How do I get rid of ads all over the place since I added the Yahoo app?

[Android Central Question]

I have an Android 7.1.1 version of a ZTE Blade. It's been great, no problems at all, then I got the stupid idea of downloading the Yahoo app. I only use Yahoo eMail for "junk mail," like coupons from stores, but thought it would be handy to have on the phone so I could just show the coupon on my phone rather than print it out.

Shortly thereafter I started getting full screen ads, which are annoying enough, but every so often I'll go to my apps menu and a sort of "bubble" appears over one or another, with some sort of character in it - today it had that outline of **** Van **** on a bicycle in front of the moon (I forget the name of the movie), and just now it showed characters from FInding Dory in it. I'm PO'd like you wouldn't believe - I don't want this garbage! (I can't get a screenshot of it - it comes up intermittently, and is there for about 2-3 seconds.) I'm 99.9% sure Yahoo is the problem, because the ads have Yahoo in the corner.

I deleted the Yahoo app, as well as some other recent apps in case they were the problem, turned the phone off and back on, with no result. I downloaded Kaspersky and ran a scan, but it's not showing that there's any malware. I tried Malwarebytes, and it says "2 Critical Issues Found," but it doesn't tell you how to remove them - I've given the permissions asked for, and I'm not getting anywhere. I tried to clear the cache for various apps (Yahoo doesn't show up in the list anymore), but those #(*$ ads are still popping up. I've scoured the internet, looked at videos...and nothing is getting rid of this crap. HELP!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Go to Settings>Apps, and see if there are any apps you don't recognize, especially if they have "Ad" in the app name.

Did you install the Yahoo app from the Play Store, or from some other source?

 

[funky hula girl]

I did look at the apps list yesterday, and just looked again now, in case I missed anything. There are only two that I see that I have no idea of what they are - Google Korean Input and Google Pinyin Input. I can't delete them, just disable or force stop. I haven't done either, since I don't know what doing so would do.

All the apps I have came from the Play Store.

 

[methodman89]

Put the phone in safe mode. If your problems stop, you still have a bad app. You can also check the battery usage stats to see if anything looks out of place. Also, clear your cache partition and reboot. Good luck.

 

[funky hula girl]

Thanks. I already cleared the cache a few hours ago; I'll try the safe mode.

 

[funky hula girl]

OK, no ads in safe mode. Should I delete one app at a time, then reinstall it, to try and figure out which is the problem?

 

[methodman89]

Delete all the garbage apps like cleaners and battery savers and flashlights etc. Also the yahoo app that started it. After the big initial deletes, clear your cache partition and reboot. If that doesn't do it, delete the most recent apps 1 by 1, don't reinstall them till it's all over. Turn off synching. Have fun

 

[B. Diddy]

Google Korean and Google Pinyin are legitimate preinstalled system apps that have to do with language input. I agree with methodman89, sometimes you just have to uninstall apps one by one until the problem goes away.

 

[funky hula girl]

OK, so I cleared the cache, rebooted, and deleted all the recent apps except Kaspersky, and unsynced everything in Google except for Gmail because it doesn't give that option, just "tap to sync now." No ads in safe mode, but as soon as I left it, they were back. I've looked all over the phone, and have found that if I go to settings, then accounts, there's a line that says "Personal (IMAP)". If I click on that, it shows the Yahoo email address, sync is off, but there's no option to delete that email account. (That's the only email account it shows.) I disabled that email app (the Gmal app works), so I'll let you know how that goes, either because you smart guys out there may have another idea, or if it does work, maybe it'll help someone with the same problem in the future.

 

[Javier P]

OK, so I cleared the cache, rebooted, and deleted all the recent apps except Kaspersky, and unsynced everything in Google except for Gmail because it doesn't give that option, just "tap to sync now." No ads in safe mode, but as soon as I left it, they were back. I've looked all over the phone, and have found that if I go to settings, then accounts, there's a line that says "Personal (IMAP)". If I click on that, it shows the Yahoo email address, sync is off, but there's no option to delete that email account. (That's the only email account it shows.) I disabled that email app (the Gmal app works), so I'll let you know how that goes, either because you smart guys out there may have another idea, or if it does work, maybe it'll help someone with the same problem in the future.

Welcome to the forums. If you still get the ads take a look at this guide. In my experience using the running services option is best way to identify which app is the culprit.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=901497

 

[funky hula girl]

Didn't work.

 

[methodman89]

If it works in safe mode, there is an app you missed. It's malware so it could be mislabeled. You may need to factory reset. Save what you need, but don't auto install from the playstore or have synching on during it. Good luck

 

[B. Diddy]

Yep, methodman89 has a good point. It's a hassle, but at this point, that's what I'd do as well.

 

[funky hula girl]

Thanks everyone.

I went to the T-Mobile store yesterday, and asked about it. The girl there looked at the phone, saw I had Kaspersky and Ghostery, and she removed them, claiming that THEY were the source of the ads! (I was getting the ads before I added them.) Got home, went to check on Poshmark...and there were the ads again!

Thanks guys; U appreciate you. One more question - ok, two more - how do I save what I need, and will I lost things like points on store apps?

 

[B. Diddy]

It works best if most of your important information is synced with your Google account. So contacts need to be saved to your Google account, not the local Phone account, Calendar events should be saved to the Google calendar account, and photos should be backed up using the Google Photos auto-backup feature. Any local document files can be uploaded to your Google Drive (or any other cloud storage you use).

The main data that might be hard to save and restore is data associated with an app, if the app developers didn't give any option to backup data somewhere, or sync data to a cloud server. I'd suggest an app like Helium to backup app data, but that might also perpetuate the problem, if one of those apps is the culprit.

Loyalty points with stores should be saved with your store account in the cloud, not just locally on the phone, so I wouldn't worry about that.