• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Random apps keep installing by themselves

Lesley Horner said:
I keep uninstalling apps and after time they install themselves again even though I have selected not to update automatically. It drives me nuts
Click to expand...

Mine is fix now had to send it to a repair shop and let them flushed it for me. I could have done it myself but I couldnt find the right script for my phone so yeah.
 
Glad to see I'm not the only one with these problems..

I have a ZOPO ZP999, yes from china. It's not rooted and runs on android. Have it for over one and a half year now. Never encountered any problems, till a few weeks ago. It started installing apps and my Anti virus (AVG) pops up every now and then to tell me it found malware. I immediately removed it. My sister, also has a Zopo ZP 999 has the exact same problem at basically the same time!

Till recently it found Bcf.service (if I recall correctly). It couldn't remove it. I can't remove it manually as well.

removed all the newly installed apps manually, untill today my Phone went bezerk.. Every time I tried to remove an app it said: ''settings stopped".

I resetted the Phone to factory settings. When I try to put it on again, it says: "Phone stopped" and it just shuts down..

I'm a little worried now cause I ordered the new version of the ZOPO ZP999 at the same vendor.

How can I prevent this from happening again with my new Phone?? The new order is rooted by the way.

Hope you guys can help me!
 
Sticking to legit app stores helps, Amazon, Play etc, but with a lot of these Chinese devices, they can be infected or have some sort of malware on them straight out of the box unfortunately.

If it's rooted that helps as it's easier to remove any infected apps/games etc.
 
Thanks for the reply. So best idea would be to go to someone who knows way more about these things than I do, and have them check the Phone straight out of the box? :)

Any advice on where to look for? Or how to 'flush' the Phone before I'll start using it?

Thanks!
 
Coffee123 said:
Any advice on where to look for? Or how to 'flush' the Phone before I'll start using it?
Click to expand...

It's hard to say unfortunately. I'm sure I read that in some cases the malware will be disguised in a normal looking app like Facebook.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/24-c...-come-with-pre-installed-malware-490930.shtml
http://thehackernews.com/2015/09/android-smartphone-malware.html
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/1...e-play-services-framework-says-security-firm/
http://au.idigitaltimes.com/malware-found-pre-installed-xiaomi-huawei-lenovo-phones-107190

TBH, I'd steer clear of any cheapo, Chinese device. Are you on a budget? Have you looked at something like the Moto G/Moto E? They'd be a safer bet.
 
Not really on a budget, just thought it was a great phone, till I read all of this.. Zopo ZP999 was a brilliant phone till this happened..

Thinking about cancelling my order and get a refund. Paid via paypal so shouldn't be that hard.

What's important is that I need a dual sim. And as I read it now, it's best to get it from Europe :).

Any suggestions? Or does someone has experience with cleaning a cell straight out of the box??
 
I'd send them back/cancel tbh, better safe than sorry.

One of the Moto G variants is dual SIM as far as I can remember. Samsung also have a few dual SIM Galaxy handsets but I'll need to dig out exact model numbers etc tomorrow morning when it's not so late.

I'm also certain I saw a dual SIM HTC handset on Amazon UK if that's of interest?

Most of the stuff I've seen is no name generic unfortunately :(.
 
Coffee123 said:
Glad to see I'm not the only one with these problems..

I have a ZOPO ZP999, yes from china. It's not rooted and runs on android. Have it for over one and a half year now. Never encountered any problems, till a few weeks ago. It started installing apps and my Anti virus (AVG) pops up every now and then to tell me it found malware. I immediately removed it. My sister, also has a Zopo ZP 999 has the exact same problem at basically the same time!
Click to expand...

Did they both have a firmware update, at the same time? If so, that could have had it. Especially given what these phones are.
 
Hi Mikedt, that's very likely to have caused it. I'm not quite sure if we both had a firmware update and when. But I assume that the crooks waited a bit to implement there evil plans so hard to say if it's because of the update.. Thanks for your comment however! I'll keep it in mind.

I have cancelled my order. Currently looking at a Samsung S7 dual. Looks like a pretty thing as well :). Does anyone know if there's a European version available as well? Not looking forward to experience the same problems with this Phone as well..
 
Last edited:
Its a malware
shalmu said:
  • Avast!
  • Addons Detector
  • Kitchen Timer
  • Any.Do
  • Springpad
  • Digi Clock Widget
  • Common Analog Synth
  • Shazam
  • CPU Prime Benchmark
  • Lookout (replaced Avast)
  • Cool Reader
Avast cound not detect the malware, so I replaced it with Lookout in hope that it will do better, but it didn't. Both assure everything is ok.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
It's an app, a sneaky crap, it's called "com.android.updater" name may vary, once you tap this app it activates itself, first thing to notice is it looks like a missing shortcut app or a damaged one with android icon . You might mistake it to be a system file. Since there is no unistall option you can uninstall it using lucky patcher or other uninstaller apps. As soon as you tap this mysterious app it will disappeare activating itself in the process, tapping it means you have given it the permissions required to run. Faced this crap many times now I have outsmart their craps. Most free WiFi spots distribute such apps to to earn money. They will get some cash each time this creepy app downloads and installs apps into your phone, its not all it launches newly insatalled app itself. Amezing. You couldn't possibly remove a system file if "com.android.updater" were a system file. You can view it here Settings>apps>downloaded. . . just remove any mysterious app... Or which you never downloaded youself. Nothing is for free on this planet earth lol. So next time you use some so called Free WiFi hotspots on the way, you know how to take the benefits.... Use it but don't forget to remove the crap.. Thumps up for me please if it helps. Hushhhh....✌ just found out one more creepy app of this kind, "android communication sync" uninstall it. Look at the permissions it has.
 
Last edited:
I don't know much about anything being discussed here. I have noticed some of the apps mention here being on my phone, assuming they were supposed to be here. I have restored to factory 3 times in two weeks, not because of what I've read here but because since I gotten the new Google icons the phone has been behaving badly. One being that I could not install anything because my storage was showing that I had a terabyte of data in storage. The reset seems to have solved that problem. But then other problems arose when I started adding apps to SD card, leading to second reset. Tried the SD card thing again. Leading to third reset. This time making sure that phone was set not to auto download saved Google apps. I would imagine that any app on the phone downloaded on the phone that gained access through the Google play store would be included in the download.

So, did you make sure that your settings did not include the auto restore of Google apps when you restored to factory?

Note, being told by your phone that your storage is at a terabyte can cause one to check their data usage in a very panicked state. They really do need to fix that problem.
 
Last edited:
Hi.

I have the same problem. I have a galaxy s6. version 6.0.1. And I have unwanted games installed silently without my consent. Games like "empire" and "game of war"...
Not only shortcuts ; I can see them installed under application parameter. I can also uninstall them.
In my google play acount, when I search for the same apps, I can see them with the status "installed" but they are not shown in "my app" section !!!

I have tried changing my google account and/or changing my account password with two steps validation. No way !

I have tried installing different apps like addons detector, malwarebytes, avast, kaspersky, ... but they dont find any problem.. All say that my device is protected.

I have tried hard reset and wipe all data a lot of times but the behaviour is the same.

I have tried downgrade to android 5.1.1 ; the downgrade is ok, but the behaviour does not change, it's the same !!!

If it's a maleware (what I think), how it can persist after all steps I have done?!!!

Have you any suggestions please. It make me crazy !!
 
Jurgster said:
So looking for a solutions to the same problem I so far have only found this post as the most developed. My studies to the problem had resulted that due to two apps running in the background of my tablet
1)TimeService=com.android.hardware.ext0
2)Monkeytest=com.android.wp.net.log
The first calls one process to it's needs.
The second calling three other processes.

Now I am looking for a culprit for the attack and am somewhat schoked at the thought that all my apps came from google play store.
Click to expand...


Another one is the locationservice.com
 
shalmu said:
Something is wrong.
I do nothing and once a day I see a new app is installed on my phone.
It's the same as here:
http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...ve-ads-random-apps-installing-themselves.html

but it's even worse: I made a factory reset, then installed only a couple of the most important apps. After that, a month later, it began again. Is it a virus? I don't know, because I install "Avast!" - no warninds, then "Lookout" - it also says no malware is found. The programs it installs look fine, they are not malware at all.

What should I do now? Should I report to any antivirus company?
Click to expand...


I have seen this so many times. NO SOLUTION EXCEPT FIRMWARE!


This is why I hate all OS besides Microsoft. NO F*CK1NG SUPPORT!
 
Germs Bound said:
This is why I hate all OS besides Microsoft. NO F*CK1NG SUPPORT!
Click to expand...

Not really.

Google supply factory images for Nexus devices, HTC have RUU's , LG use kdz or tot files and a tool called LGUP, Motorola uses sbf, Samsung use odin to flash tar/pit files and Sony use flashtool and ftf's.

It's generally only the smaller OEMs that don't provide means of returning to stock.
 
El Presidente said:
Not really.

Google supply factory images for Nexus devices, HTC have RUU's , LG use kdz or tot files and a tool called LGUP, Motorola uses sbf, Samsung use odin to flash tar/pit files and Sony use flashtool and ftf's.

It's generally only the smaller OEMs that don't provide means of returning to stock.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info. LOLs. I get already.
 
Germs Bound said:
I have seen this so many times. NO SOLUTION EXCEPT FIRMWARE!


This is why I hate all OS besides Microsoft. NO F*CK1NG SUPPORT!
Click to expand...
Well Microsoft usually doesn't support Windows end-users, unless you have one of their own brand Surface computers. Support otherwise comes from the OEMs, like Dell, Lenovo, etc. In fact it often states it in the Windows registration details, something like "Windows 7 Home Premium support provided by Dell.".

Apple provides support to OS X users with Macs of course
 
shalmu said:
Something is wrong.
I do nothing and once a day I see a new app is installed on my phone.
It's the same as here:
http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...ve-ads-random-apps-installing-themselves.html

but it's even worse: I made a factory reset, then installed only a couple of the most important apps. After that, a month later, it began again. Is it a virus? I don't know, because I install "Avast!" - no warninds, then "Lookout" - it also says no malware is found. The programs it installs look fine, they are not malware at all.

What should I do now? Should I report to any antivirus company?
Click to expand...
Does anybody solve this problem yet besides resetting the firmware?
 
mikedt said:
It is in the ROM.
Chinese phone with a Chinese app store sold by a Chinese vendor.

You can disable and hide it from the app settings, so it won't bother you again.
Click to expand...
um you should know
Tegr96 said:
Mobogenie is a curse!

I bought a Lenovo A850i of Aliexpress about a year ago for my father who is a senior in 60s, it is a wonderful phone for the price, but this problem of apps installing by themselves is getting in my nerves!
I think the culprit app is in the stock rom!
I deleted nearly all of the apps months ago, even the stock phone app and had no luck solving this, I flashed the available stock rom and deleted the fake download.apk and the problem came back worse playing loud ads suddenly at the middle of the night.
I also think it is timeservice app, as there are 2 of them about 830 kb and another about 1.15 mb
I am also getting monkeytest and few others
I have noticed before in forums that there are people who defend mobogenie, I think they might be working for them, as this app is a real spam, it is enough that they are named as download.apk and keeps coming back after uninstalling. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone defending them after my post.
If anyone has a solution, please share it.
Click to expand...
same here it also getting my nerv like helll
can delete them but they will just installed back like a dick
after factory reset they still install by themself
those mobogenie dev should go to ****ing hell for doing this such shady shit
hell it slow my phone down to the point of..unuseble.......
 
shalmu said:
It's awful, but it has an excellent pure and fat sawtooth wave, just what I need to do a "talkbox" - while playing the note, I snuggle my lips to the phone loudspeaker and articulate it. Sounds almost as my big HeilSound TalkBox!

By the way, I made a factory reset. Nothing downloads anymore, so quiet, so calm...
Click to expand...
but after factory reset.....i still have those issues
 
shalmu said:
Something is wrong.
I do nothing and once a day I see a new app is installed on my phone.
It's the same as here:
http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...ve-ads-random-apps-installing-themselves.html

but it's even worse: I made a factory reset, then installed only a couple of the most important apps. After that, a month later, it began again. Is it a virus? I don't know, because I install "Avast!" - no warninds, then "Lookout" - it also says no malware is found. The programs it installs look fine, they are not malware at all.

What should I do now? Should I report to any antivirus company?
Click to expand...

I too had similar problems except the app was different on my tablet I kept getting this app called " 2048 " wich apparently is a game also I used avast n every day this same ap would return and then avast would detect it as mailware I finally got sick of it and uninstalled avast and tried another from trend micro and weirdly the random 2048 app that kept appearing stopped appearing so I'm thinking that some of these " free " anti viruses that contain adds probably just as likely to download spam onto ur device
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom