How to uninstall android system app programmatically?

Question

I can get a list of installed apps (both user and system apps). I am also able to uninstall user apps, however, not able to uninstall system apps.

Is there any way t

Answer 1

Try this on Rooted Device...it works

        Process reboot = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su");
        DataOutputStream os = new DataOutputStream(reboot.getOutputStream());
        os.writeBytes("pm uninstall co.example.demo\n");
        os.flush();
        os.writeBytes("exit\n");
        os.flush();
        reboot.waitFor();

Answer 2

you can execute root commands with:

runCommand("su");
runCommand("rm /data/system/application.package.apk");
runCommand("rm /data/data/application.package");

//when this doesn´t work try
runCommand("rm -r /data/system/application.package.apk");
runCommand("rm -r /data/data/application.package");

public static void runCommand(String command){
try {
        Process chmod = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);

        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(
                new InputStreamReader(chmod.getInputStream()));
        int read;
        char[] buffer = new char[4096];
        StringBuffer output = new StringBuffer();
        while ((read = reader.read(buffer)) > 0) {
            output.append(buffer, 0, read);
        }
        reader.close();
        chmod.waitFor();
        outputString =  output.toString();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        throw new RuntimeException(e);
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
        throw new RuntimeException(e);
    }
}

There is also a nice library: https://github.com/Free-Software-for-Android/RootCommands

Answer 3

You need to have root access in order to remove system or vendor apps.

$ su
# rm /data/system/application.package.apk
# rm /data/data/application.package