Does uninstalling an app remove all traces of the app?

cdflasdkesalkjfkdfkjsdajfd

I don't usually install any new apps on my phone, but when I do install one and then don't like it, I not only uninstall it but also wipe my phone and reinstall everything from scratch, which takes between 6 and 7 hours of my time (I have a bit of OCD, I know)...

My question is whether uninstalling an app truly deletes absolutely all associated data or files it may have created, and if it's really unnecessary to perform this complete phone wipe to guarantee its total removal.

Thanks

DeletedUser733

cdflasdkesalkjfkdfkjsdajfd

If I uninstall an app, I can't help feeling that even a small amount of app data is left, my phone is not how I want it.
I factory reset my phone and set it up again, takes me less than 20 minutes to be back up and phoning contacts.
I will factory reset my phone at leat once a week and after downloading GrapheneOS updates, so this may be twice a week.
That's how I operate, really don't care what people may think, its my phone and my rules.

neotux

cdflasdkesalkjfkdfkjsdajfd

Here is what I do:
Before uninstalling the app, I'll clear its cache and storage data.
After uninstalling the app, I'll check these folders: /Android/data/ and /Android/obb/
If there is anything associated with app in there (that I don't want to save) I delete it.
Then, I'll call it a a day.

PS. perhaps there are other places to look into, so I'll wait and see what others will say about this.

cdflasdkesalkjfkdfkjsdajfd

DeletedUser733 20 minutes? Half an hour? If it took me that long I wouldn't worry in the slightest, but as I say, installing and configuring the apps I use in the 3 user profiles that I have in the phone takes me more than 6 hours, closer to 7, which is almost unacceptable.

neotux

@cdflasdkesalkjfkdfkjsdajfd

If the purpose of installing new apps is for testing, why not just create a new user profile, a test profile.

Then you can test any apps you want in there and if you like any of them, install it in the relevant user profile for your use case.

If you don't like them then just uninstall them in your test profile. If you want to take it the whole way as you are used to, delete the test profile and create a new one when you need it.

cdflasdkesalkjfkdfkjsdajfd

neotux If I reinstall the system because I uninstalled an app, what wouldn't happen if I deleted a profile? ;)

neotux

cdflasdkesalkjfkdfkjsdajfd

If you delete a profile, everything in there, all the apps and their data will disappear as if it never existed.

No need to factory reset your whole OS and set it up again.

cdflasdkesalkjfkdfkjsdajfd

neotux maybe, but theorically the same will success when you uninstall an app, no? that's the one I will confirm.

1qkv9ddu3so2irvz

As far as I understand, there's nothing left of an uninstalled app except maybe a folder within your "home folder" and maybe another app expecting the uninstalled app to still be present (e.g. an uninstalled nfty is still expected if molly is configured to use unified push). So it can happen, that not all traces of the app are removed.

Revliss

It's a really good question actually because some apps are recognised by RethinkDNS as 'Unknown' for a reason or another. Meaning multiple apps seem to share the same name. Uninstalling them doesn't seem to delete that.

Tandara

You don't need to reinstall the whole system. You can delete the app and just restart, all the left-over data will be gone.

tqMJwDDVNuw1K

Tandara Are you really sure about this? I understand that, unless a profile is deleted, data can still be recovered.

Tandara

tqMJwDDVNuw1K Unless you granted the app an option to use storage/folders outside of it's internal app storage, you should be safe.

Full wipe/profile deletion simply wipe the encryption keys for data, SSDs don't 'overwrite' data like HDDs do