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I don't know much about how apk and apps in android work. Title says it all. In my specific case, I installed icon packs from a playstore app to be used along with Nova Launcher. Now I want to get rid of the app that provided the icons pack (it is occupying space). I disabled it with pm disble .. command. And the icons aren't gone. So, I guess, I'd be fine if I delted the app as well. but I am not sure.

So, does uninstalling an app does more messing with the system than uninstalling it does?

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Not disabling and uninstalling are different things. Disabling the app will let the it stay on your phone, but it won't be functionally working in the background/foreground. While uninstalling (obviously) removes the app completely from your phone. To use it you need to reinstall the app again.

Disabling will hide your icons in your case. For disabling the app, Go to your Setting > Apps > All > Icons_Pack_App > Disable. If you want to get rid of it completely and free up space, then Settings > Apps > All > Icons_pack > Uninstall.

You can also disable and enable apps with the command,

pm enable <package name>
pm disable <package name>
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  • I get that. What I want to know is whether a disabled app is still able to provide some functionality support to another app which is live and runing - like if it can provide some kind of library dependencies or child processes.
    – Bibek_G
    Commented Sep 23, 2015 at 6:05
  • Nope, once disabled is disabled and the functionality won't work until it gets enabled. But since your Nova launcher depends on that package it might crash and show you to enable the icon pack. But did you try to change the icon pack in nova launcher? Nova settings > Look and feel > Icon Theme and change your desired icon pack.
    – Lucky
    Commented Sep 23, 2015 at 6:09
  • Well, thanks ! yeah, I did try to do that. There's no option for ainokea, the third party icon packs i was talking about, now that I've disabled it. But the icons themselves still remain. So, I thinks I will go ahead and delete ainokea.
    – Bibek_G
    Commented Sep 23, 2015 at 6:15

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