I am having difficulties trying to remove the back/home button from the action bar.
getActionBar().setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(false); //disable back button
If you're on API level 14 or above and are not using ActionbarSherlock, this code in onCreateOptionsMenu will disable the up button, remove the left caret, and remove the icon:
ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
if (actionBar != null) {
actionBar.setHomeButtonEnabled(false); // disable the button
actionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(false); // remove the left caret
actionBar.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(false); // remove the icon
}
source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/24967862/2887103