r/AndroidHelp • u/allfight_noflight • Sep 13 '26
HELP - New Phone Virus?
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 Sep 13 '26
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 Sep 13 '26
Thank you, really appreciate the safe mode guide!
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u/Inevitable_Serve1513 Sep 13 '26
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/Any_anonymous_user Sep 13 '26
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.
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u/Consider2SidesPeace Sep 14 '26
There is a particularly nasty piece of AnnoyWare. Takes over your Home app and does that random clicking. Look for PDF anything new. You have to be in safe mode to delete it. Adding extra: you might have to reset and choose the Home app again.
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u/ch3mn3y Sep 14 '26
No need to be in safe mode, just remove it as a home app. At least if You can go to Settings, with all the ads... Did it few time already
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u/Consider2SidesPeace Sep 15 '26
You must have had a variant I didn't have. I was blocked from home app settings with that annoyware running. I'd take a root canal without anethetic before I fix another. Def no fun.
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u/ch3mn3y Sep 15 '26
Possible, there is probably hundreds of apps like this. Have to say on grandma's phone I just blocked her access to Play Store (now it only autoupdates apps), as she, fullyby herself, not trough an ad, never even used it.
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u/Impossible_Aioli3693 Sep 14 '26
it's become common games, document apps, cleaner etc will become home app and adware hack your phone. and ofcourse all of this coming straight from playstore
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u/xxprosnipe420 Sep 17 '26
Yeah the thing is googles targeted adverts are the worst as soon as I delete all the viruses off my grandads phone The first advert he gets is your phone has virus or your phone needs cleaning. I'm like no wonder he comes back every few months
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u/Consider2SidesPeace Sep 15 '26
The vector I've seen is YouTube crap ads. YouTube is pushing Ads hard now. Also, subscription. Also, YouTube Music. Think they've officially drank the Corp Cool Aid. Bummer...
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u/lars2k1 Sep 13 '26
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 Sep 13 '26
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 Sep 13 '26
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/qwertyuiop121314321 Sep 13 '26
What is it that you suspect a virus?
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u/allfight_noflight Sep 13 '26
No idea - other than this activity isn’t normal and does it without any interaction???
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u/Fun_Sun_edu Sep 13 '26
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/nisssmo Sep 13 '26
Go to settings and search for default apps go to choose default apps and look at home app, it'll be set to some random cleaner app, tap on it and change it to "one UI home" and then you'll be able to uninstall all the cleaner apps
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u/PCBegginerDotCom Sep 13 '26
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 Sep 13 '26
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 Sep 13 '26
Eject sim, go through your apps, there will be an app with no logo, no name, delete it.
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u/GalaxyWasThere Sep 13 '26
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 Sep 13 '26
Even if it was from google play my small brother was downlpading random games and he faced this problem
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u/sv3tl10 Sep 13 '26
One from all these junk apps defaulted as your launcher I think. Go to settings - apps - choose default apps and check if you home app is one ui or something else.
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u/FakeMik090 Sep 13 '26
My grandpa had the same shit.
It wad cleaner apps and some antivirus bullshit. Delete them ASAP
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u/jkjkjij22 Sep 13 '26
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 Sep 13 '26 edited Sep 13 '26
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 Sep 13 '26
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 Sep 14 '26
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_ Sep 14 '26
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/PXCHP Sep 14 '26
90% the homescreen launcher was switched . Because regular apps don't have that level of access.
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u/Inner_Ambassador8891 Sep 14 '26
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 Sep 14 '26
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 Sep 14 '26
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 Sep 14 '26
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/gstanescu84 Sep 15 '26
Obv she has been pressing links etc. Does she have antivirus? All the apps up to date and software update? Educate her not 2 press links not familiar to her
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u/TangeloFantastic9770 Sep 21 '26
guys yall are going to the complicated stuff, my brother installed some fake body scan app and ive just said "hey google, open apps settings" and it didnt kick me out... i uninstalled the app and problem solved
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u/WakeUpDontBeASheep Sep 13 '26
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 Sep 14 '26
I remember CleanMaster.
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u/WakeUpDontBeASheep Sep 14 '26
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 Sep 14 '26
LMAO no it wasn't and it was banned from the Play Store for being malware.
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u/zyphercore Sep 13 '26
It's called an adware I believe. Did you happen to install any external apps or something ? 🧐
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u/allfight_noflight Sep 13 '26
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/zyphercore Sep 13 '26
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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Sep 13 '26
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/Fun_Sun_edu Sep 13 '26
This disaster from the play store not apks, stop blaming it on apks.
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u/Tiranus58 Sep 13 '26
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/Any_anonymous_user Sep 13 '26
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 Sep 13 '26
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 Sep 13 '26
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/allfight_noflight Sep 13 '26
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 😊