Solved! Phone keeps opening tab/displaying ads on its own

[guyoquinn05]

Been dealing with this for a few weeks now, but my phone will randomly open Chrome (and, if I'm already in Chrome, a new tab) to some website about downloading a crypto browser app. Then two days ago, I also started getting some drop down ad on my screen itself of some not-Facebook ad (It's literally called "Facebook Maket" and wants to sell me a "Faroot Memory Foam Leg") that opens to a site called "Shopify". The ad remains on top even if I exit to my home screen. Both seem to happen every 5-10 minutes whenever the phone is unlocked and in use.

I've tried AVG, Malwarebytes, and Kaspersky antivirus, and also tried deleting the site settings in each site themselves (which of course, they just reassign themselves permissions from whatever is opening them in the first place), which tell me that there are no viruses anywhere. I looked in my app list and couldn't find any apps out of place or apps that I didn't download or didn't come standard with the phone, and I've tried clearing my Chrome cache, tried resetting permissions and cache to every app on the phone, basically tried everything but a full factory reset.

I have a Samsung A7, I use Android OS, and I also have an SD card installed. I have a feeling the virus is on the SD card and all these antivirus apps just keep scanning the phone but not the card, but either way whatever the virus is and whatever it is, nothing seems to be able to find it.

 

[webworkings]

It may well not be a virus or malware, but instead a bad app, or a bad app installed by another bad app. Happens a lot.

You can try first uninstalling any new apps, or any apps you don't recognize. If that then doesn't help, you are going to have to do a "Hard Reset".

First though, go into "Safe Mode" and from there save your personal stuff to another device. Computer, cloud account, where ever. Somewhere not on the phone. Just remember you can't save apps. Once you have saved your files, contact, photos, etc. then do the "Hard Reset".

NOTE: Unless you downloaded a file to the card (not a typical file) it is likely not on the card. However you can connect that to a computer and run virus, malware, etc. checks on it as well. Then you should do the same as with the data on the phone. Save what you 'know' are your files from the card to a computer, cloud account or other device (not the phone or SD card itself) and then format the card.

To get into "Safe Mode" please do the following.

1. First turn off the phone.

2. Next press and hold "Power" until you see the manufacturers logo on the screen, then release the power button.

3. "Quickly" press "Volume Down" and hold it for few seconds until you see the message "Safe mode: ON" or something similar.

4. If you wanted disable it, simply repeat the steps above, and you should see "Safe Mode: OFF" rather than on.

For the "Hard Reset"...

NOTE: Doing this will clear 'all' the data on your phone, so it is suggested you not choose this option unless you have to, or aren't worried about losing anything on the device.

Be sure you back up any data you want to keep, to a computer or cloud account, before doing the reset.


To "Hard Reset" the phone...

1. Make sure that the phone is actually powered off.

2. Remove your SD card, if there is one in the device.

3. Press the "Power" and the "Volume Up" buttons, together, until you see the start-up logo on the screen.

4. Once you can see the logo, release the buttons and allow the device to enter the "System Recovery Mode".

5. Next use "Volume Down" button to get to the "wipe data/factory reset" option.

6. When in recovery mode the "Volume Up" and "Volume Down" buttons are how to can navigate and highlight what option you need.

7. Once you have selected the "wipe data/factory reset", press the "Power" button to select that option.

8. On the following screen, repeatedly press the "Volume Down" button until the "Yes - delete all user data" option is what is selected.

9. Then press the "Power" button to hard reset the phone.

10. If you took your SD card out in step 2, when the device is up and running again, reinsert the SD card.

 

[Maciej Oliwa]

Hi,
Sadly, there are not many good antiviruses for Android :c
webworkings is totally right, altought you can find detailed instructions with pictures here:
Link removed by moderator as it contains instructions that violates forum rules
If that's not your phone, you can just look for it.
There are many other devices if you ever need help with resetting anything