Busy Icon question?

[neophiyte]

I keep getting this busy icon (screen grab attached) that spins when phone or internet (don't know which) is busy. The icon spins for a few seconds and leaves.

does anyone recognize it? Just appeared 2 days ago. Bitdefender and avg have been run as anti-virus.

Samsung galaxy 25S ultra

thank you for your time

 

[VidJunky]

Welcome to Android Central forums. I think this image tried to break my phone. Usually I can get a decent enough image to do a search from my device but anytime this was in the frame even if it wasn't center frame the search app would return an error. Crazy. Anyway, I was able to screenshot it into a Google image search. Google says it belongs to an app for Star Tech online shopping. Dose this sound familiar?

The logo in the image belongs to Star Tech & Engineering Ltd, an e-commerce and retail shop for computer, laptop, and gadget products.

Explanation:

• Star Tech Online Shopping App: Star Tech & Engineering Ltd offers a mobile app for online shopping of genuine tech products, including desktop PCs, laptops, office equipment, computer components, servers, and anti-virus software.
  
• Serial Device Application Software: StarTech.com also provides serial device application software for iOS, Android, and Chrome browsers, which allows users to control serial devices and build customized control interfaces.

I'll be a little surprised if this ends up being correct. Another thing you posted here in the general Ask A Question area but this could be something other S25 owners might know something about. We could ask a moderator their feelings on moving this to the S25 threads. What do you think @Laura Knotek or @mustang7757?

If it isn't serving you ads or doing anything nefarious it's going to be difficult to track down. When they act up the most is when it's a little easier to find the source. There likely isn't anything to worry about but in the meantime a few questions that might help us if Gemini is wrong.

Is there any particular app in use, recently closed or opened that corresponds to this event?

Have you looked at what apps you have open in the background when this happens? Perhaps if you look when this happens you may see a pattern of what is open.

Do you have any apps from places other than the Play Store, Amazon App Store, or the Galaxy Store? Not that I instantly suspect the issue to be devious but users beware of random online app stores.

Let us know what you find and we'll offer other advice.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! You may end up having to uninstall apps one by one until the issue goes away, if no one else here can identify that.

 

[mustang7757]

I haven't seen this on my s25u
Is this in the status bar ? If you pull your notification panel down does it show up?

 

[mustang7757]

I can move it to the s25 Forums to see if anyone seen this icon

 

[neophiyte]

I haven't seen this on my s25u
Is this in the status bar ? If you pull your notification panel down does it show up?

No it mostly happens when I'm watching a video, or trying to open hoopla app using Bluetooth to wake it up. Only 3 new apps were brave browser notebookLLM and coinlab that I've downloaded recently. Uninstaller all three.

It acts like a thinking icon. Phone freezes for a second and the star shows up and spins. It took forever to get a screenshot it comes and goes so quickly.

I tried visual search in Google, and using copilot and Gemini Ai to search and no response.

I used avg anti virus, but paid for Bitdefender too to see if phone was infected. Neither show any virus.

 

[mustang7757]

No it mostly happens when I'm watching a video, or trying to open hoopla app using Bluetooth to wake it up. Only 3 new apps were brave browser notebookLLM and coinlab that I've downloaded recently. Uninstaller all three.

It acts like a thinking icon. Phone freezes for a second and the star shows up and spins. It took forever to get a screenshot it comes and goes so quickly.

I tried visual search in Google, and using copilot and Gemini Ai to search and no response.

I used avg anti virus, but paid for Bitdefender too to see if phone was infected. Neither show any virus.

Gotcha, well the fastest way to know if any 3rd party apps is causing it would be go into safe mode as this has native apps working while disabling 3rd parties and see if it is still happening.

 

[B. Diddy]

If you mean this Coin Lab app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.coin.laboratory.lab&hl=en_US), then I'd wonder if that's the culprit, based on the mention of aggresive adware in the reviews. There's a chance the app also installed an accompanying adware app without your knowledge, and uninstalling Coin Lab still left the adware behind. See this thread about looking for any suspicious remnant:

https://www.reddit.com/r/androidapps/comments/168iy3f/help_phone_has_been_taken_over_by_adware

 

[mustang7757]

If you mean this Coin Lab app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.coin.laboratory.lab&hl=en_US), then I'd wonder if that's the culprit, based on the mention of aggresive adware in the reviews. There's a chance the app also installed an accompanying adware app without your knowledge, and uninstalling Coin Lab still left the adware behind. See this thread about looking for any suspicious remnant:

https://www.reddit.com/r/androidapps/comments/168iy3f/help_phone_has_been_taken_over_by_adware

OP mentioned uninstalled all 3

 

[B. Diddy]

OP mentioned uninstalled all 3

I know, but I wonder if that Coin Lab app could've stealthily installed a separate adware app that's still present, since it was only the Coin Lab app that was uninstalled.

 

[mustang7757]

I know, but I wonder if that Coin Lab app could've stealthily installed a separate adware app that's still present, since it was only the Coin Lab app that was uninstalled.

That is possible

 

[B. Diddy]

I found this, which pretty much confirms the Coin Lab app as the culprit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidQuestions/comments/1mmhzvr/it_guy_stumped_by_mysterious_star_appearing_on

 

[Laura Knotek]

I've never seen it, but I never used Coin Lab.

 

[neophiyte]

I haven't seen it in a few days since deleting the coin lab app.

Thanks to everyone for your help with this issue.

 

[B. Diddy]

That's good to know. I suggest leaving a negative review on the Play Store, mentioning this unwanted behavior. Also, on the Play Store page for that app, tap the 3-dot menu button at the upper right and then "Flag as inappropriate," then explain why.