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Help Why can't I uninstall Instagram?

A

AndroidWoman

Lurker
Hello Androidforums!

I'm currently having a problem with the app on my Samsung GT-S7560.
I have the Android version 4.0.4.
It all started a while back when I was on Instagram. All of a sudden my screen went black and my phone rebooted itself. This happened a couple of times but after that everything went back to normal. However, the problem has now recurred.
Whenever I tap on the Instagram icon to access the app, it says that an error occured when starting the app, and that I should uninstall and then reinstall the app. The problem is that I can't uninstall the app! When trying to do this (via the task manager and Google Play), my phone reboots itself. After the phone reboots itself the app is still there, uninstalled.

In order to solve the problem I have tried the following:
1. Rebooting the device. Obviously this doesn't help.
2. Rebooting the device in safe mode and then trying to uninstall the app. This also does not work as my phone reboots itself before the app is uninstalled.
3. Clearing the data and cache of the app also does not work.
4. Updating the app so that I have the latest version, but to no avail.
5. Creating more space by uninstalling other apps. This doesn't help at all.
6. Contacting Instagram. I have yet to receive an answer from them.

So, basically the app does not work and cannot be uninstalled. Please note that this only happens with Instagram and no other app. At this point I'm at my wit's end and I'm considering restoring my device to factory settings. What is your advice?

Your help would be greatly appreciated :)
 
There is one more thing I can think of, but as this browser has lost my post twice while swapping tabs I'll wait until I can get to a computer. But it involves enabling USB debugging, installing adb on a computer the using the command "adb shell pm uninstall" to see whether that will get rid of the app.

Will add details & links later,if nobody beats me to it.
 
OK, first things first: do you have the option to enable usb debugging in your settings (e.g. in a "developer options" menu). I think with 4.0.4 it's probably there to be turned on, whereas in later versions you need to go to Settings > About > Software information > More and tap repeatedly on the "build number" in order to get the developer options menu, and then use that to enable usb debugging (seriously! Someone in Google thinks this is cute/clever/funny, but whichever they think it is, it really isn't).

Once you have that, information about installing ADB (Android Debug Bridge) on a computer can be found here.

Then you connect the phone to the computer via USB and try the command "adb devices" as described in the thread linked above. It should respond with the serial number of your phone. If it does, you are good to go.

Then you need to type the command adb uninstall com.instagram.android". If that doesn't work, try "adb shell pm uninstall com.instagram.android".

If that doesn't work, type "adb shell pm list packages com.instagram" to find out what the package name for instagram on your phone is, and substitute that name into the command above. But both of those commands worked on my phone (I installed Instagram in order to test this).
 
Hadron said:
OK, first things first: do you have the option to enable usb debugging in your settings (e.g. in a "developer options" menu). I think with 4.0.4 it's probably there to be turned on, whereas in later versions you need to go to Settings > About > Software information > More and tap repeatedly on the "build number" in order to get the developer options menu, and then use that to enable usb debugging (seriously! Someone in Google thinks this is cute/clever/funny, but whichever they think it is, it really isn't).

Once you have that, information about installing ADB (Android Debug Bridge) on a computer can be found here.

Then you connect the phone to the computer via USB and try the command "adb devices" as described in the thread linked above. It should respond with the serial number of your phone. If it does, you are good to go.

Then you need to type the command adb uninstall com.instagram.android". If that doesn't work, try "adb shell pm uninstall com.instagram.android".

If that doesn't work, type "adb shell pm list packages com.instagram" to find out what the package name for instagram on your phone is, and substitute that name into the command above. But both of those commands worked on my phone (I installed Instagram in order to test this).
Click to expand...

Hi Hadron! Sorry for my late reply!
First of all, thank you so so much for taking the time and effort to reply to my post. I really appreciate it! :)
I did manage to solve the problem by simply backing up my data via Samsung Kies and doing a factory reset.
This was, as anyone who has ever used Kies before, not the easiest thing in the world. Connecting the device to Kies was the main issue, but I fixed that problem and managed to do a backup.
My device now works just fine, and Instagram works like a charm!

Once again, thank you Hadron! Have a happy weekend! :)

AndroidWoman
 
Glad to hear it's sorted. :)

Yeah, the factory reset was sure to get rid of it because it doesn't mess around with uninstalling apps, just wipes the partition. And there was a very good chance that adb uninstall would have just made the phone reboot like everything else, it was just the only other thing I could think of (and if I'm honest I quite enjoy trying to think of alternative ways of doing things ;)).
 
Hadron said:
Glad to hear it's sorted. :)

Yeah, the factory reset was sure to get rid of it because it doesn't mess around with uninstalling apps, just wipes the partition. And there was a very good chance that adb uninstall would have just made the phone reboot like everything else, it was just the only other thing I could think of (and if I'm honest I quite enjoy trying to think of alternative ways of doing things ;)).
Click to expand...

Finding alternative ways of doing things is awesome! Ain't nothing wrong with being creative! ;)
I must admit that I'm not a very technically savvy person, so therefore I'm glad that the option of doing a factory reset is available :D. I just wished that Kies worked better. Although everything worked out just fine, trying to connect the device to Kies took a month of sundays! :D
 
Hadron said:
OK, first things first: do you have the option to enable usb debugging in your settings (e.g. in a "developer options" menu). I think with 4.0.4 it's probably there to be turned on, whereas in later versions you need to go to Settings > About > Software information > More and tap repeatedly on the "build number" in order to get the developer options menu, and then use that to enable usb debugging (seriously! Someone in Google thinks this is cute/clever/funny, but whichever they think it is, it really isn't).

Once you have that, information about installing ADB (Android Debug Bridge) on a computer can be found here.

Then you connect the phone to the computer via USB and try the command "adb devices" as described in the thread linked above. It should respond with the serial number of your phone. If it does, you are good to go.

Then you need to type the command adb uninstall com.instagram.android". If that doesn't work, try "adb shell pm uninstall com.instagram.android".

If that doesn't work, type "adb shell pm list packages com.instagram" to find out what the package name for instagram on your phone is, and substitute that name into the command above. But both of those commands worked on my phone (I installed Instagram in order to test this).
Click to expand...

Hi friend!
I've tried to solve this problem by way you recomend, but when I typed a command "adb uninstall com.instagram.android" the phone rapidly gone to reboot((
But, the factory reset decided this halting!
 
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