It is very simple to remove applications or packages from your Android device using ADB. If you have ADB installed and have added a path to ADB in your bash profile we can do it with a simple uninstall command.
If you have not created a path to ADB in your bash profile then here is how you can do that. It will save you time in the future when you need to use ADB again.
- Open Terminal
- Type
nano ~/.bash_profile - Press Return
You should have a Terminal window that looks something ike the one above. Copy the export PATH command below into your Terminal window replacing /Users/<yourusername>/Documents/android with the correct path to ADB.
export PATH=${PATH}:/Users/<yourusername>/Documents/android
- Press Return
- Press CTRL+X
- Press Y to confirm
- Press Return
- Quit Terminal
If you already have the path to ADB set in your bash profile then start from here.
- Open Terminal
- Type
adb devices - Check your device is listed
- Type
adb uninstall <name of package/application> - An example of this would be
adb uninstall com.imdb.mobilethis would uninstall the IMDB app.
-
If the app/package is removed then you will see Success if not the return will be Failure
-
If you do not know the name of the package/app you are trying to uninstall then do a search for it on the Play Store and in the URL you will see the package name at the end after id=
You can also check for your installed packages by typing the following into Terminal
adb shell 'pm list packages -f'
You can also use the -k parameter if you wish to uninstall an app but want to keep all the data and cached items.
adb uninstall -k <name of package/application>
You will get a warning message with this.
