Help A Plague of Terror-Inducing, Ear Piercing Beeps - Help Me Please

[Nathaniel Torbett]

Hello.

I've done some extensive searching online to identify what the cause of my problem could be and despite plenty of articles with others experiencing the same issue, there are no solutions offered. I'm hoping someone here can help.

The problem: My android device suddenly, inexplicably and randomly begins beeping with an incredibly loud and ear-piercing tone that can best be described as a smoke detector test. Sometimes it's one beep, sometimes a few and sometimes it's a minute long terror of embarrassment. This started on my LG K7. After tiring of the issue which I had chalked up to some kind of a short-circuit on the phone I went out and bought a new Samsung S7. Ok, maybe I wanted a new phone too. But after updating all the apps and software on the S7 and using it for a few days, that mother-loving beep started again. So, it's not a device specific issue but both phones are android so could be a platform or OS version issue?

What do I see on the phone? Absolutely nothing. There are no notification icons and there is otherwise no indication that anything is going on.

What am I doing when this happens? I haven't been able to discern any patterns of my behavior inducing the beeps. Browsing the internet, sending text messages, navigating the road using google maps, listening to a book on Audible.

What have I tried? Well, for starters I disabled NFC. Plenty of threads about this and while the noise for an NFC notification pales in comparison to what my phone is producing I figured better safe than sorry. Also, I'm certain this is not an amber or emergency alert because they give off a more choral tone than what I'm experiencing. I contacted T-Mobile customer service for guidance as well. After the obligatory NFC conversation they recommended disabling Lookout, a bundled anti-virus and security app which they claimed has the ability to create such a noise as a location feature via web access. I was pretty excited about this solution because I had recently re-enabled Lookout on the K7 before the beeps started and it came enabled on the new phone. So, we blocked the app's ability to send notifications and then disabled the app all together. Surely this is it! Nope. The beeps started again today after a few days of peace.

Dear God. Please. Help.

 

[Unforgiven]

I would remove / disable each app you have installed, one at a time, until it stops. That way you can isolate which app is causing it.

How frequently does it happen?

 

[SolApathy]

Definitely going to be an app causing the issue. It is going to be a slow process to isolate the offending app, but it is going to be the only viable solution.

 

[mikedt]

Suggest you post a recording or YouTube clip of it, as someone might recognize what app it might be.

 

[Nathaniel Torbett]

I would remove / disable each app you have installed, one at a time, until it stops. That way you can isolate which app is causing it.

How frequently does it happen?

It's hard to say on the frequency, happened several times over a few days. Then didn't happen at all for about 2 weeks. Then started up all over again and happened for a couple of days sporadically. Now since I've written this has been about 2 days with no beeps. The inconsistency makes it hard to capture or isolate as suggested.

 

[Nathaniel Torbett]

Actually, here is a video of the exact sound. Look at the comments, happening to a handful of other people.

 

[mikedt]

I've got no idea what that is. So you're sure it's definitely not something like AMBER? Maybe it is a rogue app, you could try a factory reset, and just re-install the apps you actually need and use.

 

[cathmary130]

Just found this thread after having the same "smoke alarm" beeping hit my phone (HTC One A9, almost 2 years old bought directly from HTC) this afternoon. I heard a vibration notification sound just before the smoke alarm beep, and had, about 15 minutes earlier, taken a photo w/ my phone, and was starting to use my HTC mail account when the alarm sounded. Rebooted the phone, and the horrific noise stopped.

The YouTube video above, although referencing a Samsung on T-Mobile, exactly duplicates the sound i heard.

Google searches are not turning up much.
NFC gets mentioned -- I have it disabled. Don't care to use it
Lookout phone locator -- never had that set up, but Lookout app on, so I disabled.
Amber Alert and other gov't warning crap -- disabled before the smoke alarm noise
Viruses? Always a possibility, but I'm using Malwarebytes, scanning regularly, and updating regularly
Recent app updates? Only to Google Keep 2 days ago. (I tend to avoid updating apps if they're working fine the way they are.)

The only other thing I've done unusual in the past 24 hours is scan documents w/ Google Drive and my phone's camera, and then let a 3rd party app (PDF Mergy) access my Google Drive. (This was an employment document I needed.) So, post-alert, I've deleted PDF Mergy's access to Drive.

Otherwise, Chrome, Mail, Facebook, FB Messenger only apps running at the time. Since I've got those apps running all the time it's doubtful they're the cause.

It seems there are multiple users of different phones and different apps when this sound occurs. Difficult to discern if it's an app issue or a Android OS issue. (In the last 2 weeks, HTC pushed a security update to my phone which I installed. My phone runs Android 7.0)

 

[Jlindy70]

I am having this issue too. Today was the first day it went off with no visible cue and I had to restart the phone. It went off a day or two ago with a message that I had 4 viruses due to visiting adult websites. I haven't visited any adult websites on any phone and I have Norton security set up I also never got this alarm on my S5 or my Tab Pro. My provider with that phone was Sprint and the Tab isn't linked to a carrier. Now I have Verizon although that doesn't seem to matter judging from how many people who have had this issue on a variety of carriers and phones including iphones. I have received the virus popup before but Ive been careful not to click on it and I always click the back key or close the app in which it popped up. I don't think it is linked to Amber or weather alerts Awhile ago I got an invitation to win an Amazon gift card but it was one of those things where they want you to order magazines or some other services. It continues to pop up periodically. I suspect it could be linked to that although I have no definitive evidence. I'm hoping to get this figured out before it goes off at work.

 

[mdboze]

Same issue on my Samsung S8+.
Happened twice over the last few days. Each time it stopped immediately when I closed Facebook.
The 2nd time it happened, I closed every other app first, alarm still sounding, then I closed Facebook and it stopped.

The sound was earpiercingly loud. Like a smoke alarm.

I've still not confirmed why it happened, just that it was linked to Facebook for me.