Disabling the DebugLoggerUI service app in Android

The following notification appeared every time I switched on my Blackview Tab 10 tablet (Android 11):

DebugLoggerUI

DebugLoggerUI service is running

I cannot remember if this notification started appearing after I upgraded the tablet’s firmware last year to remove a bug in the original firmware (I had contacted Blackview and they supplied me with the updated firmware file plus a Windows 10 tool to update the tablet’s firmware). Anyway, the DebugLoggerUI notification was annoying and the log files it created were not needed either.

I enabled ‘Developer options‘ in Android and selected the settings page for DebugLoggerUI. I tapped the DebugLoggerUI’s wastebin icon to delete the existing log files, then unticked all the listed log files in order to prevent further logging.

The following notification now appeared every time I switched on the tablet, confirming that logging had ceased:

DebugLoggerUI

DebugLoggerUI service is running
Warning: All logs are stopped!!!

However the service was still running and there was no way to permanently disable or uninstall the DebugLoggerUI app from the tablet’s menus. I therefore decided to try to disable the application by using adb (Android Debug Bridge). The procedure I used is listed below.

1. Installed adb tools on the computer

In Lubuntu:

user $ sudo apt install android-tools-adb

In Gentoo Linux:

root # emerge android-tools

2. Enabled ‘Developer Options’ on the tablet

‘Settings’ > ‘About tablet’ and quickly tapped seven times on ‘Build number’.

3. Enabled ‘USB Debugging’ on the tablet

‘Settings’ > ‘System’ > Developer options’, scroll down and tap on ‘USB debugging’. Tapped ‘OK’ when prompted ‘Allow USB debugging?’.

4. Launched adb on the computer

user $ adb start-server

5. Connected the tablet to the computer with a USB cable

user $ adb devices
List of devices attached
DKTAB10EEA007074        unauthorized

A few prompts on the tablet asked whether or not to allow USB debugging. Tapped ‘Always allow from this computer’ and tapped ‘OK’.

6. Checked for a DebugLoggerUI service

user $ adb shell service list | grep -i logger

Nothing was returned.

7. Checked for a DebugLoggerUI app

user $ adb shell pm list packages | grep -i debug
package:com.debug.loggerui
package:com.mediatek.gnssdebugreport

8. Disabled the DebugLoggerUI app

user $ adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.debug.loggerui
Package com.debug.loggerui new state: disabled-user

9. Checked if the app is now disabled (enabled=3)

user $ adb shell dumpsys package com.debug.loggerui | grep enabled
    User 0: ceDataInode=467223 installed=true hidden=false suspended=false distractionFlags=0 stopped=false notLaunched=false enabled=3 instant=false virtual=false

N.B. If I want to re-enable the app in future, I would use the following command:

user $ adb shell pm enable --user 0 com.debug.loggerui

10. Stopped the adb server on the computer

user $ adb kill-server

11. Unplugged the phone from the computer.

12. Restarted the tablet.

Great! No more notification message about DebugLoggerUI.