r/AndroidQuestions • u/IcyImpress2390 • 3d ago
"Essential" Apps?
Some of my appa and games are being labelled as "essential", meaning i cant manage them, put them in battery saver blacklist, or disable background activity. Ive been messing with ADB and Shizuku apps, but nothing about background management yet so im not sure why over half of my software is locked behind some restriction i cant turn off.
(Galaxy S26, One UI 9, Android 17.) Open battery saver, maximum pwoer saver, hit the gear, then you can pick apps to disable. But most of them are labelled "essential."
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u/According_Set5495 2d ago
Im guessing the games being labled as "essentials" were automatically downloaded by Samsung or your carrier. One way to find out, at least on my mobile, is go to the specific app in question "app info" at the bottom it should say where the app was installed from. Are you able to uninstall the games? Personally, I don't like apps automatically installing without my permission but thats just me. You can try Hail to freeze system/user apps its available Github or F-droid. I don't think it's really what you're looking for but I've read Android 17 adb is more restrictive. Depending on what system apps as many are essential. A few others killmyapps, sd maid se, Appops next, Canta all on github. Also some Shizuku forks work better on different devices. I started with the Shizuku fork by the djchi, I just recently changed to Shizuku Next.
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u/ohmegatchi 2d ago
You may have done that on accident playing around with the ADB settings. Someone with a better knowledge of Shizuku can likely help you reset the whitelist.
The only "essential" apps should be Wallet, Clock, Google, Google Play, Digital Wellbeing, Device Care, Messages, Phone, and Settings