Newby and question

[SamsungDMH]

First hi to all, I am new to the forum and whilst quite an IT 'techie' I have very limited Android experience. I apologise for the long post but want to save as many 'did you do this or that questions' and of course the replies that go with them. My last phone Galaxy S3 lasted about 12weeks, I dropped it and the screen went to pot! My previous HTC TyTn II I had for years, dropped it, trod on it, sat on it and whatever else you should never do to a phone and it took it all, god knows why I changed it? So I decided to update from a S3 to a Galaxy S4, apparently this is stronger? So my beef, first I did not realise that Google was so far up the ar*e of Samsung (or is it the other way around?), that if I had known, I might not have purchased it in the first place! So, one day having had the phone for a week or two I noticed I was gaining apps? I thought I must be dreaming, I had not intentionally downloaded anything, I had already looked at the apps that were there and had already decided there was more than I would ever use, in fact thought some appeared to do the same thing for example 'video player' and 'movie player' both appear to be doing the same thing. The fact that I can launch a video directly from the file itself seems to make these redundant.

So I made note of my present app count and sure enough (normally after connecting to a Wi-Fi connection) I would gain some more apps, again apps I would NEVER EVER USE!

I found I can use the app manager to force stop but ONLY when the download is in progress, once in they are in for good! I HATE having things downloaded to my computer without my permission so try to run as tight a ship as possible, how can I stop this 'you WILL have this whether you like it or not' attitude?

Some of the recent apps forced on me are:
Chat on, Trip Advisor, talk, story album, I could go on, play music (WHEN THERE IS ALREADY AN APP CALLED 'MUSIC' THAT DOES THE SAME THING), chrome, there are others.

So what is the answer you android guru's?

repeat apology for long post.

Many thanks

Dave Shelp

 

[srkmagnus]

Hi Dave, welcome to Android Central and hope you are finding useful information throughout the forums.

Regarding your problem, I believe you allowed apps on your S3 to be backed up and when you entered your login credentials on the new S4 also enabled the restore/backup with Google option. Do any of the apps look familiar? If so, that's what is going on. Apps were backed up on the S3 and restored on the S4, which is not a bad thing. Now, if you want to remove those files you can easily uninstall the apps from system settings > applications or Play Store > my apps.

Now, if you never seen, downloaded or backed-up the apps which are appearing on your S4, then you possibly downloaded a bad app that is automatically installing the apps. If this is the case, perform a factory reset then start over and use caution with what apps you install to the device.

Let us know if you have any questions.

 

[Golfdriver97]

First hi to all, I am new to the forum and whilst quite an IT 'techie' I have very limited Android experience. I apologise for the long post but want to save as many 'did you do this or that questions' and of course the replies that go with them. My last phone Galaxy S3 lasted about 12weeks, I dropped it and the screen went to pot! My previous HTC TyTn II I had for years, dropped it, trod on it, sat on it and whatever else you should never do to a phone and it took it all, god knows why I changed it? So I decided to update from a S3 to a Galaxy S4, apparently this is stronger? So my beef, first I did not realise that Google was so far up the ar*e of Samsung (or is it the other way around?), that if I had known, I might not have purchased it in the first place! So, one day having had the phone for a week or two I noticed I was gaining apps? I thought I must be dreaming, I had not intentionally downloaded anything, I had already looked at the apps that were there and had already decided there was more than I would ever use, in fact thought some appeared to do the same thing for example 'video player' and 'movie player' both appear to be doing the same thing. The fact that I can launch a video directly from the file itself seems to make these redundant.

So I made note of my present app count and sure enough (normally after connecting to a Wi-Fi connection) I would gain some more apps, again apps I would NEVER EVER USE!

I found I can use the app manager to force stop but ONLY when the download is in progress, once in they are in for good! I HATE having things downloaded to my computer without my permission so try to run as tight a ship as possible, how can I stop this 'you WILL have this whether you like it or not' attitude?

Some of the recent apps forced on me are:
Chat on, Trip Advisor, talk, story album, I could go on, play music (WHEN THERE IS ALREADY AN APP CALLED 'MUSIC' THAT DOES THE SAME THING), chrome, there are others.

So what is the answer you android guru's?

repeat apology for long post.

Many thanks

Dave Shelp

Welcome.
This might help: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...ng-apps-galaxy-s3-tab-2-no-root-required.html
Also you may have got an app that downloads crap for you.
Get Airpush opt out from Play.

Sent from a 4.3 Slim S3 using the AC forums app