Stopping google from downloading promos/trailers

[startac4]

google has started downloading promos/trailers for TV shows which play on my phone - sometimes even if I don't press the play button. I expect this is using up phone data usage (when I don't have wi-fi available) and battery. This just started happening today. How do I stop google from doing yet another thing on its own that I do not want.

 

[ocnbrze]

What????

Never heard nor seen this issue. What app is this happening? YouTube? Play Movies (now called Google TV)? Chrome browser?

 

[Hadron]

Yes, ^this is the key question: what app are you talking about?

I can think of media streaming apps where a trailer will play when you start the show (though not before) and where you have to skip it, but I've not heard of one which play trailers before you start watching anything. So which app is doing this is what we'll need to know.

 

[startac4]

It just shows up when I go to Play Store to see if there are any update availability notifications for the programs I have installed. It says "HBO Max Streaming - Don't miss the new series". For you and Apps are highlighted on the screen. I don't have nor use HBO - it's apparently trying to get me to install/subscribe to that. I don't want it downloading these trailers and I don't want it wasting the battery playing them every time I go to Play Store.

How do I stop this and how do I delete what is already there?

 

[dontpanicbobby]

It sounds like adware. What's the last app you installed? I'm guessing you didn't start seeing these until you downloaded and installed something else. When you first got your phone did it do that?

 

[startac4]

I have not installed anything new in a long time. I did have updates that were recently installed. As best I recall T-Mobile and/or T-Mobile Scam Shield were the most recently ones updated. G-Mail may have been updated a short while before them.

 

[Hadron]

Never heard of or seen anything like this from the Play Store app. Of course it's possible this is a regional thing. It's also true that updates to apps (including the Play Store itself) can change behaviour.

However if you look in the Play Store's settings one of the options is "Auto-play videos", which you can set to "don't". Give that a go and see whether it does the job (and also check the other settings while you are there, as there may be other things you want to turn on or off).

 

[startac4]

Thanks Hadron. I set Don't Autoplay and also unregistered app pre-registration and upcoming events. One, or all, of those seemed to have worked. The promo/trailer is gone.

 

[startac4]

I see new promo trailers are here on the phone, though they are not playing. It looks like the culprit is T-Mobile. When there is a T-mobile update available I expect its is to fix some bug. But now I looked at the list of installed programs and it shows that the latest installed T-mobile update "contains ads". That must be where these promos come from.
I would un-install the T-mobile program but I don't know what will stop working if I do that. Question: Are these promo ads, though not playing, using up bandwith just to show that the ads are available for playing? Yesterday I got a warning from T-mobile that I used up my high-speed data limit in less than eight days! I don't see how that is possible - any program update I download is done with wi-fi enabled. I also have the setting to do updates only through wi-fi. So how this is high-speed allocation getting used up? Hence my question as to whether these ads, though not playing, are using up bandwith just displaying them, when I have w-fi is disabled (when I'm not home it's disabled so as not waste battery searching for my wi-fi).

Addendum: I just looked at data usage on the phone and it shows Google Play Services using 21 MB over the past eight days! So google is eating up my high-speed data allocation. So it's either doing things in the background and/or the ads are using bandwith. Either way it must be happening when w-fi is off.

 

[Xavier Black]

Nothing will brake if you get rid of the TMobile app..
Also In settings..then application manager..then Google Play Services..then data usage..there's an unchecked box all the way down..go ahead and check that box..will prevent that app from doing its fishy/bogus thing behind your back..

Let us know if that works.

 

[Xavier Black]

..but you have to do the same with the Google Play Store as well..

 

[startac4]

Thank you Xavier - but I don't see any box to check there, neither in Google Play Services nor in Google Play Store. There is a Background data button in each which are already set to off.

 

[Xavier Black]

Ok that back ground thing..maybe you are gathering wrong..by default comes on..

 

[startac4]

I am fed up with google play store continually downloading promos and ads to my phone. I've turned off anything I could think of that would facilitate google downloading this junk to my phone: Mobile Data = Off, Auto-Play = Off. While the ads don't play videos any more, they are still downloaded junk on my phone. Some of the images are "active" (continuously flashing). I'm ready to disable google play store but I don't know whether there is something in Android that will go haywire (more than it already is) if I disable play store. I realize I would have to periodically enable it to see if there are any updates to two or three programs that I need kept up-to-date. My question is whether it is safe to disable this awful, intrusive google play store application?

 

[Xavier Black]

I've already tried getting rid if that awful "app"(if iyou can call it an app..I'd rather call it a malware)..and what it does the phone becomes unstable..your contacts will disappear, most apps won't run..this bițches have us by our balls..literally..it's a disgrace the way we are obligated to use their bogus services...and every one seems to be fine with that..

 

[startac4]

Thanks Xavier for your "facts of life" post. Maybe next time I'll invest in an iphone instead of Android.

 

[ocnbrze]

Thanks Xavier for your "facts of life" post. Maybe next time I'll invest in an iphone instead of Android.

what? why? i do not have any issue with my play store. plus talk about invasive......apple not invasive? please

just get a phone like the pixel where you can root it. then you can get Lineage Os. its pretty much pure android and you can opt out of installing the gapps(google apps).

 

[Xavier Black]

Brother, iphone isn't definitely the solution..not in the next five hundred years..that's a fact..the only flaw our Android has it's those two pesky apps..but there's always a way around everything..the way I handled it was downgrading the version of those two stupid apps..Google ps & Google ps.

But I didn't just dg them..I ported & pushed them into the priv-app folder(@MrJavi idea)..now they still work but passive..I cut their stamina and wildness..now they are domesticated..well I'm speaking from my phone..not for everyone else's phone..

Also on top of that you cut the internet for Google ps with an internet guard.

 

[MrJavi]

Brother, iphone isn't definitely the solution..not in the next five hundred years..that's a fact..the only flaw our Android has it's those two pesky apps..but there's always a way around everything..the way I handled it was downgrading the version of those two stupid apps..Google ps & Google ps.

But I didn't just dg them..I ported & pushed them into the priv-app folder(@MrJavi idea)..now they still work but passive..I cut their stamina and wildness..now they are domesticated..well I'm speaking from my phone..not for everyone else's phone..

Also on top of that you cut the internet for Google ps with an internet guard.


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Truth be told , you've taught me quite a lot valuable information in return my friend.