Develop Bugs

Missing apps in the Play Store?

Did a search and found some similar issues but mine seems a little different, so here goes:
This happened before when I was on the Darkstar ROM, switched to CM9 and it worked fine for weeks, until now. My list of installed apps in the store suddenly went from 82 to 36. The apps that are missing now say they are not compatible with my device. Also, the Movies button on the main store page is just gone, there's a blank space where it was.
I'm guessing for some reason the phone isn't being recognized as an Epic Touch. It's odd because this happened just in the middle of the day, I hadn't been doing anything weird and I hadn't just rebooted. I've tried unlinking my Google account and signing back in again but that didn't change anything. Anyone have an idea how to fix this? Any help is appreciated!

If you can download (or already have) Titanium Backup, you could try the Market Doctor and see if it will relink the apps.
<JacK>

jackwrabbit said:
If you can download (or already have) Titanium Backup, you could try the Market Doctor and see if it will relink the apps.
<JacK>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gave it a shot but unfortunately that didn't fix it. But thanks for the idea!
I think the main problem here is that for some reason the store sees my phone as something other than what it is. I'm not quite skilled enough to troubleshoot or fix this myself though. Any other suggestions are more than welcome!

Try using Device Spoofer on the Play store to spoof your own device. Just reboot and down load 1 free app for it to register the new device. Reboot and check your market again.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Sent on Nocturnal Venum 1.2 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5

I had the exact same problem... and I tried the spoofer and it didn't work.
1st make sure your screen res is native.. i think it's 240
2nd the only way I found to get them back was to pull the .apk's from another backup I had on my desktop and then sideload them all... they work fine now.. but not sure about updating them..
hope that helps

Just remembered that I had the same thing happen the first time I installed ICS, the market said that Astro's key wasn't compatible with my phone. I had to go back to GB to get it to work. I think it is something to do with the screen res and the version because changing the resolution can make it do the same thing.
<JacK>

The problem is most likely that you've changed the screen resolution. You can set the resolution back to default and download programs or the easier fix although i believe it is not free is to download lcd modder pro. It fakes a lower resolution for market so that all the apps show up again.

Could be the screen res but what about those with this issue who have never changed their screen res? My wife and I could have the exact same roms however, hers will DL any app and mine will show a lot of apps being incompatible.
I've gotten on the play store on a computer and even though it's showing my phone as the SPH-D710 the app will still say it's not compatible. I think the issue is with the app store - even before the update it existed.

Same here
I'm having the same issue and noticed it wasn't an issue until I started flashing leaked ICS builds. I generally stick to sfhubs one click releases. Changing the screen rez back to stock didn't help either and the restore in TB didn't do anything.
It's annoying that the market hides apps that won't work on the phone but it'll show the result on the web site and list as incompatible. I'm not a fan of that sort of hand holding. I bet if I flash back to ginger it'll be fine.
Ug, I miss my nexus. I'll never go back to a none nexus android phone again. I don't care if the specs are better.

After changing the resolution back to 240, go to settings > applications > all
Force stop, clear cache, clear data for both Google Shopper and Google Services Framework.
Then reboot and open play store and agree to TOS (you should see YouTube/videos in the list of TOS if you did it all right).
After that, you can change your dpi back and reboot.
I tend to have this same problem and notice that the Movies/Videos option goes missing the same time I start having the problems.
Sent from my Epic 4G Touch - Sticking with GB until Sammy gets their act straight!

check your build.prop file and see what the device name is. You can always download rom toolbox and change it to whatever you need

YES!
feyrune said:
After changing the resolution back to 240, go to settings > applications > all
Force stop, clear cache, clear data for both Google Shopper and Google Services Framework.
Then reboot and open play store and agree to TOS (you should see YouTube/videos in the list of TOS if you did it all right).
After that, you can change your dpi back and reboot.
I tend to have this same problem and notice that the Movies/Videos option goes missing the same time I start having the problems.
Sent from my Epic 4G Touch - Sticking with GB until Sammy gets their act straight!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude, that was it exactly. I force closed/clear data on the Google play store service and the Google services framework; tis all fixed now! Nice trick. I'm gonna remember to do that next time I need to run a full titanium backup as well.
check your build.prop file and see what the device name is. You can always download rom toolbox and change it to whatever you need
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You referring to the ro.build.product? It says SPH-710 now, I'll have to check it when it breaks the links again and try editing that before clearing data and such. For the curiosities and giggle ****s. Rom toolbox is really handy. Thank ya.

Apps crashing and scroll lagging - anything specific in Note 3 that caused this?

I am coming from Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 and I have installed many apps with no issues. When I moved to Note 3, the same apps that were running just fine in the Nexus 5 and 7 start to have problem:
- Apps opened up, perform certain activity, crashed
- Apps opened up, vertical and horizontal scrolling is really laggy
These apps are like Pocket Informant (calendar app), Pocket Money (financial app), and Shiprack (package tracking), just to name a few.
Seeing all these apps functions well in the Nexus series, the problem seems to point to something within the Note 3.
I am rooted, stock, Knox is NOT tripped. I turned off all animation (0) in the Developer settings. I frozen some built-in apps (see below). Is there anything in Note 3 that I need to UNFROZE or anything I need to do to fix this problem? It's kinda hard to like the Note 3 when the same apps that works well in other phone just quit working...
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

You froze over 70 apps off the stock ROM? I have at most 20 and don't have the issues you are having. Guess you froze something that is needed.

krelvinaz said:
You froze over 70 apps off the stock ROM? I have at most 20 and don't have the issues you are having. Guess you froze something that is needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, many of these are widgets, or things like Google+, which I froze in my old Nexus phone and tablet with no issue.
I scrutinized each app that I froze to figure out what are its function to make sure it won't cause problem. But it seems something is tied with TouchWiz or vice versa. For example, if i turned off animation, rearranging apps in folder sometimes crash TouchWiz, which is bizarre by itself.
Do you mind letting me know which apps did you freeze? Screenshot is appreciated.

Attached

krelvinaz said:
Attached
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, Man! Sorry for the delay in replying, the new Tapatalk notification screen is not very intuitive. I.e. now I see each post instead of the forum title, so i got a bazillion entries...
Anyhow, could you repost the image? It didn't show in the forum.

It is in your reply above. I can see it fine. Using tapatalk 4

Looks like AdAway is blocking tapatalk image hosting... that's interesting...
Anyways, I can see it from my desktop. Looks like you use many of Samsung apps (Cloud, Backup, Group Play, etc.) since those were not frozen.
I am going to unfroze Samsung stuff to see if it make any different...

lanwarrior said:
... Looks like you use many of Samsung apps (Cloud, Backup, Group Play, etc.) since those were not frozen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use them, but they have not been a bother. I only freeze apps that cause problems, like Knox, or snoop around like the T-Mobile app.

krelvinaz said:
I don't use them, but they have not been a bother. I only freeze apps that cause problems, like Knox, or snoop around like the T-Mobile app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about battery life? Don't those stuff keeps running in the background?

If I do a hard reset, will:
- all frozen apps are unfrozen?
- all xposed module uninstalled and system settings like battery icon reverted back?
I am rooted, stock with no KNOX trip
I may have to do this to fix the issues I am having.

lanwarrior said:
If I do a hard reset, will:
- all frozen apps are unfrozen?
- all xposed module uninstalled and system settings like battery icon reverted back?
I am rooted, stock with no KNOX trip
I may have to do this to fix the issues I am having.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just unfreeze everything. Just remember, Nexus means pure AOSP. Samsung means TouchWiz, which has a ton of things needed to run "correctly."
Sent from my SM-N900T using xda app-developers app

lanwarrior said:
How about battery life? Don't those stuff keeps running in the background?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just because something is running in background doesn't mean it is using the battery. This phone has lot of memory compared with most so for the most part it doesn't really matter.
Things that use the battery a lot are apps that use the Radio, actively use GPS and bluetooth being on. I only have BT on when I am using it in the truck. I always have GPS on because I don't use many apps that actively use it (Google maps uses it when you are navigating or have it active on the screen, but stops using it when you put it in the background).
Battery life is really in hands of the user and how they use their phone and what apps they choose to use.
For me, I get typical 15hrs of life in my phone (that would be down to the 20's% area) which is more than adequate for me.
I don't have time to play games and my phone is required for business so if the phone doesn't ring when someone calls, notify me when a page comes in or I cant make a call when I need to or access data that I need to access, it is useless to me.
As a result, I don't load different roms, play with kernals and do a lot of tweaking because that typically ends up with something not working.
I do have the ability to quick charge my phone at just about every where I go. So if I know I am going somewhere where I will be hanging out for a long time, I can do a quick charge to make sure I can do it. My truck, each computer station at work and home has 2amp charging available which charges as quick as the original charger that comes with the phone. I rarely need to do that however.
When I rooted for 4.4.2 I blew the Knox flag. No longer cared. At one time I thought I might need it for work but that is not going to be the case and I am confident that if I have a real hardware issue it will be covered with the coverage that I have on the phone.

Shawn said:
Just unfreeze everything. Just remember, Nexus means pure AOSP. Samsung means TouchWiz, which has a ton of things needed to run "correctly."
Sent from my SM-N900T using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I have done that, but some issues still happen, namely the apps that I use. It could be just the apps, but I am trying to narrow down the problem.
I have used Samsung phone before (Galaxy Note 1 and S4 Active) and even HTC phone. Freezing built-in apps never caused this kind of issue (3rd party apps from Google Play crashed), as long as I don't freeze those I know is essential (for example, I won't freeze "Phone" or "Touchwiz"). If you see from my screenshot above, although I freeze a lot of apps, most are widgets and apps like Google Music, etc.
However, It seems that with Note 3, Samsung make Touchwiz more integrated.

[UPDATE]
Unfreezing ALL the apps I previously froze did not fix the problem. I rebooted, pull the battery, etc.
So I did a hard reset and...lo and behold, all the issues I had disappeared - the apps downloaded from Google Play no longer crashing or have scrolling lag.
There must be something in Touchwiz that "hooks" to these 3rd party apps, though I don't know what it is. It is quite interesting that Samsung will do this (first Knox, now this?), when I didn't have this problem with previous Samsung phone when I installed the SAME EXACT apps and Xposed module.
I will try to freeze the built-in app one-by-one and see if there is any issue there.

EyeballSDK.cfg?

I have this on the root of my storage and I have no idea what it is or does. There is also a folder EyeballSDKLogs. Am I the only one?

ehupp01 said:
I have this on the root of my storage and I have no idea what it is or does. There is also a folder EyeballSDKLogs. Am I the only one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you be more specific as to the location of that file? Where is the "root of my storage"?

{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

Thats from some app you downloaded. I definitely don't have that. Did you download a VOIP app or messaging app? Verizon Pixel?

Only hangouts

A Google search indicates it may (or may not) be related to Eyeball Chat.
Do you have any video chat on your phone?
Maybe some online based school apps?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyeball_Chat
Eye don't have it on my phone.
Get it.
Eye don't have it.

CZ Eddie said:
A Google search indicates it may (or may not) be related to Eyeball Chat.
Do you have any video chat on your phone?
Maybe some online based school apps?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyeball_Chat
Eye don't have it on my phone.
Get it.
Eye don't have it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL nope I saw that as well.... Strange

I was looking at my file explorer and noticed this too.
Do you have any VR applications installed?
Do you have any SDK installed?
Do you dl music/ movies etc?
Any unknown sources downloaded?
Or visit sites like Bluelight/DMT nexus/pill reports/shroomery/ Stuff like that?
How about Skype?
Sorry this is literally a new pop up and im noticing alot of the questions about this have been posted recently. please answer as detailed and turthfully as possible

I do have vr camera installed. Not much else. I deleted the folder and file to see if they pop up again.

I had installed samsung ipolis at one time.

Anyone come up with any more information on this? Just came across it on my own phone today. Google search turns up a few other posts about it but no info on what it is. I am suspicious that it *might* be associated with the DirecTV app because I just downloaded it today and then happened to notice that folder in / with a last modified timestamp of today. Other than that I have nothing to go on.

I suspect it's some 3rd party tool that many different software vendors will use.
Kind of how like everyone uses Flash or Java for something or other.

After deleting, it was consistently recreated shortly after rebooting. Using this behavior and after much trial and error I found that if I disabled storage permissions for the Directv app it would not be recreated. I don't know yet if it has an adverse effect on the app to leave the permission disabled. I wonder if it is related to the app's commication with the receiver since many of the references to eyeball sdk when googled are related to messaging. Just a thought with no hard evidence.

About the file EYEBALLSDKLogs. I just got the Samsung S7 and also the Galaxy Tab E on promo deal, but my husband and I both have S5 Actives that we have used for a little over 2 years now. Best phones we've owned BTW! Any who, before downloading any apps to either one of the new ones, I of course played with them a couple of days to get used to the features and see what was new. Tab E is pretty much a big version of S7 phone. They both had this new file that stuck out like a sore thumb considering the name of the file is a bit funny, but this file hasn't ever been on our other devices and we had the different messaging apps, I had a couple VR apps but deleted Ayer a few days & this particular file has never shown up. I did notice the DIRECTTV App was already pre-installed on the S7 and Tab E so it's very likely that's were this file is coming from. I just don't understand why after using the Directtv App it shows the file size with 50mb instead of 00.0 before use, but no extensions to the file when I click on it. I did delete it but as soon as I opened the DirectTv app, Viola' it's back.
---------- Post added at 08:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:34 AM ----------
damnmachine said:
Anyone come up with any more information on this? Just came across it on my own phone today. Google search turns up a few other posts about it but no info on what it is. I am suspicious that it *might* be associated with the DirecTV app because I just downloaded it today and then happened to notice that folder in / with a last modified timestamp of today. Other than that I have nothing to go on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
About the file EYEBALLSDKLogs. I just got the Samsung S7 and also the Galaxy Tab E on promo deal, but my husband and I both have S5 Actives that we have used for a little over 2 years now. Best phones we've owned BTW! Any who, before downloading any apps to either one of the new ones, I of course played with them a couple of days to get used to the features and see what was new. Tab E is pretty much a big version of S7 phone. They both had this new file that stuck out like a sore thumb considering the name of the file is a bit funny, but this file hasn't ever been on our other devices and we had the different messaging apps, I had a couple VR apps but deleted after a few days & this particular file has never shown up. I did notice the DIRECTTV App was already pre-installed on the S7 and Tab E so it's very likely that's were this file is coming from. I just don't understand why after using the Directtv App it shows the file size with 50mb instead of 00.0 before use, but no extensions to the file when I click on it. I did delete it but as soon as I opened the DirectTv app, Viola' it's back.

Similar files
Had similar files on my stock LG tribute HD. Undoubtedly picked them up after getting greedy and down loading free cracked/nodded app not from playstore. Found this searching. Idk but it appears to be a p2p, remote client app. Have not checked Hybrid Analysis site for review yet but will.
*cannot post link as this is my first xda post. The site that has the developers description is slides hate.net eyeball-messenger-sdk-v100
Woukd like to hear input as this raises concerns and is suspicious in nature. Thanks

Hello, I just wanted to chime in and say thay I think it has something to do with the Directv app. The DVR portion in particular. I noticed when I tried viewing my dvr on the app, it had a quick view feature and it must have created that folder because I noticed mine after I was messing around with the Directv app.

Question Anyone else have problems with Chrome lately? Many multiple saved tabs are gone next time you launch? The sub-tab/grouped tabs feature gone?

What the title and poll say. Yesterday I noticed that the sub-tabs/grouped tabs (I forget what Google called them) feature was gone on my phone (where I had, for example, two separate XDA pages open in a group). All the tabs still existed but at a "root" level and there's no longer a way to group tabs together.
And today, I noticed that all the tabs I had open yesterday are now gone. Yes, I could go through history if I really needed them badly enough, but truthfully, without the grouped tabs feature, I don't want them all back as it would be a mess.
I can't find settings in Chrome regarding grouping or saving my previously opened tabs, although just now when I opened it, it at least had the tabs open that I had opened earlier today.
I'm on Chrome Android v96.0.4664.45. I'm not currently signed up for any beta versions of Google apps (other than the usual whole Google universe is constantly beta).
TIA

roirraW edor ehT said:
What the title and poll say. Yesterday I noticed that the sub-tabs/grouped tabs (I forget what Google called them) feature was gone on my phone (where I had, for example, two separate XDA pages open in a group). All the tabs still existed but at a "root" level and there's no longer a way to group tabs together.
And today, I noticed that all the tabs I had open yesterday are now gone. Yes, I could go through history if I really needed them badly enough, but truthfully, without the grouped tabs feature, I don't want them all back as it would be a mess.
I can't find settings in Chrome regarding grouping or saving my previously opened tabs, although just now when I opened it, it at least had the tabs open that I had opened earlier today.
I'm on Chrome Android v96.0.4664.45. I'm not currently signed up for any beta versions of Google apps (other than the usual whole Google universe is constantly beta).
TIA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is probly not relevant at all but, I only use Samsung browser on all mobiles it's THEE best browser in my opinion, once you turn on smooth scrolling via internet/flags it's amazing, everything Chrome has only better and smoother, plus full dark mode and better privacy, give it a try! F chrome lol

kevinireland11 said:
This is probly not relevant at all but, I only use Samsung browser on all mobiles it's THEE best browser in my opinion, once you turn on smooth scrolling via internet/flags it's amazing, everything Chrome has only better and smoother, plus full dark mode and better privacy, give it a try! F chrome lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, but no thank you.
I've just noticed perhaps a new way of handling the grouped tabs in Chrome, but still sucks I lost what I had and how they were organized.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

roirraW edor ehT said:
Thank you, but no thank you.
I've just noticed perhaps a new way of handling the grouped tabs in Chrome, but still sucks I lost what I had and how they were organized.
View attachment 5476349
View attachment 5476351
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Umm I'll have to look Into this to, I shall re enable chrome and check it out, do you recommend any "flags" to enable?

kevinireland11 said:
Umm I'll have to look Into this to, I shall re enable chrome and check it out, do you recommend any "flags" to enable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't felt the need to fool with flags on mobile Chrome recently - I know I had just a little bit from time to time previously, so I can't really advise you much on that. The most recent flag I had fooled with was several months ago to enable Chrome Beta or Developer version to be able to display JPEG XL format images, which is the more widely adopted successor to FLIF (Free Lossless Image Format) and the same author is involved in both.
The flag was
Code:
chrome://flags/#enable-jxl
at the time on both mobile and desktop. I'm pretty sure that the feature is now in the stable Chrome channel, although last I checked, it wasn't enabled by default yet.
On desktop Chrome, there are at least one or two flags I switch but I don't think they apply or are necessary on mobile Chrome.
OT: A couple of years ago I switched to the Chromium-based Edge (I think Samsung's is Chromium-based, too, isn't it?), and I liked it quite well until a year and a half ago when they Microsoftified / Dumbified an aspect of the browser that drove me to quickly go back to Chrome (many folks complained that there wasn't an option to retain the old functionality while there were a few folks who insisted that the old way of doing things wasn't even necessary - similarly to how some people think that because they don't need something, that no one needs that thing and that the first people who need it are just wrong, but I digress.
The only place I still use Edge is on my work laptops since my work uses Google for everything, and therefore have Chrome's settings locked down so that I can't even easily have it re-open my last opened tabs after they force reboot my laptops overnight for updates. When I encounter the aspect of Edge that I can't stand, it still drives me nuts, but at least I can control other aspects I can't normally on my work machines.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

LG Update Center - Possible Malware?

Hello everyone,
I am not as well versed with electronics like a lot of you seem to be, I have ran into an issue and I was told to go on this forum.
So my phone is an LG G8s ThinQ, and I was browsing the web on my phone yesterday until I suddenly got the notification that there are 15 new updates available. I thought that was weird since my phone got system updates like once a year or something. I went to the Update Center app and took a look, these alleged 15 updates were downloadable game apps. In Update Center there should only be like 3 or 4 downloadable apps, which are preinstalled anyway, Facebook, Instagram and some LG Bloatware.
And these 15 games suddenly available seemed a bit sketchy to me.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
(Herunterl. means download, Install. means install)
So I let Malwarebytes scan my phone and it didn't turn up anything. I also searched for apps manually that could be malicious, but I didn't find anything either. Never downloaded anything on my phone after my phone's last hard reset. Never done anything sketchy with it. Mostly use it for YouTube, browsing and Whatsapp, that's it.
So I hard reset my phone in order to get rid of that, who knows what caused this issue and what it was doing with my phone. But after hard resetting the update center app again showed 15 available updates. I hard resetted several times, it persisted.
So I became curious and downloaded a few of these game apps. A few of those games you can play immediately after downloading, some others you need to download the app from update center, then the phone opens Google Play and redirects you to a download page for the app... but for some of these games Google Play simply shows an "error" page, these games are not even on Google Play - super sketchy.
(An error occured, please try again)
I played some of those games (the ones I could download fully), and they worked normally as I would expect. After trying them out, I downloaded Malwarebytes and let it scan my phone - and it detected something malicious and uninstalled it!
I hard reset my phone, I am using it still, but with caution. Update Center still keeps showing these downloadable apps and sends notifications from time to time.
So is LG Update Center hijacked? Why is it promoting these weird apps? Is that malware? What is it doing? Is it spying on my phone?
Without downloading any of these apps Malwarebytes isn't detecting anything malicious after scanning... but I don't necessarily trust that. Who knows what is causing this issue and what's going on in the background.
I asked an IT guy I know and he told me that I should be cautious and it would be best if I either installed some custom ROM or bought a new phone alltogether...
I think this whole thing is super sketchy and I wanted to share it with you all, maybe someone here can explain.
Best of love everyone!

Likely an app you installed.
Which OS version?
Anything below Android is suspectable to Xhelper, a factory reset will not eliminate it.

Honestly I can't recall having installed any app lately. And I definitely didn't download any apk apps from the internet or anything like it. Phone runs on Android 12. I read about that xhelper thing, sounds scary .
I was browsing the web, reading about celebrity scandals on some websites when it happened. Maybe those websites infected my phone in some way, is that possible? I put some of the websites and articles I could remember through VirusTotal, but nothing came up on it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LGVelvet/comments/12lv7vb
It seems like there are some other phones from LG that have similar issues, but besides this single post and another (I believe already deleted??) Reddit post I can't find anything to go on. Another G8 user commented on Reddit saying he doesn't have any issues.

thr0waway_377 said:
Honestly I can't recall having installed any app lately. And I definitely didn't download any apk apps from the internet or anything like it. Phone runs on Android 12. I read about that xhelper thing, sounds scary .
I was browsing the web, reading about celebrity scandals on some websites when it happened. Maybe those websites infected my phone in some way, is that possible? I put some of the websites and articles I could remember through VirusTotal, but nothing came up on it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LGVelvet/comments/12lv7vb
It seems like there are some other phones from LG that have similar issues, but besides this single post and another (I believe already deleted??) Reddit post I can't find anything to go on. Another G8 user commented on Reddit saying he doesn't have any issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A factory reset would purge Xhelper on 12.
It may have come through as an update for a "clean" app. Payloads are sometimes delivered like that. I don't allow apps to update.
All my games are always firewall blocked as are any apps that don't need internet access to function.
Check the download folder daily for files you didn't download especially when visiting questionable sites. Delete any unknown files.
Get a good firewall to see what's doing what.
Set up free NextDNS to further control internet access and use Brave browser.
Those two options may shut it down entirely but try to find the root cause.
Play with it.
A 3rd party rom isn't needed and may cause more issues. At the worst reflash the stock rom but that shouldn't be necessary at all.

I have the exact issue,
Is there a way to track what apps was updated this saturday? Can be done on PC-systems but not andriod?
Secondly can the install program list be cleared manually somehow?
I am not a big phone user, havent installed any apps for months and havent used the phone for since last week. Still got this crap so I suspect some ap.
The is a LG G6, seem unlikley to be a push from LG. Avast AV-scan found nothing strange.
All games pushed seem to be made by "gameloft"

Update:
I also made a post on Reddit and it seems like this issue has happened to a few other LG owners as well, but not everyone.
Antivirus scans didn't turn up anything so far. From time to time, Update Center still reminds me of these sketchy updates, but I just ignore the notifications. Besides that, nothing suspicious has happened. Battery life is normal, no suspicious downloads or anything...
(On rare occasions phone is a little bit laggy for one or two seconds but that's maybe just age or whatever, I dunno, nothing concerning to me at least, just something I noticed).
I planned on writing an eMail to LG but I still didn't do it cause I forgot, going to do that soon (I hope that they will actually answer).
And I didn't mess with NextDNS or firewall cause I didn't really have the time yet to do so.