My grandma's phone is constantly displaying annoying popups that say 'clean your phone,' and I told her not to click on those since they're likely scams. When I got her phone to take a look, I noticed that it shows either an Opera browser ad or that clean your phone alert every ten seconds. This happens even when no apps are running at all! I checked for any suspicious apps, but she's careful about that, so I couldn't find anything. Since I'm an iPhone user and she's using Android, I'm a bit lost on how to fix this. Any advice?
5 Answers
Is her phone one of those cheap Androids from sites like AliExpress? I’ve had a similar issue with a low-end device that had a sketchy OS, which would randomly install things without my knowledge.
If you're really stuck, a factory reset could be a last resort. It can clear out any hidden issues.
You might want to check the notification settings. Sometimes browsers or certain apps can send continuous notifications that could be causing this problem.
It sounds like she might have allowed notifications from the browser. This can happen on Windows too!
How can I turn off those notifications?
Does she have a lot of games installed? I once had a Solitaire app that started showing ads randomly after an update, even when it wasn't open. It took me a while to figure it out, but I noticed the app's name in the notification just before it changed. You might want to uninstall her games and see if that helps!
Yeah, she does have Solitaire! I'm going to try uninstalling those games and see if it makes a difference.
No, it's a Samsung and just a few months old.