Common mistakes when cleaning up a TV

Having read a fair number of forum threads from people asking for help, the failures repeat. These are the seven most common.

1. Copying a list from another model

Mistake number one by a distance. Somebody posts their package list from a TCL 43P8M and somebody else applies it to a Hisense. The names partly match and the dependencies do not.

What to do: use lists for your exact model, or work through general categories one at a time.

2. Removing fifteen packages at once

If something breaks, you will not know which did it, and you will have to restore all fifteen and start over.

What to do: one, check, next. It is boring and it is faster than the alternative.

3. Not saving the original list

It costs five seconds and it is the difference between a ten-second doubt and an afternoon of archaeology.

adb shell pm list packages > before.txt

4. Removing the launcher without another one

You end up looking at an empty screen. Recoverable over ADB, but only if you were still connected.

What to do: install the alternative, check it, and only then disable the factory one.

5. Touching com.google.android.gms

Google services are a dependency of half the television. It is the most common cause of "Netflix will not open" and of boot loops.

6. Ignoring the remote packages

Anything with remote, ir, irkey, bluetooth or input deserves a check first. Losing the remote is the most annoying failure to recover from, because the usual way to fix things on a television is the remote.

7. Confusing --user 0 with a real deletion

The opposite of what people fear: plenty of people believe they have wiped something from firmware and panic. You have not touched firmware. A factory reset brings everything back. Always.

The rule that covers all seven

Before removing any package, ask yourself two questions: do I know what it does? and do I know how to put it back?

If either answer is no, find out first. It takes two minutes.