Switches a package off for one Android user without removing it — the reversible alternative to uninstalling.
pm disable-user [--user <id>] <package>
pm enable [--user <id>] <package>| Token | Meaning |
|---|---|
| --user <id> | Which Android user to change. Worth passing explicitly, because the state is per user and so is the command that undoes it. |
pm disable-user --user 0 com.manufacturer.bloatSwitch a preinstalled app off for the primary user.
pm enable --user 0 com.manufacturer.bloatSwitch it back on.
pm list packages -d --user 0Confirm what is disabled, from the platform rather than from memory.
Sample output
Package com.manufacturer.bloat new state: disabled-userThe command prints the state it read back, which is not always the state you asked for — and that is the whole reason to read this line rather than to check for the absence of the word "error". `pm enable` on a package the platform will not re-enable prints `new state: disabled-user` and exits zero. Compare the state to what you wanted.
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| disabled-user | Off because a user (or this command) switched it off. |
| disabled | Off because the app or the framework switched it off. |
| disabled-until-used | Off until something needs it. |
| enabled | Explicitly on. |
| default | No override: whatever the app's manifest declares, which is normally on. |
The app stops running, stops receiving broadcasts and disappears from the launcher for that user; nothing is deleted. `pm enable --user <id> <pkg>` switches it back on. Disabling a system service other apps depend on can break them in ways that only show up later, so change one package at a time and watch what stops working.
Android Debloat Tool runs this command over USB and parses what comes back — a Chromium browser, no SDK, nothing uploaded.
Commands that turn up in the same session as pm disable-user.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| pm uninstall | Removes a package, or removes it for one Android user only — which is how a preinstalled app is disposed of without root. |
| pm list packages | Lists installed packages, optionally with the APK path, uid, version code and installer. |
| dumpsys package | Everything the package manager knows about one app: version, paths, flags, install source and per-user state. |
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| pm path | Prints the absolute paths of the APK files that make up an installed package. |
| pm clear | Wipes an app's data — or, on Android 13 and later, only its cache. |
| pm trim-caches | Asks the system to drop cached files until the given amount of free space exists. |
| pm install | Installs one APK that is already on the device, which is what `adb install` does under the hood. |
| pm install-create | Opens an install session so several APKs — a base plus its splits — are installed as one atomic unit. |
Checked against AOSP, toybox and kernel sources while writing the parsers behind our Web ADB tools. Where a behaviour genuinely varies by Android version or manufacturer, this page says so instead of giving a number that would be wrong on half the phones out there.
Switch on developer options and USB debugging on the phone, plug it in, then run `adb shell <command>` from a machine with platform-tools installed — or run `adb shell` on its own to get an interactive prompt and type the command without the prefix. If the command produces binary output, such as a screenshot, use `adb exec-out` instead of `adb shell`: the plain shell service attaches a terminal, which rewrites newline bytes and corrupts the data.
Not the ones on this reference. They run as the `shell` user, which can manage packages for its own Android user, read most `dumpsys` services, write the settings provider, inject input and read shared storage. Root is only needed for things this reference deliberately avoids — reading another app's private data (except through `run-as` on a debuggable build), writing system partitions, or reading `/data/anr` directly.
Either the Android version or the manufacturer. Some flags and fields arrived in a specific release, and those are noted per command. The rest is OEM patching, which hits `dumpsys` hardest: a dump is debug output whose text is whatever the service author last printed, and manufacturers change it and backport their changes. Read fields by name rather than by position, and treat an unfamiliar shape as a difference rather than as a failure.
For many commands, yes — the Web ADB tools on this site talk to a phone over WebUSB from a Chromium-based desktop browser, with no SDK installed and nothing uploaded. Each page links to the tool that runs its command, when one exists. Two limits are worth knowing: only one program can hold the ADB interface at a time, so a desktop `adb server` has to be stopped first, and `adb forward` and `adb reverse` cannot work in a browser at all.
Would rather click than type? The Web ADB Toolkit runs commands like this from a browser over USB. Or browse every command.