I may just be skeptical but for months now I've been seeing this device appear in my WIFI list and it seems like each time it does my dad's phone battery drains rapidly. We live way out in country and there's about 3 other homes near us but I believe only 1 is close enough for their devices to show up in the WIFI list also. I see this device appear from within my WIFI list on my Linux PC. This "mysterious device" has same latency as my dad's phone. The only other devices we have in our home are 2 Samsung TVs so our devices in total are: 1 Linux PC, 1 Samsung Galaxy A14 5G phone, and 2 Samsung TVs. The "mysterious device" SSID comes up as "BH-6t974mwc". I honestly feel like we've had a hacker/peeping Tom (or whatever they're doing) for 3-5 years now. We have no money to pay for a IT professional/forensic/etc. as we live month to month. I wouldn't even know where to find one even if we did. Yes, we have factory reset the phone of course. There were times where I was factory resetting my dad's phone 2 or 3 times EVERY DAY! It's ridiculous. I don't know what to do. I've just about given up. I've begged my dad to switc ht one of the old style flip phones but he's old and set in his ways. Any help at all is deeply appreciated. Thanks
Phone battery drains when unknown device appears on WIFI
- Thread starter davidjuniorsaylor
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- Jan 8, 2011
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Welcome to Android Central. That sounds like the name of your SSID.
this is taken from my Linux PC
hugh854865 is our ISP modem
Galaxy A14 5G 8408 is my dad's phone
MofiNetwork-CDD8 i believe is my neighbors
- Jan 8, 2011
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That's someone else's network. It's going to show up when your device scans for networks. However, that doesn't mean your devices are on their network. Their network is secured anyway, so you can't connect to their network without their password.
Take a look at my screenshot. My network is Archer. I'm not connected to any of the other available networks. Those are belonging to neighbours, and I don't have their passwords, nor do they have mine.
- Mar 9, 2012
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Welcome to Android Central! If you have your wi-fi network secured with a good password, it would be very unlikely for anyone else to be able to eavesdrop on your network.
There are many reasons why a phone's battery might drain, and being "hacked" is pretty low on the list. One of the most common reasons is poor cell signal, because that makes the phone's cell radio work harder to latch onto signal, and this increased work leads to increased battery usage. This will happen even if the phone is connected to wi-fi (but it can be remedied by turning off the cell radio by turning on Airplane Mode). You mentioned that you live way out in the country, so there's more chance that this is a problem. The next time your father notices quick battery drain, take a look at the Settings>Battery menu to see what app or system service is using the most battery. If it's Cell Standby, then that's your most likely culprit.
Being "hacked" is pretty rare, as long as you follow common sense guidelines. Review the following, and make sure your father is aware of them:
“I’ve been hacked” - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com
[GUIDE] How To Avoid Malware - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com
There are many reasons why a phone's battery might drain, and being "hacked" is pretty low on the list. One of the most common reasons is poor cell signal, because that makes the phone's cell radio work harder to latch onto signal, and this increased work leads to increased battery usage. This will happen even if the phone is connected to wi-fi (but it can be remedied by turning off the cell radio by turning on Airplane Mode). You mentioned that you live way out in the country, so there's more chance that this is a problem. The next time your father notices quick battery drain, take a look at the Settings>Battery menu to see what app or system service is using the most battery. If it's Cell Standby, then that's your most likely culprit.
Being "hacked" is pretty rare, as long as you follow common sense guidelines. Review the following, and make sure your father is aware of them:
“I’ve been hacked” - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com
[GUIDE] How To Avoid Malware - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com
my Google account was compromised last week so being "hacked" may be rare but it does happen.. I called Google support over it and the man told me there was nothing he could do but to let things play out. Then the next day I was able to recover my google account. I just unplugged both of my TVs and the "mystery device" I mentioned may very well be one of the TVs. But as far as my dad's phone draining, it's not due to poor signal. He rarely ever has to plug his phone in but when this battery drain occurs, it literally drains his phone from 100% to 0% in like an hour or 2. I think it's pretty ridiculous that we're unable to access the root of our own phone to clean it out. I'm fairly certain that whatever malicious app he has on his phone is in the root of it. Also, whenever I go into Settings > Update and I click the Update button, it always gives an error saying something like "Update Interrupted" and this is literally the most important update on his phone
- Mar 9, 2012
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Sorry to hear about your Google account being compromised. Were you using 2-factor authentication? If not, then make sure you have it on now, and choose some other 2-factor method other than SMS, since that's the least secure way of getting a 2nd factor.
For your father's phone, it would still be useful to look at the battery usage menu when the phone is draining quickly to see what's responsible. Accessing the root of the phone wouldn't necessarily be beneficial if you're not sure what you're looking for (and could potentially open the phone up to more issues, e.g. if crucial system apps get deleted by accident). Do you know if your father tends to do things on his phone that might make it susceptible to malware (like things that were discussed in the previously shared guides)?
It might be worth doing a factory reset of the phone, and then setting it up as a new phone (rather than restoring a backup).
For your father's phone, it would still be useful to look at the battery usage menu when the phone is draining quickly to see what's responsible. Accessing the root of the phone wouldn't necessarily be beneficial if you're not sure what you're looking for (and could potentially open the phone up to more issues, e.g. if crucial system apps get deleted by accident). Do you know if your father tends to do things on his phone that might make it susceptible to malware (like things that were discussed in the previously shared guides)?
It might be worth doing a factory reset of the phone, and then setting it up as a new phone (rather than restoring a backup).
I didn't have 2-factor authentication when I had my account compromised but now I don't have a phone for myself at all. I destroyed it out of frustration with this all going on. I will never own another smartphone again for myself. And yep, I do look at my dad's battery usage when this happens and nothing apparent shows up in the list. The only thing he ever does on his phone is look at Facebook or play spider solitaire games that he gets off of the Google Playstore. When I factory reset his phone, I've never seen an option to set it up as a new phone or maybe I do and don't know which screen you're referring to? I know there's one screen that mentions copying data from another phone but I always skip that screen but other than that I always just go through the standard setup and log him into his Google account.
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When you look at the battery usage, make sure to select the option to show the system usage as well. The default for most devices is to show apps only. Also, does your father's phone feel pretty warm when it's draining?
It sounds like you're doing the right thing after the factory reset, but when the homescreen shows up, go to the Play Store and make sure no apps are automatically installing.
It sounds like you're doing the right thing after the factory reset, but when the homescreen shows up, go to the Play Store and make sure no apps are automatically installing.
I never really noticed if his phone was warm or not so maybe not? I know about the automatically installing thing. I've probably got world record on most factory resets on an Android phone ever lol. I go through the setup as fast as possible and turn the Mobile Data off immediately afterwards. Then there's 2 apps (that I know of anyway) that install garbage on your phone. One of them is called "Mobile Services" and the other one is called "Android Setup". Mobile services will install every app on the Google Playstore if you don't stop it asap. Android Setup installs a bunch of Google apps on your phone that may or may not want. I always disable them both.
- Mar 9, 2012
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Yeah, those kinds of bloatware apps are typically preinstalled by the carrier that the phone came from. I think all the major carriers do it (at least Verizon and T-Mobile -- not sure about AT&T, but I would guess they do). It's one of the reasons I only buy unlocked carrier-agnostic phones (i.e., Pixel phones directly from Google or Best Buy).
I know you said the problem is not due to poor cell signal, but it still may be worth testing the phone in Airplane Mode just to see if it still drains. You can keep wi-fi on while in Airplane Mode.
Another thing to try is to boot your father's phone into Safe Mode while at your house, and see if the drain still happens. If it doesn't, that would suggest some 3rd party app causing the problem. It can be tedious to narrow it down further, though -- sometimes you have to uninstall apps one by one.
Finally, erratic battery behavior could be a sign that the battery is deteriorating. Use an app like AccuBattery to measure the battery health. Anything under 85% is considered a fairly degraded battery, which can lead to faster drain, slower charging, and difficulty holding a charge.
I know you said the problem is not due to poor cell signal, but it still may be worth testing the phone in Airplane Mode just to see if it still drains. You can keep wi-fi on while in Airplane Mode.
Another thing to try is to boot your father's phone into Safe Mode while at your house, and see if the drain still happens. If it doesn't, that would suggest some 3rd party app causing the problem. It can be tedious to narrow it down further, though -- sometimes you have to uninstall apps one by one.
Finally, erratic battery behavior could be a sign that the battery is deteriorating. Use an app like AccuBattery to measure the battery health. Anything under 85% is considered a fairly degraded battery, which can lead to faster drain, slower charging, and difficulty holding a charge.
nope I was wrong.. the "mysterious device" is not one of my TVs.. what kind of person are you even supposed to call when you have a "hacker" problem?
i just call it a "hacker" because its the closest term.. i think of it as someone invading our devices illegally and doing whatever they want to do.. I'm legit about to send an email to my local police to ask what I'm capable of doing about it
- Mar 9, 2012
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Ok, it's still worth changing the wi-fi password (or if you don't use a password for wi-fi security, make sure to create one). If this really is someone latching onto your wi-fi network and they somehow knew your password, then changing the password (to something that's not easy to guess) should prevent them from doing so. You might also end up discovering that this mysterious device is actually something you use in the house, if you go to use it and find you have to log back into the network (like a media streaming box or something similar).
- Jan 8, 2011
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