Provide option to uninstall TWRP app

[sebastian-de]

I tried to install the official app using TWRP-3.0.3. The app seems to be closed source, so I want to remove it again. adb uninstall me.twrp.twrpapp doesn't work, even as root. Please provide an option in the recovery-GUI to remove the app again.

In the mean time - does anybody know a way to get rid of the app again?

[sebastian-de]

rm -r /data/data/me.twrp.twrpapp rm -r /system/priv-app/twrpapp in a rooted adb shell seems to delete it

[Tangogr]

I installed it accidentally, and now is a pain in the ass removing it. :-1:

[steve8x8]

Does the app register as device admin? If so, you've got to unregister it first (settings > security > device administrators, remove tick mark)

[Tangogr]

Nope @steve8x8 , it´s installed as a system app. Thanks to @sebastian-de , but as I said before is a pain in the ass to get an adb shell to remove the app I installed by error.

It is just 24KB, but every time phone reboots it remember you to upgrade the app.

I´ve just disabled it and all it´s notifications. BR!

[PanderMusubi]

On top of that, what is written in the Terms and Conditions of that app doesn't really coincide with FOSS. This app should not be pushed. for noobs it looks as if you really need this app (or at least you have no idea what happens if you do not install it) and that is not fair.

[PanderMusubi]

When installing system critical software, a noob takes the safe route and installs what is advised.

[rancidfrog]

Can twrp remember last option. Currently, this screen to install twrp app appears every time. I keep having to select do not install.

Is it possible to have a checkbox "do not show/ask any more" ?

[PanderMusubi]

There is in the first tab of the Settings menu. But better this app doesn't get offered in the first place. Is also (IMHO) not giving TWRP a good name.

[nailyk-fr]

Start working on a patch allowing maintainer to default untick 'prompt to install....'. In my case it is only unfficial builds, so it is useless.

It is not to make a fight against you Dees-Troy , just it is really annoying to get that forced popup, specially on unsupported devices.

@rancidfrog already exist, on the popup (3 post earlier) untick 'prompt to install'. Obviously it doesn't survive a wipe.

[inducer]

TBH, upon reading the terms of the app, I very much would have expected better from you.

[nailyk-fr]

FI: https://gerrit.omnirom.org/#/c/24669/ Patch to fully disable twrp app. Need to be manually added by your twrp maintainer. Cannot go on official releases.

[spookyuser]

I just want to echo what other people are saying, I accidentally installed this app and I'm not even sure I know how I did. I think it's using some dark design pattern where it hijacks the habitual swipe right to install. Except it pops up immediately after you flash a zip, so instead of rebooting you install this malware.

EDIT: I installed a zip file to see what happened. As soon as you finish installing a zip and click reboot now it automatically checks both boxes, including install as system app. Then presents you with a shiny swipe right to install bar.

Despicable.

[DevenValisten]

I have same issue but i have fixed it with app called "System app remover" you can download it from the googl play store. Sorry for my bad english

[dscottboggs]

Seriously this is the most shady, un-user-friendly decision you could make and I've got nothing but a big middle finger to you guys for including that dialog which uses the confirmation process that you habitually develop to trick you into installing it after installing your ROM.

I'll be looking for an alternative functional recovery system, despite having trusted and used TWRP since the early days of android.

Once again, middle fingers up.

[nailyk-fr]

@dscottboggs this is open source project. Fells free to add an install option instead of just blaming others.

(am not TeamWin member)

[AntonKukoba1]

There's no such folder /system/priv-app/twrpapp So I've removed /data/data/me.twrp.twrpapp and /data/app/me.twrp.twrpapp folders. The app disappeared, but power menu still contains Fastboot and Recovery buttons. Is there any way to remove them too?

[shaggyskunk]

Why don't you just Factory Reset - Wipe System & Flash Stock Firmware....Really don't understand the attitude.

On Thu, 12 Apr 2018, 2:21 pm Scott Boggs, notifications@github.com wrote:

Seriously this is the most shady, un-user-friendly decision you could make and I've got nothing but a big middle finger to you guys for including that dialog which uses the confirmation process that you habitually develop to trick you into installing it after installing your ROM.

I'll be looking for an alternative functional recovery system, despite having trusted and used TWRP since the early days of android.

Once again, middle fingers up.

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[AntonKukoba1]

I can't revert to stock firmware cause it's Chinese :)

[spookyuser]

@shaggyskunk it's not about the fact that it's technically possible to remove. It's about the deliberately misleading method TWRP uses to install the unwanted app. https://darkpatterns.org/

Your argument is essentially the same as saying to someone that has downloaded malware: "Well idk why you are complaining you can just remove it from your computer"

Yeah obviously you can, but I didn't want it installed in the first place!

[crabdancing]

Yeeeah. Lost a lot of respect for TWRP after they pulled this stunt. This is like something proprietary software would do. I get that they need to make money, but this is a terrible precedent to set.

[crabdancing]

@dscottboggs

Did you find any good alternatives with a similar feature set? Keep us posted. If there aren't any, I might be up for forking the project to fix this antifeature, if anyone else wants to help. Looks like all the actually useful code they wrote is GNU GPLv3, so it should be no problem.

[PanderMusubi]

I would donate to crowd funding for forking this.

[spookyuser]

Great idea @alxpettit

I would also donate to a fork of TWRP!

[tuxayo]

I would also donate for TWRP to open source the app and improve the install UI/add a option to uninstall it.

[dscottboggs]

There's a compiling guide here...sort of. It's basically a rough overview. There are a series of configurations that you must set up that are device specific, and the only version of the configuration which is available is one for running it in a VM. So while we could go in and strip out this bizarre anti-feature, or at least change it to be less...pushy, we would need to gather configuration versions for each device which needs to be supported, rather than reaching into the pile which TWRP has been gathering for years.

I really wish TWRP would change this to be a simple "yes or no" dialog, rather than "do it do it do it please please please"; that would resolve most of the issue. However, at this point I'm personally pretty suspicious of that app and perhaps this area is due for some diversification.

[dscottboggs]

Basically even if we did manage to do that it would be poorly supported on fewer devices, just for a minor change.

[crabdancing]

@dscottboggs I highly doubt the TWRP team is doing all that shiz by hand. They have an automated build system for creating each build, upon each update. No reason we couldn't have one too.

[CaptainThrowback]

If it's really that serious to you, it's easy enough to exclude the TWRP app in a device build just by picking this patch and building TWRP.

[crabdancing]

@CaptainThrowback The problem is that EVERYONE has to do that, and I can see that lots of people have been frustrated by it. Besides, it could be a fun project! :)

[nailyk-fr]

Cap'tain you know how I like twrp project. However making the app opt-in instead of opt-out can, maybe, make everyone happy? IMHO having an uninstallable closed source application opt-out on the reboot page is not good for the project reputation. Especially when most of the releases do not have official.

my2cents

Le 4 octobre 2018 19:30:13 GMT+02:00, Captain Throwback notifications@github.com a écrit :

If it's really that serious to you, it's easy enough to exclude the TWRP app in a device build just by picking this patch and building TWRP.

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[crabdancing]

@nailyk-fr Yeah, I'd be fine with an opt-in instead of an opt-out. I recommend having it unchecked by default, and not having the "slidebar to install" thing, which causes many people to install it by accident.

[spookyuser]

@CaptainThrowback

Just like @shaggyskunk You're making the exact same error. The issue that I and others have is not that this is technically possible to get around, but that it's being pursued at all.

This is shady behaviour that tries to trick users into installing a SYSTEM app in the same way shareware windows programs install shady browser extensions when you don't triple check to make sure you have unchecked every single box.

While both of these behaviours are indefensible IMO. The first is clearly worse because uninstalling a system app on android is way harder. But even if it just installed a normal app that would still be wrong IMO because this is all being done in an effort to trick users into doing something they don't want to do!

[spookyuser]

@alxpettit Opt in is the minimum TWRP should do IMO. This whole feature should be removed all together

[nailyk-fr]

Sorry being like that @spooky but my point is there is no 'minumum' someone can do, for you, on an open source project. You (and other) do not like 1 feature on many. Yes it is annoying but you can easily reach a patch. Some people here agree to pay someone to do it if you'r not able too. Maybe you too. Discussing about a compromise to provide the good patch sounds better than disown the whole project for one point.

My two cents again. I am not part of the team.

Le 4 octobre 2018 19:57:08 GMT+02:00, spookyUnknownUser notifications@github.com a écrit :

@alxpettit Opt out is the absolute minimum TWRP should do.

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[spookyuser]

@nailyk-fr

That's okay. But I do disagree with you.

Just because TWRP is FOSS does not excuse the project from behaving unethically. Do you think it would be okay for linux to install a keylogger on your computer just because it's free and people put hard work into maintaining it? If you don't think that's okay, then there's the minimum.

IN this case I think the minimally ethical decision would be to make the closed source app TWRP installs, opt in. But I think that would still not be enough and they should remove the ""feature"" entirely.

[ghost]

The kind of people who use TWRP is the kind of people who wont take kindly to using dark patterns to push installation of a closed source software. Continuing on this path isn't a smart move.

If you want this to work and still have a community, be open about it. Explain clearly that its closed source and then make installation opt in. Better yet, why have it being closed source in the first place?

[adonig]

This still causes completely unnecessary trouble and makes TWRP look bad. I installed a new version of Lineage when TWRP asked me whether I want to install the TWRP app. I thought "well TWRP is awesome, let's try this". Then I found out the app is closed-source and wanted to uninstall it:

rm -r /data/data/me.twrp.twrpapp
rm -r /system/priv-app/twrpapp

Sadly the latter didn't work because /system is mounted read-only. I somehow didn't manage to mount it read-write and in the end I just decided to wipe the internal storage and install Lineage again, this time choosing not to install the TWRP app. Actually trouble like that can be prevented by simply telling the user in-front the app is closed-source and cannot be removed easily, or simply by making removing the app simple and easy.

[spookyuser]

@adonig Yeah exactly!

Now imagine a user installing a ROM for the first time, they're obviously going to swipe to install the TWRP app then have no idea how to execute the command line code to remove it. I've installed dozens of ROMs and uninstalling this confused the hell out of me.

[cmurf]

At least on osprey, once you leave these two options ticked and proceed, it's permanently installed. A (lineageOS) factory reset does not remove it.

osprey:/ # rm -r /data/data/me.twrp.twrpapp
osprey:/ # rm -r /system/priv-app/twrpapp
rm ro dir /system/priv-app/twrpapp (y/N):y
rm ro /system/priv-app/twrpapp/me.twrp.twrpapp.apk (y/N):y
rm: me.twrp.twrpapp.apk: Read-only file system
1|osprey:/ # 

And yeah, it's still there, and on a reboot I still get a notification that updating the app is required.

[aaely]

That notification I accidentally swiped after the 100th time is seriously annoying. If I could get my hands on whoever did that, they would be in pain right now.

[aaely]

Seriously this is the most shady, un-user-friendly decision you could make and I've got nothing but a big middle finger to you guys for including that dialog which uses the confirmation process that you habitually develop to trick you into installing it after installing your ROM.

I'll be looking for an alternative functional recovery system, despite having trusted and used TWRP since the early days of android.

Once again, middle fingers up.

Yea, Id really like to give those dbags a spinning roundhouse to the temple.

[bwitt]

I did this:

# pm uninstall -k --user 0  me.twrp.twrpapp                         
Success

and now I don't see if in the tray or get an update notification after reboot.

The file is still there however:

# ls /system/priv-app/twrpapp                                       
me.twrp.twrpapp.apk

[roshantiwari434]

Uninstalling twrp recovery is not possible officially. According to twrp. me official webaite of twrp saying you can't uninstall twrp recovery from your device. But you can replace your twrp recovery from stock recovery. This is only the rest way to remove twrp from your device. But finding stock recovery is your work. If you need the exact way to remove twrp then this post can help you. https://twrpupdate.com/uninstall-twrp-recovery/

Let me know if you have any query.

[lokzz]

they are talking about the app not recovery