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Every night for the past few days my phone installs a new app that I never saw/wanted/heard of before. It all started with AppCaster (Which I never installed on my phone, it just showed up one morning).

I have uninstalled AppCaster and every other app that was installed without my knowing, and new apps are still showing up on my phone over night. I have downloaded and installed Avast which shows no issues after a scan.

I have checked the sites with access to my google account and I don't see anything that looks suspicious.

Has anyone else solved a similar issue? Does anyone have any ideas of what could be downloading these apps to my phone? How can I make it stop?

MarkB42
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    Does it really install apps -- or do you just find new icons on your homescreen? You might want to use AppBrain Ad Detector to see if there are any AirPush-like apps on your phone (which do things like placing new icons on your homescreen or push stuff to your notification bar). If you do find such an app: Leave a comment on its Playstore page, then uninstall it. Remember it's developer to never install one of his apps again. That's privacy intrusion, not "proper advertisement". – Izzy May 28 '13 at 15:35
  • I get a notification that says the app is installed and I uninstall it. I don't see icons on my homescreen. – MarkB42 May 28 '13 at 15:43
  • installed AppBrain Ad Detector and didn't see anything with push notifications. – MarkB42 May 28 '13 at 15:54
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    OK -- so we can rule that out. Was just the first thing coming to my mind. That leaves, maybe, someone with your Google credentials initializing those installs via the Playstore web interface. To rule that out as well, you could change your Google/GMail password. – Izzy May 28 '13 at 16:06
  • I have been using 2 step authentication and I don't see my account being accessed from any other locations, so I doubt this will help, but I changed my password anyway. – MarkB42 May 28 '13 at 16:28
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    Didn't know you were using 2-factor -- but OK, cannot hurt. If that didn't help, I'm currently out of ideas (unless you're sleepwalking :) Maybe someone else can come up with what we might have missed up to here. – Izzy May 28 '13 at 17:52
  • No new app last night. So i'm not sure what did it, but between uninstalling a lot of the apps I rarely use, changing my password, and installing anti-virus software it seems to be fixed. – MarkB42 May 29 '13 at 12:50
  • As I doubt it was the Anti-Virus shocking away unwanted installs, this leaves the password. Do you need two-factor for a web-login to Google Play's web-based content as well? And: Do you want to answer your own question, or shall I sum up from all the comments? – Izzy May 29 '13 at 13:19
  • Play store does require 2-step auth. I answered the question. Feel free to add anything else. – MarkB42 May 29 '13 at 19:27
  • Today another app showed up Dark Summoner. So the password didn't fix it. – MarkB42 May 30 '13 at 12:40
  • No more ideas here, Mark. The only thing I could come up with now is to factory-reset the device, and install no additional apps for a few days. Then, one by one, add back the apps you need -- until that behaviour starts over again. I would wonder if it does right from the beginning -- but if that would be the case, I'm completely out... – Izzy May 30 '13 at 13:06
  • Does anyone have physical access to your device? And do you have a lock code of some sort set? – Michael Kohne May 30 '13 at 13:29
  • Also, may I suggest revoking account access to EVERYTHING, then re-adding one by one? – Michael Kohne May 30 '13 at 13:30
  • Revoked access to everything.... Still getting random apps. Guess I'll try a factory reset. No one else has access to my phone. – MarkB42 Jun 01 '13 at 15:05

2 Answers2

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Here is a possible solution. My son had recently unwittingly installed AppCaster on our home PC, and this was causing the apps to be pushed to my phone. I uninstalled it from the Programs and Features under Control Panel, where AppCaster goes by the name "Mobile App Sync".

TonyMN
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I had the same problem. A while ago, I didn't have access to my new Android phone, so I asked my friend to login with my Google credentials in the Play Store app to buy some apps on sale. So after a while, when I downloaded new apps, the phone of my friend got that apps and the other way around.

So, now my question is, did you entered your Google credentials into another android phone like I did? Did you install some apps on that phone? Try to remember if you did like I did.

kvizii
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  • I have a phone that a lost a while ago that is still registered in the settings of the play store under my devices. However, the date that it was last used, according to that same page, is over 6 months ago. – MarkB42 Jun 04 '13 at 12:44
  • @MarkB42 I don't know then. I saw the reviews of the AppCaster app that they have the same problem like yours, unknown installs on their device, so maybe is a malicious app that caused this. – kvizii Jun 05 '13 at 00:43
  • Yeah, I just wish I knew how to get rid of it. I should do a factory reset, but I'm dragging my feet at having to set everything back up... :/ – MarkB42 Jun 05 '13 at 18:44