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Phone took screenshot by itself

T

thworldja

Lurker
So my phone took a screenshot by itself. I am certain I did not take it as I was holding it with one hand reading something (afaik there are two methods to take a screenshot on my phone one is wiping the screen with my palm and the other is pressing the power and home button). I'm also certain it took the screenshot since I got the notification, about taking a screenshot, which when clicked should show it. I did that however, nothing happened, so I went to the gallery to see it and the screenshot wasn't there.
So I guess the question is wtf is going on? I scanned my phone with both the built in antivirus (provided by mcafee) and with malwarebytes both didn't find anything.
 
What device do you have and is it a recent purchase? The screenshot folder is often hard to find. Other than that I don't think it's something someone can advise on without being there (like ghosts) except maybe try a mechanical screenshot of the notification with the buttons and post it here.
Also could you have swiped to delete it?
There could be many scenarios.
 
It's quite possible for the device to take a screen-shot with certain gestures, depending on whatever the phone is, e.g. Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo. Huawei, and Honor. Those can take screen shots by touching with three fingers or knuckles, etc. And from experience it can happen accidentally.
 
Madd61 said:
What device do you have and is it a recent purchase? The screenshot folder is often hard to find. Other than that I don't think it's something someone can advise on without being there (like ghosts) except maybe try a mechanical screenshot of the notification with the buttons and post it here.
Also could you have swiped to delete it?
There could be many scenarios.
Click to expand...
Galaxy S7
Not recent I've had it for a couple of years now.
I've checked both the folder in the gallery and the one in the files neither of them has it.
The notification has only one option which is tap to view, unless you expand then there is an option to delete it, but that requires too accurate clicks which I surely didn't make.
 
look, i think what you are trying to get at is that your phone has been hacked or has a virus of some sort. i do not think this. it could happen accidentally. i have many times open my phone only to see that i somehow have taken a screenshot. not sure how that happened.

have you looked into google photo's? the screenshot might be there. also you can try going into the phone's settings and do a search for screenshots. and even if it is not there, i would not worry to much about this event. it could have accidentally been erased as others have suggested.

plus hacking a phone is quite rare and there are no viruses in android.....malware yes, but even those you would have to install. most malware come in the form of adware, which usually comes when you install an app.

so i would not worry to much about this event. just keep an eye on things and if you are still having doubts, then you might want to think about doing a factory reset. this will usually erase any adware or malware installed.
 
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* Ninja'd ^
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Dunno. I personally haven't owned a Samsung for a while.

Does the screenshot notification appear as in the illustration here? - it sounds not.

https://www.samsung.com/za/support/mobile-devices//galaxy-s7-how-do-i-take-screenshots-on-my-samsung-galaxy-s7/#:~:text=You can capture a screenshot,key for 1–2 seconds.

IMG_20220302_164650.jpg
 
thworldja said:
Galaxy S7
Not recent I've had it for a couple of years now.
I've checked both the folder in the gallery and the one in the files neither of them has it.
The notification has only one option which is tap to view, unless you expand then there is an option to delete it, but that requires too accurate clicks which I surely didn't make.
Click to expand...
Moreover if you had clicked the delete option the notification would no longer be there.

There are of course 3rd party apps that can capture screenshots, or add triggers that let you do this. You'd probably know if you had installed one though. And the "notification but no screenshot" thing sounds like something glitched - the question is, what, and was the screenshot attempt itself the result of a glitch (triggering a gesture when it shouldn't have been, for example)?
 
yeah tbh I agree it's unlikely I got hacked since if someone were to gain control to take screenshots they could probably view the screen all the time, or do something else harmful instead of making one screenshot. But I guess I'm just paranoid and the fact that I can't explain this bugs me. I guess I'll just factory reset like you suggested.
 
I know diddly squat but do your regular notification shade quick link buttons / icons look similar to those in the link, or maybe a different regional version or launcher looks a little different to the S7 there

Again, I don't know but if it continues perhaps call Ghostbusters! :)
 
thworldja said:
Galaxy S7
Not recent I've had it for a couple of years now.
I've checked both the folder in the gallery and the one in the files neither of them has it.
The notification has only one option which is tap to view, unless you expand then there is an option to delete it, but that requires too accurate clicks which I surely didn't make.
Click to expand...

The S7 had take screen-shots with hand gestures, which if ON might be misread by whatever touches on the screen,resulting in unintentional screen-shots. Same with the screen-shot gesture options I've already mentioned, like using knuckles(Huawei), or three fingers(Oppo and Vivo).

I have a Note20 Ultra, and the only way to take screen-shots with that AFAIK, is to press volume-down and power buttons simultaneously, or use the S-Pen options. So I guess Samsung did away with the hand gestures stuff, because of possible unreliability?
 
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