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Virus on Phone

Ashleajade

Lurker
Jan 31, 2020
1
0
Hey sorry if this has been posted before but I downloaded something today and it's put a virus on my phone.
I've downloaded antivirus apps but they're not picking it up.
It comes up as com.angry.venus and it keeps causing pop ups to flash up randomly on my phone.
There is also a permanent notification icon showing and it's all blank.
I'm so bad with tech anything. Just wondering if someone can help?
 
Easiest and by far the safest thing is to do a factory reset. This will remove anything downloaded and installed (Apps and data - you might want to back up any photos/videos/etc to your Google drive or removable SD card first), as this will effectively return the phone to 'as new' - at least as far as Android and the default app are concerned
 
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I have never used an antivirus app on my phone. nor do i see a need for one. as long as you use common sense when using the phone, you should be fine. now getting malware or adware is a bit more tricky and the same common sense should apply.

common sense on smartphones are basically:
1. do not do banking or other personal finance using public wifi.
2. be careful on what you download as far as apps goes. pay attention after you download an app. if you start to see popups and adds everywhere. then delete the most current app and work your way backwards until the issue is resolved. safe mode is a useful tool to think about as well.
3. be careful on the sites you visit. some websites are notorious for adware and malware.
 
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I have never used an antivirus app on my phone. nor do i see a need for one. as long as you use common sense
I've never used them either. On anything.

I'm convinced that these unnecessary, useless, sometimes harmful apps' developers are depending on windows users to buy their products. :rolleyes:

As a long-time, Linux-only person, I'm not in the 'OMG! The sky is falling! I must have anti-virus protection!' mindset so common in windows people. Get over it folks!

You're using Linux now. :D

You need to lose the micro$oft mentality--at least while you're using your phone. If you haven't switched to Linux yet on your computers, you have no idea what computing can--and should--be like. Take a look at my favorite distro, Kubuntu Linux for a glimpse of what you're missing.

Follow @ocnbrze's excellent advice for your Android devices, and you should be fine. And don't fall for garbage 'features' that apps claim to have, like 'sweeping' or 'cleaning' or 'defragging' your device. There's nothing those apps can do that you can't do yourself using Android's built-in tools...
 
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I've never used them either. On anything.

I'm convinced that these unnecessary, useless, sometimes harmful apps' developers are depending on windows users to buy their products. :rolleyes:

As a long-time, Linux-only person, I'm not in the 'OMG! The sky is falling! I must have anti-virus protection!' mindset so common in windows people. Get over it folks!

You're using Linux now. :D

You need to lose the micro$oft mentality--at least while you're using your phone. If you haven't switched to Linux yet on your computers, you have no idea what computing can--and should--be like. Take a look at my favorite distro, Kubuntu Linux for a glimpse of what you're missing.

Follow @ocnbrze's excellent advice for your Android devices, and you should be fine. And don't fall for garbage 'features' that apps claim to have, like 'sweeping' or 'cleaning' or 'defragging' your device. There's nothing those apps can do that you can't do yourself using Android's built-in tools...

All very true, but to add to that last part- since 8.0 there is no longer a system cache cleaner, and Android has made it even more difficult for apps to access the caches of other apps- and impossible to reach the caches of system apps (as far as I know).

So, there are two 'cleaner' apps that do that job for me, rather than my having to go through and do it manually one app at a time.

Android System Cleaner is my favorite, for multiple reasons, and then there is LTE Cleaner.

LTE is the most honest cleaner available, and in the app description it tells the user exactly what a cleaner app can and cannot do.
 
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I have never used an antivirus app on my phone. nor do i see a need for one. as long as you use common sense when using the phone, you should be fine. now getting malware or adware is a bit more tricky and the same common sense should apply.

common sense on smartphones are basically:
1. do not do banking or other personal finance using public wifi.
2. be careful on what you download as far as apps goes. pay attention after you download an app. if you start to see popups and adds everywhere. then delete the most current app and work your way backwards until the issue is resolved. safe mode is a useful tool to think about as well.
3. be careful on the sites you visit. some websites are notorious for adware and malware.

edit:
4 forgot to mention on checking permissions when purchasing or downloading apps
 
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AVG free is what im using. And so far it kept me clean.
I used Malware bytes, but when I do a deep scan it hangs/stalls up on one app for 10+min which I know its safe and not because of something viral as its a built system in app from AT&T. AVG doesnt do that.
Also, I used a different antivirus Avira and Kaspersky software as a second opinion and they also say I'm clean.

How many of those apps do you need to tell you that your device is clean (as they likely all will, all of the time) before you decide to ditch them and use the memory for something fun or productive?

https://www.komando.com/security-privacy/shocking-research-most-antivirus-programs-dont-work/554526/

Sophos offers a free one, and they are one of the few that caught 100% of malware ran by it.

And guess what?

It's not on my devices.
Not anymore, anyway.

Those things run all the time, eating up battery and memory, and selling all your info.

Don't you find it odd that all those scareware and malware warning ads on the internet always redirect you to one of those stupid 'cleaner' or 'anti-virus' apps on Google Play Store?
You know the ads I'm talking about...

YOUR DEVICE IS 28.4% INFECTED WITH VIRUSES AND WILL BE LOCKED IN ONE DAY IF YOU DON'T ACT NOW!

Your browser won't back out of it, not unless you scrap the whole tab and lose everything you were doing.

The uninitiated tap OK, and find a worthless app with tons of fake reviews saying "Thanx! You guys are great!" and all their names are 'A Google User'.

They download the app, and guess what?
No virus!
So they either think that the app cleaned them out, or that they need to try another of the hundreds of these scam apps- once they get another 'warning' claiming there is a virus on the device again.
 
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I have stopped using any type of cleaner on my phone, for a while now, and I can tell it is major improvement too.

Some of us are still using memory strapped devices and we run them right on the edge most of the time.

I really wish that there was a setting to prevent cache building for apps.

After a week I have around 1 GB of worthless crap stored.

I have only 2.5 GB free memory, and notice a definite improvement when I dump the cache.

Not to mention the app stores that I use that don't delete the apks that I download, even if I have them set to do so.

I update once a week, and there can be many apps to download, and there is no use in tons of apks just sitting there taking up space.

If I use the phone's built in cache cleaner, then all the sites I have logged into are logged out.

This does not happen when I use Android System Cleaner.
 
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I really wish that there was a setting to prevent cache building for apps.
Some apps let you limit how much space they can use; check your biggest offenders to see if there's anything in their settings for that.
If I use the phone's built in cache cleaner, then all the sites I have logged into are logged out.
That's only supposed to happen when you delete an app's data, not cache.

You can also look in System Settings, under 'App permissions | Storage,' to control apps' storage ability; it should look something like mine:

Screenshot_20200305-204354.png


You could also try using Tasker to schedule/automate deleting unnecessary files.
 
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Some apps let you limit how much space they can use; check your biggest offenders to see if there's anything in their settings for that.

That's only supposed to happen when you delete an app's data, not cache.

You can also look in System Settings, under 'App permissions | Storage,' to control apps' storage ability; it should look something like mine:

View attachment 148433

You could also try using Tasker to schedule/automate deleting unnecessary files.

The largest offenders are the blasted Google apps- Play Services, Play Store, and other assorted apps I can't eliminate without root.

The only apps that have storage access are those that need it.

I have never messed with Tasker, I think I have tried similar that didn't do what I wanted.

One eeason that I get logged out when cleaning the cache may be that I do not use specific apps for specific sites.

I use Web Apps, or Web Media Share.

I also notice that NewPipe accumulates tons of useless junk just like Youtube does.

Sure, on NewPipe you can turn it off, but you won't get any thumbnails or suggestions.

It would be ideal if you could use the app, have it load up whatever to make it nice, then delete all the crap when the app is closed.

I did have a browser once, called BeHe Explorer, that had a setting to turn the cache off.
This was great, but the browser was not the best.
Not bad, but not so secure.

I never noticed it being any slower with or without the cache activated, the only difference being that the app didn't fill up like a tick feeding on my arm.

Another issue is the small memory of my devices.
I try to keep them at 70% of capacity, but generally succeed in keeping them at 75-80%.

I notice that the problem apps grow even more quickly and even larger if there is any extra space available.

If I run at almost full capacity they grow less, but device performance suffers.

I will look at tasker, but I think that I just need to get a device with huge memory, and then I can complain and moan when Play Services is 2GB.

It just seems that these apps will grow and grow continuously, with no benefit for the user.
 
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It would be ideal if you could use the app, have it load up whatever to make it nice, then delete all the crap when the app is closed.
Some of my apps do that, or some variation thereof; here's F-Stop Pro:

Screenshot_20200307-112659.png


Screenshot_20200307-112652.png


As for Google and its space-hogging apps, be sure you've limited them as much as possible in their settings and System Settings. But beware! :eek: You'll have to deal with ominous alerts, like this one from attempting to disallow storage for Google Play Services:

Screenshot_20200307-113135.png
 
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Really, Google would be better named Poogle.

And they could have a Poogle only proprietary OS that wouldn't allow 3rd party apps at all- called Nagdroid.

Anyway, I see that the app above allows you to clear the cache.

But if each app does this separately, then it is still less efficient that doing all apps at once with a cleaner app like LTE or Android System Cleaner.

I do have an old cleaner that doesn't work on modern OS, called Cache Cleaner (F-Droid), but what it does do is allow me to see and access each app cache individually, and it orders them by size.

But, the app is completely non functional in 8.0 + OS.
 
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Anyway, I see that the app above allows you to clear the cache.

But if each app does this separately, then it is still less efficient that doing all apps at once with a cleaner app like LTE or Android System Cleaner.
Did you notice the part where you can limit how much space it uses, thereby making it unnecessary to manually clear its cache? :)

Its option to clear cache is generally not needed, as it obeys the limit it's given. That's more for a one-off thing if you want to clear its [user-limited] cache for some reason.
 
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Did you notice the part where you can limit how much space it uses, thereby making it unnecessary to manually clear its cache? :)

Its option to clear cache is generally not needed, as it obeys the limit it's given. That's more for a one-off thing if you want to clear its [user-limited] cache for some reason.

Yes.
But all of those cache limits seem large to me.

I don't even have apps that size.

For what its worth, I see no purpose in any cache at all.

When I delete it all, my device runs great.

When my device starts moving slow and stumbling, 99% of the time it is due to a gigantic pile of steaming cache.

Small memory devices should have the ability to just not allow apps to build caches at all.

Yes, I know that the info is supposedly making the app faster and that it will just reload when I open the app again.

Frankly, I am fine with that.
But there is no need for it to just sit there and grow and grow and grow, as it winds up just slowing the device down to a crawl and then a stop eventually.

My ol'lady has an identical device.
She likes to take pictures.
She downloaded some crAPP that was supposed to do something with her photos that she thought sounded cool.

So after a week or so, she is bitching about her phone, and me for 'doing sonething to it'.

Mind you, this is a device that has 16GB internal memory, about 6¼GB is used by the system.

Her phone was non-functional.
As in non-responsive.

I actually had to go into the developers options and turn all the animation off completely.

Then I could navigate, albeit very slowly.

So, it turns out that her memory is completely full.

She has a 32GB SD card, with about ⅓ space remaining, but the phone clogged.

The phone is set to put pictures and videos onto the SD card.

I checked the file manager, and nothing seemed to be amiss- no giant files, no folders with large amounts of files, but 0 memory available.

The device crashed a couple of times, just trying to find what the heck was causing this.

Luckily, I had already installed Android System Cleaner on her device, so I closed all open apps and ran it.

There is a duplicate finder feature, and I used it.

It turns out that this turd of an app she got has been storing a copy of every single video and photo on the device- but in its own cache files in the device's internal memory.

So there was a copy of every single thing on the SD card on the device as well.

So luckily, the duplicate finder feature tells you the location of the files that it finds, and I used this info to delete the offending garbage.

As far as I am concerned, that picture app should be classified as malware.

If it wasn't for that cleaner finding those files within minutes, I would need to have located and sorted through 6GB of digipoop by hand.

Part of the problem is that she plays endless amounts of those stupid 'candy' games, where you match items and solve puzzles.

Many of these games have hundreds of texture and layout files that are stored on the internal memory.
Whatever that app was, made copies of all those as well.

As just one of these games has around 800 of these files, you can only imagine what it was like having 800 more put onto the device, and then another copy onto the SD card.

She has like 6-8 of these games, and does not delete the files when she moves on to other games.

Just because I mentioned it here, the next time I get a hold of her phone, I will screenshot her apps list from the Play Store.

I still get it and clean it out every once in a while, and update the apps she needs updated, so I will screenshot it (or part of it) then shoot the pics over to my device and send them in a message.
 
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