How to Remove All the Bloatware on the Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 Edge At Once (Video)
Manufacturers, and Samsung in particular, are notorious for loading up their phones with a bunch of software that either the carrier or third parties paid them to put on the phone. The worst part about all of this bloatware as it’s called, is that you can’t simply uninstall it. It’s there. Forever.
Well, maybe not forever. Thanks to a crafty developer over at XDA, you can easily remove all of the bloatware from your Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge in one fell swoop. Not only that, but it also adds some really cool optimizations to the phone as well making it faster and more efficient.
To get this great little script working, you need to first root your Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge, then downoad and run the .bat file in the script to let it do it’s magic. With that being the gist of it, here’s how to remove all the bloatware on your Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge.
I. Root the Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge
- You need to first be rooted for this. If you aren’t head to my how to root the Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 Edge tutorial, follow that until it is done and return here to continue.
II. Install the Debloater Script
In addition to removing all of Samsung’s bloatware, this script will also solve a bunch of issues including the phone overheating, CPU performance enhancements, and more. For a full list of changes check out the XDA link below in step 3.
- On the phone, open the SuperSU app (that should be there from doing the rooting procedure above) and tap on Settings and turn off Enable SU During Boot under Security.
- Now, head to the Play Store, search for and install the Flashfire app.
- Download the debloater script for your particular device under Recommend Next Steps from here on XDA and save it to your desktop on your PC.
- Plug the phone in via USB and copy the debloater .zip file to the phone’s internal storage. Not inside any folder just on the root of the directory (makes it a lot easier to find later).
- Unplug the phone and open Flashfire and tap on the + symbol and select Flash Zip or OTA.
- Select the debloater .zip.
- Under options, select Mount System Read/Write and make sure the rest is unchecked.
- Tap flash and it’ll flash and reboot a couple of times.
Done. Wasn’t that hard, right? Now that you’ve done that I recommend doing a reboot of the phone to let things settle and speed up and then check out Xposed if you want to further customize the phone. Let me know if you need any help with this in the comments below and if you found this tutorial helpful please share it –it’s greatly appreciated.
Good luck!
Can you unroot your device once this process is complete? I have several apps that will only function on an un-rooted device.
Unfortunately, no. The only way to get root removed enough that those apps will not know you are rooted would be to flash the stock firmware (and if you do that, you’ll end up with all the bloatware back, etc.)
Hi David.
Anything for s7 Active?
New to rooting but got this far and am pretty happy I don’t have the bloatware anymore…the rooting process itself as far as I understand doesn’t trip Knox (which is good) but the debloating how-to that I just did removes Knox from my phone. Is my phone still secure? If not, what do you recommend I download to give me peace of mind, knowing there’s some sort of security service running on my phone? Thanks! Wanted to root for awhile now to get rid of the crapware but it always bothered me knowing security might be sacrificed…
Knox doesn’t really secure your phone like that, your thinking of antivirus programs really. Your phone is just as secure as it was before you rooted. Only difference is apps can access root permissions but they still need you grant it (that’s what SuperSU does for us).
Just use precaution like you should anyway (don’t click links in emails you don’t know the sender, etc.).
Hope that helps a little!
Hey there David! Great and simple tutorials. I’m about to root my T-Mobile galaxy s7 edge and follow your steps but before I did I wanted to know a few things…
1) Any issues on your att galaxy s7 edge after rooting?
2) Recommended xposed mods on the gs7 edge?
3) Would you post a video flashing xposed installer ? I don’t know if I’ll run into a bootloop flashing the .apk. I’ve rooted a few of my phones in the past but the root method was always easier.
Hi Joel,
1. Nope.
2. Haven’t gotten to use Xposed yet but anyone I know that’s router the gs7 is using it so I’d recommend checking it out at least.
3. I was planning on doing a video on Xposed actually very soon. Just need to get a few others done first.
Thanks and hope that helps some!
hi david , long story short i used to have an app called package disabler pro but it only disable Bloatware doesn’t get the job done i find your method way better coz it remove them and if i need anything i can re download it from the playstore but can i run it on my rooted note 5 sm-n920c ? thank you
Yeah these scripts are definitely better than those apps. Thing is they are very specific to the exact model of phone so don’t use any of these on your note 5. Instead Google for debloater script for note 5 and see if you can find it somewhere else. Good luck!
Thank you so much for the series of Samsung 7 videos. Really great results and was easy to follow. a+!
You’re welcome! Thank you!
Hey David, i just went thru your guides and have rooted my AT&T GS7 but once done, it appears to run a little slow on most apps, even like messaging and so on. But the biggest thing that is happening is that the Samsung Pay keeps popping up in notifications and gives me options to click later or start, i guess to set it up. Also the SuperSu keeps notifying me to update the binaries. What do you do about these things? The other question is remember we downloaded and moved over the S7 fixes also, should we flash that with flashfire the same way, is that needed. Maybe will fix my speed issue? Thanks for being very good at the video and explaining things. And i too want to see how to do the Expose thing. Thanks !!
The Samsung pay thing is an issue that you’d have even if not rooted. It’s just annoying, they are pushing it. Just say yes and start to set it up then don’t finish it (unless you want of course) and it shouldn’t bother you a while. As for the sole make sure you turn off the phone and back on a few times to let things settle. As for the fixes, is recommend doing it since it does have a lot of good features and it could also potentially help the speed problem.
As for xposed, I’m going to do a video on that soon but in there meantime you can check it out here under Xposed in the first post – http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-galaxy-s7/how-to/how-to-notes-root-install-xposed-unroot-t3411039
Good Morning David and thanks for answering so quick. Well guess what? After i did the above, seemed like everything was working great until this morning and as soon as a call came in, immediately it said my phone software ended unexpectedly or something to that affect and i couldnt answer the phone. So i went to reboot it and now it gets up to the AT&T logo and sits there and you can feel it just keep booting over and over again, i guess thats whats referred to as a bootloop? LOL …. and i try to put it in recovery mode or something to shut it down, and i cant get into that, the only thing i can do is make it restart again which does the same thing or i can get it intl the Download mode, but that is all. What do i do now? I guess with all the issues i came across should i unroot it back to the norm and if so how from this point?
Thanks man,
David
Ha no worries just do this to get back to stock and you can either reroot and try again or just stay unrooted 🙂 – https://theunlockr.com/2016/09/10/unroot-samsung-galaxy-s7-s7-edge/
David, sorry to bother you yet again, but ive clicked on the Stock zip a couple of times and it wont download, or it starts or tries, which is like 2.1GB but then fails or something like it is corrupt or something?
Thanks,
David
David, here’s an update to what i ended up doing. Thought you might also want to know this if you didnt already. Well remember i was going to return to Stock since my phone was messing up pretty bad, so i was finally able to get into recovery mode and i got to thinking that if you had a rooted rom on there that maybe if i wiped everything it would come back up with that still on it and fix my issue. And to my amazement, it did, i wiped the phone and the cache and when it came back up it set it self up with the rooted OS and all the bloatware removed, so i figure you created the ROM with the rooted device plus the script to remove the bloatware. If that is what you did, how cool. I can always go back to that if i want. And i know how to return to stock if i want as well. Still occasionally getting the Update Binaries pop up, but i just clear it but not seeing the Android Pay thing anymore. So im good, but i have 2 big questions that i would love to know the answers to if you dont mind. #1. I noticed that when i receive a call or i call out, that there is a fantastic new button on the dial pad that says “Record” so i pushed it and whoaaa how cool, its a recorder of both sides of the conversation. I had been using an app for that but now i can use that. Is that an app that you added, or a hack or part of an updated OS version? #2. I am not going to mess with Expose i dont think again as it caused me those issues until you come up with a video on it, but did that ROM that you must have created plus the Bloatware include the Fixes Patch that you talked about or do i need to run that script now also. Just want it to run the best i can. There are so many apps that ive looked at that control just about everything about the CPU and everything else and i dont know much about how to customize that and dont want to mess anything up. What do you suggest to get it running in peak performance. OK, so i know i have asked you more than two questions but i feel like you are the easiest person i have found now to understand and you seem to be very knowledgeable about all this. So i would appreciate what you could throw out there for me.
Thanks Dave,
David McIntosh
Wow so glad you got it to work and thanks for reporting back here so others can see how you did it, really appreciate that 🙂
As for your questions. 1. I believe that is something th developer of whatever ROM you are using/the fix script added. Samsung/Sprint wouldn’t put that in there on their own as their are liabilities for recording phone calls (i.e. certain states require both parties to be notified or it’s invasion of privacy, etc.). 2. I didn’t create the ROM you are using, if you downloaded it from my ROMs section (theunlockr.com/roms/) then it has the link to the developer there. Did you flash a custom ROM from a custom recovery? What ROM did you flash?
No, all i did was to go from Stock at 1st to your Guide on how to Root and flashed the Rooted Rom that you put in your guide and then i ran the 2 scripts for the Bloatware and Fixes and the Expose which i didnt see any Expose app or whatever it was suppose to have done, but remember that messed my phone up and i couldnt receive or make calls, it would lock up etc .. So then all i did to fix it was finally got it to go into regular recovery holding the 3 buttons down and then i did a factory reset and wiped the cache partition and then rebooted, now here is what i am not sure about, i guess whatever ROM you had us to flash in your Guide must reside somewhere else on the phones memory so when you Reset it to Factory from Recovery, then it must reload whatever you last flashed to. If i am wrong, please let me know, i am new at this for sure !! LOL … So then it just rebooted and came back up to a setup. At that point i didnt know what it was going to do, but it did a very sleek setup without all of AT&T’s junk and once done, i just had to connect the phone to usb and run the SuperSu and once i downloaded and checked the Root Checker i was rooted again but very clean without any bloatware and the phone has been running perfect. So i was just wanting to know, wherever you got the ROM in your guide that gave us the root, did it include some 3rd party app to record calls or was that a hack or something by whoever? That was my question mainly and did that ROM also have the S7 fixes on it too besides the bloatware script.
Thank you so much for being so quick !! Your awesome dude !!
David M.
OK, so I’m confused and maybe it’s the choice of words. What you flash in the rooting tutorial isn’t a ROM. It is a rooted boot image that allows us to then flash SuperSU (as opposed to a full ROM). Is that what you are referring to? After that it sounds like you ran the debloater and fix script and then factory reset the phone and that worked?
See i told you that i was a newbie. Yes that is exactly what i did, flashed the rooted boot image. See i dont know exactly what a ROM is, nor do i know where that rooted boot image went to allow me to factory reset back to it. So maybe you could school me on that stuff just a bit. Im not sure where stuff goes when you flash it to a phone and then when you factory reset, and then reboot, where does it pull the image from etc ? That is what i dont know about, and my main question before was did whoever that did that rooted image add the record button somehow, like a hack or an app or whatever? So you can probably understand what my questions are. Either way, my phone is working fairly good right now on that rooted image except for a few little issues.
Thanks so much, Dave
David M.
Hey Dave, im working on unrooting and returning to the stock that you have in your guide. Is that a good file. I have tried several times to download and it only runs for about 5 mins and then fails. It appears to be 2.1GB. Also, when you have time could you either email me or kind of tell me the difference between the boot image that i did before and a full ROM … i guess there are sections divided on a device that gets different files written to and when you wipe to factory or whatever, only some of those or overwritten. It would really help me to understand better about what i am doing. Thanks !!
David M.
The image it pulls or ROM is the stock ROM on the phone it has just been altered by the script you ran. So the debloater and fix script could have added that as a change to the stock ROM, yes. You can see everything that it added here actually under where you downloaded it from it has a Show Content button that will display the list of changes and even what apps were removed, etc. – http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-galaxy-s7/how-to/how-to-notes-root-install-xposed-unroot-t3411039
And glad it is working now for you sorry for the hassle!
OK, i think i fixed my DisQus issue.
Hey Dave,
See i told you that i was a newbie. Yes that is exactly what i did, flashed the rooted boot image. See i dont know exactly what a ROM is, nor do i know where that rooted boot image went to allow me to factory reset back to it. So maybe you could school me on that stuff just a bit. Im not sure where stuff goes when you flash it to a phone and then when you factory reset, and then reboot, where does it pull the image from etc ? That is what i dont know about, and my main question before was did whoever that did that rooted image add the record button somehow, like a hack or an app or whatever? So you can probably understand what my questions are. Either way, my phone is working fairly good right now on that rooted image except for a few little issues.
Later that day: LOL , found more not working so ……………
im working on unrooting and returning to the stock that you have in your guide. Is that a good file. I have tried several times to download and it only runs for about 5 mins and then fails. It appears to be 2.1GB. Also, when you have time could you either email me or kind of tell me the difference between the boot image that i did before and a full ROM … i guess there are sections divided on a device that gets different files written to and when you wipe to factory or whatever, only some of those or overwritten. It would really help me to understand better about what i am doing. Thanks !!
David M.
I followed the video and guide that you have here but I have to still enter my PW for my Wifi after phone restart. I used the debloater/fixes script, Im not sure if I should redo it again. Any sugguestions?
I’m not sure what you mean. You will have to put in your wifi password when connecting to a new network or after your phone is reset, all phones require that.
Yes I have done that but it will keep asking for the PW for my WIFI on my S7. I read that the Fixes script takes care of having to constantly re-entering the PW. Can I rerun the debloater/Fixes script again without messing anything up on my S7?
Got it. If it’s about the script, you should contact the developer here at the forum for it – http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-galaxy-s7/how-to/how-to-notes-root-install-xposed-unroot-t3411039
Thanks
When I was on xda, its seems as though the fixes and debloat are only for PE1. I had one user (on Page 197) say it would work on PH1. I tried searching to see if there was an updated file for other versions but didn’t have any luck. Do you have any thoughts on this before I give it a shot?
I’d simply check with the developer and ask. You can do that on this page – http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-galaxy-s7/how-to/how-to-notes-root-install-xposed-unroot-t3411039
I have a Galaxy S7 Active from AT&T…Will these steps also work with the “Active” line of phones? Thanks for your time.
I’m not sure as I haven’t personally tested it with one, but check the developer’s page here and see if it’s mentioned – http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-galaxy-s7/how-to/how-to-notes-root-install-xposed-unroot-t3411039
the tmobile stuff still isnt gone after i did this (maybe cause i had them disabled???)
Try again then without them disabled.
I’m stuck on the dumbest step…my phone won’t show up as a storage device so I’m not able to copy the debloater.zip file onto it. I’ve tried the basic restarting both my phone and the comp but it still doesn’t show up. Any ideas?
Hey David. I’m just curious about your personal setup and experience with root on the S7. First off what firmware are you running? Second, after running the debloat and fix script in your video are you happy with your phone’s performance or has it been somewhat buggy and with poor battery life forcing you to go back to a stock firmware? I’m really interested to see what you have to say almost a month later. Thanks.
Hi Santino,
So I sold the phone so I can’t check the firmware I used when I rooted it. I used it for about a week or so before I had to sell it (to afford the next phone to do videos on). Speaking of how it worked a week in, it was fine. Definitely smoother than when I was using the phone for a while without root and debloat. Just be careful though as there are newer versions of the firmware now that the rooting firmware hasn’t been updated yet for. Check here for more info – http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-galaxy-s7/how-to/how-to-notes-root-install-xposed-unroot-t3411039
Good luck!
Can I go ahead and remove FlashFire And SuperSU when I’m done?
You can remove flash fire but you’ll need to keep SuperSU
Phone working fine for few days but now won’t boot past T-Mobile logo. Just one vibrate follow by three quick ones continuously. Can’t turn it off. Any advice?
https://theunlockr.com/2016/09/10/unroot-samsung-galaxy-s7-s7-edge/
Unrooting keep saying fail. I downloaded the T-mobile one. Could that not be the exact firmware for my phone? Rooting works fine.
I followed the instructions on my S7 Edge and it indeed does what it says it’s going to do “reboot a couple of times, blank screen etc.” but once completed, everything is still there from Samsung and AT&T. I have tried twice now with identical results. Am I misunderstanding the intent? For clarity, I used the script S7_or_S7Edge_Fixes_Debloater_V15.zip as this is an AT&T version. Thanks for any insight.
Anythig for S7 Active?….. anyone.
This doesn’t work for the Active version but check XDA-Developers for a tutorial on it.
I have the same question, let me know if you find out anything please. Thx in advance.
Just undo it – https://theunlockr.com/2016/09/10/unroot-samsung-galaxy-s7-s7-edge/
Perfect!
I ran the debloat script with the FlashZip app and let it do its thing, and when my phone turned on all the Sprint Bloatware was still there. Does it not delete the sprint bloatware?
Not sure you’ll have to check with the developer – http://disq.us/url?url=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.xda-developers.com%2Fverizon-galaxy-s7%2Fhow-to%2Fhow-to-notes-root-install-xposed-unroot-t3411039%3AqKfU0mYEwPU6e5JdEqtH13IdM3U&cuid=511586
I have the Samsung S7 Active from at&t, will this work on my phone. I am told that the S7 Active is an at&t exclusive.
This does not work on the Active. Only the S7 and S7 Edge.
I ran the flash script BUT now my phone won’t boot pass the at&t logo. Is there a way to fix it?
You can unroot here – https://theunlockr.com/2016/09/10/unroot-samsung-galaxy-s7-s7-edge/
followed all the steps (successfully rooted my S7 Edge) however after running the fix+debloat script flashable ZIP (linked too in instructions) it seems that it hasnt removed anything/changed anything. i still the the VoLTE Service Icon and the security warning pop up.
not sure if i did something wrong?
Check with the developer of the script here – https://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-galaxy-s7/how-to/how-to-notes-root-install-xposed-unroot-t3411039
I did the root and everything works but my ram usage is off the charts more than what it used to be is that normal plus the battery life isn’t lasting my full day like it used to
Reboot the phone. Sometimes it takes a couple of reboots to settle. Otherwise contact the developer of the root and see if there’s anyone else with the issue and potential solutions.
I Flashed the script but I’m constantly getting “Unfortuanely, IMS Service has stopped.” I click OK and it comes right back. Is this normal?
Start over.
Settings > Search > USB Configuration > MTP then it should appear on you computer.