Whoshing Sound Unwanted

[Bill Rymer]

About 1st of October my phone started emitting a loud whooshing sound ending with a sharp ding. I selected no such thing. There is no such sound in my notification offerings. I have shut off every App that I could find that was unknown to me or seemed a potential culprit. When it happens there is no display, nothing shows as active, no messages, no attempted phone call.

It happens every few hours with no known connection to anything else going on.

I have to assume that some hacker seeks to annoy me.

Anyone else had this disease?

 

[Hadron]

Hacker is probably the least likely explanation. Unexplained sounds invariably turn out to be from some app or other, the tricky bit is working out which. Looking in your notification sounds isn't definitive as the sound may be internal to the app.

I suffered from unexplained sounds once, and it took several weeks to track down. In the end it turned out to be a battery or system monitor app I'd installed and used for some time, which turned out to have a "temperature warning" that had been turned on and would go off every now and then. I'm not saying that's your problem, just giving it as an example.

Another I had that was easier to track down was random notification noises from an email app: it went through a period of having trouble connecting to one of my accounts, but the problem was transient. So it would alert me to the problem, but clear it very quickly afterwards, usually before I could actually see the notification. If its anything like that then checking your notification history would give it away (a built-in feature of Android 11, but I think there are apps that can do it in earlier versions). If it's something like my first case it may be harder to track down.

All I can think of is that a "whoosh...ding" sounds message-related to me.

 

[Bill Rymer]

Hacker is probably the least likely explanation. Unexplained sounds invariably turn out to be from some app or other, the tricky bit is working out which. Looking in your notification sounds isn't definitive as the sound may be internal to the app.

I suffered from unexplained sounds once, and it took several weeks to track down. In the end it turned out to be a battery or system monitor app I'd installed and used for some time, which turned out to have a "temperature warning" that had been turned on and would go off every now and then. I'm not saying that's your problem, just giving it as an example.

Another I had that was easier to track down was random notification noises from an email app: it went through a period of having trouble connecting to one of my accounts, but the problem was transient. So it would alert me to the problem, but clear it very quickly afterwards, usually before I could actually see the notification. If its anything like that then checking your notification history would give it away (a built-in feature of Android 11, but I think there are apps that can do it in earlier versions). If it's something like my first case it may be harder to track down.

All I can think of is that a "whoosh...ding" sounds message-related to me.

Do you know of a way to see what app or program took the last action in the phone (regardless of what it may have been) ? If I could do that right after the noise that should revel the culprit but I know of no way to do it.

 

[ocnbrze]

try putting the phone in safe mode. this prevents and 3rd party apps from running. this will allow you to at least determine if it is coming from an app you installed. if it does not happen while in safe mode then it is probably an app you recently installed. you can check your notification settings and see what recent apps sent you notifications when you here the sound again. if it is not listed then you might just have to go one by one and uninstall your apps until it stops. when you uninstall an app make sure you delete data and cache before you uninstall it. some apps will store data or sometimes the offense you are talking about in cache and data so delete those first.

 

[Bill Rymer]

You said, "you can check your notification settings and see what recent apps sent you notifications when you here the sound again." How? There is no way I know of to see what recent app sent me a notification. If I had such a mechanism it would be easy to catch the culprit. By the way, I have not installed a new app for more than a year. And do not intend to.

 

[ocnbrze]

settings>notifications. it will list your recent app notifications. now the exact location of this might be different depending on your phone.

 

[puppykickr]

Do you know of a way to see what app or program took the last action in the phone (regardless of what it may have been) ? If I could do that right after the noise that should revel the culprit but I know of no way to do it.

Have you enabled Developers Options?

If not, do so.
The method is similar but slightly different for some devices, and can be discovered by an online search for enabling developers options on your particular device.

Usually, it is something like...

Settings
System
About phone
Build number
(tap build number 7 times)
(toast message appears)

Settings
System
Developers options
(turn them on)

Now scroll until you find Running services, or similar.

The next time this sound occurs, go to Running services.
It will tell you every app that is running at that moment.

You can also check what apps are cached.

One of the apps listed somewhere here should be your culprit.

 

[Bill Rymer]

You said, "you can check your notification settings and see what recent apps sent you notifications when you here the sound again." How? There is no way I know of to see what recent app sent me a notification. If I had such a mechanism it would be easy to catch the culprit. By the way, I have not installed a new app for more than a year. And do not intend to.

OK, that helps . I was taking the screen too literally when it says "Recently sent" and I think it really means "recently received" from the phone user's viewpoint. I'll home in the culprit before long. Thank you.