{"id":51660,"date":"2026-07-25T12:49:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T12:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=51660"},"modified":"2026-07-25T13:09:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T13:09:24","slug":"how-to-completely-remove-block-snap-apps-in-ubuntu-26-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2026\/07\/how-to-completely-remove-block-snap-apps-in-ubuntu-26-04\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Completely Remove &#038; Block Snap Apps in Ubuntu 26.04"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-48273\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/snap-logo-250x250.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/snap-logo-250x250.webp 250w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/snap-logo-300x300.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/snap-logo-700x700.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/snap-logo-768x768.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/snap-logo.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t like the snap packages? Here&#8217;s the step by step guide shows how to completely remove and block them in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.<\/p>\n<p>Snap is an universal Linux package format developed by Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. Similar to the Flatpak competitor, it runs applications in isolated sandbox environments, improving security and making possible to run most recent software in old Linux Distributions without worrying about dependency issues.<\/p>\n<p>Snap itself is an open-source software, however the backend of the official Snap Store (aka App Center or Ubuntu Software) is proprietary. And, Ubuntu since 22.04 has some apps installed as Snap packages out-of-the-box.<\/p>\n<h3>What will be missing after removed Snap<\/h3>\n<p>There&#8217;s no security concern after removed all snap packages in Ubuntu, but you&#8217;ll miss some core applications, though there are a few workarounds.<\/p>\n<p>After removed Snap, you&#8217;ll miss:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Security Center<\/b> &#8211; to manage Ubuntu Pro, disk encryption.<\/li>\n<li><b>Firefox<\/b> web browser.<\/li>\n<li><b>firmware-updater<\/b> &#8211; utility to check &amp; install hardware firmware updates.<\/li>\n<li><b>App Center<\/b> for install\/uninstall applications.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some have workarounds, you may use command line tool instead to manage Ubuntu Pro, install Firefox via Deb or Flatpak package, and use GNOME Software instead to install\/uninstall applications.<\/p>\n<h3>Step 1: Remove Snap App Packages<\/h3>\n<p>To remove your snap app packages, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run commands below one by one:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Firstly, run command to list snap packages:\n<pre>snap list<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Then, remove apps one by one according to package names. For example, remove firefox via command:\n<pre>snap remove --purge firefox<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Or, remove multiple apps at once by adding more package names in the last command. For example:\n<pre>snap remove --purge firefox firmware-updater desktop-security-center<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Tips: it does NOT allow to remove &#8220;snapd&#8221; until you removed all others.<\/b> To make things simple, you may run the single command below to remove all except <code>snapd<\/code>.<\/p>\n<pre>sudo snap remove --purge $(snap list | awk 'NR&gt;1 &amp;&amp; $1!=\"snapd\" {print $1}')<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-51661\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/single-removesnap-700x507.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"442\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/single-removesnap-700x507.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/single-removesnap-300x217.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/single-removesnap-768x556.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/single-removesnap.webp 966w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Finally, remove snapd daemon package:<\/strong><\/p>\n<pre>sudo snap remove --purge snapd<\/pre>\n<p>After that, re-run <code>snap list<\/code> to verify, and delete the &#8216;snap&#8217; cache folder in user home.<\/p>\n<h3>Step 2: Block Snap<\/h3>\n<p>Snap packages can be automatically installed back, when you trying to install Firefox, Chromium, Thunderbird etc even via native <code>.deb<\/code> packages. Because, Ubuntu built them as empty packages that automatically download &amp; install the Snap versions.<\/p>\n<p>To prevent snap from being installed back, simply remove the <code>snapd<\/code> daemon (Deb version) which provides the executable for installing snap packages, then add rule to block it.<\/p>\n<p><b>1.<\/b> First, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to remove the <code>snapd<\/code> deb package:<\/p>\n<pre>sudo apt remove snapd<\/pre>\n<p>Don&#8217;t worry if you see that it will also remove Firefox, Chromium. They are empty wrappers redirect to the snap versions.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-51662\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/remove-snapdaemon-700x476.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/remove-snapdaemon-700x476.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/remove-snapdaemon-300x204.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/remove-snapdaemon.webp 702w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>2.<\/b> Then, run command to create an apt config file and edit via nano command line text editor:<\/p>\n<pre>sudo nano \/etc\/apt\/preferences.d\/snapd<\/pre>\n<p>When file opens (in command line), add the lines below to set the <code>snapd<\/code> package priority to -1, so it won&#8217;t be automatically installed back.<\/p>\n<pre>Package: snapd\r\nPin: release o=Ubuntu\r\nPin-Priority: -1<\/pre>\n<p>After that, press <b>Ctrl+S<\/b> to save file and <code>Ctrl+X<\/code> to exit.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-51663\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/block-snapd-700x426.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/block-snapd-700x426.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/block-snapd-300x182.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/block-snapd.webp 702w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Finally, run <code>sudo apt update<\/code> to apply change. And, you may try to manually install <code>snapd<\/code> to see if it&#8217;s properly blocked.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-51665\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/snapd-blocked-700x471.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/snapd-blocked-700x471.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/snapd-blocked-300x202.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/snapd-blocked.webp 702w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>Since apt v3.1, a new <code>exclude<\/code> method is added<\/b>, so you can alternatively do the steps below to block (exclude from index) snap daemon.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, run command to edit the official sources:\n<pre>sudo nano \/etc\/apt\/sources.list.d\/ubuntu.sources<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>When file opens (in terminal), add the line below in both sections:\n<pre>Exclude: snapd<\/pre>\n<p>In case you want to install Deb version of Firefox, use <code>Exclude: snapd firefox<\/code> to also block the empty firefox wrapper package.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Finally, save file (Ctrl+S, then Ctrl+X) and run <code>sudo apt update<\/code> to apply change.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-51666\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/noindex-snapd.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"651\" height=\"359\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/noindex-snapd.webp 651w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/noindex-snapd-300x165.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 651px) 100vw, 651px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3> Step 3: Clean up<\/h3>\n<p>After completely remove and block Snap, you may remove the caches to free up disk space. <\/p>\n<p>They include <code>snap<\/code> folder in user home that contains user app data, <code>\/var\/lib\/snapd<\/code> directory that contains the main system data used by snap daemon, and <code>\/var\/cache\/snapd<\/code> that the snap daemon used for caches.<\/p>\n<p>To remove them, open terminal and run the commands below one by one:<\/p>\n<pre>rm -rf ~\/snap<\/pre>\n<pre>sudo rm -rf \/var\/lib\/snapd<\/pre>\n<pre>sudo rm -rf \/var\/cache\/snapd<\/pre>\n<p>There&#8217;s also Snap related extensions provided by the <code>gnome-shell-ubuntu-extensions<\/code> package. <\/p>\n<p>You can&#8217;t remove them, as the package is associated with core Ubuntu package, but you may disable them by using Extension Manager (run command below to install if you don&#8217;t have it).<\/p>\n<pre>sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/snap-gnomextensions-700x445.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"388\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-51671\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/snap-gnomextensions-700x445.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/snap-gnomextensions-300x191.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/snap-gnomextensions-768x488.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/snap-gnomextensions.webp 917w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Step 4: Workarounds for missing Firefox, Ubuntu Pro, App Center<\/h3>\n<p><b>Firefox:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Firefox now provides official <code>.deb<\/code> package for Debian\/Ubuntu, and, there&#8217;s a well-known <a href=\"https:\/\/launchpad.net\/~mozillateam\/+archive\/ubuntu\/ppa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mozilla Team PPA<\/a> maintains most recent Firefox <code>.deb<\/code> package.<\/p>\n<p>However, both require Ubuntu-provided Firefox to be blocked. See this step by step <a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2022\/04\/install-firefox-deb-ubuntu-22-04\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">how to install guide<\/a> for details.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re OK with Flatpak package, Firefox is also available to install from the <a href=\"https:\/\/flathub.org\/en\/apps\/org.mozilla.firefox\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">flathub repository<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Ubuntu Pro:<b><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<p>For Ubuntu Pro, you may first visit <a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntu.com\/pro\/dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ubuntu.com\/pro\/dashboard<\/a>, then log in (create free account if you don&#8217;t have one), finally copy the token, and run the command below to enable Ubuntu Pro:<\/p>\n<pre>sudo pro attach TOKEN_HERE<\/pre>\n<p>And, you may run <code>pro disable<\/code> command to disable any service (<code>esm-apps<\/code>, <code>esm-infra<\/code>, or <code>livepatch<\/code>) you don&#8217;t want. For example, disable livepatch service via command:<\/p>\n<pre>sudo pro disable livepatch<\/pre>\n<p>Or, use <code>pro enable<\/code> to enable any service. And, use <code>sudo pro detach<\/code> to disable all Ubuntu Pro services.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ubuntu-procli1.webp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-51668\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ubuntu-procli1-700x418.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"364\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ubuntu-procli1-700x418.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ubuntu-procli1-300x179.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ubuntu-procli1-768x458.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ubuntu-procli1.webp 1534w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>For an alternative to the App Center and firmware updater<\/b>, run the command below to install the Gnome Software as well as its firmware plugin:<\/p>\n<pre>sudo apt install gnome-software gnome-software-plugin-fwupd<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-51667\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/gsoftware-700x429.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"374\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/gsoftware-700x429.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/gsoftware-300x184.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/gsoftware-768x471.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/gsoftware.webp 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And for Chromium user, either install the <a href=\"https:\/\/flathub.org\/en\/apps\/org.chromium.Chromium\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Flatpak package<\/a> or follow <a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2026\/05\/install-chromium-deb-ubuntu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this guide<\/a> to install native DEB from other sources.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don&#8217;t like the snap packages? Here&#8217;s the step by step guide shows how to completely remove and block them in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. Snap is an universal Linux package format developed by Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. Similar to the Flatpak competitor, it runs applications in isolated sandbox environments, improving security and making possible to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1494,2397],"class_list":["post-51660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-howtos","tag-snap","tag-ubuntu-26-04"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}