How to Remove Preinstalled Apps Without Root, Using Shizuku and Canta

Short answer: without root you can’t delete a preinstalled app; it lives on the system partition, which is read-only. What you can do is uninstall it for your user. It disappears from your phone, stops running and loses its data, but the file stays, so you can bring the app back at any time. Canta does this with a tap, through Shizuku, which gives it the same rights as a computer connected over ADB.

Google’s own help page puts it plainly: “You can’t delete some system apps that came pre-installed on your Android phone.” On some phones you can at least turn them off in Settings, so try that first for the odd app.

What “uninstall without root” really does

Canta (through Shizuku) and the ADB command pm uninstall --user 0 <package> end up in the same Android function. Android’s help text describes --user as “remove the app from the given user”. For a preinstalled app, that means:

• the app is marked as uninstalled for you and its data is cleared (the pm command keeps the data only if you add -k);
• the APK stays on the system partition, so you gain little space. The Universal Android Debloater project, whose lists Canta uses, says this method “doesn’t save significant storage space (unless you also uninstall the updates)”;
• other users and work profiles on the phone keep the app.

The gentler option is to disable an app (pm disable-user), which keeps it installed but stops it. Universal Android Debloater rates disabling “Safest: minimal stability impact” and uninstalling “Unsafe: More likely to trigger instability”. Canta uninstalls; if you’d rather freeze an app, App Manager can.

What you need

• Android 9 or later. Canta’s README says it works on Android 9.0 and up.
• Shizuku, running. On Android 11 and later you can start it on the phone with wireless debugging; see how to start Shizuku. It usually has to be started again after a reboot.
• The official Shizuku. On Android 12 and later, when Canta 3.2.2 asked you to install Shizuku, it opened the download page of a third-party Shizuku fork rather than the official app. Version 4.0.0 (October 2026) links to the official Shizuku instead, though Canta’s README still says Android 16 might need the fork. That fork uses the official package name, which the official Shizuku README forbids, and its own README says maintenance is paused. Our Shizuku page hosts the official release.

Remove an app with Canta

1. Start Shizuku, then open Canta and allow it to use Shizuku.
2. Canta lists your apps with a removal level taken from Universal Android Debloater’s lists. In the project’s words:
   • Recommended: “Any package that’s safe to uninstall”, or an app you can get back from the phone’s app store.
   • Advanced: “Breaks obscure or minor parts of functionality”.
   • Expert: “Breaks widespread and/or important functionality, but nothing important to the basic operation of the operating system.”
   • Unsafe: “Can break vital parts of the operating system or is illegal to remove in your country (e.g. emergency alerts …)”. Canta won’t let you select these unless you allow it in its settings.
3. Select a few apps and uninstall them. Then use the phone for a while before removing more.

Canta’s README warns: “If you uninstall critical apps, you can experience bootloop and have to factory reset!” Leave anything you can’t identify alone, and don’t touch apps marked Unsafe.

If something breaks, Universal Android Debloater suggests restoring half of the apps you removed recently, checking again, and narrowing it down the same way until you find the one that matters.

Bring an app back

• In Canta: it keeps track of the apps you uninstalled, “even across reinstalls”, and can reinstall them from its list.
• From a computer: adb shell cmd package install-existing <package> brings back an app that is still on the system partition. The command has been in Android since 8.0.
• Factory reset: Universal Android Debloater’s FAQ says “A factory reset will restore all the debloated packages!” It also erases everything else on the phone, so treat it as the last resort.

Apps that won’t uninstall

• Device administrators and protected apps. Android refuses to uninstall an active device admin app, and since Android 14 also a “protected” package, such as the app that manages a work phone.
• Some manufacturers’ apps. Canta’s README notes that “some oplus apps”, from OPPO, OnePlus and realme, “are known to be stubborn and don’t allow uninstallations”.

Android 17

In Android 17’s source code, the pm uninstall command refuses to remove a system app for one user unless it runs as root, with the message “only root can delete system app for a particular user”. Android 16 has no such check. Through ADB, or Shizuku started without root, the command line method therefore stops working for preinstalled apps.

Canta doesn’t go through that command: it calls Android’s package installer directly, so the new check most likely doesn’t apply to it. We haven’t been able to test Canta on Android 17, though.

Do updates bring apps back?

Google doesn’t say. Universal Android Debloater’s FAQ suggests that if a removed app comes back after a while, “a system-update could be the culprit”. Check the list in Canta after a big update.