

Last month, Amazon announced that they will start selling Android smartphones with lock screen ads and Amazon apps pre-installed at subsidized prices. The first two phones available are the Moto G for $149.99 and the BLU R1 HD for $49.99. I picked up the BLU R1 HD to see if it was possible to disable the lock screen ads and found it’s quite easy. This guide will show you how to do it on the BLU R1 HD, but it should also work for the Moto G. Following this guide will disable both the full screen ads and the smaller notification-style ads.

To follow this guide, you will need to have Android Debug Bridge (ADB) setup on your computer. This guide linked here will show you how. If you’re using a Windows PC, you may also need USB drivers. I used a Mac, which doesn’t need drivers, so you’ll probably need to try various BLU drivers if you’re on Windows, as that is not covered in this guide.

Note: Ads partially return after reboot

The one issue with this method is that a single lock screen ad will return if the phone is rebooted. The ad will be the full screen type and will never change. To remove the ad after rebooting your phone, you must re-enable lock screen ads and then re-disable the ads. I’ve included instructions below the main guide on how to do that.

Disable Lock Screen Ads

Open “Settings”

Select “About device” at the very bottom

Scroll down to “Build number”

Tap “Build number” several times until it says “You are now a developer!”

Press back and select “Developer options”

Turn on “USB debugging”

Select “OK” on the popup message

Before continuing, you must have a notification present on your phone so that your lock screen does not show any full screen ads. If you don’t have a notification, press and hold the VOLUME DOWN and POWER buttons until a screenshot is taken. This will add a screenshot notification.

Plug your phone into a PC using a USB cable. A message will appear on your phone. Check the box and select “OK”

Open Terminal (Mac) or a Command Prompt (Windows) and run the command:

adb start-server Verify that your phone is detected by running the command: adb devices Hide lock screen ads by running the command: adb shell pm hide com.amazon.phoenix

Unplug your phone and you’re done. There will no longer be ads on your lock screen, even when there are no notifications.

Re-disable Lock Screen Ads After Rebooting

Follow the guide below to re-enable ads Repeat steps 8 thru 12 from the disabling guide above

Re-enable Lock Screen Ads

Plug your phone into a PC using a USB cable. If a message appears on your phone, check the box and select “OK”

Open Terminal (Mac) or a Command Prompt (Windows) and run the command:

adb start-server Verify that your phone is detected by running the command: adb devices Re-enable lock screen ads by running the command: adb shell pm unhide com.amazon.phoenix



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