> "Disable" option is greyed out. I have no idea why it is.

Some apps don't allow you to disable them, unless you uninstall all updates for
them and revert to the "system" version in the ROM ...

On 10/07/2022 09:20, Andy Burns wrote:
> Jeff Layman wrote:
>
>> There are quite a few different phone users here. How many of them can
>> uninstall, disable, or force a stop with Chrome.
>
> Google pixel 5a android 12: yes
> Google pixel 3 android 12: yes
> Huawei mediapad M5 android 9: yes
> Samsung galaxy A21s android 11: yes
> Google nexus 1 android 4: no chrome

Thanks, but is that uninstall, disable, or both? FWIW, I have Xiaomi's
modified version of Android 11.

--

Jeff

On 10/07/2022 10:57, Jeff Layman wrote:

> Andy Burns wrote:
>
>> Jeff Layman wrote:
>>
>>> There are quite a few different phone users here. How many of them can
>>> uninstall, disable, or force a stop with Chrome.
>>
>> Google pixel 5a android 12: yes
>> Google pixel 3 android 12: yes
>> Huawei mediapad M5 android 9: yes
>> Samsung galaxy A21s android 11: yes
>
> Thanks, but is that uninstall, disable, or both?

simply disable, in all cases where chrome is installed

Jeff Layman wrote:

> On my Xiaomi there are three options under the app settings for Chrome.
> The "Disable" option is greyed out. I have no idea why it is.

As always, I'd like to help you in any way I can, even as I don't have the
same issue you have since my solution for you works for me out of the box.

More than once you have taught me something I didn't know prior, so I
believe you. But when I tried to find an app on my Samsung, I chose a few
just now that had "google" in the name (e.g., Google Services Framework,
etc.) which seemed to me they "should" be set similarly, I could disable
all of them.

Let me ask the others, like Andy Burns perhaps, who know far more than I do
about Android which apps I should _look_ at to see if they can't be
disabled.

> For example, the main issue I have is with the BBC iPlayer app which
> appears to require Chrome to work (I have questioned this with the BBC).
> As soon as the iPlayer app is activated, it restarts Chrome.

I don't use the BBC iPlayer but I looked it up and my suggestion is to find
another iPlayer to temporarily test against to see if they _all_ do the
same thing as the BBC iPlayer does on your phone.

Maybe one of these?
*VisionTV UK* by Vision
Free, no ads, no gsf, 4.0 star, 10K+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tehnicomsolutions.visiontvnetwork.app>

*PadTV HD* by Geniatech Inc., LTD.
Free, no ads, no gsf, 3.2 star, 7.59K reviews, 1M+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Pad.tvapp>

*Channels: Whole Home DVR* by Fancy Bits, LLC
free, no ads, no gsf, 3.9 star, 154 reviews, 50K+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.getchannels.dvr.app>

>> As far as I know, Ungoogled Chromium is essentially the same as Chrome but
>> with the privacy robbing stuff removed.
>
> There are many browsers which claim to be less nosey than Chrome, but
> until the code is examined carefully, who knows?

The _classic_ (patently unhelpful) response from the Internet unhelpfuls
would be that you can always look through the code yourself (which I've
been told myself, many times) but I won't give you _that_ response! :)

Otherwise, there are two quick but perhaps still not as helpful as you'd
like responses that come to mind, one of which is that any browser likely
has more privacy than Chrome, and the other of which is at least Ungoogled
Chromium _is_ Chrome, so the GUI is the same, and yet it's open source and
they _say_ they've set it for privacy.

Can you get better than that with no effort as a simple individual?

> I've looked at
> ungoogled chromium as a possibility. At present I have FF, Vivaldi, and
> Brave as options. The original default was Mi's own browser, which can
> apparently be uninstalled, but I never use it anyway.

If you're going to use Firefox, you should at least consider the Tor
Browser Bundle, although it's not really Firefox, and it's a lot slower;
but it will give you the most anonymity out of a Mozilla base code.

Another privacy "browser" I'd suggest is "DuckDuckGo", which can be used
when all you're doing is searching for something, as it purports to do so
privately.

Yet another would be Epic Privacy Browser", and maybe if you needed
another, perhaps "Aloha Browser Lite", all of which purport to add privacy
features that you won't find in most browsers.

>> Does anyone have a better suggestion for an unrooted phone?
>
> There is a way through ADB to uninstall Chrome, but I haven't tried it
> yet. Info here:

That seems to confirm what you're seeing which is that Chrome is not easily
uninstallable on your brand of device. Sigh.

> There is *no way* that Chrome should be an uninstallable system app. If
> you like it and want it, well, the Play Store will always have it.

I couldn't agree more with that sentiment but all you want to do is disable
it such that the disabling survives a reboot (which is what works for me).

I'm sure there are apps on my phone which are not able to be disabled, but
in my quick search just now I didn't find any. If Andy Burns or someone
else who knows Android can suggest an app that shouldn't be able to be
disabled on my Samsung, I'll try to disable it.
--
Posted to help someone out of the goodness of my heart and helpful intent.

Andy Burns wrote:

>> Andy Burns wrote:
>>
>>> Jeff Layman wrote:
>>>
>>>> There are quite a few different phone users here. How many of them can
>>>> uninstall, disable, or force a stop with Chrome.
>>>
>>> Google pixel 5a android 12: yes
>>> Google pixel 3 android 12: yes
>>> Huawei mediapad M5 android 9: yes
>>> Samsung galaxy A21s android 11: yes
>>
>> Thanks, but is that uninstall, disable, or both?
>
> simply disable, in all cases where chrome is installed

Galaxy A32-5G, Android 12, non rooted
Chrome <com.android.chrome>
disable = yes
force stop = yes
uninstall = no
<https://i.postimg.cc/8cdZ1KJ8/chrome01.jpg> Disable but not uninstall

If someone can suggest a default app that they think might be set up on a
Galaxy to not be able to be disabled, let me know what app that is and I
will try to disable it on my non-rooted typical Android 12 to test it out.
--
Posted to help someone in need and to thereby help others with the same
issues in the future when they find this thread during a problem search.

Andy Burnelli wrote:

> If you're going to use Firefox, you should at least consider the Tor
> Browser Bundle, although it's not really Firefox, and it's a lot slower;
> but it will give you the most anonymity out of a Mozilla base code.

To continue to be helpful in terms of helping someone attain privacy using
the Mozilla-based web browsers that Vanguard kindly suggested, one
potentially useful Mozilla-based privacy suggestion that the OP and others
can benefit from, now & in the future, is the Firefox Focus mobile browser
*Firefox Focus*
<https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browsers/mobile/focus/>
Which claims that it turns off ads and tracking and that it's also
available for mobile devices in addition to desktop devices.

*Firefox Focus: No Fuss Browser* by Mozilla
free, no ads, uses gsf, 4.6 star, 94.3K reviews, 5M+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.focus>

This is posted not so much to directly help the OP get rid of Chrome (as
that's being done in this thread elsewhere), but to help the OP and others
settlr on an alternative browser once he does disable Chrome on the Xiomi.

On 10/07/2022 11:01, Andy Burns wrote:
> On 10/07/2022 10:57, Jeff Layman wrote:
>
>> Andy Burns wrote:
>>
>>> Jeff Layman wrote:
>>>
>>>> There are quite a few different phone users here. How many of them can
>>>> uninstall, disable, or force a stop with Chrome.
>>>
>>> Google pixel 5a android 12: yes
>>> Google pixel 3 android 12: yes
>>> Huawei mediapad M5 android 9: yes
>>> Samsung galaxy A21s android 11: yes
>>
>> Thanks, but is that uninstall, disable, or both?
>
> simply disable, in all cases where chrome is installed

Ok. Noted.

More strangeness:

I use Total Commander as a file manager. I thought I'd find the entry
for Chrome in the apps folder, and see if I could delete it with TC's
"Delete" function. I assumed I'd get a message something like "You do
not have permission to delete this file" but what I actually got was
totally unexpected:

"Deleting

Function not supported!

This feature has been removed from the Play Store version of Total
Commander at Google's request"

In fact, even apps I have installed and can be uninstalled are not
deletable. Surely deleting is just an action which requires root if it's
a system file, but not if it's one I installed. If I download the Total
Commander apk from another source, how likely is that to be able to
delete the Chrome entry? Not very, I'd guess. :-(

--

Jeff

On 10/07/2022 20:38, Jeff Layman wrote:
> This feature has been removed from the Play Store version of Total
> Commander at Google's request"
>
> In fact, even apps I have installed and can be uninstalled are not
> deletable. Surely deleting is just an action which requires root if it's
> a system file, but not if it's one I installed.

<https://www.androidpolice.com/total-commander-apk-installation-block/>

On 11/07/2022 01:51, Calum wrote:
> On 10/07/2022 20:38, Jeff Layman wrote:
>> This feature has been removed from the Play Store version of Total
>> Commander at Google's request"
>>
>> In fact, even apps I have installed and can be uninstalled are not
>> deletable. Surely deleting is just an action which requires root if it's
>> a system file, but not if it's one I installed.
>
> <https://www.androidpolice.com/total-commander-apk-installation-block/>

Sigh... :-(

--

Jeff

Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote in
news:taghlk$1l1nt$1@dont-email.me:

> On 11/07/2022 01:51, Calum wrote:
>> On 10/07/2022 20:38, Jeff Layman wrote:
>>> This feature has been removed from the Play Store version of Total
>>> Commander at Google's request"
>>>
>>> In fact, even apps I have installed and can be uninstalled are not
>>> deletable. Surely deleting is just an action which requires root if
>>> it's a system file, but not if it's one I installed.
>>
>> <https://www.androidpolice.com/total-commander-apk-installation-block/
>> >
>
> Sigh... :-(
>

Look for ver 3.32d at the apk store of choice.

Google lies about updating as I have turned off update in
google for a couple of apps; and google still updated
them when there was a 'update' to google play/service.
I've backed up some apps because ignores their "don't update".

me wrote:

> Google lies about updating as I have turned off update in
> google for a couple of apps

I have no Google Account set up on my phone, and yet _some_ apps were
updated without my express knowledge, where I looked and found out default
Google Play Store Settings allow that even if you have no Google Account.

I also noticed that the FOSS Google Play Store client has the updating of
apps set up by default, and, as noted, some apps might update on their own.

In addition, the carrier "might" update apps, for all I know.
It might be interesting to list all the ways an app "can" update.
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information,
where I agree with the fact that updating of apps can happen multiple ways.

On 7/11/2022 9:20 AM, me wrote:

> Google lies about updating as I have turned off update in google for
> a couple of apps; and google still updated them when there was a
> 'update' to google play/service.

I turn of ALL app updates:

Play Store>my icon upper right>settings>network preferences>Auto-update
apps> tic Don't auto-update apps>done

Then I manually update selected apps as wanted. So far Google hasn't
automatically updated any (fingers crossed).

> I've backed up some apps because ignores their "don't update".

I usually save the apks in case I don't like an update and can go back.

AJL wrote:

>> I've backed up some apps because ignores their "don't update".
>
> I usually save the apks in case I don't like an update and can go back.

I agree with "AJL" that it's good to save _all_ your APKs over the years:
<https://i.postimg.cc/cJK9rbjn/update03.jpg>

The data below is a PSA related to that statement, which I agree with, and
where the suggestions below I've done myself to _further improve_ the task.

First PSA is that you can _check_ the latest time any given app was updated
<https://i.postimg.cc/0jMzV0rP/aurora07.jpg>

Second PSA is that you can check _any_ app for whether or not an update
exists, where you have to realize Google Play Store does NOT do that!
<https://i.postimg.cc/28WG0Pqb/aurora11.jpg>

However, even without a Google Account set up on your phone, the default
Google Play Store client _does_ update "some" apps by default.
<https://i.postimg.cc/FRnfbBrT/aurora06.jpg>

But note that it's only _some_ apps that Google Play Store will update!
<https://i.postimg.cc/yNwf9T4r/update04.jpg>

And note that the update only occurs under _some_ circumstances.
<https://i.postimg.cc/0NgqVvQG/update20.jpg>

However, to the point above, your APKs are _automatically_ "not deleted"
after downloading from the Google Play Store repository and installing on
your phone if you use a decent FOSS Google Play Store client (as I do) that
simply *DOES NOT DELETE* the APK _after_ it's installed onto your phone!.
<https://i.postimg.cc/Z5kdD2rg/aurora04.jpg> Don't delete the APKs!

As another PSA, if you _also_ set your Android phone as a drive letter over
Wi-Fi on your Windows PC, then you can easily copy over Wi-Fi to the PC.
<https://i.postimg.cc/yNtmVWnz/update07.jpg>

That way you have a permanent archive, updated over the years, containing
_all_ the APKs you've ever installed from the Google Play Store repository.
<https://i.postimg.cc/Y0wQWVJn/update08.jpg>

As one more PSA, if you set up screen mirroring, you can simply _slide_
those APKs over from your Windows archive to the phone image to re-install.
<https://i.postimg.cc/wvsbcNBz/scrcpy05.jpg>
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information
that took me years (elapsed time) to set up for almost perfect efficiency.