How do I get rid of suspicious Facebook popups on Android home screen?

[AC Question]

For awhile now I've been getting strange Facebook popups on my home screen whenever I turn on my tablet. It covers a good size portion of the bottom right corner of the screen and usually contains a link to a news article (many times about drones). I don't have the Facebook app so it's pretty strange that something like this is happening. The popups don't seem like a major threat to my Android's security, but sometimes it can get a bit annoying. Also I've scanned my Android several times for malware/adware/spyware/etc. with different security apps but my problem still exists. Google hasn't helped me much either. If someone could help me out it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this and have a great day!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums. If it were me...I would do a reset. Something isn't right.

After the reset, slowly add apps a few at a time. See if you can narrow down which ones might be the culprit.

 

[Nicky55992]

Welcome to the forums. If it were me...I would do a reset. Something isn't right.

After the reset, slowly add apps a few at a time. See if you can narrow down which ones might be the culprit.

Thanks for the reply, Golfdriver97. The problem is, I already tried a reset before and, even before I started adding my apps back in, the Facebook popups were still appearing on the home screen. So I don't think the popups came from any of the apps I installed. Do you have any other suggestions? Thanks again and sorry I didn't reply right away. BTW if you're wondering I'm the same person who asked the original question...lol. So yeah thanks for your reply

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Golfdriver97]

Thanks for the reply, Golfdriver97. The problem is, I already tried a reset before and, even before I started adding my apps back in, the Facebook popups were still appearing on the home screen. So I don't think the popups came from any of the apps I installed. Do you have any other suggestions? Thanks again and sorry I didn't reply right away. BTW if you're wondering I'm the same person who asked the original question...lol. So yeah thanks for your reply

Posted via the Android Central App

Perhaps the Facebook app itself? You should be able to disable it in Settings>Apps>scroll down to facebook, and you would need to uninstall the updates, then disable the app.

 

[Nicky55992]

Perhaps the Facebook app itself? You should be able to disable it in Settings>Apps>scroll down to facebook, and you would need to uninstall the updates, then disable the app.

Well, the problem is, I have never installed the Facebook app on my tablet and it has never been a system app either. That's what's so strange about the popups. It just appears on the home screen virtually every time I power on my tablet and I can't even figure out where it comes from. I'm not sure if it's even a real Facebook popup. For all I know it could just be a fake.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Golfdriver97]

I am going to be honest....I am not sure what to suggest to do next. Sorry.

From an AOSP M8

 

[Nicky55992]

It's alright. Thanks for taking the time to answer my question anyway. It's a pretty tough problem

 

[Idhchief]

This activity is coming from chrome most likely. Go into the settings and select "site settings. Find m.Facebook.com and select block notifications. Hope this helps

 

[serens]

I have been having this same problem ever since my husband decided to add a Gameboy app. it was from the google play store, not a third party site, but this all started after he installed that. We uninstalled that app, but the problem persists. I have done a factory reset more times than I can count.

- It's not google chrome. Google Chrome does not come installed on this tablet. Doing a factory reset removes Chrome. The problem still exists.

-The browser that came installed with the tablet will redirect me to some sort of "smartdrone.com" every time I open that app. I have reset the homepage. It does not help. I have uninstalled and disabled "Browser." it never goes away because it is the factory installed browser.

- This is not a harmless app. When this first started happening, it started installing apps on my tablet. Apps called "settings" and "sound recorder" that were not the original settings and sound recorder. It would also install games that I did not install. This would happen every time I turned it on, as well as the pop ups. I'd uninstall them. Things would look fine. Restart the tablet, and new apps would appear. Pop ups would get worse and more frequent.

- When I would go into the true "settings" menu, I would have to hit back two or three times to actually back out of it. Since using chrome instead of Browser I have not had this issue. I assume whatever happened, it has embedded itself in my factory installed, irremovable browser.

- Google Chrome does not redirect me to the drone site. I have not had suspicious and unwanted apps install themselves since I stopped using browser and use Chrome instead. However, I still get the pop ups, usually resembling facebook (I too have NEVER installed facebook on this tablet, nor have I even visited facebook.com). I am afraid to go to any sensitive sites, as I have no idea if it is feeding information somewhere.

I have tried and tried to find an answer to this problem. Factory Reset doesn't work. Uninstalling apps doesn't work. This is the first google search in a month that has even asked the question I am trying to find the answer to.

One last thought. My husband also installed this Gameboy app on his smartphone. He got this malware virus thing on his phone. But he did a factory reset on the phone, and it works fine. Perhaps this is a problem that won't go away from my tablet because it's an older version of Android. I cannot install the latest one because it says my tablet was not compatible with it.

This was a gift, and I would rather not just toss it in the garbage. But I am beginning to have no choice. I'll try almost anything at this point.

 

[serens]

Why is my reply not showing on this forum?

 

[dpham00]

Why is my reply not showing on this forum?

Your post was automatically flagged by the system. I have since approved it.

 

[anon(632115)]

@serens You will need to reflash your tablet with a clean operating system. What make and model is it and what version of Android is it running?

 

[serens]

It is a bright tab v90
Android v. 4.4.2

 

[anon(632115)]

Oh dear. I'm afraid it's not good. We need to find stock firmware for your Tab and having searched the net could find nothing. My only suggestion is to contact the manufacturer to see if they can assist Home

 

[serens]

So if I were to find the firmware that I would need for the tab 1- how could I go about finding it. 2- how would I install it. I'm not the greatest at software, but my husband is an IT guy and could probably get it done for me (yes, the same husband that installed the dumb app in the first place). Thing is, android OS is a new thing for either of us, as were used to windows programs. But just a link to somewhere that describes how to reinstall the OS would be great!

 

[anon(632115)]

Is it this device? https://www.fasttech.com/products/1120/10012964/2187303-v90-9-quad-core-1-5ghz-android-4-4-2-kitkat

 

[CLH]

I'm having this exact problem on my little tablet (DragonTouch Y88X-Plus) with Android 4.4.2 (firmwarev2.0). I'm so frustrated because I've deleted all but a few trusted apps that I had on previous tablets and the problem is still happening with antivirus and anti-malware software only catching some of the issues some of the time. (OP, are all the games that download themselves on your device from Foxxgames?)

As soon as I figure out how I'll recover a game I don't want to ruin, I'm going to try a reset. But the OP said it didn't help, so I'm happy to have any advice!

(I also never had Facebook or Chrome on this tablet)

Thanks!
clh

 

[CLH]

And the reset did not work...

 

[manofredearth]

I was under the impression that this is a malicious ad attack that works by way of a mobile advertisement from a webpage serving up a string of code that forces a page redirect and doesn't stop (essentially disabling the "back" command by forcing repeated page redirects to the offending site). Google could easily blacklist the offending site or code to prevent either from loading... but then they'd lose that revenue. Cynical? Absolutely. Accurate? Who knows, Google puts in NO effort to prove otherwise.

 

[Nicky55992]

This activity is coming from chrome most likely. Go into the settings and select "site settings. Find m.Facebook.com and select block notifications. Hope this helps

Thanks for the reply! The thing is, I've never used or gone on Facebook on my tablet, so it's probably not the cause of the problem. I've had this problem so long already; so, sad to say I've pretty much given up hope and just decided to tolerate it.