Possible Virus - Play Store opens randomly to specific games/apps

[cosmochick79]

I have the Note 4 and this also has been happening to me. Happens when I go to text or in chrome. I'm also getting a warning from McAfee where I must click a button that says "protect me" to exit out, it did this several times while I was on ebay. I do not have music paradise or any of the previously mentioned apps. This seems to have been happening ever since a couple weeks ago when I got a notice that my phone was elegible to upgrade to the latest running system, Lollipop. I really want to get this figured out, it is so annoying!!

 

[dj west1]

go to settings > general > security > and administrator. then check which apps have administrative rights to do pretty much everything on your phone.
Take off the admin rights for any apps including anti-virus apps. For me it was lookout security causing my google play popup. It worked for me =)

 

[starztruk]

I recently downloaded Music paradise too! That's when it started. I uninstalled it this morning and, so far, every thing seems okay.

Posted via the Android Central App on my T-Mobile LG G3

 

[theram1965]

I have had this same frustrating problem everytiime I fire up my Samsung S5 after it being dormant for about 2 hours up comes playstore and sometimes some external links to be honest I just keep hitting the back button and don't take any notice anymore.
This all started around a month ago and I had not installed any new apps if anyone knows how to eliminate this problem please let me know in simple terms as well please lol

 

[lilpoopoolee]

I too have been dealing with these pop us. I went into to playstore and went to "my installed apps" i cant find the music paradise pro on the list. I then searched it and brought up the list to download it. It shows up in the playstore but it does not show that it is installed. (even though it is on my homescreen) this leads me to believe that somehow this is a third party app. I uninstalled it off my homescreen but fpund it still hiding in my apps in the general settings. I so i yet again uninstalled it. Lets hope this works

 

[tee52]

I just checked the admin settings on my Note 3 and I did not have any apps with admin rights. It only shows Lookout and Smart Switch but neither of those are checked.

It is beyond annoying at this point. I have tried all suggestions and nothing seems to fix it.

 

[Aimee Walker]

Did anyone ever find a solution for this issue??? It is driving me crazy!!! I do not have any of the apps ppl are listing as troublesome.

 

[Ernest Kent]

Did anyone ever find a solution for this issue??? It is driving me crazy!!! I do not have any of the apps ppl are listing as troublesome.

I'm also having the problems. I deleted a few apps that I recently installed and I still have the problem. I don't have any of the apps listed either. It started about 2 weeks ago. I tried to use air push detector and it found nothing. I used Malwarebytes, it found nothing. I used AVG pro and it found nothing. I also used CCleaner to clean my phone and still get the pop ups. I tried clearing chrome cache and stopping chrome and I still have the pop up taking me to play store. Sometimes when I open Facebook app i get a pop up taking me to chrome saying I won something. I think the site is mobi.com or something like that. I have an LG g3 if that matters.

 

[DRdre22]

Try uninstalling The Weather Channel. I am having the same issue. I will be in the middle of writing a text message and all of a sudden my app store opens onto usually the Lyft - Taxi & Bus Alternative app, sometimes a random game app will pop up. Anyways, earlier today I went into my photo gallery and had 7 new folders, all with weather icons. I downloaded TWC app about a week or 2 ago and that seems to be about the time I noticed all this happening. I could be off about the time but I saw a couple of you had this app downloaded and are having similar issues. It's worth a shot!

Hope this helps!! I will update you with any news on my end and please do the same!

 

[Ernest Kent]

Try uninstalling The Weather Channel. I am having the same issue. I will be in the middle of writing a text message and all of a sudden my app store opens onto usually the Lyft - Taxi & Bus Alternative app, sometimes a random game app will pop up. Anyways, earlier today I went into my photo gallery and had 7 new folders, all with weather icons. I downloaded TWC app about a week or 2 ago and that seems to be about the time I noticed all this happening. I could be off about the time but I saw a couple of you had this app downloaded and are having similar issues. It's worth a shot!

Hope this helps!! I will update you with any news on my end and please do the same!

I don't have the weather channel app installed on my phone. I get the pop up taking me to google play store and it's rather annyoing. I can't find the app that'd causing it.

 

[titan11fbc]

I have been experiencing the same issue since I updated to Lollipop. Not only does the play store randomly open up, but so doesn't webpages. Any ideas? I tried the Ad Network Detector by Lookout and it stops mid scan. I have done a scan with lookout and there are no threats. I have reset my phone once and it was fine for about a week and then back to the same nonsense. Any help or suggestions out there.

 

[Ernest Kent]

I have been experiencing the same issue since I updated to Lollipop. Not only does the play store randomly open up, but so doesn't webpages. Any ideas? I tried the Ad Network Detector by Lookout and it stops mid scan. I have done a scan with lookout and there are no threats. I have reset my phone once and it was fine for about a week and then back to the same nonsense. Any help or suggestions out there.

I also tried ad network detector by lookout and it closes mid scan. I tried a bunch of scanners to try to fix it. I can't find a fix or app that's causing it. It's getting more annoying now. I got a pop up yester called adking and it redirected me to itunes. I scanned wit antivirus scanner and malwarebytes. they both came up with nothing. I hope someone can help with this. If I find a fix for me I'll post it.

 

[titan11fbc]

I think I fixed the issue with my phone. I think is was the MP3 Music Downloader that I had on my phone. I can't remember or find the app again that I had on my phone. If I find it I will post back. I am hoping that this solved my issue.

 

[halfbreed38]

I also blame it on Music Paradise.....

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Ernest Kent]

Seems like it's music downloaders causing the problems. I got MP3 SKull on my phone. I'm going to delete it to see if it's the problem.

 

[Cobbster31]

I have a galaxy 4s and the google play store random pop ups started after i did this recent update to jellybean or whatever it's called. I've noticed that it usually happens when I open Facebook. I haven't downloaded anything new...really annoying! Anyone have a clue?

 

[Robert Martindale1]

Same problem here, had it on My HTC M7 and now on my M9. seemed to happen after I had downloaded a media converter from Google play, but there seemed to be a delay before it started to happen. I uninstalled the app backed up and did a reset but still couldn't shift it.

 

[Juliana Mesquita]

Hi there, I don't know if this will help others but I have been having this problem: each time I opened gmail or the SMS App, a random PlayStore ad for a game would pop up.

What worked for me:
1. Went to Settings --> Application manager
2. Located the (possible) offending app: Google Play Games
3. Clicked to open the App info
4. Un-ticked the 'Show notifications' box

I figured, it may have been sending push notifications each time there was a new game...so I decided to try this and the problem has not happened again since. If it happens again thou, I'll jump back in here and let you know.

Phone model: S4

 

[987654321BlastOff]

Hi there, I don't know if this will help others but I have been having this problem: each time I opened gmail or the SMS App, a random PlayStore ad for a game would pop up.

What worked for me:
1. Went to Settings --> Application manager
2. Located the (possible) offending app: Google Play Games
3. Clicked to open the App info
4. Un-ticked the 'Show notifications' box

I figured, it may have been sending push notifications each time there was a new game...so I decided to try this and the problem has not happened again since. If it happens again thou, I'll jump back in here and let you know.

Phone model: S4

I think Juliana (see thread #146) might be on to something here. My issue started happening after installing one of the fore-mentioned music apps. Followed Juliana's recommendation for the music app i suspected was causing the issue ... so far so good. Logically would seem to make sense for a fix too. Fingers crossed!

 

[destinyMed]

I have the same issues as well. No Antivirus has caught anything, I've done everything short of Master reset, and the link still opens when I touch my phone at random times. I've tried, lookout, McAfee, ad detector from lookout, mobile care, and had att help. Nothing solved it.

Posted via Android Central App

I did a master reset and the problem still persists. When they did the lolipop update this is when this issue started....How can we fix this??