Comments on: Android 12: Preventing System Update (and that nagging popup window)

By: Frik du Toit

Frik du Toit — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 13:15:15 +0000

“Let’s leave the question if this is clever or not. It’s about who has control over the piece of electronics that you consider yours.”

I couldn’t have said that better if I tried!

By: Raju Patel

Raju Patel — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 15:31:13 +0000

Folder file mein photo sev nahin ho raha hai ismein Ja bhi rahana download ho raha hai

By: Scher

Scher — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 01:00:37 +0000

Enter:
adb shell pm disable-user –user 0 com.wssyncmldm
Command in the CMD / PowerShell / Terminal window to disable the Samsung’s auto `system update` app.

By: dytoyuy

dytoyuy — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 17:32:42 +0000

I tried adb shell pm disable com.google.android.gms/.update.SystemUpdateActivity and returns the same error message Error: java.lang.SecurityException: Shell cannot change component state for com.google.android.gms/com.google.android.gms.update.SystemUpdateActivity to 2
Pixel 2 XL rooted using Magisk Android 8.1.

By: tcyph3r

tcyph3r — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 05:29:24 +0000

2025 and you’re still kicking ass kudos to you man.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 23:24:29 +0000

I don’t want to Update. Stop asking me to. I’m NOT INTERESTED in the Update.

By: TheDrive

TheDrive — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 11:30:25 +0000

I’ve experienced same problems with Realme C21Y
Same activity, same folders, similar logs
I can’t find /system/bin/update_engine and update_verifier mentioned in /system/etc/init/update_engine.rc and update_verifier.rc anywhere

Some update related files you can find in /data/data/com.android.vending/files/finsky/shared/
Many small binariy data files could be found there

ROM Update files are downloaded to /data/gsi/ota
I’ve got them from there before I was forced to format /data to disable FBE

The following files I’d found in folder
product_b-cow-img.img
product_b-cow-img.img.0000
system_b-cow-img.img
system_b-cow-img.img.0000
system_ext_b-cow-img.img
system_ext_b-cow-img.img.0000
vendor_b-cow-img.img
vendor_b-cow-img.img.0000

Total size about 8.5GB
files without 0000 at the end only contains file name with 0000
Files with 0000 contain compressed/encrypted data in completely unknown format. I can’t see any regular headers. Far ArcLite can’t find anithing too. We should dig update_engine and/or find sources to proceed.

By: eli

eli — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 19:20:06 +0000

Re-initialize to factory doesn’t downgrade the Android version, but rather deletes all user data and settings.

And frankly speaking, I don’t think an upgrade will change so much. I don’t like these upgrades, because I want my phone to behave in a stable manner. I might very well had upgraded my own phone to Android 13, but ironically enough, I won’t do that because the phone has stopped attempting to upgrade, and I suppose it will start over with the nagging after an upgrade to Android 13.

But even I don’t think the upgrade itself is such a big deal.

By: Guy Lachance

Guy Lachance — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 18:34:04 +0000

Thank you very much for your prompt response! Your are such a nice person!

I will think twice about it, since I put a lot of hours on having the phone the way I want it…

If the upgrade breaks something, then I will redo everything from scratch. Re-initialize to factory, that should bring back Android 12, right ? And this time I shall unlock bootloader, root and all those good things…

Guy L.

By: eli

eli — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 03:07:38 +0000

Hello,
I wasn’t aware of “Kingo Root”, to be honest, and I have no experience with it. But I’ve updated my other post on rooting to mention it.

It indeed claims to root the phone without unlocking it, so no data wiping. On the other hand, this tool breaks into your phone. I don’t know what to think about that.