OEMs pre-load phones with apps to improve user experience, but not all the pre-loaded apps and features are important to all users or some users have their own preferred app for a particular task, for example, most of the users prefer Google Calendar and Keep Notes over Custom Calendar and Notes apps that come pre-installed with the device. If you use a phone running a forked version of Android like MIUI or EMUI, you must have found some apps unnecessary at some point in time.

Presence of these unwanted apps don't only annoy users but also consume system memory and drain the battery. Earlier we shared a workaround with our readers to disable some apps, but since there are many users who do not mind little tinkering with their devices, we are writing this post to share a workaround for uninstalling such apps on Xiaomi devices. Follow this guide to uninstall the apps to get rid of advertisements,

  1. Make sure that you have adb installed on your device. You can download it from the links given below depending on the platform you're using. Windows/ Mac. If you are on a Mac you need to,
    • Extract the Android zip and place the folder on your Desktop.
    • Open Terminal
    • Type cd Desktop/Android
    • Enter ./ADB-Install-Mac.sh
  2. Now, open Settings app and go to About phone and tap on MIUI version seven times until you see the message 'You are now a developer'.
  3. Go to Additional Settings, followed by Developer options and turn on USB debugging.
  4. Turn on the following options, connect the device to PC via USB cable and then run a command 'adb devices' in terminal/command prompt. You should get a pop-up on your device to 'Allow USB debugging' as shown in the screenshot below, the device address should appear in the terminal as soon as you allow USB debugging.
  5. If the device address appears in the terminal, run another command 'adb shell' in the terminal, following which the device codename should appear on the screen.
  6. Now you can run these commands in terminal to uninstall the following apps,

Removing security apps causes boot loop issues, according to several users, so we have removed those codes.

  • GetApps
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.xiaomi.mipicks
  • Browser
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.android.browser
  • Calculator
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.calculator
  • Calendar
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.android.calendar
  • Compass
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.compass
  • E-mail
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.android.email
  • Feedback
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.bugreport
  • File Explorer
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.mi.android.globalFileexplorer
  • FM Radio
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.fm
  • Gallery
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.gallery
  • Games
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.xiaomi.glgm
  • Mi Drop
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.xiaomi.midrop
  • Mi Pay
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.mipay.wallet.id
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.mipay.wallet.in
  • Mi Payment
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.xiaomi.payment
  • Mi Recycle
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.xiaomi.mirecycle
  • Mi Roaming
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.virtualsim
  • Mi Video
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.videoplayer
  • Music
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.player
  • Notes
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.notes
  • Recorder
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.android.soundrecorder
  • Scanner
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.xiaomi.scanner
  • Screen Recorder
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.screenrecorder
  • Wallpaper
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.miwallpaper
  • Weather
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.weather2
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.providers.weather
  • Yellow Pages
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.yellowpage
  • AntiSpam
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.antispam
  • SIM Activate Services
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.xiaomi.simactivate.service
  • MSA
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.miui.msa.global
  • Google Drive
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.google.android.apps.docs
  • Google Duo
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.google.android.apps.tachyon
  • Gmail
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.google.android.gm
  • Google Play Music
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.google.android.music
  • Google Play Videos
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.google.android.videos
  • Google Photos
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.google.android.apps.photos
  • Talkback
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.google.android.marvin.talkback
  • Facebook Apps
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.facebook.appmanager
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.facebook.services
    pm uninstall –k ––user 0 com.facebook.system
  • Cleanmaster
    pm uninstall -k ––user 0 com.miui.cleanmaster

Users can also get a list of all the packages installed on the device by running the command 'pm list packages -f' and uninstall the apps that they want apart from the ones mentioned above, but we would advise our readers to do so only if they're aware of the package name and their functions.

Update: Added command to uninstall Clean Master as a part of Cleaner in Storage since it is one of the 59 apps banned by the Indian government.

Warning disclaimer: FoneArena is not responsible for any damage or loss caused to your device.