How To Remove All Traces Of An App Android

Do you need an Android uninstaller? Here's how to remove apps

If you like trying new apps on your Android phone you need to know how to cleanly remove them if you don't want to keep them or junk left-overs will fill the phone. Uninstaller apps help.

If you keep on adding apps to your phone, sooner or later there will be no space left. It does not matter how much storage the phone has, if it has a lot then it will just take longer to fill, but eventually it will be full. You have to delete the apps you are not using to keep the phone running smoothly.

Apps can be uninstalled through the Settings app, but does this cleanly remove all the files or does it leave left-overs. No information is given when an app is installed or uninstalled, so we are in the dark. It may be that there are left-over files taking up space on your phone, which could be a nuisance if the device is short of space. Delete those files that remain after removing apps and you could have a more space.

Should you use the Android uninstall feature or a third party uninstaller utility app? Three are looked at here and they are typical of the apps to be found in the Google Play Store.

You should be aware that some apps cannot be uninstalled. The system prevents it either because they are part of Android or because they are part of the phone manufacturer's software bundle.

DIY uninstall Android apps

Before looking at uninstaller utilities, let's take a look at the manual method of uninstalling apps on an Android phone or tablet. You may be doing it wrong.

Go to Settings
Open Apps
Select the app to uninstall
Press Force Stop
Press Storage
Press Clear Cache
Press Clear Data
Return to the app screen
Press Uninstall

That should get rid of most of the files, folders and caches created by the app and then remove the app itself. However, this is not guaranteed to remove every trace of an app and there might still be files lurking around in the phone's storage.

For this reason and to make the uninstall process quicker and easier, the following app uninstallers might be preferred.

Revo Uninstaller Mobile

Price: Free | By: VS Revo Group Ltd | Size: 0.7MB | Android: 4.03 and up

Revo Uninstaller Mobile for Android phones

The Revo name might be familiar to Windows users and its PC uninstaller app is a popular program. Revo Uninstaller Mobile is an Android version that is designed to help you uninstall apps and remove all traces.

There is a single screen that lists all the apps that can be uninstalled (apps that cannot be uninstaller are not listed). Tapping the trash can selects an app and you can choose several to uninstall in one go. The amount of space that will be recovered is shown at the top.

Select apps, tap Uninstall and that's it. There is nothing else to Revo Uninstaller Mobile. I did notice a message flash up on the screen for a millisecond saying that no left-overs had been found, so it looks like Revo cleans up after removing apps, which is good.

Easy Uninstaller App Uninstall

Price: Free | By: INFOLIFE LLC | Size: Varies | Android: Varies

Easy Uninstaller App Uninstall running on an Android phone

Easy Uninstaller App Uninstall lists all the apps on the phone and their version numbers and storage space used. Apps can be sorted by name, size or date. A checkbox next to each app enables it to be selected for removal and several can be selected for a batch uninstall. It checks for left-over files after uninstalling an app and it prompts you to remove them.

There are a few extras and it lists apps by battery usage and app usage. Well, it should do, but for some reason it didn't on my phone. If it works on yours you could use it to identify apps draining the battery or app you haven't used for a long time and uninstall them.

There is a virus scanner in the app for no apparent reason. I think security is best left to security apps though.

Easy Uninstaller

Price: Free | By: Original Geek | Size: 2.1MB | Android: 4.0 and up

Easy Uninstaller running on an Android phone

Easy Uninstaller helps you to free up space on the phone by uninstalling apps. Start it and it lists all the apps installed on the screen with the icon, title, size and date. The apps can be sorted by name, size, last update time and date. Multiple apps can be selected using checkboxes and the whole lot uninstalled in one go.

Long press on an app in the list and a menu appears in which you can uninstall it, launch it, show details (from Android Settings > Apps), share it or view on the Play Store.

There isn't much else to say about it and there aren't any other features or options. It is just a simple uninstaller.

Conclusion

Only three apps are covered but a more were looked at and it quickly became apparent that they are all pretty much the same. The only thing that changes from app to app is the interface. There are dozens of apps all offering the same features - list apps, provide a few sorting options, use checkboxes to select apps and then uninstall them.

If there is an app in the store offering something different, I couldn't find it.

The advantages of these uninstallers is one tap to show a list of installed apps and you can select multiple apps to uninstall in one go.

If I had to choose one, I would go for Revo Uninstaller Mobile, but will probably continue with the manual method of removing an app - force stop it, clear the storage, then uninstall the app. It seems to do the job.