Question Is there a way to verify that there is no malware on my device?

AndroidUser123987

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I understand that I am probably fine, but I had a weird coincidence this morning which is making me feel a little worried. For context I have a Galaxy S9+.

Last night I downloaded the app "Yugioh Omega" from their website by enabling downloads through Chrome, and installing the APK file, which I have not done before. I have been using the desktop version of the app for about a year now and it's a fairly popular game so I am confident it wasn't malware, but this morning when I woke up I had a notification that the storage on my phone was almost full. I have had this phone for a few years and never really went through all my data and cleaned it up so it isn't a huge surprise that it's full but the timing has me a little worried since I got the notification literally less than 12 hours after downloading and installing an app through Google Chrome.

I've since uninstalled Omega and deleted the APK file from my downloads, and then downloaded Bitdefender and Malwarebytes and ran scans using each of them. I also checked through my storage to find out what's hogging it all, and after going through settings > device care > storage > advanced > internal storage I can see the biggest section is "other apps" at 27 GB. Inside of there the biggest app is "My Files" which has 6.69 GB of data in it. My phone gives me the option to clear data but I didn't press it in case it cleared all my photos or something like that. The second largest app in there is Facebook with 1.2GB of data.

So at this point I am not really sure what else to do with my phone, like is it odd at all for "My Files" to be that large? Should I be alright if Bitdefender and Malwarebytes couldn't find anything? I feel inclined to do a factory reset but my phone has 2FA set up for a few important work-related things so I'd like to avoid doing that if I can.
 

mustang7757

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Welcome to AC!

I don't recommend a device that old that doesn't get recent security monthly updates to have your valuable information on it .

Besides downloading malware bite or antivirus application nothing much can do , don't go to shady sites or download APK from known places like APK mirror.
 

B. Diddy

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Welcome to Android Central! That seems more like coincidence. It's possible the Yugioh Omega app requires a fair amount of storage, and that tipped the phone past the low storage warning threshold. Considering that you have a pretty old phone and presumably have had it for a while, it wouldn't be surprising for the storage to have built up over time.

Can you show us some screenshots of the Storage menu?
 

AndroidUser123987

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Welcome to Android Central! That seems more like coincidence. It's possible the Yugioh Omega app requires a fair amount of storage, and that tipped the phone past the low storage warning threshold. Considering that you have a pretty old phone and presumably have had it for a while, it wouldn't be surprising for the storage to have built up over time.

Can you show us some screenshots of the Storage menu?
Thanks for the quick reply, I am not sure how much data the mobile app needed before I uninstalled it but I know the desktop version takes up a few gigabytes once all the updates are installed, and I imagine the mobile app would be the same since it has all the same features. I've had the phone since 2021 and have never had a proper look through the storage up until now to make space, so basically anything I've installed so far has stayed on the phone.

I've attached photos of the storage menu, its breakdown by category, and the other apps section which is taking up the most space at the moment. Most of the apps in it are fairly small but there's over 100 of them in there so I guess it would add up. In that photo they are sorted by size so those are the biggest ones there, if you need a screenshot of another menu just let me know.
 

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B. Diddy

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Since the Yugioh app was installed as an APK rather than through the Play Store, it's possible that's why it's listed as "Other apps." And if you used the My Files app to install the APK, that may be why the My Files app is showing so much storage usage. Normally, when you install an app via the Play Store, the APK from the Play Store that's downloaded will subsequently be removed by the system, but if you're manually installing APKs, that file and any associated data created during the installation might still be left behind.
 
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