How to uninstall an android app that is not installed?
asked 2014-04-12 16:19:51 +0200
A couple of months ago, I tried to install an app (weather underground) from an apk ... the application didn't work well (it kept hammering the GPS trying to find position, failing, trying again, failing again, etc until the battery was drained) so I uninstalled it by the normal (long press -> hit X to uninstall) method. After the latest OS update, I decided to try it again, since other Android apps improved after the update. The Android installer asked if I wanted to install over the existing copy; I decided that there must be some stale data and it would overwrite it but instead the install failed. I tried downloading a fresh copy (via the google play web site) which appears to be the same version and the behavior was the same.
So I went to /data/app and didn't see the .apk there, though it was in /data/app/incoming so I deleted that. I also went to /data/data and found the app's folder and deleted that. I also removed the entries from /data/system/packages.list and /data/system/packages.xml for the app. At that point if I grep for wunderground in /data, all that shows up is a classes.dex file for a different apk (?) in /data/dalvik-cache.
After all of that - the behavior is exactly the same, I go to install the app and it asks if I want to install over the existing one, then fails. I checked the list of installed apps in Yandex.Store and the Amazon app store and it doesn't show up in those.
Any thoughts on what to try next? Is it safe to delete stuff in /data/dalvik-cache?
Thanks