Does anyone have a good step by step guide on how to "Degoogle" a phone?

Apologies if this has been asked before. Question is in the title.

Thank you in advance.

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I’ve never done it before, but I’ve looked into it online. It’s not as simple as one would think, but it can be done. Some say G :eyes:gle Pixels (ironically) and Moto G7’s are the easiest to deG :eyes:gle. Others have said you can do it with some Samsung Galaxy’s as well. It may depend on what phone you have in the end and how much time & energy you’re able to invest.

Another option may be installing an alternative Android-friendly open-source OS on your phone (a Linux Phone). The following thread may be of use to you. There are some resources mentioned there about deG :eyes:gled phones throughout the conversation:

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I haven’t taken that challenge either. I went for the pinephone. So far it seems to work fine but it is not RollRoyce class! However, if you are specifically looking for a de-googled option, try this website where you can get them already pre-configured with a linux distro. Rob Braxman Hope this helps??

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I have done it on 2 x Samsung Galaxy S5 phones recently.

I used LineageOS (no GAPPS). It worked like a charm.

Basically, Samsung devices come with a unique boot mode called “Download mode”. Heimdall is a cross-platform, open-source tool for interfacing with Download mode on Samsung devices. This program was available in the Fedora Linux repo so I could install it easily.

Power off the device, and boot it into download mode, then insert USB cable.

Run heimdall … device reboots.

Power off, boot into download mode again and use heimdall to flash the “recovery” image onto the phone.

Unplug USB cable, then manually reboot into “recovery” mode. Then “factory reset / format”.

Then “sideload” the LineageOS zip file, then reboot system (on phone menu). Once rebooted I was in the initial setup of Lineage.

If your device is listed at: Devices | LineageOS Wiki then there will be a “howto” page there I think.

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Once I initialised, the first thing to do is get the fdroid repo app. Go to https://f-droid.org/ with the default browser and click the download button. Once downloaded, you should be able to open the file and install fdroid. You will need to Allow browser to install from unknown sources, install fdroid, then remove permission at:

  • settings / apps and notifications / advanced / special / install unknown apps / browser

To get access to apps in your google playstore account, then use fdroid app to install “Aurora store”, allow install from fdroid, then open the app and enter your google account email and password.

Don’t install “any” apps by Google. You will need to find alternatives.

To get location services for maps etc, install “UnifiedNlp (no GAPPS)” plus one or two backends. I installed NominatimNlpBackend and Deja Vu Nlp Backend. So far that has done the job.

I have been trialling Open Street Maps with the OsmAnd app. Once I downloaded state maps it seems like a fairly good google maps alternative.

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Michael Bazzells instructions worked perfect for me, I’ve done 5 now with all success. One took me several tries, but if you have an unlocked pixel, see his instructions on Intel techniques.com resources page.

Grapheneos.org has full web or CLI instructions also.

Hopefully one of those works!

If not I can try to help.

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I would also recommend a pixel 4 or 5, any submodel. The 3 will be phased out soon, and 6 is not yet available with Graphene yet.

Graphene OS is most secure from manys perspective, but other options are Lineage OS or Calyx OS, which allows for other phones.

Graphene only works with Pixels

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Hi, I have a Blackberry Keyone that I’d like to degoogle. What os would be used for this phone -any suggestions?
Thank you.

Hey @Timber,
Perhaps the process this guy describes can help:

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Thank you. I saw this before, but he doesn’t exactly say how he did it. I would need a step by step video or something because this is my first android phone and I’m not familiar w/any of the terminology e.g. patching, apk’s, etc.
I guess I don’t need another os like lineage or graphene, but just need to remove google play.

Go here, find your phone and follow detail instructions.
In a nutshell, you need to unlock your bootloader, this will lead to your phone rooted (aka. you can do whatever you want), then you can install a custom ROM.

The most popular roms are OrangeFox and for security is LineageOS

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Google Pixel 6 phones are now supported by Graphene OS now also if you haven’t decided yet, but plenty to choose from, and not just pixels 3-6. Graphene OS leans heaviest on privacy/security at the loss of some minor convenience on the pixels, while other OS’s offer similar product but more user friendly, with privacy as not the primary or premiere focus. Hopefully that doesn’t come across as too unfair; I fully support anyone going with any non-google phone option which means installing a custom ROM as outlined above and elsewhere direct from source, Lineage and Calyx OS being popular, as are /e/ phones now (an offshoot of another ROM) plus some other proprietary-ish phones for sale ready to go.

As with everything, if privacy is your goal, strive for DIY, otherwise folks like Brax.me and others on Telegram chat have services to purchase de-googled phones, tons of options.

First identify hardware needs, then figure out which OS supports that phone, and give it a try! if you don’t like, you can always try a different one or swap phones to try again. I’ve found Graphene OS very user friendly if you don’t need any google apps in your life/phone and have been a happy camper, but there is nothing wrong with Lineage or Calyx from a de-google standpoint. Any of those are way better than stock Android.

Well, as it turns out I bought a used BB KeyOne because it was the only qwerty keyboard phone that my carrier accepted. Now I’m finding there’s really no foss os for it. I’ve downloaded firefox and brave and signal, F droid and
Here we go and then deleted my google account and shut off everything to do w/google.

Did G7 Motorolla lake, very straight forward process. Followed this steps: Install lineageos in G7

Phone works great. Need a fast usb port, first time tried with acer swift3/ubuntu 20.04, 8gb ram, usb 3, ryzen7 3 but keep getting error for size of data transfer. I put together a new computer: ryzen9, 128 gb, ubuntu 20.04 and the whole process took me about an hour.

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