Clear android application user data

Question

Using adb shell we can clear application data.

adb shell pm clear com.android.browser

But when executing that command from the application

String deleteCmd = "pm clear com.android.browser";      
        Runtime runtime = Runtime.getRuntime();
        try {
            runtime.exec(deleteCmd);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();                
        }

Issue:

It doesn't clear the user data nor give any exception though I have given the following permission.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CLEAR_APP_USER_DATA"/>

Question:

How to clear another app application data using adb shell?

Did you find any solution to clear data for outside application? — Anshuman Jaiswal, Aug 19 '13 at 13:16
Don't think a 3rd party application should have permission to clear user data of another app. It would be a mess if that happened. — StoneLam, Nov 22 '16 at 11:15

score 291 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 07 '20 at 12:35

291

This command worked for me:

adb shell pm clear packageName

edited Jul 07 '20 at 12:35

Vadim Kotov

8,084
8
48
62

answered Oct 16 '14 at 09:00

Manmohan Soni

6,472
2
23
29

2

is it possible to use adb for clearing the cache too? – android developer Jan 05 '16 at 15:53
4

@EduardoCuomo Of course. I meant : Is it possible to use adb for clearing only the cache, too ? – android developer Feb 07 '17 at 12:46
1

@Shayan You can checkout the following link to only delete the application cache : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18589471/android-how-to-clear-app-cache-and-keep-user-data-via-adb I am not sure about this command will work or not. – Manmohan Soni Jan 04 '19 at 05:56
1

Is there something similar, that is only for cache? – android developer Nov 22 '22 at 21:22

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 07 '12 at 15:03

8

Afaik the Browser application data is NOT clearable for other apps, since it is store in private_mode. So executing this command could probalby only work on rooted devices. Otherwise you should try another approach.

answered Jun 07 '12 at 15:03

Thkru

4,218
2
18
37

1

The command line tools are not intdended for usage by applications. Likely they will only work for the semi-privileged adb shell user, which is treated as somewhat comparable in authority to a user pushing buttons in GUI if the system settings app. – Chris Stratton Jun 07 '12 at 15:10

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 24 '14 at 07:20

The command pm clear com.android.browser requires root permission.
So, run su first.

Here is the sample code:

private static final String CHARSET_NAME = "UTF-8";
String cmd = "pm clear com.android.browser";

ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder().redirectErrorStream(true).command("su");
Process p = pb.start();

// We must handle the result stream in another Thread first
StreamReader stdoutReader = new StreamReader(p.getInputStream(), CHARSET_NAME);
stdoutReader.start();

out = p.getOutputStream();
out.write((cmd + "\n").getBytes(CHARSET_NAME));
out.write(("exit" + "\n").getBytes(CHARSET_NAME));
out.flush();

p.waitFor();
String result = stdoutReader.getResult();

The class StreamReader:

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;

class StreamReader extends Thread {
    private InputStream is;
    private StringBuffer mBuffer;
    private String mCharset;
    private CountDownLatch mCountDownLatch;

    StreamReader(InputStream is, String charset) {
        this.is = is;
        mCharset = charset;
        mBuffer = new StringBuffer("");
        mCountDownLatch = new CountDownLatch(1);
    }

    String getResult() {
        try {
            mCountDownLatch.await();
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return mBuffer.toString();
    }

    @Override
    public void run() {
        InputStreamReader isr = null;
        try {
            isr = new InputStreamReader(is, mCharset);
            int c = -1;
            while ((c = isr.read()) != -1) {
                mBuffer.append((char) c);
            }

        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            try {
                if (isr != null)
                    isr.close();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            mCountDownLatch.countDown();
        }
    }
}

Android 8.1 MiUi 10 Root I cannot clear any 1 application even with ADB SHELL with SU parameter — anarbus, Sep 09 '20 at 20:27

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 07 '12 at 15:07

To clear Application Data Please Try this way.

    public void clearApplicationData() {
    File cache = getCacheDir();
    File appDir = new File(cache.getParent());
    if (appDir.exists()) {
        String[] children = appDir.list();
        for (String s : children) {
            if (!s.equals("lib")) {
                deleteDir(new File(appDir, s));Log.i("TAG", "**************** File /data/data/APP_PACKAGE/" + s + " DELETED *******************");
            }
        }
    }
}

public static boolean deleteDir(File dir) {
    if (dir != null &amp;&amp; dir.isDirectory()) {
        String[] children = dir.list();
        for (int i = 0; i < children.length; i++) {
            boolean success = deleteDir(new File(dir, children[i]));
            if (!success) {
                return false;
            }
        }
    }

    return dir.delete();
}

i try this,using this can clear our own application cache data, i need to clear another app user data from our application — UdayaLakmal, Jun 07 '12 at 15:10
@UdayaLakmal you are not supposed to be able to clear another application's cache data, because android is designed to protect applications from potentially malicious actions by other applications. — Chris Stratton, Jun 07 '12 at 15:11

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered May 25 '21 at 15:17

3

To clear the cache for all installed apps:

use adb shell to get into device shell ..
run the following command : cmd package list packages|cut -d":" -f2|while read package ;do pm clear $package;done

answered May 25 '21 at 15:17

Bash Stack

509
3
12

...but this will also clear the applications' data along with the cache, will it not? – Coldblackice Sep 02 '23 at 17:12

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 26 '21 at 06:15

2

On mac you can clear the app data using this command

adb shell pm clear com.example.healitia

answered Nov 26 '21 at 06:15

Umer Waqas - Top rated dev

3,072
29
26

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 29 '21 at 09:45

To reset/clear application data on Android, you need to check available packages installed on your Android device-

Go to adb shell by running adb shell on terminal
Check available packages by running pm list packages
If package name is available which you want to reset, then run pm clear packageName by replacing packageName with the package name which you want to reset, and same is showing on pm list packages result.

If package name isn't showing, and you will try to reset, you will get Failed status.

score -2 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 24 '14 at 07:25

-2

// To delete all the folders and files within folders recursively
File sdDir = new File(sdPath);

if(sdDir.exists())
    deleteRecursive(sdDir);




// Delete any folder on a device if exists
void deleteRecursive(File fileOrDirectory) {
    if (fileOrDirectory.isDirectory())
    for (File child : fileOrDirectory.listFiles())
        deleteRecursive(child);

    fileOrDirectory.delete();
}

answered Mar 24 '14 at 07:25

sjain

23,126
28
107
185

2

This would (if used with appropriate permission) delete the shared files on the External Storage without regard to app association. It **will not** delete the private files of any app, which is what the question was about. – Chris Stratton Mar 09 '15 at 21:16

Clear android application user data

8 Answers8

Linked