Uninstall protection

Stops a child uninstalling Acutis Firewall, or force-stopping it or clearing its storage from Settings.

What it actually does

Android gives an app no uninstall callback — there is no hook that lets an app show a PIN prompt when someone taps Uninstall. What Acutis Firewall does instead is register as a device administrator. While an admin is active the platform itself refuses to uninstall the package, which reroutes anyone trying to remove it through Settings → Security → Device admin apps → Deactivate — a screen the app can react to, though it cannot stop the removal.

Turn it on in Settings → Security → Uninstall protection. You need a PIN set first, since the PIN is what unlocks it again. Forgotten it? See Forgot your PIN?.

What it stops, and what it does not

Three things are worth being clear about:

• The PIN prompt on the deactivate screen is best-effort, and on stock Android it probably never appears. Two platform defences stop it, both deliberate: Settings holds an OP_SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW restriction while that screen is up (“don’t let anyone overlay stuff on top of the screen”), and calls stopAppSwitches() before asking us for a warning (“Don’t allow the admin to put a dialog up in front of us while we interact with the user”). Device logs confirm our app is only allowed to start an activity while it has a visible window, which it does not have here.

  So do not rely on the prompt. What you can rely on is that uninstall is blocked (verified on Android 10, 13 and 15) and that you are told when protection is removed.

• Force stop and Clear storage are greyed out by Android itself, which disables both for any app with an active device admin - verified on Android 10, 13 and 15. That is stock Android: Samsung and Xiaomi rewrite these screens and have not been checked. Over adb both still work; Device Owner mode closes that too.

• Clearing app storage wipes the PIN along with every other setting. Settings will not do it while protection is on, but adb shell pm clear will. The admin registration survives that, so the app treats “admin active but no PIN” as proof the data was wiped, alerts you, and — deliberately — lets protection be switched off without a PIN in that state, so you are never locked out of your own device.

  Once protection has been removed, Settings will clear storage too, but that no longer erases the tamper alert: the removal is also recorded in Android’s own settings for the app (the enabled state of a hidden component), which clearing storage leaves alone. Only uninstalling the app, or turning protection back on, removes it.

If you want something genuinely unremovable, use Device Owner mode below.

Turning it off

Settings → Security → Uninstall protection → off → enter the PIN. The admin is removed and the app can be uninstalled normally.

Without the PIN, Android’s own Settings → Security → Device admin apps → Acutis Firewall → Deactivate always works for a plain device admin: Android guarantees that a user can deactivate one. The app counts that as a removal without the PIN and shows the tamper alert, so Forgot your PIN? walks through what to do after.

adb shell dpm remove-active-admin is not a reliable escape hatch. It calls forceRemoveActiveAdmin, which throws SecurityException: Attempt to remove non-test admin on production builds. It only works for Android Studio deploys (which mark the app testOnly) and userdebug builds.

Device Owner mode (advanced, genuinely unremovable)

This is the only configuration that cannot be undone from Settings. It blocks uninstall outright, plus Safe Mode and factory reset, and Android refuses to force stop the app or clear its storage, even over adb.

Read this first: undoing it may require a factory reset. dpm cannot remove a device owner. The only ways out are the in-app “Uninstall protection → off” path, which calls clearDeviceOwnerApp and needs the PIN, or wiping the device. Forget the PIN and a factory reset from recovery mode is the only way out, because the app also blocks the reset in Settings. Set this up only on a phone you are willing to reset, and keep the PIN somewhere safe.

It requires a freshly factory-reset device with no accounts added:

adb shell dpm set-device-owner com.acutis.firewall/.admin.UninstallProtectionAdminReceiver

Once provisioned, the app applies on its own:

• setUninstallBlocked — the package cannot be uninstalled at all
• DISALLOW_SAFE_BOOT — closes the Safe Mode bypass
• DISALLOW_FACTORY_RESET

It deliberately does not apply DISALLOW_UNINSTALL_APPS (which would block uninstalling every app on the device) or DISALLOW_CONFIG_VPN (which would lock you out of VPN settings too).

Store policy

Google Play’s Device and Network Abuse policy bars apps that prevent uninstall “unless authorized by a parent or guardian through a parental control app” — which is this use case. The feature is opt-in, disclosed, and reversible with the PIN, and the app deliberately uses no AccessibilityService, which is the usual cause of parental-control app rejections.