This one is a weird one. I have not experienced this before.
My wife's HTC One X unrooted, factory unlocked from oversees, still under warranty. Latest JB available (stock).
Just the other day I went to clean up some of her redundant apps that I installed on her phone. All apps were from legitimate sources, Google Play.
Problem 1. I could not uninstall any app. The device would get quite warm, actually very warm. I would do a hard boot and sometimes I would then be able to uninstall the app, most other times no. I even have uninstaller apps and I tried using them and the app would go through the motions. it would seemingly uninstall the apps but it really didn't . On the times it would uninstall apps (it doesn't matter which app or how large or small) it often would take a long time.
Problem 2: Downloading apps from GP. I might be able to get away with downloading one app and installing it. However, most of the time GP would be stuck in "downloading', Again, if I do a hard reboot or even soft reboot, sometimes the download would start and you would see the small tray and down arrow. Most of the times, not. What is odd about this is that if I go to Google Play via desktop and remotely tell GP to install a particular app, it usually does without issue on the device.
Problem 3. I did a factory restore and after a few apps everything was ok. but problem would then develop again. I repeated the process to narrow down which app may be causing issue but I haven't been able to do so. Then, I did a hard reboot again and then the download would be very slow to start, several minutes then it would start up normally. I tried uninstalling an app and it too took a long time initially and then it was ok. However, in between this all, it was not. Even when going to SETTINGS, APPS, seeing info on the app (cache size, etc) would take a very very long time to populate.
The wife has her phone with her today at work, but for now it is operating as it should. However, I am very confident it will return to the way it was.
Does any one know what could be going on? Is this a s/w issue or hardware issue? Is there any way to test to see if the flash drive has bad sectors or is somehow damaged? Perhaps the HTC needs a brand new re-flash to the original ROM ?
Related
I have an HTC Desire Z, and it's been acting strangely lately. I hear it play the startup sound when it's in my pocket, meaning the phone has crashed when I wasn't even doing anything. I suppose it's time for a hard reset. I'm very reluctant to do this, but when I missed an important call the other day because my "com.htc.phone" (or whatever) application crashed and I didn't notice, that was the last straw.
What is a checklist of things I should do before hard resetting? So far, I've:
1) Backed up SMS
2) Taken screenshots of all my home screens so as to put the icons back in the same place
3) Taken screenshots of the application settings screens so as to install all the same applications again
4) Taken screenshots of some of the other settings screens, so as to use the same ringtone, background, SMS beep, etc.
What are some other steps I should take? I'm scared that I won't get my phone set up the same way again. My phone is great right now, it's just how I like it - except for the crashes.
Is your phone rooted? If so, TitaniumBackup (TB) would be all you need. You can get TitaniumBackup, free and paid, from the market. TB can backup your screen settings according to the launcher apps. For example, I use Go Launcher and when I do a full backup of Go Launcher, it will backup icons positions and everything else that I have changed in Go Launcher.
It may not be necessary to reset your whole device if your just getting one or two processes force closing themselves. The first thing to check is see if you have installed an app that might be conflicting with system apps (try and remember the last time it was working correctly and uninstall apps that you've installed since then).
If this isn't the issue you can also try to wipe app data/cache for the app in question. I hope this makes sense
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Well, I'm not really sure what's causing the problem. My phone came installed with crapware, and lately I've found software installing itself on my phone without my knowledge. I know for a fact the "QQ Security" crapware the phone came with did indeed prevent my phone from functioning correctly.
I'm unable to install/uninstall or update my apps with google play. Uninstalling Google Play updates doesn't work either. Rebooting doesn't help. Reset my phone to factory defaults once, but after a while the problem cropped up again. Not sure if it has anything to do with some of the apps I've installed.
Another issue that maybe connected to the first one is that when i go into an individual app info, it says computing and nothing happens, no info no matter how long I wait.
Issue #3: The developer options are not accessible. When I press the Developer options, I just get a black screen and after a while it says Settings are not responding.
It's safe to say I really hate this phone's guts. I've had nothing but trouble with it. It's slower than molasses, and I've never installed a lot of apps on it, no cracked apps either, just highly rated free apps and paid apps. It does have a great screen. That's all good I can say about this beta phone. I can't wait to upgrade Note 2.
I'm on the stock rom 4.0.4
Any ideas, other than resetting it yet one more time?
Thanks!
Hello again.
I'm experiencing a new problem with my phone that is becoming very aggravating because it seemingly occurred when I did nothing unusual or risky with my phone. Every time I update an app in the google play store, my phone locks up and will reboot itself. Sometimes it will remain frozen until I hold down the power button myself. This problem also happens when uninstalling apps and installing apps, but it doesn't do it regularly. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But the phone will always freeze when updating apps. Like I said, I have done nothing risky with the phone. I haven't installed or removed any apps that require superuser access. I haven't downloaded anything to my phone. All I have done is install a few apps here and there from the store, evaluate if I like them or not, and decide if I want to keep them. Recently I haven't been keeping new ones, so I promptly remove them. Out of nowhere this problem shows up when I tried to install another app (thought maybe the app caused it so I got rid of it), and now the updates freeze my phone.
The apps successfully update each time, but immediately after the process finishes, the phone locks up. After rebooting, the updates are saved and the apps aren't corrupt or anything. What can be causing this to happen? Everything on my phone was working flawlessly, and now this problem is seriously hindering the usability of my phone and I don't understand what went wrong.
My phone is the Virgin Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2 4G SPH-D710. It is rooted and is running the stock ROM.
Any help would be appreciated.
Britt47 said:
Hello again.
I'm experiencing a new problem with my phone that is becoming very aggravating because it seemingly occurred when I did nothing unusual or risky with my phone. Every time I update an app in the google play store, my phone locks up and will reboot itself. Sometimes it will remain frozen until I hold down the power button myself. This problem also happens when uninstalling apps and installing apps, but it doesn't do it regularly. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But the phone will always freeze when updating apps. Like I said, I have done nothing risky with the phone. I haven't installed or removed any apps that require superuser access. I haven't downloaded anything to my phone. All I have done is install a few apps here and there from the store, evaluate if I like them or not, and decide if I want to keep them. Recently I haven't been keeping new ones, so I promptly remove them. Out of nowhere this problem shows up when I tried to install another app (thought maybe the app caused it so I got rid of it), and now the updates freeze my phone.
The apps successfully update each time, but immediately after the process finishes, the phone locks up. After rebooting, the updates are saved and the apps aren't corrupt or anything. What can be causing this to happen? Everything on my phone was working flawlessly, and now this problem is seriously hindering the usability of my phone and I don't understand what went wrong.
My phone is the Virgin Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2 4G SPH-D710. It is rooted and is running the stock ROM.
Any help would be appreciated.
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Click to collapse
Hi there,
Have you tried clearing the cache for Google Play Store in Application manager? Try this first! You could also try (I assume you also have a working CWM recovery or similar?) wiping cache and dalvik in recovery!
CarlM34 said:
Hi there,
Have you tried clearing the cache for Google Play Store in Application manager? Try this first! You could also try (I assume you also have a working CWM recovery or similar?) wiping cache and dalvik in recovery!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've already wiped the cache, data, and even tried uninstalling updates for Google Play and Google Play services. Made no difference.
As for dalvik, I'm not sure what that means. Any pointers would be helpful!
Britt47 said:
I've already wiped the cache, data, and even tried uninstalling updates for Google Play and Google Play services. Made no difference.
As for dalvik, I'm not sure what that means. Any pointers would be helpful!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The dalvik cache will probably be under Advanced in Recovery
zj
I don't have CWM recovery. Sorry I didn't know what you meant when you asked that.
Sorry if bumping or double posting isn't allowed, but I wanted to update this thread.
I think I may have solved the issue. Makes no sense as to why it happened or how it's even related to what I did. I racked my brain for the most recent things I installed on my phone and the only app that came to mind was Cut the Rope. It was the last thing I could remember that installed fine. I removed it and nothing locked up. Then I tried updating one of my apps and presto. No freeze or reboot. Then I installed an app from the play store and it worked perfectly. Did it multiple times with no error. I feel like Android is so temperamental that if I even look at it wrong something will break. -_- I don't know. Maybe being rooted has something to do with it, but my guts don't want to believe it.
I'll put "solved" in the title once I keep using my phone and make sure it's working correctly. If so, I suppose the moral to this problem is just uninstall anything recent from your phone if you experience similar issues. Wish I could know the technical cause though.
Britt47 said:
Sorry if bumping or double posting isn't allowed, but I wanted to update this thread.
I think I may have solved the issue. Makes no sense as to why it happened or how it's even related to what I did. I racked my brain for the most recent things I installed on my phone and the only app that came to mind was Cut the Rope. It was the last thing I could remember that installed fine. I removed it and nothing locked up. Then I tried updating one of my apps and presto. No freeze or reboot. Then I installed an app from the play store and it worked perfectly. Did it multiple times with no error. I feel like Android is so temperamental that if I even look at it wrong something will break. -_- I don't know. Maybe being rooted has something to do with it, but my guts don't want to believe it.
I'll put "solved" in the title once I keep using my phone and make sure it's working correctly. If so, I suppose the moral to this problem is just uninstall anything recent from your phone if you experience similar issues. Wish I could know the technical cause though.
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Click to collapse
Lets hope you have it sorted now:good:
I am getting an annoying spam/popup whatever in my Chrome browser. It's very deceiving and I've tried restarting Chrome, the phone, clearing cache but it still pops up all the time. It's from "update.appfansworld.com" and gives me an initial message about memory being low or something. Attached is a screenshot. Anyone know how I can get rid of this?
If this is an app.
Go to settings > application manager
Find the system ui upgrade app and uninstall it.
Is it a popup? If so try an ad blocker. Or figure out what site's giving you this junk.
If your user agent string is reporting as android (in Chrome it is) they can tailor ads to look like "updates".
If you get the "memory slowed" message hit cancel or the back button.
Sent from my Verizon NC5 Galaxy S4 w/ GEL and Xposed
Fixed this problem on my phone by going into the App Info for the Chrome App and Deleting All Data. Just had to resign into Google, and it has not come back so far.
Update.... Went one week with no pop up. Got one again from app fans world. Com again last night. Not the UI one though. This one said my browser crashed, which it hadn't. Spent several hours trying to get it to repeat, but it never did, nor did it today. Just as a final check, I ran Malwarebytes, and found only one instance of malware on my phone, but not thinking it was actually malware. It was the root uninstaller file for Smart Ram Booster Pro. I uninstalled the app anyway as I don't really use it. Will give an update on this in a week or so. Looking online, this is becoming a widespread issue.
jakel1.jf said:
Update.... Went one week with no pop up. Got one again from app fans world. Com again last night. Not the UI one though. This one said my browser crashed, which it hadn't. Spent several hours trying to get it to repeat, but it never did, nor did it today. Just as a final check, I ran Malwarebytes, and found only one instance of malware on my phone, but not thinking it was actually malware. It was the root uninstaller file for Smart Ram Booster Pro. I uninstalled the app anyway as I don't really use it. Will give an update on this in a week or so. Looking online, this is becoming a widespread issue.
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Yeah I tried deleting data in the chrome browser but that didn't prevent it from coming back. I'll look forward to a solution if you find one.
After clearing the data under app info it stopped for a week for me. It was popping up every other page almost before that. Now, it popped up again just once, and I did a couple weeks worth of browsing in a couple hours after it did, just to see if I could get the pop up again to inspect it better, but it just won't come up again. I don't know if it is gone, or will pop up again sometime later. Weird.
I have been following a guy on the Verizon forum dealing with this. He was going to run his phone in safe mode, and try activating one 3rd party app at a time, using Terminal to see if he could find an app that was causing this. That didn't work though as while in safe mode with no 3rd party apps activated, it still happened. He is now going to reset his phone, reinstalling apps one at a time to see if he can find an app causing it. This will take more than a week though, as he will take time to test chrome for awhile after each app is installed. One thing to note is that the app.fansworld.com site was only created 12.18.14. It could be any app you installed slightly before to any time after that date, or even any update installed then. I am almost thinking it is something to do with Chrome, as I don't install anything except from the Playstore, and only a thing or two that I can remember during that time frame. I am going to both uninstalled all chrome updates, and try a different browser, to see if it still happens. If it does, I am going to factory reset my phone, and see if I can fix it.
jakel1.jf said:
I have been following a guy on the Verizon forum dealing with this. He was going to run his phone in safe mode, and try activating one 3rd party app at a time, using Terminal to see if he could find an app that was causing this. That didn't work though as while in safe mode with no 3rd party apps activated, it still happened. He is now going to reset his phone, reinstalling apps one at a time to see if he can find an app causing it. This will take more than a week though, as he will take time to test chrome for awhile after each app is installed. One thing to note is that the app.fansworld.com site was only created 12.18.14. It could be any app you installed slightly before to any time after that date, or even any update installed then. I am almost thinking it is something to do with Chrome, as I don't install anything except from the Playstore, and only a thing or two that I can remember during that time frame. I am going to both uninstalled all chrome updates, and try a different browser, to see if it still happens. If it does, I am going to factory reset my phone, and see if I can fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assumed it was a chrome thing since that's where it always pops up for me. I guess I could try another browser...
I did click on the page (clicking cancel or update does the same thing) as I figured I will be reseting my phone anyway. No matter how many times I click on it, all it does is redirect me to the Dolphin Browser page on the playstore. This makes me really suspicious because the developers of Dolphin Browser wouldn't ruin their extremely good reputation by doing this. I think the redirect is a cover for something else. Maybe a keystroke logger, or something just as malicious. Rolling back Chrome didn't get rid of the page that pops up. No popping up with new browser so far, went with Maxthon, but it is early. Really starting to think a complete wipe and reset is necessary. After all, the pop up is only what we are seeing, what else might be going on we can't.
Quick question... Have you downloaded any (.flv or.m2v specifically) video files during the time frame? Read a recent article about hackers using them to exploit vulnerabilities. Right now it is suggested not to download those 2 file types at all.
Factory reset my phone, which was a small hassle, but it has fixed it, and the other small bugs and slow downs that appeared at the same time. Back up your files... Pics and such you want to keep, and reset. Your phone should automatically re-install all your apps, although you will have to redo some of your settings. After you save your files to wherever you want, I saved them to my pc, just go to settings.. Then back up and restore.... And select factory reset or reset phone, however it is listed. Your phone will then be like brand new, and you will only have to re-set up a few things as most things will reinstall by themselves with their previous settings. Like I said, a small hassle, but it fixes the problem, and you again know your phone and data is secure.
It started doing it again today. Reset didn't work. Talked to the guy on verizon forum, and he is going through all files to locate it's origin. Will just have to wait until he is done. FYI--It started happening in other browsers too.
Some very weird things started happening on my phone earlier today. It's a Nexus 5X, running 8.0 Oreo, with the October security patch. I'm not rooted and I'm careful about what I install. The phone is fairly new, from this summer.
I will begin with describing what I did in the hours before this started. I can think of two things that possibly could have started it:
1) Two of my Facebook contacts sent malicious links to me an hour before. It looked like Youtube videos but was not. I did NOT open any of these links, knowing directly they were harmful (not sure if you can be affected by just receiving them, not clicking on them?). I received them in the Messenger Lite application (an official app from Facebook with scaled-down functionality).
2) A few hours before the Facebook links, I sideloaded an APK containing the new Pixel Launcher. I got the APK from Android Police/APK Mirror.
Can't attach links, but Google for: Hands-on with the updated Pixel Launcher, including the new Pixel 2 features [APK Download]
The APK was working fine and nothing seemed odd with it (I used the launcher for a few hours). As long as Android Police know what they uploaded, this shouldn't be the cause for my problems. I bet on Facebook Messenger instead. (People that click such malware links typically get their Facebook accounts hacked, however my account seems fine and my account didn't spam others with the same link. I did not change password or did anything else to "recover" my account yet).
So what happened after this on my phone?
Here is the first thing I noticed. I open Play Store to install updates. It turns out I have one update pending, it's called BankID. This is a major Swedish app used by nearly every smartphone user in the country, and it's for signing into government websites, bank websites, insurance company websites, and much more. When I click update in Play Store two things happen almost instantly:
1) Six pictures are downloaded from Messenger Lite to my phone. That makes no sense, how could clicking a button in Google Play trigger something to happen in Messenger Lite? In fact I tried it three times, with the same behavior every time. (Well, actually opening the Messenger Lite photo album, there are only photos there I already downloaded, so nothing new seems to be added there - but the photos were probably re-downloaded I believe).
2) The BankID update downloads to 100 % (the downloading takes a little longer than expected), then it halts and does nothing, i.e. it's not installing. No error message, it just stops there. I can choose to abort and try again, which I do three times or more, with exactly the same behavior.
Also, I now notice Play Protect hasn't run for two days, but when I try to run it, it seems to be down. After ~30 seconds of scanning it says "App verification temporarily down". "App verification temporarily down" could very well be connected with the halted update I just described? It still says it hasn't run for two days after this.
When I experiment, I notice other things that are very weird indeed.
1) Notifications in Gmail, Snapchat and possibly other apps aren't coming through. By opening the apps, I can sync manually.
2) When I move a file to a new folder using the Downloads app (Files app, stock one) I get a error message saying the move operation failed. This also triggered the photo notifications from Messenger Lite (same behavior as described above, with six photos). However, after a while the moved pictures are indeed in the right folder, even though the error message saying otherwise.
3) After some time I remove "app data" for the Google Play app. When I open it after that, there are now three app updates pending (e.g. Google Wifi also). But the same behavior occurs, when I try to download one or all of them, I get the Messenger photo notifications and the updates halt at 100 % without installing. So the BankID app - which could be targeted by attackers for obvious reasons - could just be a coincidence. It could have happened with any app I suppose, this was the only one pending right then. But still, why couldn't Play Store detect other pending app updates until I refreshed it the way I did? Was Play Store blocked from connecting to Google (or forced to connect to some other server, perhaps?).
What did I do after all of this?
I uninstalled three apps:
-Facebook Lite
-Facebook Messenger Lite
-Pixel Launcher APK
However the uninstall process was very odd. A process called "Package Installer" had a notification saying "Uninstalling Lite" and "Uninstalling Messenger Lite". It didn't seem to be working, it was stuck after some time. I restarted my phone and the apps seem to be gone now, at least they aren't listed in Settings --> Apps. So the uninstall process was successful I suppose, even though it didn't seem to work.
After I restarted my phone I also noticed:
-When I install Messenger Lite from Play Store now, it's easy to uninstall it the way it should be - in mere seconds.
-When I open Play Store, updates are now installing fine. Play Protect is also scanning fine now.
Everything looks back to normal now. But I'm not trusting my device. I'm gonna factory reset it. Before I do, I wonder:
-Can I feel safe the wipe would erase whatever malware I might have had on the phone?
-Is there something I could do to let us know what caused this? Upload a log here somehow?
The only piece of advice I have received as of now is: "Try restarting in safe mode, installing some AV software, and generally looking for suspicious processes." I haven't done that yet, would it still be a good thing to do? Must I install AV software before rebooting into safe mode, or could I install it directly from safe mode? (App suggestions, AV software?).
Usually I'm very careful and security-minded. I haven't had something like this happen before. So I'm very intrigued and mad about this. I'm gonna change my Google account and Facebook account passwords later on I think (I already have 2-factor authentication enabled).
One last thing: When I install Pixel Launcher on my non-rooted phone, it's not running as a system app if my understanding is correct. (At least it shouldn't be). But none the less, when I wanted to uninstall it I had to go into Settings --> Apps and tap "Show system apps" to find it in the list. Is that normal? Perhaps it doesn't mean anything, I just want to know.
Thanks for your advice in advance. Anything else to add? What should I do know? All you might have to say is appreciated.
Come on now guys, someone must be able to help?
If I factory reset the device, will it be clean? I didn't mess with custom ROMs, root, the bootloader or something else. (I suppose the bootloader is locked).