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How to prevent uninstallation of the Freedom app
How to prevent uninstallation of the Freedom app

This article outlines the different ways to prevent deleting or uninstalling the Freedom app on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices.

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Written by Freedom
Updated over 5 months ago

Freedom has multiple ways to prevent uninstalling the app to circumvent blocks, depending on the device type.

Windows

The Freedom Windows app has built-in uninstall protection as long as the app is active. To ensure the app stays active at all times, we recommend selecting the following on the Options menu:

  • Locked Mode to prevent quitting the app among other things. See Locked Mode for more information.

  • Block Task Manager to prevent force quitting through Task Manager

  • Block System Settings to prevent uninstalling through settings

  • Run on Startup to ensure Freedom automatically launches after the computer has been restarted or logged out

As long as the app remains active with the help of these settings, it won’t be possible to uninstall the app on Windows. Once selected, these options can’t be deselected as long as a session is running.


Mac

There are different options to prevent uninstallation of the Mac app, depending on how you are attempting to uninstall.

Block the Uninstaller

To prevent use of Freedom’s Mac uninstaller, we recommend blocking the uninstaller as an app. To do this, you’ll just need to add it to your blocked apps list, and make sure to include Desktop Apps in your sessions. You can learn more about app blocking on Mac here: How to block apps on Mac. Note: The uninstaller program may have to be running in order to appear on the app blocklist to be selected.

Prevent Moving Freedom to Trash

To prevent uninstallation by moving the Freedom app to the trash, you’ll need to ensure the Freedom app is running. The app cannot be placed in the trash if it is running.

To ensure the Freedom Mac app stays active, we recommend the following settings in the Options menu:

  • Locked Mode to prevent quitting the app

  • Start at Login to ensure Freedom automatically launches after the computer has been restarted or logged out

  • Block Activity Monitor to prevent quitting the app via the Activity Monitor

Once selected, these options can’t be deselected as long as a session is running.

Note: We do not recommend uninstalling the Mac app by moving it to the trash, as this will result in an incomplete uninstall, and won’t actually stop Freedom from running. For information on how to properly uninstall the Mac app, please see How to Uninstall Freedom from your Mac.


Android

You can prevent uninstallation of Freedom on Android devices by enabling device admin permissions. To do this, tap Enable next to Device Admin in the permissions section of the Freedom app settings.:

Note: this will prevent you from uninstalling Freedom via your home screen. To prevent uninstalling through settings, we recommend blocking the settings app. For more information on Android app blocking, see How to block apps on Android.


iOS

You can use our uninstall protection feature on iOS to prevent yourself from deleting the Freedom app.

  1. Go to the Settings tab of the Freedom app on your device

2. Toggle on Uninstall Protection

3. Tap Enable in the pop-up window

Note: Uninstall protection will make it impossible to delete ANY applications from your device. And it cannot be turned off if Locked Mode is enabled.


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