I've been experiencing a strange issue where my phone keeps installing games on its own. I've had this problem for some time now. While I suspect it could be a virus, I've run antivirus software, and it hasn't detected anything. I do have some apps that I know are a bit dodgy, which Google warned me against, but when I scanned them, they showed no malware. I even considered whether my ISP might be involved, but this never happened with my old phone. Some of the games that got downloaded include "Tomb of the Mask," "Mahjong Blast," and "Candy Crush". They all seem like standard app recommendations, but I'm not sure what's going on. Can anyone share their thoughts or advice on how to stop these unwanted downloads?
5 Answers
Every time my phone updates, I find new games too. My solution has been to just uninstall them whenever they pop up. I also found that uninstalling all updates to the app selector seems to help with the issue.
It sounds like your phone might be acting on some Samsung suggestion feature, like those annoying "Apps you might want" notifications. Try checking your settings to see if there's an option to turn off those recommendations.
It could be linked to your mobile network. Go to Settings > Apps and look for things like "AppCloud," "DT Ignite," or "T-Mobile AppSelector". If you find them, try disabling those options to stop the automatic installations.
There are apps out there specifically designed to install other apps without permission. You might want to dig a bit deeper to find any culprit apps causing this. I've seen it happen on Android devices, so definitely check your installed apps.
If you're using an iPhone, check if you're logged into the same iCloud account on multiple devices. Sometimes, apps that are installed on one device get automatically downloaded on others due to the settings.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll give the app selector update removal a shot and see if that works.