Unwanted pop-up ads - AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Recently (since mid-october 2015), I've been getting random full screen pop-up ads, including video ads, for products like Snickers candy bars, Cincinatti Insurance and Amazon Kindle. Once, while at the office, an ad for a game came on with video and audio that overrode my silent phone setting. Haven't been able to pin down what triggers them; sometimes they come on with awakening the phone and sometimes with the selection of an app (the app varies). I've tried to roll back and uninstall recent app downloads, but this does not eliminate the problem. I don't usually install free apps and would be a bit surprised (but not shocked) if one of the paid apps I installed prompted this annoyance. When you pull up the "recent apps," no app appears which would be related to the ads.
Before I do a restore to factory settings, I was wondering if anyone else had the same problem and if they were able to find the culprit.

bobin17901 said:
Recently (since mid-october 2015), I've been getting random full screen pop-up ads, including video ads, for products like Snickers candy bars, Cincinatti Insurance and Amazon Kindle. Once, while at the office, an ad for a game came on with video and audio that overrode my silent phone setting. Haven't been able to pin down what triggers them; sometimes they come on with awakening the phone and sometimes with the selection of an app (the app varies). I've tried to roll back and uninstall recent app downloads, but this does not eliminate the problem. I don't usually install free apps and would be a bit surprised (but not shocked) if one of the paid apps I installed prompted this annoyance. When you pull up the "recent apps," no app appears which would be related to the ads.
Before I do a restore to factory settings, I was wondering if anyone else had the same problem and if they were able to find the culprit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some app installed adware or is using push notifications. It's going to be near impossible for someone to just have the exact same experience as you, as there are unfortunately different apps that can do this (even paid apps, which is a scam since they get 2x profit: one from your purchase and second from the advertising).
You can do 2 things AFAIK:
1) uninstall apps one at a time until the ads stop. Then you'll know what app caused them.
2) Factory reset and install apps one at a time until the ads start.
There are also ad detectors that scan your apps for ones that could potentially contain adware, but I'm not sure which are good.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

it's one of the apps you installed, probably a game or something. in any case it's by a 3rd party app. do you have a lot of apps? my guess is the app icon will be colorful lol. I would delete some unwanted apps and games.
you can go into settings and view installed apps and turn off notifications for that app when you find it.
also you can view battery info in settings and see what has been draining battery, the app with ads will be listed there as it needs to run in the background to spam you.

Related

Marketplace App Needs Fixed

Does anyone else have a lot of problems with the marketplace app crashing? It seems like every time I go to the App favorites and new list, after scrolling for a minute or two the program freezes and then goes back to the main screen and won't start again.
frankly I had this problem in the first few weeks, but now its totally dissapeared. I dont know what changes MS made(if any), but I havnt had Zune or marketplace crash in the past 2-3 weeks.
randude said:
Does anyone else have a lot of problems with the marketplace app crashing? It seems like every time I go to the App favorites and new list, after scrolling for a minute or two the program freezes and then goes back to the main screen and won't start again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well definitely it needs update.
Mine doesn't freeze but I usually browse free apps, so in my case Marketplace crashes after few installations. Always. Have to reboot the phone to make it work again.
1. Not starting and having to reboot phone.
2. Slow.
3. Showing updates for same applications every day which don't go away.
I don't have any of these problems but what the marketplace does need is filtering when searching.
I should be able to swipe left and right to choose search results that are Songs, Apps, Games etc not just one huge list that is mostly dominated by songs and albums.
jhughesy said:
1. Not starting and having to reboot phone.
2. Slow.
3. Showing updates for same applications every day which don't go away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i experience these with market place. for...
1. once the market place crashes, it won't restart, so yea reboot is required. i haven't worked out exact steps to replicate, but it happens after using the market place a lot.
2. it is slow just due to the amount of information it gets. but as you can see with the update they did for the facebook app, MS has figgured out the best way to speed up the processes.
3. this will happen with apps that are trials (unpaid apps that require payment). it is a bug in the system. if you want to update it, you have to uninstall the app completely, and reinstall it. i think MS will fix this in the update.

Vibrating pop ups in chrome browser on Pixel XL

So I have had my Pixel XL for just over a week now and for the last few days I have been getting annoying pop ups appear in chrome when browsing sites such as xda, phonearena and techradar.
When the pop up appears in chrome the phone vibrates and it will not let me close the tab. Usually the pop up will claim that I have won the lottery or a free iphone etc.
I have tried, deleting all history, cache, cookies etc from chrome since the beginning of time and I have done the same on my laptop to prevent it syncing back across. I have also tried resetting all network settings but the issue persists.
I get the same issue both on WIFI and on 3/4G.
Has anyone had the same issue? if so how did you fix it? I thought the Pixel was supposed to be a secure phone, i feel like its already riddled with malware!
Thanks in advance!
* I will grab a screen shot of the next pop up and upload it to this thread. *
Update 5th Nov: added Screenshot.
This happens to me from time to time. My best guess is that it's just malicious ads on the sites, and not actually malware on the phone or anything to worry about. Closing the tab has always ended it for me. What happens when you try to close it but can't?
josephcsible said:
This happens to me from time to time. My best guess is that it's just malicious ads on the sites, and not actually malware on the phone or anything to worry about. Closing the tab has always ended it for me. What happens when you try to close it but can't?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find it strange that sites like xda and techradar have malicious ads though? also this has only surfaced in the last couple of days? before this is had no issues...
My concern lies mainly in the fact that you can't close the tab. What happens exactly when you try to do that?
when the pop up if present on the screen you cannot press the tab button (top right) to close the tab. The way I get around it is pressing the switch app software button at the bottom and then selecting google chrome. I then get a split second to quickly press the tab button top right on chrome or the ad wont let me press it again. The pop up ad causes the ad to vibrate violently when chrome is open. Its winding me up.
Mdizzle1 said:
when the pop up if present on the screen you cannot press the tab button (top right) to close the tab. The way I get around it is pressing the switch app software button at the bottom and then selecting google chrome. I then get a split second to quickly press the tab button top right on chrome or the ad wont let me press it again. The pop up ad causes the ad to vibrate violently when chrome is open. Its winding me up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I expect that it's a dialog box preventing you from pressing the tab button. Is this the case? If so, did you try checking "Prevent this page from creating additional dialogs", then dismissing it?
Thanks for your help, I. Was trying to find a way of preventing the pop ups in the first place if anyone has any ideas? Could it be a rogue app on my device, I've only installed a handful of 3rd party apps and most are from large companies, BBC, premier league etc.
Mdizzle1 said:
Thanks for your help, I. Was trying to find a way of preventing the pop ups in the first place if anyone has any ideas? Could it be a rogue app on my device, I've only installed a handful of 3rd party apps and most are from large companies, BBC, premier league etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not a rogue app, my freshly restored Pixel does it. I installed an adblocker.
HOSer_hut said:
Not a rogue app, my freshly restored Pixel does it. I installed an adblocker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which ad blocker have you installed, Im not going to root this device.
Mdizzle1 said:
Which ad blocker have you installed, Im not going to root this device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I installed AdAway, I did root my device.
Adguard works really well if you don't want to root.
AndrasLOHF said:
Adguard works really well if you don't want to root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, I will give this a go.
So I remember having this issue a few months back. I'm looking for the Google problem that was logged but from what I remember the issue is not device specific but actually based off of your unique google ad profile. These malicious ads are going after those ID's and then that's how you get vibrate ads on reputable sites. I stopped using personalized ads and that fixed the issue for me a few months ago. I will try to find the link to add. It is an issue Google is aware of.
Ad support is fine and XDA has the right to have ads.
Where I draw the line is the Ad described by the OP, I would complain to XDA.
With XDA I support the site by subscribing
I had the same thing happen to me. I determined it was a bad or unofficial .apk for ShowBox. Once I deleted it, the vibrating pop-ups stopped. I ultimately found the proper .apk, installed it and haven't had the issue again.
So I've installed Adguard and I'm a little concerned that my traffic is being routed through their vpn. I don't really trust that.
Also I've added a Screenshot of one of these annoying pop ups that vibrate my phone. FYI I didn't have Adguard running at the time.
I've also gotten these a few times. If I remember correctly I also noticed it on my Note 7.
Vibrating ads have nothing to do with malicious apps, webpages have permission to vibrate natively
Narrow down the problem... process of elimination.
Exactly what sites/pages/tabs do you have open when this is happening? Either your phone has been jacked and needs to be wiped (or maybe Chrome removed/reset) or you are visiting the same page(s)/websites that have been jacked. Believe it or not, this happens to some very reputable sites due to poor security on the part of themselves or an advertising vendor purchasing and displaying ads on the site.

Applications force close. Slowness in picture access.

Hello everyone
I have been experiencing force close after force on my Pixel 3xl. I ordered my pixel 3xl on launch day. A week after receiving my device I started to receive sluggish and force close after force in several different apps. I have never experienced android behaving this way. I started to notice that the phone would get sluggish when using Android Messages. When I am receiving an MMS message the phone will lag and then the message will come through. After messages started to act up, other apps such as; Flamingo for Twitter, Instagram and Google plus would force close. For starters I don’t run any app killers, or ram management. I thought the December Pie patch would fix the issue, but I still see it on a daily basis. I reset my phone, and less than a week later, I would see this same behavior. The phone is basically unusable. I contacted Google for an RMA. They processed it and the new phone is still acting this way. This is really odd this behavior would be happening to 2 phones. I have reset the new phone from google once. Not only is this behavior odd, but it would be really hard for me to believe I am the only person experiencing this issue. Thought about rooting it but don't know if that would even help.
Side note: I have noticed when in flamingo for Twitter or Android messages that the phone takes awhile to open or back out of a picture. Sometimes a white space will show near the upper part of the phone (both sides of the notch)
Any help would be appreciated.
kid1da said:
Hello everyone
I have been experiencing force close after force on my Pixel 3xl. I ordered my pixel 3xl on launch day. A week after receiving my device I started to receive sluggish and force close after force in several different apps. I have never experienced android behaving this way. I started to notice that the phone would get sluggish when using Android Messages. When I am receiving an MMS message the phone will lag and then the message will come through. After messages started to act up, other apps such as; Flamingo for Twitter, Instagram and Google plus would force close. For starters I don’t run any app killers, or ram management. I thought the December Pie patch would fix the issue, but I still see it on a daily basis. I reset my phone, and less than a week later, I would see this same behavior. The phone is basically unusable. I contacted Google for an RMA. They processed it and the new phone is still acting this way. This is really odd this behavior would be happening to 2 phones. I have reset the new phone from google once. Not only is this behavior odd, but it would be really hard for me to believe I am the only person experiencing this issue. Thought about rooting it but don't know if that would even help. Side note: I have noticed when in flamingo for Twitter or Android messages that the phone takes awhile to open or back out of a picture. Sometimes a white space will show near the upper part of the phone (both sides of the notch) Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two phones exhibiting the same behavior? It has to be something you are adding (user apps and/or settings) as you set the phone back up. You said "less than a week later" you would see the same behavior- but that means for the first week it was acting normal, correct? Try running the phone in safe mode for a good while and see if the situation changes. If the issue goes away it will confirm it is one or more of your user apps is causing the issue. If it remains the same I would flash a factory image from fastboot mode and let the script wipe the phone (don't edit the script). This is different from a FDR (reset). Then when you set the phone back up add any user apps in stages, allowing a period of time between setting them up. Are there any apps you suspect? Any "non-market" apps? Rooting will not help you, so I would leave that variable out of it until you get the problem sorted.
v12xke said:
Two phones exhibiting the same behavior? It has to be something you are adding (user apps and/or settings) as you set the phone back up. You said "less than a week later" you would see the same behavior- but that means for the first week it was acting normal, correct? Try running the phone in safe mode for a good while and see if the situation changes. If the issue goes away it will confirm it is one or more of your user apps is causing the issue. If it remains the same I would flash a factory image from fastboot mode and let the script wipe the phone (don't edit the script). This is different from a FDR (reset). Then when you set the phone back up add any user apps in stages, allowing a period of time between setting them up. Are there any apps you suspect? Any "non-market" apps? Rooting will not help you, so I would leave that variable out of it until you get the problem sorted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use Facebook or Snapchat, I know those apps are really tough on the ram, so I stay away from those. I don't install apps that aren't from the play store. The weird part is I've installed the same apps from my pixel 2xl. I don't install alot of apps to begin with. Ive researched people having issues with the Android messages app and there is a Google forum for this issue, however I installed Textra and I still see the issue just not as bad. During the last reset, I took days to install flamingo for Twitterand Instagram because I suspected them being the issue. Yesterday, I installed them and I started facing the issue. I uninstalled those 2 apps but the issue persisted. Now, it could be those apps but to me it would be a widespread issue if it we're those 2.
List of apps
Most Google apps. Gmail, maps etc
Instagram
Backdrops
Flamingo for Twitter
Navy Federal
Wells Fargo
Vanguard
Ally
Vip access
Hbo now
Netflix
Showtime
ESPN
Relay for Reddit
Nova launcher
kid1da said:
I don't use Facebook or Snapchat, I know those apps are really tough on the ram, so I stay away from those. I don't install apps that aren't from the play store. The weird part is I've installed the same apps from my pixel 2xl. I don't install alot of apps to begin with. Ive researched people having issues with the Android messages app and there is a Google forum for this issue, however I installed Textra and I still see the issue just not as bad. During the last reset, I took days to install flamingo for Twitter and Instagram because I suspected them being the issue. Yesterday, I installed them and I started facing the issue. I uninstalled those 2 apps but the issue persisted. Now, it could be those apps but to me it would be a widespread issue if it we're those 2.
List of apps...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still believe that because you experience this same issue across two different phones, it is something in your personal setup. No abnormal indications under battery usage or data usage (background or foreground)? As suggested earlier try running in safe mode for an extended period. If the problem is gone, you just work your way through the suspect apps until you find the offending one. You can also try resetting all app settings under System>>Reset options before resorting to a clean flash.
v12xke said:
Two phones exhibiting the same behavior? It has to be something you are adding (user apps and/or settings) as you set the phone back up. You said "less than a week later" you would see the same behavior- but that means for the first week it was acting normal, correct? Try running the phone in safe mode for a good while and see if the situation changes. If the issue goes away it will confirm it is one or more of your user apps is causing the issue. If it remains the same I would flash a factory image from fastboot mode and let the script wipe the phone (don't edit the script). This is different from a FDR (reset). Then when you set the phone back up add any user apps in stages, allowing a period of time between setting them up. Are there any apps you suspect? Any "non-market" apps? Rooting will not help you, so I would leave that variable out of it until you get the problem sorted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
v12xke said:
I still believe that because you experience this same issue across two different phones, it is something in your personal setup. No abnormal indications under battery usage or data usage (background or foreground)? As suggested earlier try running in safe mode for an extended period. If the problem is gone, you just work your way through the suspect apps until you find the offending one. You can also try resetting all app settings under System>>Reset options before resorting to a clean flash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am going to try the safe mode method.
kid1da said:
I am going to try the safe mode method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think Nova launcher. Back it up, uninstall it completely, then see how it goes.
I agree has to be a user app, my 3xl doesn't exhibit this issue. My crappy banking app does this but its very poorly optimized. App devs need to catch up to 9.0
bobby janow said:
Think Nova launcher. Back it up, uninstall it completely, then see how it goes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I uninstalled Nova Launcher and did see a slight improvement. The issue came back a few days later though.
What about safe mode?
kid1da said:
I uninstalled Nova Launcher and did see a slight improvement. The issue came back a few days later though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not Nova Launcher. You mention slow picture access so I would be looking at apps in that direction. Any apps consistently FC more than others? Do you use cloud backup for Photos? Do you have any super large photo speres, panos, or RAW photos on your phone?
Edit: another thought would be to run a quick check on the non-Googly apps for "last updated" timestamp on the Play Store. You may be running an older app that hasn't been updated in years and is written with an outdated API.
v12xke said:
What about safe mode?
It's not Nova Launcher. You mention slow picture access so I would be looking at apps in that direction. Any apps consistently FC more than others? Do you use cloud backup for Photos? Do you have any super large photo speres, panos, or RAW photos on your phone?
Edit: another thought would be to run a quick check on the non-Googly apps for "last updated" timestamp on the Play Store. You may be running an older app that hasn't been updated in years and is written with an outdated API.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only apps force closing more than others are Android messages, flamingo for Twitter, and Instagram. It will start with Android messages, which causes the device to slow down, then the other apps follow by force closing. The device always seems to hang/lag when a group message is coming in. I only back up through Google photos on wifi. I combed through the settings and nothing stands out that could be causing the phone to force close these apps. For now, safe mode has the device working normal.

Near perfect but an aggressive background app issue holds it back. Any advice?

I've had my 7T for about a week now. Its such a dang good phone. I love it. But I've one issue I'm looking for help with.
Apps that I expect to do things in the background don't work.
Example 1: Spottily is set to auto play when the bluetooth connects. On my Samsung as long as the app was in the background I didn't even have to unlock the phone. On the 7T I have to wake up the phone and bring the app into the foreground before it will start playing.
Example 2: I have an app that will let me download from instagram, it sits in the background and intercepts clip board links. Works great on my samsung but on this phone I have to switch to the app before it will do its thing.
Its as if its heavily throttling apps in the background and I've found now way to change that. Any advice?
edit: I have tried the following with no effect.
1. Tried locking the app in multitasking
2. Turning off battery optimization for the apps in questions
flaystus said:
I've had my 7T for about a week now. Its such a dang good phone. I love it. But I've one issue I'm looking for help with.
Apps that I expect to do things in the background don't work.
Example 1: Spottily is set to auto play when the bluetooth connects. On my Samsung as long as the app was in the background I didn't even have to unlock the phone. On the 7T I have to wake up the phone and bring the app into the foreground before it will start playing.
Example 2: I have an app that will let me download from instagram, it sits in the background and intercepts clip board links. Works great on my samsung but on this phone I have to switch to the app before it will do its thing.
Its as if its heavily throttling apps in the background and I've found now way to change that. Any advice?
edit: I have tried the following with no effect.
1. Tried locking the app in multitasking
2. Turning off battery optimization for the apps in questions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no such issues. Whatever app I want to keep running in the background is always running. I've had such an issue with my previous huawei phone, and the button mapper app. I don't experience any of those. I have a 7T HD1903 on OOS 10.0.8.

Question Pixel 6 Pro won't stop playing notification tone during calls

My Pixel 6 Pro has a similar problem ever since the Mar 5 update has been installed. Since then, every phone call I made comes with the non-stop notification tone literally every second. For now, I managed to get around it by enabling the "DND Mode", but it isn't a long-term solution.
Is there a way I can re-apply the same update? or flashing a new one would help?
To be clear, you're saying that you keep getting the notification tone even after answering the call? If so, is it the same as your ringtone?
Is your bootloader unlockable? If so, Official Google Android Flash Tool (OEM Unlocking needs to be toggled on - you may not have to manually unlock the bootloader - the "site" will do that on its own).
It wouldn't surprise me if that doesn't fix the issue, however. Have you tried rebooting? Maybe clear the cache and app data for the Phone app (but then you'd have to re-customize the settings for the phone app to your preferences).
I'm not on the March update, but I also don't receive many phone calls anyway.
that notification tone, during normal time, represents incoming message. It is very short, unlike a ringtone..
Tried rebooting and clearing cache and app data of the Phone app. In fact, that notification could likely come from anything like WhatsApp, Messenger, Twitter...
I noticed that the repeating tones would not happen if the phone is on silent mode. So for now this is my workaround.
Very interesting, and strange. There have been settings in some OEM's phone apps you could enable to get notification tones at regular paces - usually once a minute - while on a phone call, but the issue on yours is only similar since it's constant / every second.
I stick with my recommendation of clearing the app cache and data for the Phone app. I also assume you're using the stock Phone app that Google provides.
In my previous phone (OnePlus 6T), the very same tone happens once in a while, but only at the moment an incoming message arrives. Pretty sure I am not getting a new message every second this time around, and I think it was triggered by apps other than the Phone app. I just noticed that the same symptom showed up when I tried to play video clips from certain apps as well.
And yes, I am using the stock Phone app.
Sounds like a factory reset and only selectively installing and configuring apps, or trying to figure out which app is causing the issue.
If you factory reset, I would first not even restore any apps at all, so you can verify if you have the same problem without any third-party apps installed at first. I would suspect you won't have issues then. And then when you install apps, do it in groups of your most important ones first, maybe at the most 10 at a time, then re-verify each time if you have the same issue or not, then the next batch of app installs. It could be a particular setting in a app as well, so it's possibly merely installing an app might not be enough, so each group of apps you install, make sure and configure them as well.
If you don't factory reset, go the opposite way, uninstall your least important third-party apps and see if the issue disappears. Keep track of which apps you're uninstalling in each group. Keep doing this in reasonably sized groups of apps until you narrow down when the problem stops happening.
Once you find which group of apps being uninstalled keeps the issue from happening, you can reinstall in even smaller batches, among the ones you most recently uninstalled, and eventually find the one causing the issue. In some ways I think it's easier to go the other way around, though, start with a factory reset.
Found the culprit!
Kind of silly: I have installed this app "Internet Speed Meter Lite" when I first started using my P6P, which is for me to monitor my real-time network usage (courtesy of that endless WhatsApp - Google Drive restoring process....). It basically refreshes itself every second and this morning I tried temporarily disabling it, the problem goes away even when the phone is not set to silent mode.
Glad I didn't have to come to the point of factory resetting the device, as I really don't want to go through the WhatsApp restoring process.
Thanks for all the input, much appreciated.

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