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Help Problems with virus

cesarsruiz

Lurker
Nov 13, 2017
7
0
Hello folks:

My wife's Samsung A32 has been acting weird lately after she downloaded lots of emoji and gif apps. We think the phone got infected with some sort of virus but we're not sure of it. She hard reset the phone and the weird behavior persists. What's the weird behavior? Sometimes it's impossible to unlock it by touching the screen, it's like TouchPad not responding, some other times, touching options on any screen won't do anything. We don't think the problem is the TouchPad hardware but a software issue (most likely a virus infection we can't get rid of). Any advice or help will be nice.
 
Hello folks:

My wife's Samsung A32 has been acting weird lately after she downloaded lots of emoji and gif apps. We think the phone got infected with some sort of virus but we're not sure of it. She hard reset the phone and the weird behavior persists. What's the weird behavior? Sometimes it's impossible to unlock it by touching the screen, it's like TouchPad not responding, some other times, touching options on any screen won't do anything. We don't think the problem is the TouchPad hardware but a software issue (most likely a virus infection we can't get rid of). Any advice or help will be nice.
so there are no known viruses on android. there is malicious malware and adware. any malware installed on an android phone usually will get deleted after a factory reset. malware can be re-introduced if it came from an app. when that app gets re-downloaded and installed, the malware could be re-installed as well.

you can put the phone in safe mode and see if the problem persistes:
https://www.hardreset.info/devices/samsung/samsung-galaxy-a32-5g/safe-mode/

safe mode prevents any 3rd party apps from running. if it goes away, then you know that it came from a downloaded app. if it is a downloaded app, then you will need to start to uninstall the app. but first before doing so, you will need to wipe cache and data for the app. then you can uninstall it. by not doing this, sometimes the cache and data will remain when the app is uninstalled.

the only way i see if the phone has been compromised even after a factory reset, is if the phone is rooted. if that is the case malware could be installed onto the system partitions in which doing a factory reset will not touch. but rooting is not simple and needs a computer with certain programs to do this.......so i highly doubt this is the case for you.

why do u not think it is a hardware issue? this is what it sounds like to me. i do not know of anything that would only affect your screen......at least nothing malicious.
 
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so there are no known viruses on android. there is malicious malware and adware. any malware installed on an android phone usually will get deleted after a factory reset. malware can be re-introduced if it came from an app. when that app gets re-downloaded and installed, the malware could be re-installed as well.

you can put the phone in safe mode and see if the problem persistes:
https://www.hardreset.info/devices/samsung/samsung-galaxy-a32-5g/safe-mode/

safe mode prevents any 3rd party apps from running. if it goes away, then you know that it came from a downloaded app. if it is a downloaded app, then you will need to start to uninstall the app. but first before doing so, you will need to wipe cache and data for the app. then you can uninstall it. by not doing this, sometimes the cache and data will remain when the app is uninstalled.

the only way i see if the phone has been compromised even after a factory reset, is if the phone is rooted. if that is the case malware could be installed onto the system partitions in which doing a factory reset will not touch. but rooting is not simple and needs a computer with certain programs to do this.......so i highly doubt this is the case for you.

why do u not think it is a hardware issue? this is what it sounds like to me. i do not know of anything that would only affect your screen......at least nothing malicious.
The reason I think it's not hardware related is b/c the phone is kind of new, no physical damages.
 
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The reason I think it's not hardware related is b/c the phone is kind of new, no physical damages.
doesn't matter. its not uncommon for hardware issues to occur on new phones. my screen on my z fold 3 starting acting up only 2 months in. i was able to get samsung to do a warranty repair.....so i do not think you should rule out hardware issues. i would at least take it in and have it looked at.
 
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Have you tried just restarting her phone? A simple reboot can solve a lot of one-off, random glitches.

Where did your wife install those apps and things from? Assuming from Google's Play Store but if not please list from where? Some sites like apkmirror and apkpure are arguably as reliable as the Play Store, with the caveat being there is no such thing as a 100% secure source for APKs and app installers.

Since the problem began after installing those apps. Remove one at a time to see which one is the source of the problem. (As you remove each app, use the phone for a bit to see if it returns to a stable state again.) When removing them, tap on 'Force stop', find and tap on 'Clear data', and then tap on 'Uninstall'. By using Clear data, this clears all the user data and config settings data for the app. Using just Uninstall will remove the app's code (the app itself) automatically, but with a lot of apps you need to use Clear data to manually wipe everything related to the app.

Odds are you're not dealing with an actual 'virus', always give the tech media a lot of skepticism as far its dependence on constant fear-mongering. Yes there are a number of real vulnerabilities with Android devices but it's not productive to always claim a 'virus' is the source of every problem that occurs. Diagnose the issue and focus on that instead. While her phone 'might' be compromised in some way, there's no real evidence of that so eliminate the actual possibilities first, then worry about if there is something more insidious.
 
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