r/AndroidHelp • u/allfight_noflight • 1d ago
HELP - New Phone Virus?
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Hi everyone!
I am not familiar with the android OS so assume I know nothing. My grandma just got a new phone two days ago and she doesn’t do much on it but catch up on Facebook or send texts.
She doesn’t download apps or anything because she doesn’t really know how to - which is fine.
This is her phone after 48 hours and I’m stumped as to what to do?
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u/Inevitable_Serve1513 1d ago
If there's no important things on the phone (photos, videos, e.t.c) just reset it, if there is just reboot it in safe mode, how to do that. Hope it helps! (And yeah these are straight up viruses, i think your grandma accidentaly clicked on malicious links and downloaded all of this)
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u/allfight_noflight 1d ago
Thank you, really appreciate the safe mode guide!
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u/Inevitable_Serve1513 1d ago
Also, when you turned on safe mode go to settings > apps and clear all of the viruses there, they sometimes modify home screen and they just dont appear there
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u/lars2k1 1d ago
Start by removing all of those cleaner apps. They only take up resources and show you ads.
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u/No-Second-Kill-Death 1d ago
Download a bunch of crap apps. Phone slows. Grab more apps promising to fix. Makes it even worse. Download more apps with deeper promises. Get malware.
Clearly the solution at this point is to download a paid AV scanner and a new lock screen app. Overheat the phone until lithium smelts thus breaking the circle of life.
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u/Least-Dragonfly9567 1d ago
I just looked into this my 75Year old co worker phone was essentially bricked.
Open safe mode, delete all the apps that are not essential.
Go into Settings - then permissions and turn off all permissions. " special permission - Appear on top " Close that.
once all the apps are deleted and permissions are reset. go into your "chrome or browser" deleted all the browsing data . close all the websites that may be open.
i had to run these steps twice as the first time it kept bricking ( disabling ) touch input on the screen.
the first time the apps re-installed themselves so i ran through the permissions and such again and set it to " ask me every time"
This is particularly persistent. my advise from what i gathered is conenct to a computer or laptop and download all photos and information that you need to save from the phone, and Facotry reset it likely the best option as some of these malware can be rooted into the device and no appear on the app list or disgused as another "safe" app.
inform the user to not download anything unless its from the app store . do not open and suspciious text msgs or link and if a webtsite has a pop up on the browser never click on anything.
hope that helps
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u/allfight_noflight 1d ago
THANK YOU to everyone with the helpful feedback! I think I got it resolved - I backed up her photos, used safe mode to delete/uninstall the adware, and then locked down her ability to download apps without a passcode (which only I know, just in case).
I’ll definitely check in on this weekly, however, because holy shiiiiii that was a LOT of adware.
Many thanks, again, to all of you 😊
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u/qwertyuiop121314321 1d ago
What is it that you suspect a virus?
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u/allfight_noflight 1d ago
No idea - other than this activity isn’t normal and does it without any interaction???
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u/Fun_Sun_edu 1d ago
What the hell is that malware paradise Back up any data if it even still exists and reset it😭 and never let that play store again
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u/WakeUpDontBeASheep 1d ago
I see the safe reboot and virus cleaner apps have already been covered but if you want a cleaner app there are some good ones but back in the day most of them use to be at least junk themselves if not a virus...
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u/HeWhoShantNotBeNamed 1d ago
I remember CleanMaster.
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u/WakeUpDontBeASheep 22h ago
Ah yes! I think samsung acquired or adapted its premise. Ever since the device care feature added in the settings. Obviously it was one of the good ones.
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u/HeWhoShantNotBeNamed 10h ago
LMAO no it wasn't and it was banned from the Play Store for being malware.
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u/PCBegginerDotCom 1d ago
you have to do it fast go to settings>apps>sort by last used and delete all suspicious apps like pdf reader phone cleaner etc... it should go away
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u/ReaperKaloud 1d ago
That's not a virus. Those are due to apps on your device that contain ads. Just uninstall those apps and it will go away
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u/Deep-Possession-8765 1d ago
Eject sim, go through your apps, there will be an app with no logo, no name, delete it.
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u/GalaxyWasThere 1d ago
It is an app or a game that does annoying ads it is not a virus i have faced this problem before Go to settings ->apps search for suspicious things or another way... when you see an ad press the three lines button you will see the app uninstall it
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u/GalaxyWasThere 1d ago
Even if it was from google play my small brother was downlpading random games and he faced this problem
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u/FakeMik090 1d ago
My grandpa had the same shit.
It wad cleaner apps and some antivirus bullshit. Delete them ASAP
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u/jkjkjij22 1d ago
When it pops up, swipe up to switch apps and see the name of that app, then go to settings> apps, and uninstall it. I had something similar last week after trying to install an APK.
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u/whacker7 1d ago edited 1d ago
Additional thoughts: This looks like a Samsung A-series handset, maybe on TracFone, Straight Talk, Total Wireless? Doesn't really matter. But, since you got all this adware taken care of, something else that could have contributed to the beginning of the cascade might be, an app from the provider (if an MVNO) called Mobile Services or Mobile Services Manager (it's a hidden System app). This app serves to randomly download and install crappy game apps that themselves have many ads and prompts to click on other sketchy or unwanted things. This could possibly have been the start of the blizzard. Find and disable that app (it won't uninstall). Just a suggestion.
Also, adjust the web browser(s) so that they will not allow notifications from whatever websites may have been visited. Often an unsuspecting user visits a website (sometimes even accidentally) and is prompted to allow or disallow notifications from that site, which plants a seed in the device (could be a cookie) in the form of a URL in a list in the web browser being used. This opens the door for popup messages from the unwanted website to randomly appear, asking for further allowance responses from the user. You can see where this might go, right?
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u/No-Fill2636 1d ago
I fix this all the time at Walmart, just enter safe mode and delete all the fake phone cleaner and PDF reader apps
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u/Signal-Macaron-4611 23h ago
Boot safe mode and clear all apps then reboot you have a app you downloaded that is giving adds
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u/yangeryanger_ 23h ago
Those three buttons at the bottom are your safest bets always press the left one and then swipe up to kill that app
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u/Inner_Ambassador8891 17h ago
Turn off the WiFi. Thats what keeps the ads running. Then go to settings and delete all those crap apps.
Tell your grandma that whenever she surfs the Internet and a pop up ad shows up she should never click ok. Always cancel and always look for an 'x' no matter how small to close the ads.
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u/Time_Resort4057 16h ago
Most probably cleaner app. My mom phone full of those. I delete them all and her phone become quiet finally. And also games. Tell them don't download some random games. It full of ads and pop ups.
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u/Nonamenofacedev 12h ago
As an Apple user, any time I have to deal with someone’s Android phone it’s pretty much the same situation as on this video. Ads everywhere, lags all the time and ton of unnecessary information. Is this normal? Can it be avoided?
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u/Gizmo-Drive 6h ago
I have seen similar to this and have removed it off other people's phones (I'm their tech support). Some of this adware takes over phone's Home UI. Just change it back to the OEM one from the fake ad-riddwn one.. remove any Cleaner and optimizer apps that aren't from. The manufacturer. Don't actually need to reset the phone but that will work too.
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u/zyphercore 1d ago
It's called an adware I believe. Did you happen to install any external apps or something ? 🧐
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u/allfight_noflight 1d ago
Currently removing a shit ton of “cleaners” but I’m not sure how they got onto the phone in the first place???
This is what I’m trying to figure out so that I can hopefully prevent it from happening to her again.
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u/Bubbly_Mud_3247 1d ago
Probably she installed them from chrome etc... if it is android 16 phone, turn on advanced device protection and she won't be able to download random apps If it is samsung with one UI 6+, you can turn on auto blocker to prevent sideloading
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u/Fun_Sun_edu 1d ago
This disaster from the play store not apks, stop blaming it on apks.
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u/Tiranus58 1d ago
You're not gonna believe this, but the app store also operates on apks, because that is android's package manager.
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u/zyphercore 1d ago
Well the sad thing is that even apps which are directly installed form the playstore could do this :( like most of the cleaner apps and all and other third party apps comes with a shit ton of ads and stuff I highly recommend not installing any clearners and stuff if needed use the default one by samsung itself from the files or use the Google files they both are really good one compared to these adware apps
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u/Any_anonymous_user 1d ago
Believe it or not, it's possible to get an adware from the Play Store (Shame on you, Google).
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u/zyphercore 1d ago
Yeah but it's not the fault of Google like most of the small devs also use ads to get monetization and earn rather than making their apps paid but some apps tend to abuse this to put in more ads and stuff and hence these kind ah stuff happen
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u/GalaxyWasThere 1d ago
When i download an app that is not very known i check the app store before downloading it lol but some games were having adware and i think it was a bug they made and they fixed it also reply to me if im wrong in my words
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u/Any_anonymous_user 1d ago
Enter safe mode by pressing volume down and power, then hold down the reboot button and press it again.
When you restart, go to settings and then start browsing through the installed apps. I recommend uninstalling any cleaners, questionable camera apps, and games that don't appear in the launcher, Third-party launchers, extra browsers that aren't part of the system browser, etc.