Android games are CANCER. I want my phone to stop installing games without my permission. 😡😡😡😡😡😡

[TheEgg]

Edit: Phone is a Samsung Galaxy A15

 

My Motorola Stylus 5g 2023 did this too but let me permanently disable (or uninstall?) Content Manager. 

 

I will not be buying another Samsung phone if this is how they operate.

 

 

 

I'm not sure if Content manager is doing it. A horrible app that can not be removed. 

 

I have it force stopp'd.

 

Games seem to be installed soon after seeing an ad for them while playing another game. 

 

Todays games are absolute cancer and the ads are not easy to close. Often the X doesn't show up at all and I am tapping all around the ad.

 

Eventually, the game in the advertisement gets loaded onto my phone.

 

It doesn't even SAY it's installing. That's why I believe Content Manager or something else is behind this.

 

This is absolutely disgusting. We can't have this. The world needs to come to a stop until this is corrected.

[whispous]

What phone model is it?

[TheEgg]

3 minutes ago, whispous said:

What phone model is it?

Samsung Galaxy A15

[whispous]

Just now, TheEgg said:

Samsung Galaxy A15

Did it come discounted from a carrier or did you buy it outright?

[Guest]

Go into Apps and disable off Google Playstore and Samsung's Playstore.

Then in Settings turn off Autoupdate.

[m1lk3y]

Mate the only way you'll get apps/games installed on your phone is if you click the button to install them. Or if you have a carrier locked phone, because carriers think they can install unwanted shit and bloatware without the customers permission. There's a reason I only buy outright unlocked phones now.

[Mark Kaine]

sorry to say but this has never happened to me, either you have malware on your phone or its indeed some weird phone settings. 

 

28 minutes ago, Thomas4 said:

Samsung's Playstore.

do people really use that? i have a Samsung phone but i wouldn't touch their store with a tenfoot pole lol.

[Lurick]

It is content manger, it's T-Mobile bullcrap bloatware

See the last couple posts here as that should do it:

 

 

 

31 minutes ago, Thomas4 said:

Go into Apps and disable off Google Playstore and Samsung's Playstore.

Then in Settings turn off Autoupdate.

This will do nothing to stop it, they're installed via Content Manager app which sneakily tries to get permission to install stuff and once given it's a right pita to get rid of.

[Mark Kaine]

1 minute ago, Lurick said:

It is content manger, it's T-Mobile bullcrap bloatware

See the last couple posts here as that should do it:

 

 

 

This will do nothing to stop it, they're installed via Content Manager app which sneakily tries to get permission to install stuff and once given it's a right pita to get rid of.

ya see... knew it was some malware/ bloatware...

 

 

buy unlocked phones and this doesn't happen ~

[Hellowpplz]

13 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

sorry to say but this has never happened to me, either you have malware on your phone or its indeed some weird phone settings. 

 

do people really use that? i have a Samsung phone but i wouldn't touch their store with a tenfoot pole lol.

I just use it to get epic games and any customization stuff

Loads more customization you can do with Samsung made apps in the samsung store, that to be clear, arent on the google play store

[Hellowpplz]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

ya see... knew it was some malware/ bloatware...

 

 

buy unlocked phones and this doesn't happen ~

I used to have a T-Mobile phone.... tbh I forgot how I stopped it. If I remember it would always open the content manager APP and would give me a bunch of options, all I would do is click skip a ton and I was out.


 

 

2 hours ago, TheEgg said:

Edit: Phone is a Samsung Galaxy A15

 

My Motorola Stylus 5g 2023 did this too but let me permanently disable (or uninstall?) Content Manager. 

 

I will not be buying another Samsung phone if this is how they operate.

 

 

 

I'm not sure if Content manager is doing it. A horrible app that can not be removed. 

 

I have it force stopp'd.

 

Games seem to be installed soon after seeing an ad for them while playing another game. 

 

Todays games are absolute cancer and the ads are not easy to close. Often the X doesn't show up at all and I am tapping all around the ad.

 

Eventually, the game in the advertisement gets loaded onto my phone.

 

It doesn't even SAY it's installing. That's why I believe Content Manager or something else is behind this.

 

This is absolutely disgusting. We can't have this. The world needs to come to a stop until this is corrected.

so mate yours is acting quite strange indeed

never did ANY ads install either by themselves
plus looking at how little data usage there is, I doubt it's that

I agree with everyone above, this probably is Tmobile's fault
Or you got malware on dat phone

 

 

Now then, maybe your just going coocoo with the games its installing always being from ads
The TMobile app has a toggle for something called "game on" which "finetunes your preferences" based off games you play, apps you use, etc, and downloads them without asking


Just to cross out the content manager as a possibility, try going into battery and clicking on the power saving option or whatever it may be, as it SHOULD stop it from constantly running in the background

 

If it doesn't fix it even momentarily I would say it's not that then.

[jaslion]

37 minutes ago, Lurick said:

It is content manger, it's T-Mobile bullcrap bloatware

See the last couple posts here as that should do it:

 

 

 

This will do nothing to stop it, they're installed via Content Manager app which sneakily tries to get permission to install stuff and once given it's a right pita to get rid of.

As for op certified_nutzo in that thread has the correct solution to stop installs.

 

Itz basically a piece of crapware that once given permission (aka being legally in the clear) and tapping the notif is enough will start doing this.

 

This is retroactive too btw. An us tmob carrier unlocked google pixel 2 I had recently had this happen too its insane was a mess to solve.

[Caroline]

Add this to the list of reasons why I don't have a smartphone.

 

What I do know is you can rid of this kind of malware by rooting and running adb commands from your computer while the phone is plugged in via USB.

The thing with rooting is if you search for "rooting+phone name" using Google you'll get a ton of trash results that will have you install MORE MALWARE on your phone without rooting it, for this I suggest you to go to XDA forums and open a thread there, tell them you want to root in order to get rid of all the malware, the A15 is a known modern phone so I'm sure there's a quick way to root it by running a few terminal commands.

 

For ADB you'll need to install Android Studio from:

https://developer.android.com/studio

And the drivers:

https://developer.android.com/studio/run/win-usb

 

Once you have that, developer options (debug mode) enabled in your phone + root you can open a Command Prompt window, navigate to the adb folder and run

 

adb start-server
adb devices
adb YOURDEVICE
adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 PACKAGE_NAME

YOURDEVICE is the name of your phone in the list of devices you get from adb, you basically write what's there in the command.

PACKAGE_NAME is a placeholder, to get the name of the packages you want to uninstall (like this Content Manager crap) you can run this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sarangal.packagemanager ... the package name should be something like "com.android.vendor.xxxxxxxx", use that to fill the adb command.

 

Note that this will PERMANENTLY ERASE the program from the memory with no way to reinstall it other than redownloading it on purpose from the Play Store, using the .apk file or restoring the phone to factory settings.

 

--user 0 is the default user, if you have something like Work Profile enabled then that'll be --user 1... if you have multiple accounts you'll have to find which user number yours has.

 

For the adware I recommend you keep it rooted and install f.droid and then Blokada 5, it's an adblocker that makes use of the stock VPN setting in order to run in the background and apply a sort of system-wide adblocking, it's super useful but you have to manually block some ad domains shitty developers use to spoof their ads and fool adblockers.

 

I also recommend getting rid of all of Google and Samsung spyware.

[Hellowpplz]

36 minutes ago, Caroline said:

Add this to the list of reasons why I don't have a smartphone.

 

What I do know is you can rid of this kind of malware by rooting and running adb commands from your computer while the phone is plugged in via USB.

The thing with rooting is if you search for "rooting+phone name" using Google you'll get a ton of trash results that will have you install MORE MALWARE on your phone without rooting it, for this I suggest you to go to XDA forums and open a thread there, tell them you want to root in order to get rid of all the malware, the A15 is a known modern phone so I'm sure there's a quick way to root it by running a few terminal commands.

 

For ADB you'll need to install Android Studio from:

https://developer.android.com/studio

And the drivers:

https://developer.android.com/studio/run/win-usb

 

Once you have that, developer options (debug mode) enabled in your phone + root you can open a Command Prompt window, navigate to the adb folder and run

 

adb start-server
adb devices
adb YOURDEVICE
adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 PACKAGE_NAME

YOURDEVICE is the name of your phone in the list of devices you get from adb, you basically write what's there in the command.

PACKAGE_NAME is a placeholder, to get the name of the packages you want to uninstall (like this Content Manager crap) you can run this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sarangal.packagemanager ... the package name should be something like "com.android.vendor.xxxxxxxx", use that to fill the adb command.

 

Note that this will PERMANENTLY ERASE the program from the memory with no way to reinstall it other than redownloading it on purpose from the Play Store, using the .apk file or restoring the phone to factory settings.

 

--user 0 is the default user, if you have something like Work Profile enabled then that'll be --user 1... if you have multiple accounts you'll have to find which user number yours has.

 

For the adware I recommend you keep it rooted and install f.droid and then Blokada 5, it's an adblocker that makes use of the stock VPN setting in order to run in the background and apply a sort of system-wide adblocking, it's super useful but you have to manually block some ad domains shitty developers use to spoof their ads and fool adblockers.

 

I also recommend getting rid of all of Google and Samsung spyware.

I would never imagine Iphone getting these issues

 

Reason why I USED TO have a s22 wth T-mobile

 

Now I got the iphone 15 with verizon

Because of androids weird..."gimmicks" is a awfully strange reason to not have ANY phone

[Caroline]

20 hours ago, Hellowpplz said:

I would never imagine Iphone getting these issues

 

Reason why I USED TO have a s22 wth T-mobile

 

Now I got the iphone 15 with verizon

Because of androids weird..."gimmicks" is a awfully strange reason to not have ANY phone

Oh no there's way more. #1 reason being Android = Google. Plus I don't really need one, my dumb brick does everything I need, that being texts and calls, and sometimes play music or take a picture.

 

I got a smart nokia with windows mobile from a friend that was bricked, managed to fix it but I don't use it because it's awfully big for my pocket.

You read advertisement falls flat on autistic people? well, same goes for me and phones and other smart devices, I don't need them.

 

Tho I do know how to troubleshoot and fix them, gotta earn money somehow.

[Poinkachu]

On 5/22/2024 at 3:52 AM, TheEgg said:

Edit: Phone is a Samsung Galaxy A15

 

My Motorola Stylus 5g 2023 did this too but let me permanently disable (or uninstall?) Content Manager. 

 

I will not be buying another Samsung phone if this is how they operate.

 

As others said, it's Carrier's shit instead of Samsung doing it.

It happened on your previous phone which wasn't Samsung should be a somewhat telltale sign.

 

But holy shit that carrier's app is nuts indeed.

Hell, even my Redmi 13C doesn't install apps by itself unless I click install on each single / group of app it suggested,

And gdi this phone blatantly ask you to agree to it collecting data before you can use their file manager, and there is ads every-fucking-where, even in it's Messaging app.

Had to manually turn off option to show ads in various places that really shouldn't have ads in to begin with.

 

In case someone doesn't believe me

 

 

[TheEgg]

Somehow it's (content manager) mysteriously gone. Something is watching me.

[TheEgg]

On 5/23/2024 at 1:47 AM, TheEgg said:

Somehow it's (content manager) mysteriously gone. Something is watching me.

It's BACK and it just downloaded another game.

 

This is DISGUSTING. The option to uninstall or even disable is unavailable. This should not be allowed. T-Mobile will hear about this.

[xAcid9]

On 5/24/2024 at 3:58 PM, TheEgg said:

It's BACK and it just downloaded another game.

 

This is DISGUSTING. The option to uninstall or even disable is unavailable. This should not be allowed. T-Mobile will hear about this.

-snip-

Download https://github.com/Universal-Debloater-Alliance/universal-android-debloater-next-generation

1. Turn on your phone USB Debugging
2. Connect to your PC via USB, accept the debugging authorization.
3. Find Content Manager, uninstall/disable. (If you can't see Content Manager try change the filter level)

Don't forget to create backup. 

[IR76]

On 5/26/2024 at 4:00 PM, xAcid9 said:

Download https://github.com/Universal-Debloater-Alliance/universal-android-debloater-next-generation

1. Turn on your phone USB Debugging
2. Connect to your PC via USB, accept the debugging authorization.
3. Find Content Manager, uninstall/disable. (If you can't see Content Manager try change the filter level)

Don't forget to create backup. 

I briefly read this thread so I may not have all the information but also install Sophos Intercept X which is a good in depth antivirus (many companies use it) that also evaluates the security of your phones OS and whether its been tampered with.

 

This should help you possiblly remove the malware/low reputation app and ensure your phone is back to normal.

 

Last resort 

ABSOLUTELY LAST RESORT

Nuclear option

Back up anything important on your phone to another device and factory reset the phone which will ERASE EVERYTHING ON IT. and give you just the phone with a fresh install of the OS.

[E-waste]

On 5/24/2024 at 3:58 AM, TheEgg said:

This is DISGUSTING. The option to uninstall or even disable is unavailable.

Install RethinkDNS and block the app's network access, problem solved.

 

RethinkDNS now has on-device domain blocking, as well as having the ability to restrict any app network access.

 

If you are as interested as I am, install it, set your dns to cloudflare or quad9, and post the DNS logs.

 

I don't think it should have any personal information, just a showcase of all the shit connecting as soon as wifi is on, you can block any app, ip address or domain name.

 

Looking for LineageOS builds too but don't see A15 listed on xdaforums.com

[GamerDude]

I agree with those saying that it's the carrier or telco that's doing it, not Samsung. In my neck of the woods, I don't see this happening with the Samsung phones that I own (Flip5, S24U, Fold6).