[Guide] Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

[John Meno]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

Update. It is strange because if you look at the screenshots above it is not there, but it appears it was a calculator app. After looking at all the currently running apps a million times, one of the times I notoced the calculator app and realized that I dowbloaded it not too long ago. I deleted it and since the haven't gotten any adds. I hope this is the end of it for me. It has been super annoying since getting this app and getting these ads.

 

[Javier P]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

Update. It is strange because if you look at the screenshots above it is not there, but it appears it was a calculator app. After looking at all the currently running apps a million times, one of the times I notoced the calculator app and realized that I dowbloaded it not too long ago. I deleted it and since the haven't gotten any adds. I hope this is the end of it for me. It has been super annoying since getting this app and getting these ads.

I hope that fixes it. Now that you say it, that app was kind of hidden there

 

[John Meno]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

Good eye. Yeah that was the one.

 

[Chuckcell]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

Could you have sorted by RAM usage and recent install? Maybe that would have help reveal the culprit?

 

[Javier P]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

Could you have sorted by RAM usage and recent install? Maybe that would have help reveal the culprit?

It could be great but I've never seen that option available on my phones. And some apps start to push ads only after an update, so the installation date wouldn't count. Unfortunately finding this kind of apps is a time consuming guessing game. So far I haven't found an easy way to find the culprit.

 

[Blaez]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

My add problem is sound only. I'm not getting any pop ups, nothing like that. Just the add sounds. At all hours, sometimes 5 to 10 minutes apart! I've ran antivirus and malware programs, deleted apps, deleted files, to NO avail. Nothing works! It's literally driving me crazy! I'll be talking on the phone and and add will start sounding. I have a Moto E4. I haven't installed anything new. This just randomly started. There must be a way to stop it?

 

[Javier P]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

My add problem is sound only. I'm not getting any pop ups, nothing like that. Just the add sounds. At all hours, sometimes 5 to 10 minutes apart! I've ran antivirus and malware programs, deleted apps, deleted files, to NO avail. Nothing works! It's literally driving me crazy! I'll be talking on the phone and and add will start sounding. I have a Moto E4. I haven't installed anything new. This just randomly started. There must be a way to stop it?

That's very strange. Have you already tried the steps posted above? Even without a popup the app causing these sounds could leave a record in your recent apps, in the running services or in your memory usage. Worth a try.

 

[Blaez]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

That's very strange. Have you already tried the steps posted above? Even without a popup the app causing these sounds could leave a record in your recent apps, in the running services or in your memory usage. Worth a try.

I spent all afternoon trying all of the steps listed above. I am truly at a loss. Nothing has helped. It's beyond ridiculous. I've never encountered anything like this before. I'm tech savvy but this has me stumped!

 

[Javier P]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

I spent all afternoon trying all of the steps listed above. I am truly at a loss. Nothing has helped. It's beyond ridiculous. I've never encountered anything like this before. I'm tech savvy but this has me stumped!

Very weird. I posted a couple of new ideas on your original thread. We could keep the discussion in there for now.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=906546

 

[P1Ty]

So here's what I've found by using the developers option way... don't know what Metrica is and it also doesn't have any icon...any help?
(Sorry for my grammar)

 

[Javier P]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

Welcome to the forums. There are some suspicious apps in your screenshot.

- Shareit. Most recent reviews on the Play Store complain about ads and new "useless" features after the latest update. You could uninstall it temporarily and see if the ads persist.

- Clean Master. I strongly recommend you to uninstall this app.

- Security HD. Couldn't find it in the Play Store, did you download it or came preinstalled?

- Metrica. No idea what this is. Try to find it in settings - apps and see if it was downloaded from the Play Store or another source.

Just remember, when uninstalling any app go to settings - apps - select app - force stop - storage/clear data and then hit the uninstall button

 

[P1Ty]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

ShareIt and Security HD are preinstalled and regarding to the Metrica thing, I can't find it in the apps settings and I got more screenshots that could maybe help. Thanks

 

[Javier P]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

ShareIt and Security HD are preinstalled and regarding to the Metrica thing, I can't find it in the apps settings and I got more screenshots that could maybe help. Thanks

I would disable Shareit temporarily, uninstall Clean Master for good and see what happens. There's no easy and direct way to find the culprit and it becomes kind of a guess game.

Also, scroll down your RAM usage screen and take a screenshot with the next apps on that list. Tap one by one and see which ones show up as running all the time (95%+ frequency). By the way, which phone do you have?

 

[Lundavra]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

I have been getting popup adverts for a month or so, usually soon after I switch on WiFi and it connects to the outside world. There seem to be a lot of people complaining about these but all they are being told that there must have been malware on something they recently installed.

But I have not installed any new Apps for some time.

When I have been able to read the advert, many seem to be companies associated with Google. All seem to be for respectable products i.e. not the ones that you think associated with malware.

I ran the Play Store Play Protect and it does not detect anything dangerous.

I have Norton on the phone and that has not detected anything.

I have looked through several lists of dangerous Apps that have appeared on various forums and websites and I do not have any of the ones listed.

Sure there is more to this than just being malware.

MB

 

[Javier P]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

I have been getting popup adverts for a month or so, usually soon after I switch on WiFi and it connects to the outside world. There seem to be a lot of people complaining about these but all they are being told that there must have been malware on something they recently installed.

But I have not installed any new Apps for some time.

When I have been able to read the advert, many seem to be companies associated with Google. All seem to be for respectable products i.e. not the ones that you think associated with malware.

I ran the Play Store Play Protect and it does not detect anything dangerous.

I have Norton on the phone and that has not detected anything.

I have looked through several lists of dangerous Apps that have appeared on various forums and websites and I do not have any of the ones listed.

Sure there is more to this than just being malware.

MB

It's not malware or virus, it's just the annoying way that some devs are using to make money. Usually (if not always) is an app that we downloaded and Play Protect of antivirus apps don't detect them.

 

[Lundavra]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

That was my suspicion.

I suppose they could have included something in an update but with the nature of the adverts I suspect it was added to one of the main Android Apps and not something I installed nyself.

 

[Lundavra]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

Is it anything to do with Android Instant Apps?

I tend to leave WiFi turned off when I do not need it. Just switched on the WiFi and saw the download arrow soon afterwards, I looked to see what was downloading and it showed Instant App then a moment later a full screen advert for Facebook appeared. Coincidence?

 

[P1Ty]

Re: Full screen ads. How to find the culprit.

I disabled ShareIt and uninstalled Clean Master just as what you've told me... Here are the screenshots (the first two screenshots are the ones that is located in the Apps settings while the last two screenshots are located at the developers option). And the device that I'm using is a Lenovo TAB 2 A7-30GC.

 

[Javier P]

Is it anything to do with Android Instant Apps?

I tend to leave WiFi turned off when I do not need it. Just switched on the WiFi and saw the download arrow soon afterwards, I looked to see what was downloading and it showed Instant App then a moment later a full screen advert for Facebook appeared. Coincidence?

Nothing to do with Instant Apps, this is a system app that updates in the background. If this kind of apps were the culprits the full screen ads would be a much bigger widespread issue.

I disabled ShareIt and uninstalled Clean Master just as what you've told me... Here are the screenshots (the first two screenshots are the ones that is located in the Apps settings while the last two screenshots are located at the developers option). And the device that I'm using is a Lenovo TAB 2 A7-30GC.

Are you still getting the ads?

Have you checked the recent apps overview right after getting an ad? In some cases there's a card in there that would give us a definite clue of which app is pushing it.

 

[Lundavra]

Nothing to do with Instant Apps, this is a system app that updates in the background. If this kind of apps were the culprits the full screen ads would be a much bigger widespread issue.

Just had another Facebook advert so confirms probably not Instant Apps.

Just checking I know how to check Recent Apps and then screengrab - still got Gallery disabled because I could not understand why it needs access to my Contacts or Calendar and goes off an sulks if you refuse both.