What is the Preferred Activity Setter

[AC Question]

It appeared on my phone with my adding it.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Which phone, and which carrier? Where do you see it? A Google search turned up some threads that suggest it is a preinstalled app from Sprint.

 

[drhorrible005]

I had Mcafee say it is a mild securty threat. It just showed up on my phone as I have had Mcafee for 6 months on my phone and it never showed up. If i got to application manger then all I can find it but the turn off, clear cache and all other buttons are grayed out. I have a samsung Galaxy s4 with sprint.

 

[B. Diddy]

Antivirus apps can often give false positives. Since you have Sprint, this is likely a preinstalled app from Sprint, as mentioned above. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Rukbat]

A McAfee update could have something in it that suddenly sees the app that's always been on your phone as a threat. (And if it's listed as a PUP [Potentially Unwanted Program], it's usually a false positive. Many wanted apps are PUPs if you don't personally want them, but they're not dangerous. Towel Root is one. Most AV programs report it as a PUP. Safestrap is also a PUP. Not on my phone - Safestrap is a very WANTED program on my phone.)

 

[Muscles_n_Mascara]

Exact same thing here. Except mine shows medium threat and my battery seems to die even faster. Today my phone had all apps cleared out and had not been used in about 30 minutes but the entire phone was really hot! Wondering if it has something to do with this.
I also have Galaxy S4 with Sprint. (I love Samsung but this has been a terrible phone! )

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! For behavior like that, I would also check to see if it recurs with a different battery, since a failing battery can do that. A corrupt file on the SD card can also do that, because the system's Media Scanner gets hung up on the corrupt file, which causes increased CPU usage. Try unmounting the card (in Settings>Storage), remove it, and reboot the phone. You could also plug the card into your computer and run chkdsk: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...guide-using-chkdsk-fix-corrupted-sd-card.html

Finally, make sure your cell signal is strong. Weak cell signal can also make the phone work overtime, and cause the battery to heat up.

 

[Cord P]

I have the same issue but it seems to be different than what is here. The stock browser (Internet) on my Samsung Galaxy Prevail LTE triggers AVG Antivirus and brings me to a so called safe page as it brought me to a web site that had malliculs content when I opened the app and each browser I download is pretty much a shot in the foot as trying to load a page with pictures and or something it shows damaged image symbols and here is the catch, the page loads on every other device. And do not get me started on chrome, i always have to stop the page from finishing up on loading a page inable to type this. The only device that is pretty much safe from this monstrosity called preferred activity setter is my Samsung Galaxy Tab 4. And I have some shocking news as well, it appears after the most recent update of "*Google Play Services*". None of my devices had it before

My Kyocera Event can't connect any more, not even to google play because of it

My 2 Kyocera ZTE AWE/N800 phones have it and it works fine there as force stopping it caused it to crash all together as AVG says it is not active per say as I'll be looking into this in more detail

My Moto G is excluded as well as my Samsung Galaxy Tab 4

But my Samsung Galaxy Prevail LTE has been taking the blunt of it so far and soon will be rooting it to forcibly remove it

In conclusion if you think it isn't doing anything and or harmless think again. I think preferred activity setter is a problem and should be dealt with promply

 

[Kurt Blanchard]

Preferred Activity Setter has been around since ice cream sandwich in the Kyocera Rise phone. An AVG scan indicates it's classified as malware but is a 'system app' and cannot remove it. Kyocera tightly controls the boot configuration, so removal is problematic.

 

[TimmayJ]

Weird. I used App Master to delete it to the recycle bin, then decided I wanted to reinstall it to investigate it a little further, but it said the file/app didn't exist. No unusual effects from deleting it so far..I dunno.