SkieHow does Skie block uninstalling apps on managed devices?
Skie blocks uninstalling apps with Android's uninstall restriction, and it is on by default. A student cannot remove the apps a school has put on the tablet, which keeps learning apps in place and avoids lost work. Admins add and remove apps through policy instead, in the dashboard.
It is easy to overlook this one, but it matters on a school tablet. Remove a learning app by accident, or on purpose, and the next lesson starts with a missing tool. Hostels see another version: a student removes a monitoring helper or a required app to clear the way for something else.
Skie sets DISALLOW_UNINSTALL_APPS as the device owner. Long-press menus, Settings and the Play Store all lose the uninstall option. This is the general version of the protection; the Skie app itself has its own uninstall block, covered separately, and force stop, clear data and disable are covered by another switch.
Where policy changes which apps should be present, Skie does the work. It hides or suspends apps that are no longer allowed, rather than deleting them, so data returns when an app is allowed again. Essential system apps are never touched. That is a difference from an uninstall: a hidden app keeps its data and comes back when re-allowed.
The protection is default on and has its own switch in the hardening section. It is read back from Android after each apply and appears in the compliance score.
Practical tip: if an app is causing trouble, the better fix is to move it out of the allowed list for the group. You can use the where-used view and the impact preview to see who is affected before you save.