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Getting rid of 'Ads by Google'

B

billynibbles

Newbie
Ever since my Xperia phone and my Nexus tablet updated with a whole raft of 'Google Play Services', I have been plagued (usually every time I bring my kit out of stand-by) by full page 'Ads by Google' which have to be cleared before I can actually get to what I wanted to do. I have tried all the suggestions that I can find to no avail. Clicking on 'Ads by Google' at the foot of the ad takes you through to what appears to be the information to fix this but nothing has worked so far.

I am already opted out of 'interest-based ads', I have frequently reset the Advertising ID in Settings>Accounts>Google>Ads but so far nothing seems to stop these obtrusive little devils from interrupting what I'm doing.

Any ideas?

I wondered about disabling all Google apps to see which ones I really need. To be honest apart from having my Google account sync contacts and calendar and having access to Google Play store, I don't give a rat's ass about anything else they have to offer.
 
I can't help because I've never seen what you describe on my Nexus 4 or Nexus 7 with all Google services enabled, so it's got to be down to some app/widget/whatever that you use that I don't.

What do you have on your home screen?
 
Thanks, you've given me an idea. The two home screens are quite different, but the common denominators for both are FB, Ebay, Dropbox, Google Maps, Google Play Store, BBC News, which seems like a logical place to start by taking them out one by one. I've already gone through Settings>Apps and taken out all recently installed apps that I can do without.

I'll try FB first since I don't trust it as far as I can throw it ever since they launched Messenger as a separate entity with 'enough rights to blackmail me' followed by the Google Apps.

UPDATE: I've done this on the tablet but left the phone alone to see if this makes any difference.
 
It's not a matter of whether the app is on the homescreen, but whether it's been installed at all. So you need to consider all apps you installed since a little while before this started.

That being said, an app that's compliant with current Play Store rules should not show you ads except when you are using the app. So if the ads appear when you launch a particular app (or maybe when you unlock while that app is in active) then that app is an obvious suspect. If they are appearing randomly then something isn't complying with the rules (unless it is your launcher or your lockscreen app that's responsible). So as a precaution, try installing an app called Addons Detector and doing a scan, then seeing whether you've got anything that's using "push notifications" - that stuff should no longer be in the Play Store, but from the symptoms you describe it's worth checking anyway. Also if you've installed anything from sources other than the Play Store that could also be a suspect.

For what it's worth, of the apps you've named in the post above Ebay is the only one I don't currently have on my phone (I've even got Facebook installed at the moment, which is very unusual for me), and I've never seen anything like this. Dropbox, Maps, Play Store and BBC News I've used for years without problems.
 
Thanks Hadron - I'll give that a try too. I don't allow sideloading of apks so I'm pretty sure that it's not anything like that but Addons Detector sounds good.

Curiously, these spurious ads are labelled 'Ads By Google' for reputable things like the Amazon app and with a legit link bottom left to www.google.com explaining how to minimise the amount of advertising received.
 
I asked about your homescreen because of the possibility of a widget being the culprit; the other content - launcher app icons - are not relevant as Hadron pointed out.
 
Do you use a browser and leave it open while phone is awake?
Mozilla is including ads in the new versions of FX, another browser could be doing the same. FX ads look more like a speed dial, though.

Do you get them if you turn off data and wifi?
 
John Bean said:
I asked about your homescreen because of the possibility of a widget being the culprit; the other content - launcher app icons - are not relevant as Hadron pointed out.
Click to expand...

Well, the only widgets I'm running are the Google search Box and the weather widget that came with the phone. I notice that the weather one, when enlarged does show 'Aps by leadbolt' at the bottom, but what I'm experiencing are 'Aps by Google' and they're full page when they happen.

I've now side-loaded Ad-Blocker which seems to be working although I'd really like to find the culprit but it's a work-round for now. I still get brief periods of screen-out at the point I would have expected an ad to appear, but it then reverts to what I was doing. I assume this is Ad-Blocker doing its job.
 
Comcast is trying to make customers share wifi as hot spots.
Comcast turning Chicago homes into public WiFi hotspots - Chicago Tribune

Hence advertising. It's possible for any provider to do - and another source of revenue for the company, and a PITA for everyone else.

I've never seen the OP's ads and I only mentioned Comcast since his ads could be coming from a wifi service as a possibility. Injecting "ads by Google" would make it seem legitimate. Sign up or allow free wifi from a store -----
 
zuben el genub said:
Comcast is trying to make customers share wifi as hot spots.
Comcast turning Chicago homes into public WiFi hotspots - Chicago Tribune
Click to expand...

BT in the UK already does a very similar thing with their "Home Hub" WiFi access points that they install. Every BT internet subscriber with a Home Hub, is an open WiFi hotspot for other BT subscribers that happen to come nearby. Or anyone else can pay for some online time as well with them. BT Home Hubs are also FON network WiFi access points as well. And they've been doing this for a number of years now.
 
As the OP is from the UK I think we can safely rule out Comcast as the culprit.

As I've never seen this behaviour on any of my own Android devices, I'm also of the opinion that a third-party is responsible. About Google Ads suggests that they should only appear whilst browsing, viewing YouTube, using Maps etc, so full-page ads seem out of character.
 
billynibbles said:
Ever since my Xperia phone and my Nexus tablet updated with a whole raft of 'Google Play Services', I have been plagued (usually every time I bring my kit out of stand-by) by full page 'Ads by Google' which have to be cleared before I can actually get to what I wanted to do. I have tried all the suggestions that I can find to no avail. Clicking on 'Ads by Google' at the foot of the ad takes you through to what appears to be the information to fix this but nothing has worked so far.

I am already opted out of 'interest-based ads', I have frequently reset the Advertising ID in Settings>Accounts>Google>Ads but so far nothing seems to stop these obtrusive little devils from interrupting what I'm doing.

Any ideas?

I wondered about disabling all Google apps to see which ones I really need. To be honest apart from having my Google account sync contacts and calendar and having access to Google Play store, I don't give a rat's ass about anything else they have to offer.
Click to expand...

Try this, I just did and I found a bunch of stuff that I opted out of. It will analyze apps and tell you if there are any that can display ads on your notification bar, modify your browser, add icons to desktop, phone call, sms or camera, collect personal data, collect local information, collect device or mobile network information and replace dialer ring with advertisement.



http://thetechjournal.com/how-to/tutorial-how-to-remove-spam-ads-from-your-android-notification-bar.xhtml
 
I ran Addons Detector, which after a while digging in deeper to its capabilities showed me all my apps with addons and what they were. The only app showing " Google Mobile Ads" as an addon was IMDB, so I uninstalled it. So far so good.

Adblocker only seems to work after a fashion, blocking the ad content but you still seem to get "the blank gap" where the ad would have been for a couple of seconds. Also, it only seems to work on Wi-Fi and starts letting the ads through on my phone when on 3g or 4g.
 
Actually I have maligned IMDB unnecessarily. The true culprit seems to have been a London Tube Map app. When I returned to Play store, there were numerous complaints about it peddling full page ads, some not even when the app was running.

Addons Detector will be compulsory viewing for me in future. It not only tells you which app has which add-on, but also shows you the date order they were installed in. Therefore, if something strange starts happening Addons Detector can remind you what you added last.

In my case, removing this last app has done the trick.

BTW, since there are many London Tube Map apps, the one to avoid is by iLicitMedia. Maybe the clue is in the name.
 
Nice to see a problem solved and thanks for naming and shaming the culprit.

Absolutely appalling abuse of advertising in an app that Google seems to find acceptable.
 
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