[Fire General] DragonFire1024:
Did I miss a thread on this? Did anyone think of trying this or something similar?

I've been trying to find a way to sneak AppOps onto my Fire 8 HD, 2016 with NO ROOT. I've read in a few places, some have had success installing via ADB shell. I however, have not. But it didn't stop me from trying or to find an app or workaround close enough to it.

I kept seeing a few posts about Activity Launcher and other "shortcut apps." I was skeptical, because without root and seeing how over customized Amazon made their Android based OS, I didn't think this app would give me more than a few options to toggle, at most. I thought I would be lucky if any of the changes I made actually saved to the device. I admit when I am wrong and in this case, I'm wrong...so far.

I literally just installed this app and spent the last hour and a half, going through just the 'settings activity' drop down menu, changing a few things. So I've yet to explore the other activities and their settings.

****IMPORTANT NOTES BEFORE YOU GET STARTED:**** Amazon will constantly try to override your preferences and reset them to their liking through OTA updates, even while you're setting them. Because of that I *HIGHLY* recommend you install a no root firewall such as NoRoot Data Firewall (there are a few others with more or less of the same options, but I've grown to like that one and it's the one I use) and block ALL Amazon apps and apps with 'OTA' in their titles from connecting through both WiFi and Cellular networks. Though I know cellular service is not enabled on these tablets, for peace of mind I blocked access there as well. If you don't block access from Amazon, these settings are likely to be quickly reverted and you probably won't know it until you look again, or the original settings reappear.

Secondly, though some activities may have several upon several settings to choose from, I can't get or Amazon won't let all of them load, therefore I can't see the choices or change their settings.

My device rebooted once, on its own, during exploration and toggling, but I think it was Amazon getting aggravated with my firewall blocking their apps access after killing them.

****I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE SHOULD YOUR DEVICE BECOME BRICKED, STUCK IN A BOOTLOOP OR ANY OTHER NUMBER OF THINGS THAT GO WRONG AS A RESULT OF CHANGING OR REMOVING ANY SETTINGS.****

Below is a rundown of what I did so far:

Download and install Activity Launcher: Activity Launcher APK or from Google Play Store.

1. Tap on the link for 'Activity Launcher' above, to install it from the Google Play Store.

2. Open Activity Launcher

3. Tap the drop down menu in the upper left corner and select 'All Activities.' (Yes that's A LOT of activities!)

4. Browse if you like, but scroll down until you see the 'Settings' activity and tap on it.

There are about 3 dozen or so activities you can tap, most of which will load and most of which you can edit and change. Almost none of these settings are available to you though the regular device interface.

Accounts:

The first one I tapped was 'Accounts.' It will list ALL accounts registered to your device, whether you added them or not. I only have 2, none Amazon related accounts listed, Google and FireFox. Neither of those account settings will load, probably because they are not native to Amazon and the settings related to them can only be changed through the actual accounts. You can tap on ALL Amazon related accounts and a variety of settings will appear. For example, I tapped 'Whispersync' I was able to stop it from syncing by tapping the three dots at the top right. I was also able to remove the account from the device! :D You may need to perform that step a second time.

I stopped Prime Photos from Syncing, but I am unable to remove the account. You can long press the individual tasks and a screen will briefly pop up that has something to do with 'Fire Launcher.' It disappears too quick for me to see anything else. I haven't done anything with the Kindle or primary Amazon accounts. I'm not sure what will happen if I do so haven't yet gathered the strength to try anything :P

Apps With Usage Access:

After exploring the above, I scrolled down a few spaces to 'Accounts With Usage Access.' You have no idea how happy I was to see this. All the apps you installed that require usage access, whether you knew it was granted such access or not, are listed here, including the Google APKs you installed way back when.

I went ahead and granted the usage access to the apps I was already trying to grant it to; Greenify, NoRoot Data Firewall and All-In-One Toolbox. I *revoked* access to all of the Amazon apps listed; Appstore, Content Management Service, FreeTime, Help, Parental Monitoring Service and WiFi Locker. I left Storage Management alone as I am not sure what will happen if I revoke it's access.

Whew! That tiny bit was a lot to do and take in. Now the moment of truth was upon us. Were the changes we made to these settings, if any, holding?

:fingers-crossed::fingers-crossed::fingers-crossed::fingers-crossed:

So far Yes! Now the hard part. We reboot. I admit I was breaking a sweat as I knew the possible implications of doing these things, but my tablet rebooted with no problems whatsoever. The best part about all this? The settings I changed HELD. The accounts I removed, stayed off my tablet!!! :victory: :victory: :good: :good: :good: :victory: :victory: :victory:

I had similar luck yesterday with granting Greenify special permissions through ADB shell. Much to my surprise, and seemingly without any hassle, the commands worked and the permissions were granted. Again, no root. The only downside is you have to pay for Greenify Pro if you want tom get a chance at freezing any system apps and even then, there's no promise all system apps will be listed. But at least I was able to grant the necessary permissions!

I will explore and play with Activity Launcher throughout the days to come and perhaps Greenify may make $2.99 profit from me later tonight :P