Ads keep popping up on my home screen as drop down round logos..

I had the same issue!!! Drove me crazy, it was the S photo editor app that was the culprit I uninstalled it and no more pop down!!!
 
Same for me. It was the S photo editor. Once I uninstalled it no more devious ads on my home screen.
 
Andyberks,

You seem frustrated. At people who are trying to help you.

You can escalate all you want but it's something YOU installed and it's probably different on every phone.

For me It was the GO Weather widget OR, more specifically, one of it's themes that I installed in the last couple days. I dumped it all and deleted the widget and I haven't seen the dropping ball since.

GL People....
 
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This started happening with my Note 8. It's driving me nuts! I've tried all of the above suggestions, and nothing seems to help. I even tried the premium edition of Malware Bytes, but this bigger keeps popping up (or should I say dropping down). I can't seem to find much info on the internet about it.

Not sure if this is going to fix it, but just saw on my phone an option that might fix it...I'm hoping...

I went under Settings, Apps, then I clicked on each new app that has recently been added. If it says "draw over other apps" I removed permission. No ads in the last 10 minutes...and I was, like you, going nuts...hope that did it...guess I will know in a few.
 
I have a Samsung 7 with the same ads popping up which are from Google AdSense. Log on to your Google account and click on add settings, then turn off ad personalization, then click on AdSense and follow to opt out of all third-party ads and do it multiple times in the end leaving you only with one company they won't let you remove that but at least you will have all the other hundred plus companies that will no longer advertise for a while as you'll have to do this overtime every once in awhile as a will keep adding third-party companies overtime. The only other option is to get rid of Google on your phone.
 
After working on this for several weeks I found at least a solution that seems to beat the heck out of deleting random possible apps.

I confirmed with Sprint that these "balloons on a string" can ONLY come from an App that is running, although it may only run for the length of time the app appears. So, without further adue...

Next time you see one of these balloons on a string:
  1. go to the Play store and click on My App & Games.
  2. Sort by Last Used.
  3. Look amoung the most recent apps run, as in the last few minutes. Your looking for an app that says it ran, but you know you haven't used it in the last few minutes. Ignor common apps that are probably running like chrome or mail or a loader that hasn't had issues before.

For me it turned out to be a Bar Code scanner I had downloaded a while ago and hadn't used in weeks, but there it was in the list "last used 2 minutes ago"... really??? Uninstalled and haven't seen a balloon since.
 
There oughta be a law! What's the deal with the playstore and saying that they certify them all. B. S.
After working on this for several weeks I found at least a solution that seems to beat the heck out of deleting random possible apps.

I confirmed with Sprint that these "balloons on a string" can ONLY come from an App that is running, although it may only run for the length of time the app appears. So, without further adue...

Next time you see one of these balloons on a string:
  1. go to the Play store and click on My App & Games.
  2. Sort by Last Used.
  3. Look amoung the most recent apps run, as in the last few minutes. Your looking for an app that says it ran, but you know you haven't used it in the last few minutes. Ignor common apps that are probably running like chrome or mail or a loader that hasn't had issues before.

For me it turned out to be a Bar Code scanner I had downloaded a while ago and hadn't used in weeks, but there it was in the list "last used 2 minutes ago"... really??? Uninstalled and haven't seen a balloon since.
 
I'm pretty sure adware is being loaded via the Samsung Galaxy Store. I've read through two pages of posts (and had the same issue). I dumped a bunch of recent aps and then remembered that I downloaded a kind of pointless drawing app from the Samsung Store. That's when the ads started. So I removed the new app and the issue went away.

Pro tip - clear your app cache after uninstalling these things or they may stay in memory. Restarting the phone can help too.
 
The same thing is happening to me on a brand new m, just out of the box, Note 8, no notification permissions are granted and I have not downloaded any apps yet that didn't come on the phone SO, wtf, they lead to a site "google services". This did not happen on my previous S8+, so it has to be something that came on this phone. Total BS.
 
I believe most of these comments are BS. I have this problem too, and none of the various apps or check boxes that are suggested to have caused the problem (Peel, calculators, etc, or opting out of Google). Also, there is no such app called "Avast Mobile Security" (at least when I go the app store). There is Avast antivirus 2018 - is that what you mean?
My Samsung S8 has this problem, but I also have a Pixel2 that does not have this problem. Is this a Samsung specific problem?
I will be escalating to Verizon of Avast Antivirus does not fix the problem.
no it's not Samsung related I have a Droid Turbo 2 and it's been doing the same freaking thing drops down and now I'm getting this stupid hot air balloon that pops up on the side 2 with stupid advertisements I just tried the Google thing let's see how it goes

Mine when clicked on brings me to Facebook site
 
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As luck would have it I am unable to
find and sort recently added apps by date since my Application Manager is gone. It usually appears above my list of applications but it's not there anymore.

Help

In my case it was an app I installed for my 13 year old, "Merge All". Since uninstalling that, I see no more ornaments. This app was responsible for other intrusive pop ups, some of which played audio. Terrible.

Here is how I found it.

1. Temporarily adopt the practice of having no apps running in the background. Implemented by doing "Close All" from the app menu frequently.


2. When an add pops up, open the app menu and choose "Task Manager". This showed the Merge All app was running.

3. Uninstall Merge All.
 
For me, the problem was an app called Photo Editor. I found the app by using an Ad detector called Popup Ad Detector. It puts an icon on the screen that you are looking at and bingo, when the ad appears the icon shows which app is the culprit. Delete the App and there you go. Problem solved.