How can I find out if a tracker has been put on my phone when someone else was using it?

[mamapink]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this and really hoping someone can help me.

I have very strong reason to believe that my ex has put a tracker on my phone at some point in our relationship. He had other relationships that I didn't know about until just recently and found out from another of his girlfriends. She found out that he had put a tracker on her phone and now apparently he's admitted to yet another girl that he put one on mine too.

I have a galaxy S4mini using the Jellybean 4.2.2 OS. I have been doing some googling "I think my boyfriend has put a tracker on my phone" and the first page I clicked on talked about looking in the application manager for an app called android system. BINGO! However, I am wondering if that is just the OS system for my phone and it has always been there? It has a silver and green icon.

More research has lead me to read that symptoms of a tracker could be; phone heating up (mine gets very hot sometimes), battery drain (I charge mine at least twice a day, if not 3 times. I do use it a fair bit, but always have so I think it's draining quicker now), higher data usage (mine has sky-rocketed in the last few months), the screen lights up for no reason, it will often turn off even when it does have battery (although I have also read the opposite where phones won't turn off), and unsual text messages or noises which I haven't noticed.

Another forum I found somewhere, someone was suspecting the same thing on their phone. They also commented that in the apps manager they had 2 S-memo apps and 2 factorykeystring apps as well as a basic daydreams app.

Now this may very well be normal and that's what I'm hoping.

I have also found an app called Mobile tracker. It has a white piece of paper with writing on it and a grey cog icon.

This person on the forum also said they had two system update apps which I have as well. Now, I'm wondering if my phone should be updating as I have never had an available update since I've had it, but in the last few days it has been asking me to update. I keep going to but I never have any space apparently even though I don't have that many apps and I've deleted a bunch of photos. This makes me thing that perhaps something is taking up space in the background.

If anyone can help me out I'd really appreciate it. This break up is just getting worse and worse and if he ever comes near me again he better watch out!

I am in Australia if this information helps in anyway.

Please help me out! :'(
Pink Mama

 

[miner_films]

Do you have an antivirus system on your phone?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[mamapink]

I have AVG antivirus Free version.

 

[miner_films]

Get your antivirus to scan your phone, it will detect (hopefully) every app on your phone. Hopefully if there is a tracker app on your phone it should detect it and consider it as malware.

Also just a few questions:
1. Have you noticed any new apps on your phone?
2. Do you keep your GPS on or do you keep it off?
3. (Answer this if you said off to the last question) Does your GPS turn itself on?
4. Have you looked in the Google Play Store under my apps and then all?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[mamapink]

No I haven't noticed any new apps and there aren't any that I don't recognise in Google Play store my apps. The other girlfriend didn't find her tracker until she went into app manager (not sure what phone she has). She told me to look for something like family locator, friend locator or ten20 which I couldn't find.
I'm just worried as he is very techy and knows how to do everything on phones. I'm also pretty sure he put something on my phone that he just downloaded from a website. Something to do with 'root' I can't remember why. That's gone now, I think I uninstalled it months and months ago.
GPS is off most of the time, I don't use it much at all but often have bluetooth and data switched on. The android app says it has permissions to basically every aspect of my phone, so that worries me.
Nothing on antivirus scan.

 

[miner_films]

The app called Android System is your operating system, if you somehow deleted that then your phone won't work. If the tracker app was downloaded from a browser and then installed on your phone, then it won't appear in the Google Play Store. Go to your settings and under Security there's an option you can turn on called Unknown Sources, is it turned on? (It's description should read "Allow installation of apps from unknown sources")

While in your phone settings go to Accessibility, is there anything under services?

Under Security you should see an option called Device Administrators, I want you to click on that and tell me what you see

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[mamapink]

Ok, so that is the same icon as my android system so good to be reassured that it is actually my OS.
Unknown sources is NOT ticked, however could he have ticked it, downloaded it and un-ticked it again?
Device administrator:
Android device manager
AVG Anti-theft service
Outlook Device Policy
None of these are ticked.

Thanks for your help so far, but it is 3am here in Melbourne and I really must go to sleep. I've been researching for hours! I will check back often tomorrow. Although, you'll probably be asleep then. ZZZzzzz

 

[mamapink]

Ahh! Where did my reply go?

That is the same icon as my android system so I'm glad to see that it is actually my OS.

Unknown sources is NOT ticked, however could he have ticked it, downloaded it and then unticked it again?

Device administrator
Android device manager
AVG anti-theft service
Outlook device policy
(None of these are ticked)

Thanks for your help so far, however it is 3am here in Melbourne and I really need to sleep. I have been researching for hours! I will check back regularly tomorrow, although you will probably be asleep then.
Thanks again!

 

[miner_films]

There is every possible chance that once he was finished he unticked unknown sources. You mentioned root before, if there was an app on your phone that required root that means your device has been rooted.
Root won't disappear until you unroot your device, to make sure if your device is rooted or not. I recommend downloading a root checker from the Google Play Store, all you have to do is run the app and click a button in the app called check (it might be called run or something). You should see something like this if your device is rooted ( what you see in the attached image ), if its not rooted then the app will tell you.

It was of no problem helping you.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[VidJunky]

Google find out if my phone is being tracked. There are several apps that will detect trackers at the PS. Most good taking apps delete install records, and don't show in installed app lists, but most require that a widget be placed on your home screen. They are often invisible. To stop it from working you can delete all of your home screen, you'll have to add one before you can delete the last one and then add back as many as you had and then repopulate them. Antivirus apps are worthless, one Android rarely get viruses because of the complexity of linking a sandboxed OS. If your device begins acting funny more than likely you've allowed an app to have too much access in the permissions, meanwhile they would likely not recognize an app as a virus because they are very different. Chances are that most of the higher rated anti-spyware apps will be able to detect any tracker installed on your device. To beat them he would have had to root your phone and the odds that he'd have that much time and access are slim, I'm assuming. You can tell if your phone has been unlocked and rooted by accessing your fastboot menu. On most phones it will be powering off the device and powering it back on while holding the down vol button. At the top of the screen it should say either S On or locked. If it says S Off, Tampered, or Rooted he's been in the bowels of your device and this gets a little more difficult.

You can factory reset your device this will kill any access he has, it will require you to restore everything and set up a lot of your apps and settings but it will kill any access and will delete any set-up he did to gain access. This is the simplest and most effective way to gain your peace of mind back. But it is some work and at a cost, that level 300 in candy crush is gone.

Some trackers will require a password to show access to the factory reset option. If you try to use it from your settings menu... Not sure how that works with the hardware method I described above... But if you go to your memory and find factory reset grayed out that could be an indicator that something is wrong. Your service center should be able to by pass this if the phone and contact are in your name as an admin on the account. Even if you figure out that you are tapped you may have to FR to get rid of it as most require a password to uninstall... Long story short to have complete peace of mind wipe it and don't look back. GL. I hope you're wrong.

Posted via the Android Central App from my HTC One M9

 

[miner_films]

Um VidJunky? Doing a factory reset doesn't remove root access.

I would know because my device is rooted and I've had to do a few factory resets while the device is rooted.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[VidJunky]

No you're right it doesn't. Sorry I may not have made it clear I was only referring to anything installed that didn't require root. I got going in two directions as the thoughts were flowing. Sorry if I want clear. If you find that your device is rooted find out your insurance carrier's policy for rooted devices and maybe your phone might fall off a table or into a pool one day before your contact is up and see if they'll replace it? I mean it's not like you asked for it to be rooted or intentionally did so.

Posted via the Android Central App from my HTC One M9

 

[miner_films]

Its OK, everyone makes mistakes.

Although root does void the warranty, I recommend that if your device is rooted and is under warranty you don't tell your carrier or the manufacture that the device is rooted. They are not likely to help you if you tell them that it was rooted (but then again it depends on who you are with), if they won't unroot it for you then you'll have to unroot it yourself.

I highly recommend that you do unroot your device yourself or if you have a friend that knows how to do it ask them. But if you don't have anyone that knows how, we can guide you through the process of unrooting your device

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[mamapink]

Reply to miner_films
3 and a half hours sleep!
Oh no. It was so long ago that he rooted it I wouldn't have a clue if it still is or not. He did tell me he was doing it, but I can't remember why he did it. Sounded like he was doing a good thing as I let him do it. I don't even know what rooted means!
I'd rather not romove anything yet. I may be able to press criminal charges against him and want all the evidence I can get!

 

[mamapink]

Reply to VidJunky
Wow! Lots of info thatnks! I don't understand it though
Sounds like I should just get a new phone! He could have done any thing to it really. He was very techy and I trusted him.
Thank you for helping!

 

[mamapink]

Reply to VidJunky
Want to know something else? He works for my phone carrier! Ahh! He's probably checking up on my account all the time!

 

[VidJunky]

Wow, sorry all this is happening. Yeah ordinarily root is a good thing but as you can see it can be used for evil. You can't just remove root so a new phone would be the easy to go but on the upside, if you can call it that with root everything will be right there because that's the up side of root you don't have to lose everything. GL. I'd hate to see it come to criminal issues but you maybe saving someone else you don't even know.

Posted via the Android Central App from my HTC One M9

 

[mamapink]

Reply to miner_films and VidJunky
Thanks so much for trying to help me. He is such a scumbag and has really hurt me and a lot of other people. You two doing this is very much appreciated!

 

[miner_films]

It was no problem helping you, that is the whole point of Android Central. Its to help those who need help with their android device, I hope what he did doesn't turn you off android devices

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[mamapink]

Nah, he hasn't put me off android devices. Just him!
Now that I've discovered this forum I'll use it when I have other problems too.
Thanks again.