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Help Unknown icon that blocks my phone (Peel Smart Remote Icon)

Heikki

Lurker
Feb 7, 2016
2
2
Hi guys! I'm Ben, I'm new here. Nice meeting you all.

I've got an issue with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini) and thought some of you might be able to help me - yesterday, a new icon popped up on my phone - on the attached picture, it's in the bottom-right corner. I can move it around but can't get rid of it, and whenever I tap on it, it just freezes my phone - whatever I subsequently tap doesn't work - and I have to remove the battery to start my phone again. It's obviously very annoying as this thing doesn't seem to be of any other use than blocking my phone.

Any advice on how to get rid of it? The task manager doesn't even seem to recognise it.

Thanks!
 

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Yes, @girolez is right, there have been a number of posts recently, about this icon and the app seems to be 'Peel Smart Remote'. One solution apparently is to open then close the app which removes the icon.

Quote from @Jova85 :-
"I figured out where the icon came from. It was from the app 'Peel Smart Remote'. As soon as I clicked on the app, the icon went away.

If you get a similar issue, open up the app 'Peel Smart Remote' and then close it.

Hope that helps!"


I do have the app on my HTC M9 but have never used it and have always had it disabled as girolez suggested.

;)
 
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This caught my eye because it started happening to my daughter 2 days ago. I took a guess that it was "Peel Smart Remote" and told her to disable it. In her case clicking on the icon blocked the screen as @Heikki describes, so using the System menu to kill it was the only answer.

The funny thing is that she's sure she hadn't had an update to the app (and had never used it), so it's not clear why it should suddenly start doing this.
 
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Odd... I was just about to post asking about the identical issue. Started happening randomly two days ago on my Galaxy Note 4. Solved in exactly the same way, by clicking the icon on the apps screen. I tried to uninstall because I have no use for this app but the only option available is "Uninstall Updates" ... I have autoupdate set to on so possibly it is only after some recent update that this has started to happen ? I can disable the app but apparently it is built-in so I get a warning that it may cause problems for other apps if I do that. Can't see why but who knows ? Will post if I have problems.
 
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Odd... I was just about to post asking about the identical issue. Started happening randomly two days ago on my Galaxy Note 4. Solved in exactly the same way, by clicking the icon on the apps screen. I tried to uninstall because I have no use for this app but the only option available is "Uninstall Updates" ... I have autoupdate set to on so possibly it is only after some recent update that this has started to happen ? I can disable the app but apparently it is built-in so I get a warning that it may cause problems for other apps if I do that. Can't see why but who knows ? Will post if I have problems.

Hi, you shouldn't get any problems. I think that is a standard warning when disabling an app but as far as I know Peel Smart Remote is a free standing app.

I disabled the app shortly after getting my M9 in May last year with no obvious consequences.
 
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Hi, everyone. This glitch just happened to my HTC M8 and the battery is built in. A friend of mine discovered a way to get pass it: when waking up the display with upper button, you have like 0.1 second to tap something. He opened camera app and the grey layer was gone.
Alternatively, you can press and hold the power button ( usually for around 10 seconds) to simulate a battery pull
 
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I've been noticing this issue more and more on the Galaxy S6 and above (I work ATS for one of the US carriers and we have been getting more and more calls on this issue) so I'm assuming it's a preinstalled app that comes with certain versions of the phone. This seems to be the case with my company's phones at least since the App Managers on our devices only permit us to disable the app and not uninstall it.
 
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Yes, it's a pre-installed app on many devices, and a non-root user can't uninstall those. It's been causing problems on a range of devices in the last week. Not sure why, as no updates to it seem to have been released in that time (it was on 2 of my devices, neither has received notification of an update). Also not sure why it is doing this on some devices and not others - doesn't seem to be specific to a manufacturer or model.
 
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Just to add to this, I had the same issue although I'm sure it was the result of an update that caused it. I had been considering setting the app up anyway but never got round to it. Didn't like the way the update assumed I wanted that shortcut overlaying stuff on my home screen, and that's how it will be until I get round to sorting it out, so just disabled it for now.
 
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Was it pre-installed? As said earlier, if it was installed as a system app by the manufacturer you won't be able to uninstall it without root (and maybe more than that with some manufacturers). But uninstalling updates, clearing data and disabling is effectively the same as uninstalling, since it's then inactive and taking no space (since pre-installed apps live in a different storage partition from your own apps, removing them from there won't give you any more space back)
 
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Had same prob with Peel. In settings, app manager, would not allow me to disable app. Forcestop only temporary until after next charge. I clicked yes to opt replace with factory version. Peel remote was uninstalled & replaced with TV Peel remote app. Then able to permanently turn off by force stop. Also went into Google & Samsung to deselect auto app updates. Now am notified if an app update is available for me to manually update.
 
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