Hey,
I was having a phone call with my dad (he is using Huawei P8 Lite) yesterday evening and suddenly we both heard the beeping sound you heard when somebody is attempting to call you while you are having a phone call. We both checked our phones but there was nothing showing on our screens so we just continued. Suddenly, the call dropped and when my dad called me 10 minutes later he said that his phone just shut down and said that it's updating his software. When the phone turned on, everything was set to factory settings with all his contacts, photos, messages etc. gone. Even his SD card is wiped.
This morning, I got a message from my sister saying that bunch of her classmates had their phones (both Android phones and iPhones) wiped completely yesterday evening (around the same time as it happened to our dad) and apparently all of them were displaying message that software is updating. We found out that all phones were signed into common gmail account my sister is using with her classmates. I told her to immediately change the password to that email and sign out of it from all our devices.
Anybody has any idea what could cause this? Any advice on how to recover the lost data? My dad had his gallery synced with Google photos, it's mainly contacts that he is missing since he had over 1,5k of them and he said he did a back up of them not so long ago but the backup was on his SD card that's now empty as well.
Side note (I'm not sure if this has something to do with the issue above): I tried to log into that email account yesterday from my Macbook since I needed to download one powerpoint file from it but when trying to log in I was kicked out with a message saying that my access is denied due to multiple attempts of logging into the account (that was the first and only time I tried logging into that account). I shut down my laptop before I went to sleep yesterday. This morning, my laptop got into boot loop and was later showing message that Mac OS could not be installed on my computer because installation file is corrupted or missing. I managed to turn on my laptop but my sister said that her classmates saw that somebody from Copenhagen (where I live currently) accessed their mail and they also registered some logins from other cities all over our home country where my sister is.
TL;DR: Several phones shut down and reset itself to factory settings while saying they are updating software. All of them were signed into common email.
kri100k said:
Hey, I was having a phone call with my dad (he is using Huawei P8 Lite) yesterday evening and suddenly we both heard the beeping sound you heard when somebody is attempting to call you while you are having a phone call. We both checked our phones but there was nothing showing on our screens so we just continued. Suddenly, the call dropped and when my dad called me 10 minutes later he said that his phone just shut down and said that it's updating his software. When the phone turned on, everything was set to factory settings with all his contacts, photos, messages etc. gone. Even his SD card is wiped...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have this device but, there's a dedicated area on the Forum for your specific device.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/p8lite
With that stated...
The following thread may be helpful in what you are looking for.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3692698
Good Luck!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I DO NOT PROVIDE SUPPORT VIA PM UNLESS ASKED/REQUESTED BY MYSELF.
PLEASE KEEP IT IN THE THREADS WHERE EVERYONE CAN SHARE
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Hi everybody. Although this is my first post I had registered a couple of weeks ago and have been lurking for a long time. I thought I would post my experiences with the issues in the title in hopes that they might help someone else.
Th first problem I tackled was the SMS issue. With some contacts I could not reply to messages because their displayed phone number did not contain the area code even though it was listed in my phone's contact page for them. I also could not initiate a text message from their contact profile as the area code would be dropped when typing the message. The only way I found to send or reply to a message was to start a new message and enter the beginning of their phone number or name then the phone number would be displayed correctly including the area code.
I tried all the suggestions I found here and other places. Such as deleting all cache and log files as well as deleting the individual contacts and recreating them. Nothing I did solved this issue. What was really weird is some of my contacts did not have the area code in their phone number yet it would be added when messaging.
Finally I sync'd my contacts with gmail. I then logged in and made sure all phone numbers had the correct ten digits. Then I performed a factory reset on the phone and resync'd my contacts with gmail. All messaging issues were resolved.
Doing a factory reset gave me the ambition of trying to solve the phone shutting off after being charged. This was a problem as long as the charge was at least 78% to 80%.
After fixing the SMS issue I left the phone completely stock for more then a week. Not once did I experience any shutdowns. I then installed LauncherPro Plus. Immediately the shutoff issue returned. After several days I performed a factory reset and left it at stock and experienced no issues for another week. Reinstalled LauncherPro Plus and the issues returned.
I performed another factory reset and installed ADWLauncher. After two weeks of use not a single shutdown. Thinking this was fixed I started installing apps. Although not as severe the shutdowns returned. Uninstalling all the apps resulted in the phone no longer shutting down. So I started installing apps one at a time and testing for a few days in-between the installs. Some apps would cause the phone to shut down while others were fine. There really was no pattern to which apps worked compared to the ones that didn't. Both Handcent and ChompSMS caused shutdowns.
After a couple of weeks of using the phone with installed apps that caused no shutdowns I installed Spirit Level Plus. Once again the phone randomly shut down when charged above 80%. This made no sense as this app should have minimum interaction with the operating system. Then, for whatever reason, I had an idea. I uninstalled Spirit Level and reinstalled it using TWLauncher and once installed switched back to ADWLauncher. The phone never shut down after this.
Thinking I might be on to something I installed both Handcent and ChompSMS using the same method. What a pleasant surprise it was when after a week there was not one shutdown. So I installed a few more apps and still did not see any issues. This was maybe a month ago and since that time I have probably installed 40 - 50 apps using the same method and have not seen one shutdown.
I apologize for this post being so long but I wanted to give as much detail as possible. Hopefully this will help someone else and also be a small repayment from me for all the valuable info I have gotten from the forum.
stock or not it will reboot. the phone has a hardware issue. warranty it asap.
Still no random shutdowns. As far as exchanging the phone I think I'll hold off for now. Sending it in under warranty will most likely get me a refurbished phone that may or may not have the same or other issues.
I left my phone a couple of weeks ago at Pechanga casino's Eagle's nest bathroom, I guess you could say it got stolen since it wasn't returned. I logged into htcsense.com and locked it remotely, then a few minutes later clicked to erase data nirt knowing if it worked not.
I got a new one replace it, went back to htcsense.com from my pc to try locking it and it worked!
I haven't tried the erase command since I don't want ti reset the phone.
That gave me a little peace of mind. I just hope it erased all the data on the microSD card since I had tons of pics of my family.
Just FYI to all that htcsense.com remote access works. You just need to select it when setting up your phone.
Sent from my 2nd Inspire 4G
Since February my htcsense.com has said it is doing its initial sync and will take a few hours. Two days after it started that I decided to remote lock it as a test and the website still says that the phone is locked, but absolutely nothing has happened on the phone so far. I'm assuming someday my phone will just lock randomly when it finally finishes, until then it isn't any good for me.
I have thought about deleting the web account and recreating it but I am too lazy.
Btw this as a stock unrooted phone, I signed in to htcsense on the phone, linked it with the phone number, and turned GPS on. Everything it said to do.
If HTCSense is showing in your account & sync you may need to remove and add back.
I'm also unrooted. Running stock.
Sent from my 2nd Inspire 4G
Hi everybody, i have the phone since oct 2011, tired of waiting for a kies 2.3.x i installed 2.3.5 and later 2.3.6 (never installed any mod, only official ROMS )using links and tutorials from this forum... works great, except for a fatal flaw: every 7-10 days tops ( but it happened 3 times in a single week) my address book randomly disappears in the middle of the day... e.g. i'm texting on whatsapp and suddenly instead of the contact name there's only the number... when i go for the address book i always find this exact situation:
- no numbers, no emails, no social... tabula rasa, blank
- if i try and change the visualization options, until i reboot the phone i can't even see the contacts in my SIM ( and when i reboot they magically reappear, they seem to be untouched), and nothing seems to be working, google account contacts are still safe on the server but the phone seems to be unable to see them ( works flawlessly in every other internet-related task)
after a while, and a reboot, and a restore from a backup i have on my microsd, situation seems to be back to normal, i can go back to visualizing only google contacts, sim and phone book both off... until it happens again, and again, and again...
did this happen to any of you, too? is there any way it can be fixed? it's really grinding my gears :\
gi0v3 said:
Hi everybody, i have the phone since oct 2011, tired of waiting for a kies 2.3.x i installed 2.3.5 and later 2.3.6 (never installed any mod, only official ROMS )using links and tutorials from this forum... works great, except for a fatal flaw: every 7-10 days tops ( but it happened 3 times in a single week) my address book randomly disappears in the middle of the day... e.g. i'm texting on whatsapp and suddenly instead of the contact name there's only the number... when i go for the address book i always find this exact situation:
- no numbers, no emails, no social... tabula rasa, blank
- if i try and change the visualization options, until i reboot the phone i can't even see the contacts in my SIM ( and when i reboot they magically reappear, they seem to be untouched), and nothing seems to be working, google account contacts are still safe on the server but the phone seems to be unable to see them ( works flawlessly in every other internet-related task)
after a while, and a reboot, and a restore from a backup i have on my microsd, situation seems to be back to normal, i can go back to visualizing only google contacts, sim and phone book both off... until it happens again, and again, and again...
did this happen to any of you, too? is there any way it can be fixed? it's really grinding my gears :\
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This happened to me 3 days ago when using CM9, only thing i did was checking my contacts, played a little, checked the contacts again to get a number, and bam. EMPTY.
I wasn't convinced so i plugged the phone to my PC and launched moborobo, and guess what.. the contacts are there.
Got my numbers backed up, deleted the whole contacts there (invisible, from moborobo) and restored backed up contacts, didn't happen from that day.
Hi guys!
Tried the search but came up with nothing so here goes...
I must admit I'm not very tech savvy but I can follow instructions no worries
I joined mainly because my Samsung Galaxy S8+ (un-rooted) started to behave very strangely early this year.
(and I want to trick it up after warranty expires in August ?)
Short story is that my Samsung account got hacked (or it at least seems like it) and the perp was then able to control my phone remotely. It was incredible watching my phone do as it pleased and all I could do was sit back and watch. Funny thing is that I've never actually toggled the RC switch (find my phone)...
My local carrier (Telstra Bigpond - Australia) account as well as my Google account got taken over shortly after. This would have given whoever it was access to my 3 cloud accounts which add you can appreciate would contain some sensitive material.
Whoever is responsible could well be a member on here so "Hi, there!! "
I pulled my sim and sd card and switched the phone off so I could decide what to do next.
I got a password manager app, changed all passwords (lucky my partner had a spare iPhone 5S sitting around up I could get online) and factory reset the phone.
All seemed to be going well until a few days ago...
I got "timed out" on my Samsung account (is that even possible?!) and while I was putting the password in (on the Samsung website - silly mistake!) just as I hit next I noticed a few dots in a square pattern that did a spinning type of graphic over the password entry box.
Continuing onto the next screen where the two step verification was, which was to send a text to my phone to receive a code and bang! Before I even received the text a six digit code appears in the fill box on the screen (same spinning dots in a square pattern) right before my eyes and then I receive the text afterwards! The numbers matched!!
I’ve also been asked to enter my Google credentials on more than one occasion lately from being “signed out”...
I don't know what to do!
I've tried all of the popular virus type apps and a few file managers to no avail. More like I've been hacked than a virus?
I've removed apps and shut down almost all of them as well as toggling between mobile data and WiFi and restored the phone twice back to earlier backups from over 6 months ago.
I've only ever downloaded from the Play Store apart from just the once getting your better version of the Play Store XDA (LABS) app.
What might be noteworthy is when I was using Google's help function it said that I had a "modified Android" and to contact manufacturer. I can guarantee the phone has never been cracked open.
I can provide screen shots from DevCheck (FLAR2) but I really don't know what I'm looking at. I also don't have any unknown apps etc...
I really don't know what to do next...
Any advice please??
Sorry about the long post.
All the best,
Crackles
Took phone to Samsung and they wiped the device and installed current (Android Pie 9 w. Feb 01 security update) so was looking forward to having a play with the new os until I went to add my Samsung account details...
Entered the password then the 2-step security kicked in to send a text to my number.
The earlier 4 circling dots dropped the 6 digit code into the fill box before I even received the sms! Device (on it's own jumped straight to the remote control button in the Find my Device security section) then attempted to change the password!
Only thing that prevented that from being carried out was I had biometrics activated and stopped the action using my fingerprint.
Seriously no one has any idea on what to do?!
I also had installed a replacement sim card.
I also can't uninstall updates on certain apps like Google Play Services etc, and some apps either have a dead link (press it and nothing happens) or Play Store can't find the app when I hit the downloaded from Play Store thingy at the bottom of the app description page. Hope that makes sense.
As you said, they wiped the phone, which means they most likely flashed the whole firmware, so there's no way for any malware to remain installed. But for what it's worth, you can try to re-flash the firmware yourself using Oding to make sure the whole flash is clean.
If your phone really was infected with any kind of malware, it must have been a 3-rd party app you have (repeatedly) installed. Some apps like Google Play Services cannot be uninstalled because they are vital for system's (or rather apps installed from Play Store) propper functioning.
Also, even if you had infected your device, it would not be able to take control of your device to the extent you described because of app sandboxing, which cannot be broken unless the app constitutes itself as a system app (because every part of the system has to be cryptographically signed, this would break the boot and brick your device) or the user (you) would have to allow the app the necessary permissions to carry out these tasks.
Hey Kernel thanks for the reply ?
Yes I know what I'm saying sounds crazy and even the missus said I was nuts till I showed her.
I can't screen record any more either...
I'm noticing odd little things like when I pull the notifications screen down for a second or so the NFC, Bluetooth and nearby icons are lit up but then revert back to a if they were off. I've switched all of these items off in the settings so are they being sneaky?
So far nothing really bad has happened apart from not being able to put my credentials into the PayPal app. That's using both Last Pass auto-fill and manually entering the email and password. I've un-installed and re-installed many times and it's the same. I'm not going to add any banking apps just yet.
Facebook also got installed in the background about 4 times within a few minutes. Seemed odd to me. I think I've got a screenshot of that.
Malwarebytes found an issue with I'm guessing a theme I got from the Samsung Galaxy Store so I removed it, chose another and it seems OK.
There's still a few odd things happening like certain settings reverting back to something different from what I'd set.
I'll keep tinkering and post anything that stands out.
Is there an app or something that can check every file on my phone and tell if something isn't quite right?
I don't have a pc at the moment but when I do I'll look into Odin.
Thanks again for taking the time I know I sound like a lunatic and tbh I really wish I was haha!! :laugh:
Hmm interesting...
When I tried to upload the screenshot it stopped and said "bad request"...
Sent from my SM-G955F using XDA Labs
Could all this weird bs be happening if the home WiFi has been hijacked?
Sorry for dumb questions.
Sent from my SM-G955F using XDA Labs
Whatsapp does the same thing, autocompletes the code, before de sms is coming. This is not a malware. But, don't use password manager... Those can be hacked.
Really my password manager can be hacked?!
I'm using Last Pass.
So moving on I started to poke around the WiFi router and found the PnP enabled and my device was sharing with another device. I did not authorise this. I've since reset the router, changed the pin and access code, disabled the WPS and also factory reset the device that was "sharing" with mine... The owner of said device no longer lives with me. I'm just glad I confiscated the phone from him before he left.
When I'm researching possibilities of what could be going on with my phone the pages won't load. It's like my searches are being monitored and the data is being stopped. I tested this with my partner's phone (on mobile data) and the exact Web pages loaded right up on her's without a hitch! I tried again on mine and they just stopped. Pages would load straight away on mine if searching for something completely different like rc cars or bmx related content. Stuff to do with my phone just won't work ffs!
Like when I tried my first post on here. It simply would not post it up! I ended up having to copy/paste the draft and emailing it to another account that I made up on the spot on her phone. Hence the two usernames in this thread.
I got the 3C TOOLBOX app and in the app management section, Task Manager under service many of them are "custom entries" and I cannot un-tick, modify or reset back to the original version of any of these apps. Google Play Services was the worst. Pretty much every thing it was capable of doing had a "custom action" and I could not do anything with it.
Am I doing something wrong or do I have a serious invasion of my phone..?
Thinking about smashing this thing to bits and getting an S10+ ??
Also the Bluetooth, NFC & Nearby buttons almost any me of the day/night are on for a split second when I drag the motivation panel down. These are all set to "OFF" in settings...
What
The
F--k?!?!?!
Sent from my SM-G955F using XDA Labs
My next door neighbor is a sweet old lady who we occasionally invite over for dinner and take care of stuff for her (lawn mowing/weeding/spraying, etc....), and she has this LG Stylo 4 phone and her carrier is metro by t-mobile. Now I forgot exactly when this happened, but she had all of her contacts 86'd out of nowhere, and she claims that maybe her phone got hacked or something, I don't know
I fiddled enough with my phone and thought "maybe I can recover her contacts for her" since im the tech support for all modern hardware problems in my family (phone problems, computer problems and so on), but i'm hitting a roadblock on how I can get her contacts back without rooting her phone. I tried seeing if she had her contacts auto-backing up to whatever google service she was auto-set with, but none of her contacts were set to backup at all, and last time we ran into this problem was with my father, and by his words, it took about 6 months for his vanished contacts to magically re-appear somehow without his input
so, is there any non-root method available for me to get her contacts back, or will she have to re-add them one by one by memory?
so....I guess ill take the lack of any replies as there is no non-root method of restoring her contacts bar sending her phone to its respective manufacturer/dealer
kinda disappointed ngl
There's not much you can do unless she has a Google account linked to the phone or backed up her contacts with an app. As far as her contacts disappearing, it could be something as simple as settings, contacts settings, and view.. maybe she messed with the settings and accidentally clicked off of her phone for what contacts to view in settings. It has to be something simple because unless somebody's just trying to be an ass I don't see somebody hacking a little old lady's phone just to delete her contacts.