Usage of pm hide and pm block on Android KitKat and Lollipop

[sbechet]

If you've Android KitKat or above and do not have root access, use adb in PC to execute this command:

adb shell pm block PACKAGE         # for Android KitKat
adb shell pm hide  PACKAGE         # for Android Lollipop only
adb shell pm disable-user PACKAGE  # alternative to `pm hide`; for Android Lollipop and above; this works just like disabling an app through Settings app

To reinstate the app:

adb shell pm unblock PACKAGE   # for Android KitKat
adb shell pm unhide PACKAGE    # for Android Lollipop and only if you used `pm hide` earlier
adb shell pm enable PACKAGE    # for Android Lollipop and above

source

[0x192]

Thanks for the heads-up !

So, from the android Stackexchange discussion it seems that:

• pm disable-user doesn't exist on Android KitKat and below (which is weird because I recall using it on a very old phone)
• pm block/pm unblock can be used for Android KitKat (4.4)
• pm hide only exists for Lollipop

I also wonder about the usefulness of pm hide is when you can usepm-disable-user instead (for Android 5+)

I'll go through the AOSP source code to verify all of this.

[0x192]

Diving into the source code was interesting.

For easier reference: https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater/wiki/ADB-reference