Solution to "Android OS" consuming battery - Samsung Epic 4G Touch

Ok its been pointed out that "solution" is a poor choice of words but rather I have pinpointed the culprit mmaking android os drain the battery. I would like to first start off by saying that the reasn I chose to make a new thread was because the "Android OS" consuming battery thread is pretty much all over the place. Its not very informative if this bug is plaguing your battery life. Way too much random talk about wifi and other things. I dont think I saw one mention of adb or a logcat in that thread. No one is really doing any testing and sharing information so that we can get to the bottom of this. I would prefer if this thread was more informative where you posted what you did and what the result was. Mods if you feel as if my post should be in that thread then so be it. Enough with my rant here goes.
The problem I have found is that something in the google account is making the suspend function go bonkers. When the phone attempts to sleep it ends up spiking the cpu pretty hard for a good amount of time too. This is why some of us are not getting the phenominal battery life others are boasting about. The temporary solution I have found is to do a reset and not put any google account information in. This is why when some people have reported they did a reset and they still have the problem that its still there. Dont use your gmail. I know I know... the solution kind of sucks but its temporary until a real fix can be pin pointed. I am trying to get to the bottom of this as fast as I can. Thanks to Sprints new return policy I would like to do so as fast as possible. I have tested this on 3 phones so far. On all of them I did a reset, and then only installed the amazon appstore and watchdog. The amazon appstore was so that I could get watchdog. No cpu spikes alerted by watchdog on any of the 3 phones for the whole day. At the end of the day I added the gmail account that the user had been using to one of the phones and watchdog began to alert shortly after the screen timeout kicked in when the phone was attempting to sleep. Reset the phone again without adding a gmail account and the problem was gone again. Yesterday I began gradually installing other apps that I use day to day to continue my testing such as maildroid, twitter, etc. I got through the whole day on 1 charge with no problems. I cant remember how long I was on wifi but lets just estimate it was between 4-6 hours. This is with two accounts pushing to maildroid using IMAP idle so it doesnt have to poll a server which is better on battery. The official twitter application also uses push. I also have groupme installed which I use for my business to communicate with team members throughout the day. It is a chat application and it also uses push to send messages. Also I have left all the stock widgets in tact during this whole period of testing. The weather widget is set to refresh at 4 hours i think and the news widget is on manual refresh.
My next steps are trying to figure out why certain gmail accounts making suspend peg the cpu so hard. Today I plan on using one of my backup gmail accounts that doesnt have any contacts or apps purchased. I will be posting my findings later. I do apoligize for being so long winded but I hope this post helps someone out there and helps the community get to the bottom of this bug. Thanks for your time!

You call that a solution? Not put any Google Account information in? Thanks!
/sarcasm

I have a better solution. Don't turn the phone on! I haven't turned my phone on in 3 days and my battery is still fully charged! It's amazing!

Don't troll people least he is tryng
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App

Lol glad to see my efforts are so well recieved... Ive pinpointed the problem. Maybe you can find the solution yourselves.

Ill admit the "solution" defeats the whole purpose of these phones however at least it kinda narrows down the problem and can possibly help work towards a solution.
Im not going to remove my google account but instead I mail turn off mail sync and contacts sync and see how that goes for a day.

clamknuckle said:
I have a better solution. Don't turn the phone on! I haven't turned my phone on in 3 days and my battery is still fully charged! It's amazing!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please post pics

As another poster said, no need troll. He pinpointed the problem for us. Thanks op.

You can set up the built-in email client to still sync your google email. You just will get your email through the email client rather than through the gmail app. You will also not be able to download apps, but you will at least be able to check your gmail.

gall0249 said:
Please post pics
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope to god this was a joke otherwise I demand some form of an IQ test before being allowed membership here

Thanks for the testing and post OP, personally I would rather deal with worse battey life until a better fix is discovered, but I appreciate your time.
Sent from my Galaxy Tab 10.1

clamknuckle said:
I have a better solution. Don't turn the phone on! I haven't turned my phone on in 3 days and my battery is still fully charged! It's amazing!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works for me. Lol
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

I run mine @ 1.6ghz performance. Here's a better solution, invest in a backup battery =)
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Yeah I'm going to troll a thread like this everytime.
It's not a "solution" it's a "work around" A solution to a problem is not stop doing something that is supposed to work. It's fixing the problem so that everything works like it should.

Buying a top of the line smart phone and expecting great battery life, is like buying a Hummer for great gas mileage
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

SAShady said:
Buying a top of the line smart phone and expecting great battery life, is like buying a Hummer for great gas mileage
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One tank of gas can last 3 years in a hummer, just keep the keys in your pocket

Is anyone else trying to figure out what this bug is? While his work round is not that great at least we can find out what is causing the bug and maybe someone can fix it. Thanks op.
The Evo3D Killer!!!

Thanks for this thread!
I am far from being able to provide in depth troubleshooting, but if it helps anyone, here's my progress so far. Two things:
1. Before seeing this thread (without changing anything) I had the phone in airplane mode for about an hour in my pocket and when I checked the battery stats, for the entire time the phone was in airplane mode it was also awake. Screen off.
2. After reading this thread, instead of disabling the Google account, I just un-checked "sync" for everything except gmail in Accounts and Sync (so calendar, contacts, books, etc. doesn't sync unless I manually do it)
After about 2 hours with this setup, android OS battery usage has dropped way down.
Hope this helps someone!

Good grief, you people are so ungrateful it is amazing. The OP is not suggesting you will never be able to set up your Google account. He is trying to narrow down where the problem exists so effort can be focused there rather than other places mentioned like WiFi. This thread is for us to work together to find a solution.

MoMatt said:
Thanks for this thread!
I am far from being able to provide in depth troubleshooting, but if it helps anyone, here's my progress so far. Two things:
1. Before seeing this thread (without changing anything) I had the phone in airplane mode for about an hour in my pocket and when I checked the battery stats, for the entire time the phone was in airplane mode it was also awake. Screen off.
2. After reading this thread, instead of disabling the Google account, I just un-checked "sync" for everything except gmail in Accounts and Sync (so calendar, contacts, books, etc. doesn't sync unless I manually do it)
After about 2 hours with this setup, android OS battery usage has dropped way down.
Hope this helps someone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worked for me. I also re-enabled all of the syncs on google account and the problem has not returned, yet.

Related

[Q] Android mail eating battery! Please help!

This may have been addressed, but a search didn't reveal anything exactly like this. Please bear in mind that I'm an Android newbie!
I bought the Incredible 2 last Thursday. No rooting, nothing weird, still mostly stock. This morning it's running very slow, screen transitions jerky, etc. and even text based email takes minutes to open. I messed around in settings, and notice that Mail (com.htc.android.mail) is using 48% of my battery, more than twice what the screen is using! I force close, and the phone speeds right up, lag is gone, screen transitions smooth but, minutes later, Mail comes back on line and the phone goes to crap.
I've used more that 1/2 my battery in two hours. I notice that the uptime is 1 hr 58 minutes, and the awake time is 1 hr 44 minutes, so I assume that the mail app is also preventing the phone from sleeping.
Any advise will be greatly appreciated!!
This may sound obvious, but did you try resetting your phone? Turn fastboot off (settings > applications > click fastboot so it is unchecked) then kill mail, and before it has a chance to restart hold the power button, then shut down. The restart option might work, but for things like this I prefer a good old fashioned power down, power up. Anyways, power your phone back on by pushing the power button for two seconds or so. Then see how it goes. This is an error that I have not heard about, but a reset is a universal problem solver. If it doesn't work, tell us what kind of email accounts you have set up (pop, imap, exchange) and how many, and also the settings for checking the mail.
Hopefully the restart will fix it though.
Sent from my Incredible 2 with Xda app
Thanks! My limited Android knowledge told me to try a restart, but I actually didn't know how on the Incredible 2!!
Anyway, the problem went away for a couple hours, then came back!
I use a POP server for my work email, and gmail for personal. I really don't understand this, as nothing has changed since yesterday, but the phone has slowed to a crawl!
Try a third party email app. I don't know of any offhand as I only use gmail on my phone. My gmail account checks my imap account on another host so it's all together, and I can distinguish which account is which on the emails through gmail tags.
Umm I think this will require a factory reset, because you can't uninstall stock mail nor freeze it without root
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA App
You can temp root, and freeze the stock mail app if that is the way you decide to go. Instructions found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1068544. But that sounds more like something faulty with the software, because like I said, I have never heard of that happening before. I would take it back to Verizon, complain incessantly, and point out that you could have fixed it yourself if the phone had an unlocked bootloader
Do you have them set to check mail constantly, push, or are they on a delay? Can you use imap for work instead of pop? I have four accounts set up on mine, including an exchange, and three imap accounts. The fact that it just started happening leads me to believe something broke in the system, though. A factory reset and re-flash may indeed fix the problem. Also, do you have good 3g coverage most of the day? Check your time without signal under battery status in settings. Click on cell standby and it should give it to you. Or are you using wifi most of the day?
Sorry for the rambling questions, just writing stuff out as I think of it. Trying to narrow down what the problem could be.
Thanks, again.
I'm using the mail settings that the school requires, so can't change them. Currently set only to update when the app is opened.
I generally get good cellular reception at work, and I have wifi as well. I've been trying it with or without wifi today, with no changes. I'll try a reset and see if that helps.
I just mentioned trying another app because I don't see these problems and I do not have the stock mail app configured in any way.
RobWoodall said:
Thanks, again.
I'm using the mail settings that the school requires, so can't change them. Currently set only to update when the app is opened.
I generally get good cellular reception at work, and I have wifi as well. I've been trying it with or without wifi today, with no changes. I'll try a reset and see if that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Factory reset should probably fix it
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA App
RobWoodall said:
This may have been addressed, but a search didn't reveal anything exactly like this. Please bear in mind that I'm an Android newbie!
I bought the Incredible 2 last Thursday. No rooting, nothing weird, still mostly stock. This morning it's running very slow, screen transitions jerky, etc. and even text based email takes minutes to open. I messed around in settings, and notice that Mail (com.htc.android.mail) is using 48% of my battery, more than twice what the screen is using! I force close, and the phone speeds right up, lag is gone, screen transitions smooth but, minutes later, Mail comes back on line and the phone goes to crap.
I've used more that 1/2 my battery in two hours. I notice that the uptime is 1 hr 58 minutes, and the awake time is 1 hr 44 minutes, so I assume that the mail app is also preventing the phone from sleeping.
Any advise will be greatly appreciated!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had the Inc 1 and now the two. I've always turned off the (auto sync) this would require yyou to open your mail and manually refresh or of you use the sync all widget it works that was as well. Seems to save a ton of battery only drawback being you have to manually check it. Ie. No mail notifications. Just a thought maybe you want to give it a shot.
Thanks, everyone. Using a combination of all your advise, the problem is resolved. I factory reset the phone, then installed only my gmail account. This worked fine all of yesterday, so I finally got off my butt and learned how to use gmail to read and send my work email last night. That seems to be working well. I'm still getting email notifications, but gmail is only using 3% of my battery, as opposed to the 48% that Android mail was using.
Still don't know what caused the trouble, but I'm very pleased with the solution.
Thanks again!!
Email battery problem also on Nexus S
I have also the problem that the standard email is consuming the biggest part of the battery - mostly over 50%. I use an exchange account and a pop email, but both not synchronized automatically (manual sync interval), and I do not use them so often - max. one sync a day...
Anyone an idea how to improve this?
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A
HTC mail has always been a battery drainer for me. I just use the Gmail app.
AgalychnisCallidryas said:
HTC mail has always been a battery drainer for me. I just use the Gmail app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or k9 mail....just set the settings to update manually...
Gmail is the only non battery hog.
Sent from my Incredible 2 using xda premium
K-9 Mail
I had also the problem (as mentioned above) with the standard android email programm and a so related short battery life. Since I deleted all email configurations there and installed K-9 mail client instead, battery life improved a lot. Before I could use my phone about 2 days, now it lasts for around 5-6 days...

[SOLUTION] Anyone having crazy battery drain, turn off your EXCHANGE EMAIL!!!

Although a lot of people here are claiming that they get great battery life off this phone, especially with custom ROMs and all kinds of tweaks (SetCPU, Juice Defender, etc), I find my experience to be the contrary. My battery drains 8% with screen off, and 25% with light usage, no matter what tweaks I use. No I'm not kidding. I even removed all my user apps (so no facebook syncing no nothing) and bought a new OEM battery and NOTHING HELPS. And I do hear from time to time that there are minority of people like me who have this problem.
But finally with the hint from someone in another thread (thanks to him big time), I can confirm the real cause of this crazy drain is your EXCHANGE EMAIL!!!
Whoever with ridiculous battery drain, turn off your exchange email or set the sync option to "manual". This will solve your problem! After I set it to "manual" my battery only loses 1~2% per hour while screen off. A HUGE improvement. This problem has been driving me nuts ever since I first got this phone but now it's resolved.
Haha I remember reading about your frustrations with your battery life in your posts. Very glad that you found the solution. Enjoy your kick-ass battery life now.
Umm... some of us like our Exchange Email sync and are willing to carry multiple batteries and swap them as needed when Touchdown drains the pack dry...
FYI, this is also an applicable fix on most other phones, iphone included. Exchange push chews up a lot of mAh's...
ronin4740 said:
Umm... some of us like our Exchange Email sync and are willing to carry multiple batteries and swap them as needed when Touchdown drains the pack dry...
FYI, this is also an applicable fix on most other phones, iphone included. Exchange push chews up a lot of mAh's...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
10 chars.
What is exchange mail and how do I disable it?
I had similar issues and it was frustrating the heck out of me. I needed Exchange because my version from Telus did not include direct Hotmail account support. And the battery life was draining so fast I could watch it drop.
The solution is to download seven.apk which does include direct hotmail support. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=960269&page=14
Don't use the Market version of Official Hotmail created by Seven. It's a little bit buggy still and won't let you update or enter contact information.
i use K9 mail for Hotmail accounts
Microsoft opened up their POP and SMTP even for non premium users

Mail service (exchange) draining battery?

guys, I've recently noticed that mail_service (from exchange)wakelock drains my battery pretty badly, I've reset the account a few days back and enjoyed quite a bit of good battery life (like 1-2 hrs for 1%, with 3G/data on and auto sync off) for two days,but today the bug came back. I wonder any of you experience this?
There has been reports of battery drain and the Android OS not going to deep sleep properly. However, there's to many factors to take into account.
Some claim that opening and closing the camera app has something to do with it. (CMOS sensor is kept open and active)
fregor said:
There has been reports of battery drain and the Android OS not going to deep sleep properly. However, there's to many factors to take into account.
Some claim that opening and closing the camera app has something to do with it. (CMOS sensor is kept open and active)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my Android OS was at 30some%, the betterbatterystats showed mail_service contributed to over 50mins wakelocks while I set manual sync. I am afraid it's another bug that android has.
exchange sucks when it comes to battery life, but I think it's more a protocol thing than an app thing. I did battery tests ages ago on my nexus one, and found exchange sucked up more battery/h than gmail/gtalk/facebook/+++ (basically everything else + phone idle) did combined.
Note that if you dont have exchange on push sync some exchange servers will require a full refresh when you connect. So it'll suck up more battery to sync every hour than having push notifications on. (Although exchange push requires a continously connected encrypted session... which isn't great for battery life either).
nurre said:
exchange sucks when it comes to battery life, but I think it's more a protocol thing than an app thing. I did battery tests ages ago on my nexus one, and found exchange sucked up more battery/h than gmail/gtalk/facebook/+++ (basically everything else + phone idle) did combined.
Note that if you dont have exchange on push sync some exchange servers will require a full refresh when you connect. So it'll suck up more battery to sync every hour than having push notifications on. (Although exchange push requires a continously connected encrypted session... which isn't great for battery life either).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using exchange since I got my Desire and GS2, but neither one had problem with exchange draining battery (which I didn't find it from betterbatterystats), and even for Galaxy Nexus, this bug is on and off, I hope there's a solution for that
hongkongtom said:
I've been using exchange since I got my Desire and GS2, but neither one had problem with exchange draining battery (which I didn't find it from betterbatterystats), and even for Galaxy Nexus, this bug is on and off, I hope there's a solution for that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It never showed up in the battery stats for anything. But if I disabled exchange and left it overnight I'd have WAY better battery/h than I did if I left it on.
nurre said:
It never showed up in the battery stats for anything. But if I disabled exchange and left it overnight I'd have WAY better battery/h than I did if I left it on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For disable do u mean freeze/ remove account/ stop auto sync?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
ICL53F
4.0.2
Rooted
Stock rom & Recovery
hongkongtom said:
For disable do u mean freeze/ remove account/ stop auto sync?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
ICL53F
4.0.2
Rooted
Stock rom & Recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I removed the account, just to be certain it wasn't doing anything. When I added the exchange account I noticed a quite bad drop in battery time, even though it never showed anywhere. So I tested it overnight tons of times with different settings. And the thing that helped me improve my battery time more than anything else was removing exchange.
nurre said:
I removed the account, just to be certain it wasn't doing anything. When I added the exchange account I noticed a quite bad drop in battery time, even though it never showed anywhere. So I tested it overnight tons of times with different settings. And the thing that helped me improve my battery time more than anything else was removing exchange.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, that sucks, i need my exchange to get through my job, when exchange is behaving well, i got quite good battery life with 1% drop with 1-2hrs with no tweak (stock 4.0.2), now when exchange bug kicks in 1% would drop in around 15min. i can believe Google can still let it happen when we are already in its 4.0
I had this problem using Enhanced Email, and was able to resolve it by disabling calendar sync for the exchange account. As I understand Enhanced Email to be pretty similar to the stock email application, perhaps you might give that a try and see if it improves the situation.
I suspect the battery usage and best settings depend heavily on exchange server types as well. So do your own testing on this
TheJ0hnman said:
I had this problem using Enhanced Email, and was able to resolve it by disabling calendar sync for the exchange account. As I understand Enhanced Email to be pretty similar to the stock email application, perhaps you might give that a try and see if it improves the situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried Enhanced Email and seems it doesn't support calendar sync fot 4.0 just yet. and i really do need calendar sync for my job.
actually, i also bought Touchdown, but too bad that it can't be integrated into phone's calendar, and the calendar viewing is suck for TD. (i really got spoiled by Calendar Pad / Jorte which can display individual events under month view.)
nurre said:
I suspect the battery usage and best settings depend heavily on exchange server types as well. So do your own testing on this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think so too, but i think if i set manual sync the app shouldn't have that much of wake locks which keep my phone awake which drains battery.
I had my exchange account set to only sync email. I also set the check frequency to manual... the exchange service would still suck up a ton of battery. Every few hours I would receive a notification of new email for my exchange account. WTF? Why was it syncing in the background when I had sync set to manual..?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
NPuter said:
I had my exchange account set to only sync email. I also set the check frequency to manual... the exchange service would still suck up a ton of battery. Every few hours I would receive a notification of new email for my exchange account. WTF? Why was it syncing in the background when I had sync set to manual..?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are u using the stock app? I never have this problem you mentioned at the second part.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
ICL53F
4.0.2
Rooted & CWM
Stock rom
I had that bug so I removed and re-added my work exchange account and the CPU usage went away after a couple hours of syncing.
Then I downloaded touchdown and haven't gone back to the stock android email client.
Erukian said:
I had that bug so I removed and re-added my work exchange account and the CPU usage went away after a couple hours of syncing.
Then I downloaded touchdown and haven't gone back to the stock android email client.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I don't understand ur first part? So it had gone to normal after a few hours of syncing you mean?
Done more testing yesterday, after a 12hr working day (no emailing on phone but few calendars added/editted,all time 3G & data on ) , the exchange caused around 500 partial wakelocks (spent around 10min in total) reported by betterbatterystats, causing my phone to drop 1% in around 30min which I've undervolted using JameBond 1.2-307.
Yet, when I got home, I switched to my home Wi-Fi and found that the wakelocks were much less and my battery dropped 1% in around 1.5 to 2hr.
Don't know if the network status from 3G triggered the exchange to drain power from wakelocking.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
ICL53F (JameBond 1.2/307)
4.0.2
Rooted & CWM
Stock rom
hongkongtom said:
Sorry I don't understand ur first part? So it had gone to normal after a few hours of syncing you mean?
Done more testing yesterday, after a 12hr working day (no emailing on phone but few calendars added/editted,all time 3G & data on ) , the exchange caused around 500 partial wakelocks (spent around 10min in total) reported by betterbatterystats, causing my phone to drop 1% in around 30min which I've undervolted using JameBond 1.2-307.
Yet, when I got home, I switched to my home Wi-Fi and found that the wakelocks were much less and my battery dropped 1% in around 1.5 to 2hr.
Don't know if the network status from 3G triggered the exchange to drain power from wakelocking.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
ICL53F (JameBond 1.2/307)
4.0.2
Rooted & CWM
Stock rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your undervolted then your battery readout is incorrect anyway. Your battery meter isn't displaying actual battery capacity, it's estimating it based on a scale of power consumption @ X mhz of processor speed within an actual timeframe.
When you undervolt, there's no reference point. Your battery display is somewhat useless. It's why often times the last 10% @ idle seems to last forever.
I have high battery usage from Exchange. It's been a concern of mine for some time. Glad to see others noticing the same thing.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
I am connected to two different Exchange accounts, one 2007 server and one 2010 server. Both set to automatic push. Battery life has been excellent with this phone and getting better. Yesterday, with several phone calls, emails, etc. I clocked in at 1 day 7 hours before I hit the 14% warning threshold.

Facebook keeping tabs on calls and sms via FB app? (Creepy!)

For a while now I've been weirded out with some of Facebook's friend suggestions that pop up on the right (desktop), because it's putting customers of mine up there that I have never corresponded with via FB or email, basically only by phone or text. And the timing was always crazy because I would work at their house or talk to them on the phone and the next day they would come up as a suggestion. Well last night I spoke with an old colleague of mine on the phone that I haven't spoken to in about a year and today I go to my profile and sure enough, he's at the very top of my friends list. I have come to the conclusion that the FB app on our phones MUST be keeping tabs of who we are talking to and making the suggestions based on that information, and god knows what else they are doing with that info. How else can this be explained? It is the only explanation that I can think of. Checking the permissions of the app, it DOES have the ability to check pretty much everything we do on our phones.
Has anybody else noticed anything like this going on?
I'm only surprised that you're surprised. I assumed this was true without even using the app.
I guess I'm not surprised but I didn't think they dug that deep into our privacy. Nowhere is it disclosed that they use that information for anything, and when I google it I find people posting about similar findings as me but never anything official from Facebook.
Permissions Denied can block most of those! It still bugs me that GPS can't be blocked without crashing the app, though (even if you've turned off posting with location).
PDroid seems to be a good option for those with Cyanogen, but it's not available for my E4GT. Anybody have a moment to put together a PDroid patch for Calkulin's ROM?
Thank you for that, pinandstutter! I use AdBlock, NoScript and Peerblock on my PC for these exact reasons. I didn't know something like this was available for my phone.
Quite frankly FB is a sack of scuzzbags.

Question Phone hacked detection

Good morning everyone,
I am not super tech savvy, and need some help. I truly believe that my phone is somehow hacked, here is the situation:
My significant other and I are going through a break up in court,
She seems to know what I am saying in real time, often mentioning in it later that day or the next day; She seems to know what I am google searching, and even possibly what photos I have taken.
When I put my phone in airplane mode a few times, I could tell, even though she would have no idea that I put it in airplane mode, she freaked out by texting me repeatedly as if she was trying to get me to respond to pick up my signal or something.
Could she have hired someone from the dark web or something and they have hacked or cloned my phone?
The program I have for security is Avast.
Is there anything I can do other than trading my fold 3 in for the fold 4 to completely gain confidence I am not being spied on? I know that she would go to any extreme to find out what I am doing, her whole family is schizo like that and I am really worried, I just want to have the piece of mind my phone is safe, and as of now I dont trust it, or anything else electronic in my house.
Any comments or suggestions are truly appreciated and welcomed.
Check Google account for any unauthorized logins.
Backup all critical data, remove Google and Samsung accounts from phone.
Factory reset from settings, then reset your Google account password. Done.
Be careful what you install and don't let others use the device or connect foreign flash drives to it. Do Not install or use trash sites like WhatsApp, FB, Tiktok, etc.
blackhawk said:
Check Google account for any unauthorized logins.
Backup all critical data, remove Google and Samsung accounts from phone.
Factory reset from settings, then reset your Google account password. Done.
Be careful what you install and don't let others use the device or connect foreign flash drives to it. Do Not install or use trash sites like WhatsApp, FB, Tiktok, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree completely with the recommendation that you do the factory reset. And if you have access to a laptop or computer-- or any other device: use a web browser to change Google and Samsung passwords. Also if you use any other email provider, chat apps change those passwords too.
eliniko said:
Good morning everyone,
I am not super tech savvy, and need some help. I truly believe that my phone is somehow hacked, here is the situation:
My significant other and I are going through a break up in court,
She seems to know what I am saying in real time, often mentioning in it later that day or the next day; She seems to know what I am google searching, and even possibly what photos I have taken.
When I put my phone in airplane mode a few times, I could tell, even though she would have no idea that I put it in airplane mode, she freaked out by texting me repeatedly as if she was trying to get me to respond to pick up my signal or something.
Could she have hired someone from the dark web or something and they have hacked or cloned my phone?
The program I have for security is Avast.
Is there anything I can do other than trading my fold 3 in for the fold 4 to completely gain confidence I am not being spied on? I know that she would go to any extreme to find out what I am doing, her whole family is schizo like that and I am really worried, I just want to have the piece of mind my phone is safe, and as of now I dont trust it, or anything else electronic in my house.
Any comments or suggestions are truly appreciated and welcomed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree completely with the recommendation that you do the factory reset. And if you have access to a laptop or computer-- or any other device (not the phone in question): use a web browser to change Google and Samsung passwords. Also if you use any other email provider, chat apps change those passwords too.
---------------------------------------------------------
Yeah in this case I would say she definitely somehow has access to your Google account. Your best bet is to first go through and remove any recovery email / phone numbers you don't recognize from your account and then do a factory reset of your current device, if you want to go further you could reflash Android onto the device using ODIN but that does take some knowhow. Also check for any unrecognized apps on your device, as simply having access to your backups will not give her instant access to what you said so my best guess is that she has your passwords.
eliniko said:
When I put my phone in airplane mode a few times, I could tell, even though she would have no idea that I put it in airplane mode, she freaked out by texting me repeatedly as if she was trying to get me to respond to pick up my signal or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you receive any messages when in airplane mode?
eliniko said:
The program I have for security is Avast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can deinstall it. It's worthless.
WoKoschekk said:
You can deinstall it. It's worthless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, you can tell I dont know anything, can you tell me what program/app can scan my phone?
WoKoschekk said:
How do you receive any messages when in airplane mode?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they all come through in a flurry when I switch my phone back on. I turn it on in airplane mode when I have my son with me, this is what I am most concerned about is she is spying on me for.
eliniko said:
thanks, you can tell I dont know anything, can you tell me what program/app can scan my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
brain.exe! An anti virus app compares your installed packages (apps) with a black list on its home server. Is there a match => show a warning screen. The problem here is that it's no problem to install a package with a random generated name (Magisk users should know what I mean). So you have no chance to detect it. And that's only one method to bypass your anti virus.
Afraid of unknown apps? Check your installed apps either in your device settings or by checking the folder /data/app which is accessible without root permissions. Every app for Android has to store its APK in this directory or otherwise it is not executable.
Apart from that a Google account must be secured by at least 2FA. This is the minimum to secure your data. Find it in your Google settings. There is also listed which devices are currently logged in.
Messenger apps can't be installed with your account on 2 or more different devices without a warning or without being uninstalled on the first device. Additionally you need a verification for that which will be sent to your mobile no.
Spying on a device also means permanent data traffic. Did you check your device settings if any app shows irregular high data traffic?
eliniko said:
Good morning everyone,
I am not super tech savvy, and need some help. I truly believe that my phone is somehow hacked, here is the situation:
My significant other and I are going through a break up in court,
She seems to know what I am saying in real time, often mentioning in it later that day or the next day; She seems to know what I am google searching, and even possibly what photos I have taken.
When I put my phone in airplane mode a few times, I could tell, even though she would have no idea that I put it in airplane mode, she freaked out by texting me repeatedly as if she was trying to get me to respond to pick up my signal or something.
Could she have hired someone from the dark web or something and they have hacked or cloned my phone?
The program I have for security is Avast.
Is there anything I can do other than trading my fold 3 in for the fold 4 to completely gain confidence I am not being spied on? I know that she would go to any extreme to find out what I am doing, her whole family is schizo like that and I am really worried, I just want to have the piece of mind my phone is safe, and as of now I dont trust it, or anything else electronic in my house.
Any comments or suggestions are truly appreciated and welcomed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry to hear you are going through this. A friend of mine went through something similar. His ex had connections to email accounts and online messaging accounts by password spoofing and other means and might have had some help knowing what passwords he used or like to use. He was alerted of random locations of unauthorized access to gmail and yahoo many many times, he sent them to me along with other chat messages from things she wouldn't know unless she or someone was watching him. I believed his vehicle or phone had been tracked by gps but we never found anything. His ex knew stuff that didn't make sense and where he was were as if he was being watched, and I'm also positive he was being watched. They were living together during court for a 3 months and then separated. I told him to stop using all the online chats, reset phone and change passwords. And he did, but he was still being tracked. I said either they put in some gps tracking device like an apple air tag or cheap gps tracker or a recording device somewhere or had someone watching him. I told him to buy a temp phone with new number and he did and communicate with only a handful of people he 100% trusted and left his main phone at home most of time until the court stuff was over. He thought she had connections to a law enforcement detective. I said anything is possible. Talk about being paranoid. I went through most of it with him. He also bought a new computer and after a new phone and trading in his car, yes, he did all three. I thought he shouldn't have to go that far but there was a lot crazy stuff going that didn't make sense. So after he did those things and also got a secure place of his own, and bought video cameras for his car and house, she went completely was clueless...but also turned crazy agitated and annoying. There's so much more but its amazing what lengths some people will go to on both ends.
Oh I forgot to add she or someone had attached random different emails to two of his accounts for backup emails. He sent me pictures. I believe that is for an alternative login and forget password. So even if you changed it she could still get access. So check that too!
Do you have separate phone accounts or on the same plan? Hopefully separate or she could be accessing your mobile account.
Is she using Android or iPhone?
You can care or not care about it, but I say do what makes you feel safe and comfortable.
Definitely start with what Blackhawk wrote!
I'm so sorry to ramble on, your post just made me think of that and all the horrible stuff she did to my friend.
One day at a time my friend, it will get better!
I wish you the best of luck!
defcondoc said:
I'm sorry to hear you are going through this. A friend of mine went through something similar. His ex had connections to email accounts and online messaging accounts by password spoofing and other means and might have had some help knowing what passwords he used or like to use. He was alerted of random locations of unauthorized access to gmail and yahoo many many times, he sent them to me along with other chat messages from things she wouldn't know unless she or someone was watching him. I believed his vehicle or phone had been tracked by gps but we never found anything. His ex knew stuff that didn't make sense and where he was were as if he was being watched, and I'm also positive he was being watched. They were living together during court for a 3 months and then separated. I told him to stop using all the online chats, reset phone and change passwords. And he did, but he was still being tracked. I said either they put in some gps tracking device like an apple air tag or cheap gps tracker or a recording device somewhere or had someone watching him. I told him to buy a temp phone with new number and he did and communicate with only a handful of people he 100% trusted and left his main phone at home most of time until the court stuff was over. He thought she had connections to a law enforcement detective. I said anything is possible. Talk about being paranoid. I went through most of it with him. He also bought a new computer and after a new phone and trading in his car, yes, he did all three. I thought he shouldn't have to go that far but there was a lot crazy stuff going that didn't make sense. So after he did those things and also got a secure place of his own, and bought video cameras for his car and house, she went completely was clueless...but also turned crazy agitated and annoying. There's so much more but its amazing what lengths some people will go to on both ends.
Oh I forgot to add she or someone had attached random different emails to two of his accounts for backup emails. He sent me pictures. I believe that is for an alternative login and forget password. So even if you changed it she could still get access. So check that too!
Do you have separate phone accounts or on the same plan? Hopefully separate or she could be accessing your mobile account.
Is she using Android or iPhone?
You can care or not care about it, but I say do what makes you feel safe and comfortable.
Definitely start with what Blackhawk wrote!
I'm so sorry to ramble on, your post just made me think of that and all the horrible stuff she did to my friend.
One day at a time my friend, it will get better!
I wish you the best of luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, this is exactly happening to me. I believe she has seen photos either from google photos or on my phone, although I dont know how she could access, as well as a critical timeline of texts have just disappeared, I have no idea how to recover them, only her texts on the text app on the fold 3 phone have disappeared, a 2 month block of our conversations, I dont know how to e tthem back, I tried reinstalling my back up, but those messages are gone, even in my samsung back up and google back up, any idea how I could have my phone professionally recover those messages, i am willing to pay whatever amount, i really need those messages for court.....any ideas? I will pay for someone to try...
What happened was, she had my phone for like an hour (before the breakup) and I noticed days later those messages gone, then came the break up, seperation, court order, etc.....it is a true nightmare that was thought out by her. I know her brother stalked his girlfriend with a gps tracker, broke into her email, facebook, etc, so i know she used his know how to do the same.
Any ideas on how to ge tthose messages back? I would be extremely grateful to get those...
You should not forget that this person was part of your life for a long time. She knows a lot of your habits in daily life and there are a lot of people knowing both of you. One of them might see you somewhere and the next day this person meets your Ex and they talk about it. You can get a lot of information about a person even without having access to his/her mobile phone, accounts and so on. Sometimes you only see what you want ro see. Especially in such a challenging situation like a separation. Often you realized it by yourself when some time is passed and you have enough distance to it.
eliniko said:
Thanks, this is exactly happening to me. I believe she has seen photos either from google photos or on my phone, although I dont know how she could access, as well as a critical timeline of texts have just disappeared, I have no idea how to recover them, only her texts on the text app on the fold 3 phone have disappeared, a 2 month block of our conversations, I dont know how to e tthem back, I tried reinstalling my back up, but those messages are gone, even in my samsung back up and google back up, any idea how I could have my phone professionally recover those messages, i am willing to pay whatever amount, i really need those messages for court.....any ideas? I will pay for someone to try...
What happened was, she had my phone for like an hour (before the breakup) and I noticed days later those messages gone, then came the break up, seperation, court order, etc.....it is a true nightmare that was thought out by her. I know her brother stalked his girlfriend with a gps tracker, broke into her email, facebook, etc, so i know she used his know how to do the same.
Any ideas on how to ge tthose messages back? I would be extremely grateful to get those...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh ha, now this is definitely making more sense. So the actual SMS MMS text app? Only way to get messages back aside from a backup would be from the carrier, AFIK. I believe there is android recovery software that may be able to recover deleted messages.
defcondoc said:
Ahh ha, now this is definitely making more sense. So the actual SMS MMS text app? Only way to get messages back aside from a backup would be from the carrier, AFIK. I believe there is android recovery software that may be able to recover deleted messages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, the SMS. I would have no idea how to contact them, I had Infinity at the time that the texts were sent, so would they even have those texts?
eliniko said:
Yes, the SMS. I would have no idea how to contact them, I had Infinity at the time that the texts were sent, so would they even have those texts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok. I don't know Infinity, but I believe you would need to open a case with them and file a court order with other carriers. I would give them a call and ask technical support and customer relations on how you would go about getting those back. Do you have date and time when they were sent? They might need that specific information. Your attorney may have experience with this.
defcondoc said:
I'm sorry to hear you are going through this. A friend of mine went through something similar. His ex had connections to email accounts and online messaging accounts by password spoofing and other means and might have had some help knowing what passwords he used or like to use. He was alerted of random locations of unauthorized access to gmail and yahoo many many times, he sent them to me along with other chat messages from things she wouldn't know unless she or someone was watching him. I believed his vehicle or phone had been tracked by gps but we never found anything. His ex knew stuff that didn't make sense and where he was were as if he was being watched, and I'm also positive he was being watched. They were living together during court for a 3 months and then separated. I told him to stop using all the online chats, reset phone and change passwords. And he did, but he was still being tracked. I said either they put in some gps tracking device like an apple air tag or cheap gps tracker or a recording device somewhere or had someone watching him. I told him to buy a temp phone with new number and he did and communicate with only a handful of people he 100% trusted and left his main phone at home most of time until the court stuff was over. He thought she had connections to a law enforcement detective. I said anything is possible. Talk about being paranoid. I went through most of it with him. He also bought a new computer and after a new phone and trading in his car, yes, he did all three. I thought he shouldn't have to go that far but there was a lot crazy stuff going that didn't make sense. So after he did those things and also got a secure place of his own, and bought video cameras for his car and house, she went completely was clueless...but also turned crazy agitated and annoying. There's so much more but its amazing what lengths some people will go to on both ends.
Oh I forgot to add she or someone had attached random different emails to two of his accounts for backup emails. He sent me pictures. I believe that is for an alternative login and forget password. So even if you changed it she could still get access. So check that too!
Do you have separate phone accounts or on the same plan? Hopefully separate or she could be accessing your mobile account.
Is she using Android or iPhone?
You can care or not care about it, but I say do what makes you feel safe and comfortable.
Definitely start with what Blackhawk wrote!
I'm so sorry to ramble on, your post just made me think of that and all the horrible stuff she did to my friend.
One day at a time my friend, it will get better!
I wish you the best of luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stop goofing around with the runt and play hardball. Let the pros handle it. They have tools and methods that would make your head spin like Linda Blair.
&
Gps tracking device on car or other personal belonging. Relax. Sit back and look at the clues, find the cause(s), plug the leaks. Better yet, let the FBI build a case and do as directed... federal crimes will put someone deep in the hurt locker.
You could actually use this situation to your advantage, for a while, you could email/text things that would really make her happy/sad/angry/jealous etc when bored with that do the above wipe recommendations!
eliniko said:
Good morning everyone,
I am not super tech savvy, and need some help. I truly believe that my phone is somehow hacked, here is the situation:
My significant other and I are going through a break up in court,
She seems to know what I am saying in real time, often mentioning in it later that day or the next day; She seems to know what I am google searching, and even possibly what photos I have taken.
When I put my phone in airplane mode a few times, I could tell, even though she would have no idea that I put it in airplane mode, she freaked out by texting me repeatedly as if she was trying to get me to respond to pick up my signal or something.
Could she have hired someone from the dark web or something and they have hacked or cloned my phone?
The program I have for security is Avast.
Is there anything I can do other than trading my fold 3 in for the fold 4 to completely gain confidence I am not being spied on? I know that she would go to any extreme to find out what I am doing, her whole family is schizo like that and I am really worried, I just want to have the piece of mind my phone is safe, and as of now I dont trust it, or anything else electronic in my house.
Any comments or suggestions are truly appreciated and welcomed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The likelihood of your phone being hacked is really quite low. if you're truly concerned however, factory reset your phone, start from scratch, don't restore backups.
The main thing I'm certain you need to do is go and change all of your account passwords. If the account offers it, tell it to "force sign out everywhere"
Turn on 2 factor authentication, ideally not using a phone or email that she would know about.
Start here:
Account settings: Your browser is not supported.
myaccount.google.com
What to do if an unknown sign in or hacking attempt is found
FAQ for Samsung mobile devices. Find more about Continue watching videos after leaving Samsung TV Plus with Samsung Support
www.samsung.com
Goes without saying, go change facebook passwords, twitter, all your socials. change everything.
eliniko said:
Good morning everyone,
I am not super tech savvy, and need some help. I truly believe that my phone is somehow hacked, here is the situation:
My significant other and I are going through a break up in court,
She seems to know what I am saying in real time, often mentioning in it later that day or the next day; She seems to know what I am google searching, and even possibly what photos I have taken.
When I put my phone in airplane mode a few times, I could tell, even though she would have no idea that I put it in airplane mode, she freaked out by texting me repeatedly as if she was trying to get me to respond to pick up my signal or something.
Could she have hired someone from the dark web or something and they have hacked or cloned my phone?
The program I have for security is Avast.
Is there anything I can do other than trading my fold 3 in for the fold 4 to completely gain confidence I am not being spied on? I know that she would go to any extreme to find out what I am doing, her whole family is schizo like that and I am really worried, I just want to have the piece of mind my phone is safe, and as of now I dont trust it, or anything else electronic in my house.
Any comments or suggestions are truly appreciated and welcomed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you should change your phone and SIM card?

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