Apps that download to my device on their own. - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi, I am relatively new to android, and I'm having a bit of a problem. a few apps randomly show up on my home screen without me downloading them. When I check my "apps menu" the apps that are randomly showing up on my home screen, are not there (they are only on the home screen). It seems like this is happening every time i try to download an app from my pc using google play. As far as I know, the apps that show up are games. I remember one app is called "modern war". There are also others, however, I don't remember their names. How do I prevent this from happening in the future? I am on a samsung GS3 if that helps any.
thanks,

dubbs44 said:
Hi, I am relatively new to android, and I'm having a bit of a problem. a few apps randomly show up on my home screen without me downloading them. When I check my "apps menu" the apps that are randomly showing up on my home screen, are not there (they are only on the home screen). It seems like this is happening every time i try to download an app from my pc using google play. As far as I know, the apps that show up are games. I remember one app is called "modern war". There are also others, however, I don't remember their names. How do I prevent this from happening in the future? I am on a samsung GS3 if that helps any.
thanks,
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Apps shouldnt just download themselves onto your device (or rather cant) there must be a app on your device that you downloaded which is some form of virus which is added extra short cuts to your home screen

Related

How do I stop Android from auto-killing an app?

I am new to Android - just got a Droid 3.
How do I stop the system from auto-killing a certain app? When I play Angry Birds, if the phone goes to sleep on timeout, when I turn it back on, the App has to re-load from scratch (rather than opening to where I left off last time). I'm assuming the system decided to kill it for lack of memory, but how do I STOP it from doing that (like an ignore list)?
Will I need a third party app?
Any help is appreciated!
not really. the Android system does a pretty good job of reclaiming unused memory. ive been dealing with this for a while trying to keep a replacement lock screen in memory
Sounds like Verizon installed a task killer. I know their employees do that saying you need one. But you don't. Make sure you uninstall it. It is most likely set to kill apps off ever x minutes. Usually Android keeps foreground apps in memory for a long time unless the system needs it. But doesn't sound like it would. I wonder what the Droid 3 memory settings are for stock now. I have the Evo 3D and they are set at a higher threshold(as I'm kills unused apps sooner) compared to my older HTC phones(Evo and Hero). How long do you let the phone sit idle before coming back?
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger GeeBees.
notasimpleway said:
Sounds like Verizon installed a task killer. I know their employees do that saying you need one. But you don't. Make sure you uninstall it. It is most likely set to kill apps off ever x minutes. Usually Android keeps foreground apps in memory for a long time unless the system needs it. But doesn't sound like it would. I wonder what the Droid 3 memory settings are for stock now. I have the Evo 3D and they are set at a higher threshold(as I'm kills unused apps sooner) compared to my older HTC phones(Evo and Hero). How long do you let the phone sit idle before coming back?
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger GeeBees.
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It's not obvious which program that would be - there's nothing called Task Killer. Plus, most of the VZW bloatware can't be uninstalled anyway. Apart from rooting (locked bootloader on Droid 3), what can I do to force it to stay open?
Also, it gets killed immediately on turning off the phone. As in, I start the game, hit sleep, hit wake a second later and the game reloads from scratch. Very irritating.
Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks!
jbroses said:
It's not obvious which program that would be - there's nothing called Task Killer. Plus, most of the VZW bloatware can't be uninstalled anyway. Apart from rooting (locked bootloader on Droid 3), what can I do to force it to stay open?
Also, it gets killed immediately on turning off the phone. As in, I start the game, hit sleep, hit wake a second later and the game reloads from scratch. Very irritating.
Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks!
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I just tested this with Angry Birds from the time I posted till just now and it was right where I left the game. It may be called Advanced Task Manager. Or something like that. And you should be able to uninstall it. It would have been installed by the person selling the phone and not at the factory.
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger GeeBees.
Go to the Market, download Spare Parts. Open and scroll down to Activity/Process Management. Select normal. It may not have been the problem, but worth a shot. Are you hitting the home button before putting the phone to sleep? What do you see immediately upon turning the screen on and unlocking the phone? Angry Birds? The home screen?
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger GeeBees.
When you haven't used an app for a long time, Android automatically recycles all open activities from the app, except the root activity.
By default, every application runs in its own Linux process. Android starts the process when any of the application’s code needs to be executed, and shuts down the process when it’s no longer needed and system resources are required by other applications.
[...]
If the user leaves a task for a long time, the system clears the task of all activities except the root activity. When the user returns to the task again, it’s as the user left it, except that only the initial activity is present. The idea is that, after a time, users will likely have abandoned what they were doing before and are returning to the task to begin something new
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From geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ (sorry I can't make a link yet)
Shinigami20 said:
When you haven't used an app for a long time, Android automatically recycles all open activities from the app, except the root activity.
From geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ (sorry I can't make a link yet)
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it actually happens instantly. in other words - open angry birds, begin level. sleep phone, wake phone. angry birds reloads from the beginning. this is all within the span of 5 secs.
i thought it might be my lock screen - widgetlock, but i disabled that and it just happened again, this time with opera mini as i was writing this. I was writing this post, went to a text, came back to opera within 30 secs and it had shut down and reopened (no tab with my partially composed message).
is the droid 3 just shutting things down more aggressively? is there a way to tweak that? maybe too much other crap is running and I should get a task killer? thoughts?
jbroses said:
it actually happens instantly. in other words - open angry birds, begin level. sleep phone, wake phone. angry birds reloads from the beginning. this is all within the span of 5 secs.
i thought it might be my lock screen - widgetlock, but i disabled that and it just happened again, this time with opera mini as i was writing this. I was writing this post, went to a text, came back to opera within 30 secs and it had shut down and reopened (no tab with my partially composed message).
is the droid 3 just shutting things down more aggressively? is there a way to tweak that? maybe too much other crap is running and I should get a task killer? thoughts?
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do not sleep your device, try entering level then return to home switch to other apps. Then open angry bird again and see what happen
On my desire Z, it kill the app every time i sleep the phone. Keep the phone alive then I have 3 apps running at same time without being killed. But it's not likely that I have RAM shortage. 3 apps is constant no matter what apps
Flipz explains that well. Autokiller is a great little app to adjust those settings. Used it for over two years now. I actually got to watch that app evolve. Great dev. Only works if you are rooted.
Shinigami20 said:
When you haven't used an app for a long time, Android automatically recycles all open activities from the app, except the root activity.
From geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ (sorry I can't make a link yet)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger GeeBees.
Thanks for all the responses. I've tried to address them all:
Spare Parts - I installed this and set the Activity to Normal (it WAS set on aggressive). Unfortunately, this didn't help.
Press the Home key - Pressing the Home key and then going back to Angry Birds DOES work. It picks up right where you left off. Unfortunately, when the phone goes to sleep, it restarts Angry Birds on waking.
What do I see when I wake the phone - It goes to my WidgetLocker lock screen. Once unlocked, the very first thing that shows up is the Angry Birds "Rovio" loading screen. No home screen in between.
Any other thoughts are much appreciated! Is there any way to simply exempt Angry Birds from being closed by the system automatically? It seems like this should be possible!
Can you try something out for me? I want to give evidence to my theory.
Download another 3d game, load a level, then sleep the device. See if there's a lot of stuttering/reloading when you wake the device back up.
Any news on this? I got the same problem with CM 9.1 on my Doubleshot (aka M4GS). When I have like 10 tabs or so opened in Opera, Android kills the task. But not when I put it into sleep, but right when I'm browsing! That's really annoying since after restarting Opera I have to reopen every single tab manually from the history.
Already tried Spare Parts, but it doesn't offer some kinda whitelist for apps that shouldn't be autokilled.
It's really frustrating, Android's autokilling feature was one of the few things, that I didn't like about that OS when I switched from Windows Mobile to Android a few years ago. And I still hate that feature. Why can't I decide by myself which apps to be closed and which ones not? Give back the power to the user I say!
At least there HAS to be a solution to force Anddroid, not to kill a specified app (e.g. Opera) and kill all the other running apps instead. Any 3rd Party task killer has some kinda ignore list, so how could Android be tweaked to do the same?
Shani Ace said:
Any news on this? I got the same problem with CM 9.1 on my Doubleshot (aka M4GS). When I have like 10 tabs or so opened in Opera, Android kills the task. But not when I put it into sleep, but right when I'm browsing! That's really annoying since after restarting Opera I have to reopen every single tab manually from the history.
Already tried Spare Parts, but it doesn't offer some kinda whitelist for apps that shouldn't be autokilled.
It's really frustrating, Android's autokilling feature was one of the few things, that I didn't like about that OS when I switched from Windows Mobile to Android a few years ago. And I still hate that feature. Why can't I decide by myself which apps to be closed and which ones not? Give back the power to the user I say!
At least there HAS to be a solution to force Anddroid, not to kill a specified app (e.g. Opera) and kill all the other running apps instead. Any 3rd Party task killer has some kinda ignore list, so how could Android be tweaked to do the same?
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I agree. I was downloading a file in Opera, switched to other apps, then went back to opera and it reopened.. Needless to say the download failed. This really sucks.
Use titanium and freeze the stock task manager (if any).
Android, by default, keeps only 3 (correct me if I'm wrong) applications' sessions in memory, but that's obviously no reason for it to kill angry birds right after the display is closed.
Try installing Minfree (I think it's available on the Play Store) to understand when and why Android is killing the application. It'll give you the parameters on which the Android Auto killer operates, but you will need ROOT to be able to edit them.
And no, there isn't a way to earmark an application such that it isn't killed, at least, not that I know of.
Hope this helps.
Haters gonna hate
potatoes gonna potate.
Check out v6 supercharger and all ur questions will be answered.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=991276
sent from my DNA
jbroses said:
I am new to Android - just got a Droid 3.
How do I stop the system from auto-killing a certain app? When I play Angry Birds, if the phone goes to sleep on timeout, when I turn it back on, the App has to re-load from scratch (rather than opening to where I left off last time). I'm assuming the system decided to kill it for lack of memory, but how do I STOP it from doing that (like an ignore list)?
Will I need a third party app?
Any help is appreciated!
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Click to collapse
Hi, excuse me for not reading other posts and replying directly but wanted to share something that works for me and does not kill certain launched apps. Open any app, then come out of the app and tap on recent apps button and you will see the apps that are currently launched. Depending on your OS and model, are you able to lock an app (by slightly dragging the app icon down and then tapping on the lock icon). I did that for one of the games and surprisingly even after several minutes, I was able to continue from exactly where I left off. Hope this helps. Let me know.
Screenshot: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Bs7dxj7t3o/VZHLFAF6fdI/AAAAAAABI0Q/WXFhUv1c2gw/s1600/IMG_0023.JPG

Weird app installing itself?

I noticed that for a few weeks now I'm getting spam type notifications in my notification bar saying things like I've won a free ipad. Was just clearing them out, but now I notice that a shortcut to a "market" has showed up on my homescreen. Can't find anything I didn't install in titanium or my stock application manager. Anyone know what this is and how it gets through my security app. I'm using bit defender. I notice my phones a bit glitchy as well. Widgets aren't wanting to load up. I'd like to figure it out before I do a data wipe.
Usually happens after installing a cracked app. Although I have seen this after installing MP3 Music down loaders as well.
Search for "Airpush detector" in the market then uninstall whatever apps are detected then they shouldn't show up again
Check this out.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/245305/sneaky_mobile_ads_invade_android_phones.html
Thanks for the info. Got em. It was a couple of winter scene live wallpapers.

Bad Android application behaviour

One of the applications I have installed is creating an Internet shortcut on my home screen that takes me to some online app store at http://partners.handago.com/smartphone/home.jsp?siteId=2790&androidid={really long number}. I have attached the shortcut icon to this post.
Any applications that chooses to do this is extremely bad and I would no longer use the application. It is even worse than those applications that put adverts into the notification bar.
I do not know which application it is but it keeps creating it every so often (may be once every few weeks). I have no idea how to find out which application it is, does anyone have any suggestions on how I can find out?
Techno79 said:
One of the applications I have installed is creating an Internet shortcut on my home screen that takes me to some online app store at http://partners.handago.com/smartphone/home.jsp?siteId=2790&androidid={really long number}. I have attached the shortcut icon to this post.
Any applications that chooses to do this is extremely bad and I would no longer use the application. It is even worse than those applications that put adverts into the notification bar.
I do not know which application it is but it keeps creating it every so often (may be once every few weeks). I have no idea how to find out which application it is, does anyone have any suggestions on how I can find out?
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Try to install app, that control access to internet, and find the bad app in log, also you can try to find it in settings - applications, I think this app will be recognized with you in a first attempt.
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Unwanted Vchat App icon appeared on home screen, but not in application manager

I just noticed that an application was added to my home screen called Vchat. I didn't install this app. I checked the application manager and my account in the play store and this app doesn't appear in either. I'm not really sure what this is and what the best way to remove it is. I haven't clicked on it. I also notice random ads popping up after the unlocking the screen, though they are very sporadic.
I'm on a LG G5, the verizon version, running android 7.0.
Girlfriend also has this on her Samsung Galaxy A5, couldn't identify an app in app list which matched. Removed from home screen and hoped it was simply a sketchy weblink. Will follow post to ensure phone is secure or if an app needs removing. Seems to have appeared in last 24 hours.
I tried running avast and malwarebytes on my phone. Neither of those detected anything.
Came up 3/30
I Googled this yesterday, glad I did again today to find this forum. I bought this phone March 22nd and I am noticing my lock screen button stopped working around the same time the app appeared. This phone is brand new from amazon and I am about to return it, but something tells me this issue is software related as the button was working fine on 3/29 and now it clicks and is responsive to the touch, but it will only "sometimes" lock the screen. Right now it is fully functioning, but it will start to fail if I have too many apps open, or if I am running a game. It specifically won't work while in an app, but will work when on the home screen with no apps open.
On top of all of this, my phone has been getting weird ads, but male ware detection doesn't see it, also, the phone is a lot slower now. Whatever this is, I don't want to be connected to it.
Update: the v stands for Vietnamese. The app is some Vietnamese chatting service. Googled "vchat' you guess should try it too.
Bunyip04 said:
I Googled this yesterday, glad I did again today to find this forum. I bought this phone March 22nd and I am noticing my lock screen button stopped working around the same time the app appeared. This phone is brand new from amazon and I am about to return it, but something tells me this issue is software related as the button was working fine on 3/29 and now it clicks and is responsive to the touch, but it will only "sometimes" lock the screen. Right now it is fully functioning, but it will start to fail if I have too many apps open, or if I am running a game. It specifically won't work while in an app, but will work when on the home screen with no apps open.
On top of all of this, my phone has been getting weird ads, but male ware detection doesn't see it, also, the phone is a lot slower now. Whatever this is, I don't want to be connected to it.
Update: the v stands for Vietnamese. The app is some Vietnamese chatting service. Googled "vchat' you guess should try it too.
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I did look it up and found that. I'm just trying to figure out how it got there and how to remove it.
erehwon6811 said:
I did look it up and found that. I'm just trying to figure out how it got there and how to remove it.
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I got frustrated trying to figure out how to remove this app, so I decided to restore the phone to factory defaults. I've only had the phone for a month, so I didn't have much on it.
Galaxy S5
I have a Galaxy S5 Android version 6.0.1 and this URL shortcut also appeared on my homesceen. Likewise I would like to know what app / service was used to create this advertisement so I can disable / uninstall it.

Browser opening ad website after updating apps

Sometimes when an app finishes updating my browser (Via Browser) opens and loads a page that is advertising apps. First it was Appsquare, now it's some other website I forgot to remember. I have NO idea what the cause is and I didn't install any strange apps to my knowledge. I never installed any APK that I downloaded outside the Play Store and both Malwarebytes Antimalware and Eset found nothing. This doesn't always happen when I update an app so there's no set pattern. Smetimes it doesn't happen after updating one or more apps and sometimes it does and that is why I can't really figure out which app is causing it, if it is an app at all because there are no ads displaying in either app I use because I paid to get rid of it. Yes, I did some research and it seems to be an issue mainly affecting Samsung users and one site in particular did some research and found out it was a shady ad network behind it: Clickity. My symptoms do match but I have an LG device, not a Samsung device and I use a different browser. I have used a few of Cheetah Mobile's apps in the past but I'm sure I deleted all traces of it on my phone, at least the things I could find. And I haven't used a single app from those devs anymore since I did a factory reset on my phone and updated to Android 8 so there shouldn't be a trace left. I need help fixing this because I have no idea where to look.
EDIT: It turned out to be my clock widget app "Digital Clock Widget Xperia" made by Lazar Dimitrov that was causing those ads to pop up, despite paying to remove ads.

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