Have a Samsung Galaxy 5 phone. Not really a phone nut, but it has a decent camera.
Just recently it's started showing a pretty picture saying good night when plugged in for its overnight charge. Then some bl***y ads in the morning. I've not installed any new apps, so no idea where this has come from. Or more to the point how to get rid of it.
Some info here.
Tim
It'll be an update to an existing app, probably from a no-name developer, start by noting all apps you have, then uninstall/disable any that are not from companies with a reputation/brand to protect, reboot and make sure the unwanted behaviour is gone, and then re-enable other apps one-by-one ...
That's *if* you can disable/uninstall them.
If it's a network supplied phone there will be all sorts of cruft ^H^H^H^H^H s*it that the owner can't change.
Unless you root it. Which is a PITA, and can make the phone less useful in future.
uninstall/disable
protect,
I wouldn't like to bet on that. I've had apps that just did what they where supposed to do with no fuss get new "must have features" that effectively made the app a right PITA to use. There was enough customer noise to make them revert though...
Not that difficult to install a custom ROM on a Samsung device these days and it doesn't have to end up rooted.
If Dave's S5 is on Andriod 7.1 the Settings > Developer Options(*) > Running Processes ought to let you kill/uninstall anything. Somewhere there is a list of things set to run on startup as well.
As for "less useful in the future" ROM upgrades to my Galalxy SIII mini and Galaxy Tab II 7.0 have given both a new lease of life. Apps where no longer getting updates, a few didn't work properly. No ROM upgrades from Samsung for years, they where on 4.4 and 4,2 IIRC. Both now on Lineage and Android 7.1.2. Up to date apps that work properly. B-)
(*) Normally hidden, go to Settings > About locate Build Number and tap it 7 times.
If you have to root a phone, quite a few corporate apps won't work. Makes BYOD tricky.
If it's cruft that's supplied in the factory ROM you should be able to at least uninstall any updates to go back to the initial version, with stock android you can disable most apps, if it's been tweaked by the manufacturer or network YMMV.
Tesco locked Facebook and Twitter into their version of Android that ran on SWMBOs MotoG. Couldn't disable them. Couldn't uninstall them. There was also a Tesco "app" you couldn't stop. Which meant less memory for apps she did want.
But could probably uninstall the updates to go back to the factory version?
the perils of buying a device someone else "owns".
Only had one "corporate app" complain and refuse to run. That was the AA (breakdown service) one, WTF that needs a "secure" enviroment I can't imagine. Only occasionally used it for the fuel price bit so it's been replaced by the "Petrol Prices" app.
As an employee and my employer required me to run an app on my phone it would have to cope with the enviroment that I operate my phone in, custom ROM, rooted, what ever. If it can't then they would have to supply and pay the bill for a device that can.
I don't let online banking any where near my phone or any of the NFC/Q code payment things that might have a link to a bank/card account. I do have the PaybyPhone app for use in extremis (if I can remember the login), that doesn't complain.
Android/google pay does too.
Brilliant - thanks Tim.
You can usually spoof that with Magisk. Things like Google Pay work on rooted phones with it.
DYO security assessment when using tools like this.
Theo
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