How I fixed Full Screen Ads when app not running

[Michael Buie]

I was plagued by this new attack and thought I would share my experience, because I saw a lot of people asking and no answers. I uninstalled some recent apps, and many others I no longer used, but kept missing the culprit, because the Ad vehicle is not the name of the App that was installed, nor is that installed app running at the time. (I had literally used it only once. For me, the app was "Wonder Video".) Tools like MalwareBytes, etc, doing a full scan, would not detect which app was doing this; it would say "zero threats found" or similar message.

Symptoms:
1. No specific app running. Just performing operations like opening an app, playing music, going to the dialer, going to chat... even just waking the screen or logging in.

2. Random ad (legitimate app names... I didn't click on any, to find out, though).
3. Ad disappears when you go to Home Screen. It has a close button, which I did not click (programmers can re-program any button)

Steps to find and Uninstall:
1. Press your Recents icon (for me, it looks like two horizontal opposing "L's") on the navigation bar while the ad is playing.

2. Identify the app and 'long press' the app's icon in the top left of it's window. An "i" in a black circle (for me) appears at the RIGHT corner of the app's Title Bar.

3. Click on the "i" and App Info screen will display, identifying the culprit that is pushing the ads. (You can do this trick for any app).

4. Go to: Settings / Apps / {the app you discovered}. Uninstall it.

I hope this PSA saves someone's sanity

 

[larryRedd]

I joined this forum specifically to find answers about this! I'm going to try your method and see if it works. I do know that when I press the nav button to open all recent apps, the ad screen has the name 'advertisement' in the top left. My ads are almost all from adchoice, and they leave a little clickable icon on their ad. When I click it, and go iinto ad preferences, it tells me this is all Facebook-driven adware! Hence, I have been trying to uninstall FB from my phone, without success, so that is another topic I would like answers on. Except: I don't use FB (never will), but I do use Instagram (a FB company). Not sure if I have to have FB installed to run Insta. If I do, then tough decision as to whether to scrap both...