How to debloat a slow Google TV over Wi-Fi with Claude Code (and undo it)

#ai #android #tutorial #productivity

If your Google TV takes three seconds to react to the remote and greets you with a sponsored banner, the problem is usually not the hardware. It is the 20 to 30 manufacturer apps running in the background: ad services, telemetry, "recommendations" and launchers you never asked for.

tv-home is a small open source repo that fixes this over Wi-Fi from your laptop. It disables the junk (reversibly, nothing is uninstalled) and can replace the stock home screen with a tiny Apple TV style launcher. On the author's 2 GB TCL Google TV it disabled 25 bloat apps and cut the home screen's memory use from 192 MB to 83 MB.

You can do it two ways: hand the whole job to Claude Code with one prompt, or run five scripts yourself. Both are below, plus the gotchas that trip people up.

Before you start

An Android TV or Google TV (TCL, Xiaomi, Hisense, Sony, OnePlus, Nvidia Shield, Chromecast with Google TV and most others). Not Samsung (Tizen), LG (webOS) or Fire TV.
A computer on the same Wi-Fi. The manual steps are written for macOS.
Git, and about an hour the first time.

On the TV: Settings, System, About, then press OK on Build 7 times. Go back, open Developer options and turn on USB debugging. Keep the TV on.

Option 1: one prompt in Claude Code

Clone the repo and open Claude Code inside it, so it can reuse the scripts and the launcher:

git clone https://github.com/mihirgupta0900/tv-home.git
cd tv-home
claude

Then paste the prompt from the README (also in PROMPT.md). The core of it:

My Android TV is slow and full of ads. Find it on my Wi-Fi, connect over ADB, and debloat it: disable the manufacturer's ads, telemetry and junk (reversibly, never uninstall), asking me first about apps and features I might use. Then build and install a fast, minimal Apple TV-style home screen with a dock of my favourite apps and rotating nature wallpapers. Back up before changing anything, check every step with screenshots from the TV, and give me a restore script.

Accept "Allow USB debugging?" on the TV when it pops up, then answer the agent's questions: which apps you use, which go in the dock, and whether you want wallpapers. The useful part is that it asks before disabling anything you might use, and it checks its own work with screenshots from the TV.

Option 2: run the scripts yourself

./setup.sh                                                  # Python ADB client, JDK 17, Android SDK
tools/find-tv.sh                                            # finds the TV, saves its IP
tools/venv/bin/python -I tools/tv.py --probe                # model, Android version
tools/disable.sh examples/tcl-google-tv-g07/debloat.txt     # or your own list, see examples/
launcher/build-and-install.sh                               # build + install the launcher

Debloat lists live in examples/, one per TV model. If yours is not there, copy the closest one and remove anything you actually use (your streaming apps, Live TV, the input switcher).

To undo everything:

tools/restore.sh examples/tcl-google-tv-g07/debloat.txt

Use the same list you disabled with.

The gotchas, so you do not lose an evening

macOS blocks the adb binary on the local network ("No route to host"). tv-home ships a pure Python ADB client (tools/tv.py, using the adb-shell package) for exactly this reason.
Google TV hijacks the Home button. With the stock launcher disabled, com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith has a higher Home priority than any third party launcher. The install script disables it and restore.sh turns it back on.
Chained pm commands fail silently. pm disable a; pm disable b can stop after the first one. The scripts run one command per shell call.
Typing a Wi-Fi password with the remote is painful. tools/type.sh types into the TV's on-screen keyboard from your laptop, and run alone it prompts with hidden input for passwords.

Honest caveats

USB debugging stays on while you use this. Anyone on your network who gets the TV to accept their computer could control it, so only accept the prompt for your own machine.
The only tested model so far is a TCL Google TV on Android 11. Others should work, but check the package names in your list before you run it.
Disabling is not uninstalling: a factory reset or restore.sh brings every app back.