Related
I have seen a lot of people with the same issue I have. I download an app from the market, and it sucks so I uninstall... but now It's tied to my account forever.
When I flash, or get a new device, I like to use the web based market to re-install my apps. But I have pages and pages of apps I will never use again.
I proposed the following to Google to fix this.
If you agree that this is a good idea and would like to see this feature.. or if you have a better idea, please let Google know. They will only change this stuff if enough people request it to be changed.
I submitted a request here:
https://support.google.com/androidm...tact_type=market_phone_tablet_web&paginated=1
This was my request:
There needs to be a way to remove unused applications from our market accounts. I have many applications that I tried, dont like, and will never install again. Every time I get a new device or do a factory reset, I have to search through tons of unwanted applications just to find the apps I'd actually like to install. I understand giving the user the ability to delete apps that were paid for and the possibility of accidental deletions can become a support nightmare. To solve this I’d like to propose an “Archived Apps” section. Users can Archive applications they do not use. The application is then moved into a special Archive section where it can remain tied to the users account without being “In the Way”. Applications in the Archive section should have a “Restore” (button rather than install) that when pressed, would move it back to the users regular account and become active and installable again. When searching in the market mobile app, these apps will also show with the status Archived rather than purchased or installed. Selecting the app will give the option to “Restore” it to your active applications at which point it can be installed.
i actually have an open ticket with them regarding this problem
google tech support says it's a known issue, and they have no way to fix it yet.
AllGamer said:
i actually have an open ticket with them regarding this problem
google tech support says it's a known issue, and they have no way to fix it yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome!
It's a lot of work for them to fix, and my concern is that it wont be on the radar unless it's highly requested.
Same thing with Amazon's store. I chatted with a rep, and they said there was no way to remove them, but they are aware people are interested in doing this.
Hi,
Sometimes an app (.apk) is either simply not available through Google's store, or it might say "not compatible with your device", etc. There can be various reasons why a person might download a .apk from somewhere other than a "trusted" source.
If this was a file for my PC I could test it in a "sandbox", and I could scan it with both Microsoft Security Essentials and Malware Bytes Antimalware.
On my Android phone(s) I'm not aware of something like the "sandbox" option, and I don't really want to run an "antivirus" program on my phone. Is there an easy way to scan .apk files on the PC to see if they are rogue apps, might send SMS, "phone home", or otherwise mess with other applications or the system software installed on my phone?
Lets give another example: say I thought 15 minutes was not long enough to evaluate a relatively expensive Android game (it certainly isn't!) and I want to test it out first. Let's assume my only option in that case might be an illegally downloaded copy from unknown sources. Of course, we shouldn't do that. But if we did, how could we know if the file is safe and not risk installing some Chinese spyware?
About Android AV programs: anybody know how effective they are? Do some defend against "trojans" - I would think these days trojans are 99% of problems and viruses mostly a relic of the past?
My biggest concern is actually just unwanted crap that runs in the background which eats up battery, makes my phone warm (which I hate), or, perhaps even sends SMS message [this would be even worse because I don't have a text message plan].
EDIT: I see web pages with tiles like "new study finds Android antivirus apps not effective" and articles like this one: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/...bouncer-does-it-offer-enough-protection/17981
Do we have an easy way to boot Galaxy S3 off of "external" SDCARD instead of internal memory?
Search play store for avast antivirus, completely free, updates daily and works really well (firewall. Anti theft. And many more Features
sony xperia ray ics 4.0.4
stock rom unrooted
I found this website, maybe it can help someone.
h t t p://scan.netqin.com/en/
Maybe someone can post another one...
an easy way to check for safe apk
The easiest way to check for safe apk is to have one gmail account and another "whatever" email account. Then just send the apk from the gmail one to the second account, gmail always find viruses in any apk and stop the process to join the file (virus alert). Bad point is you are limited with the size of the file you wanna send.
Nowadays, even pc antiviruses can detect viruses in apks. I would rather not burden my phone with any android antivirus,since they are literally battery hogs.
sent using my HTC One S
Go here and upload the APK
http://anubis.iseclab.org/
Anubis is a service for analyzing malware.
Submit your Windows executable or Android APK and receive an analysis report telling you what it does. Alternatively, submit a suspicious URL and receive a report that shows you all the activities of the Internet Explorer process when visiting this URL.
Andrubis executes Android apps in a sandbox and provides a detailed report on their behavior, including file access, network access, crypto operations, dynamic code loading and information leaks. In addition to the dynamic analysis in the sandbox, Andrubis also performs static analysis, yielding information on e.g. the app's activities, services, required external libraries and actually required permissions.
Found a good one too
apkscan.nviso.be - give it a try. Drag and drop - wait for the upload - than click SCAN . Wait for a few minutes. That`s all. Unlike ANUBIS it has a resolution at the end of the analysis . Usually helpful.
You can also email the file to [email protected] and it will email the report back in about ten minutes. Virustotal can display some interesting info, for example it said that Lucky Patcher is a "Potentially Infected Hosts File (v)", as reported by VIPRE and AVware.
Virustotal also has an official android app.
The Netqin scanner is also an android mobile app.
Late answer, sure, but I think ClamAV is what you want. You also want its bytecode signature file, and to speed things up, you only want that single file (speeds up things quite a bit).
It is the only offline apk scanner i know of, and as for its efficiency i cannot say, but it seems like it is what you are asking for.
An alternative would be to install something like BlueStacks and remap your "Windows shared folder" (through registry) to the folder you have your apk files in, and then run BitDefender on it. BD is by far the most pernickety AV app out there for Android.
I'll have to check out bitdefender (it's also included on virustotal.com)
apkscan.nviso.be seems to be pretty good at analyzing files for suspicious activity, and it also uploads the file to virustotal for you. Then you can copy the sha256 hash into the virustotal's search, to get all the gory details.
anubis.iseclab.org limits files to 8 megabytes.
Another way to avoid malware is:
when installing an update to an already-installed version of an application, it will 99% of the time prompt you to update an existing app. There's been rare instances where some apps do use a new digital signature (for example when spotify had a big security hole, and for awhile there were two apps by spotify in the app store).
One other way to tell, as a final check when launching the apk for installation on the phone: the icon will not have the right icon. I've installed apps before that I thought came from a trusted source, but the icon was not right. In fact, I was considering not posting this publically, so the "bad dudes" would not update their methods.
Another tool I found:
http://andrototal.org/
Although it might be a duplicate of virustotal.
nintendo1889 said:
Another tool I found:
http://andrototal.org/
Although it might be a duplicate of virustotal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried out this site. To me, it appears to be the most thorough virus testing site that I have seen. It takes some time for it to complete the scans. mainly because it scans the file with about 7 or 8 different scanning engines. Just just have to keep refreshing the page every few minutes to see if the results have updated.
I will be using this one as my go to site for apk scanning.
Just install it on the default emulator in the Android SDK
You can also install your apps on other emulator live bluestacks(best for games), jar of beans(best for rooted app) and windroy(the lightest)
Hit thanks if this helps
nintendo1889 said:
I'll have to check out bitdefender ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your signature photo ... awesome ... Bad Dudes
By using GDATA security , When you want to install an app the GDATA will scan it befor installing
Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk
Use google scanning service VirusTotal to scan any app, secondly always use secure source. There are many well reputed apk sites but I personally use apklink.com , on this site required apk file is just a click away and its quite easy as well...
be safe & secure
This threads out of date, but it has me thinking I want to use something as mentioned in several replies to OP.
Are there any sites, or apps that can warn me if an .apk (for example) has malware etc.?
Thanks in advance for any help, including a link to another discussion that may have my answer
denise1952 said:
This threads out of date, but it has me thinking I want to use something as mentioned in several replies to OP.
Are there any sites, or apps that can warn me if an .apk (for example) has malware etc.?
Thanks in advance for any help, including a link to another discussion that may have my answer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Malwarebytes can detect malware.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
I tried this site and I like it because it goes into a lot of detail after analyzing and sends me a report in email. It was mentioned, and it is still available to use: https://apkscan.nviso.be/
Thank you for the heads up on MB, I use that on my PC and works great
You can use virustotal.
Dear all,
First, a big thanks to the communauty ot provide such great jobs. We really enjoy this !
Now, a quick question about restricted accounts use and their possible consequences regarding applications:
I've got a ASUS Tranformer 101 device.
I've followed the procedure provided in this thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2392087) to install the KatKiss rom 4.3 provided by Timduru which works really well. :good:
Context description:
I am the defaut account (admin I guess ?) for the tablet.
I've got two (lovely) children.
Each one have a Restricted account. Those restricted accounts have permissions to see onyl specific (games) applications.
Now, using my (admin) account, if I try to launch any application -> it works fine.
If I switch to one of the two restricted accounts, I can see and launch those 'shared' applications, but, for SOME of them, I observe the following behaviors:
Error encountered:
-> [Error message shown on the screen immediately after launch complaing about a "license verification error"]:
Example of applications impacted:
Grimm's Snow White (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.storytoys.GrimmsSnowWhite.GooglePlay&hl=en)
Grimm's Sleeping Beauty (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.storytoys.GrimmsSleepingBeauty.GooglePlay&hl=en)
(For what matter I've already sent an email regarding this behavior to the editor "Story toys" and I'm waiting for an answer on their side ...)
-> Application launched but nothing is clickable on the screen:
Example of applications impacted:
Lep's World 2 (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=at.ner.lepsWorld2&hl=en)
This Could Hurt Free (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chillingo.thiscouldhurtfree.android.row&hl=en)
-> Application which works fine using a restricted account:
4 in a Row Multiplayer (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pjf.fourinarow&hl=en)
Glow Hockey (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.natenai.glowhockey&hl=en)
Hence, does someone already faced these issues ? Is it related to the applications themsleve not being designed to run in a restricted account environment or is it related to the current state of the rom ? (android 4.3)
Thanks you for shedding some light on these questions.
If it is not the best place to post this question could you please redirect me to the right place ? (knowing I can not post into DEV forums yet).
regards,
Are all the multi user accounts using the main Google id, as this can cause problems with some apps which check with Google Play Store at run time to see if the current user has the valid Google id associated with his profile.
Theziggy said:
Are all the multi user accounts using the main Google id, as this can cause problems with some apps which check with Google Play Store at run time to see if the current user has the valid Google id associated with his profile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks you Theziggy for your quick answer.
Regarding the use of the GoogleID, I don't know how to check this. Do you have a procedure ?
However, I confirm those applications have been installed, using my account, directly from the GooglePlay store. (noTitanium Backup recovery attempt or anything else).
In the meantime, I've received an answer from Story Toys (editor of "White Snow' and "Sleeping Beauty" saying their development team is aware of an issue with restricted accounts and they are working on this subject.)
Hence it seems the source of the problem is per application ? Maybe, depending of what the application attempts with the account data, this might work or fail in a restricted account context (as you've pointed in your answer Theziggy).
Regards,
Hello every body, I have been provided a solution regarding my problem with the "Story toys" applications licensing and usage of restricted accounts.
The editor kindly provided me this step by step a mini-guide (kudo to them for providing the solution !) which solved my issue.
I put it below hoping it can help others people in the same or similar context:
1. Delete the app from the device
2. Turn off the device, wait a moment, then turn the device back on again
3. Ensure you have a working internet connection
4. Clear the cache and data of both the Google Play store app and the download manager. Here's how:
- Visit Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage applications
- Tab over to All
- Select the Google Play store app, and then tap Clear data and Clear cache.
- Then, select Download manager and tap Clear data and Clear cache.
5. Ensure you are logged in to Google Play with the same account you used to make the purchase.
6. Download the app and launch it straight away using the restricted account.
Once the app has been launched from the restricted account with the wifi/internet connection still running, you can then turn the wifi off again and the license won't be re-checked for another year.
Hope it helps,
Regards,
I have also been investigating a similar setup for a tablet used by kids, and looking into whether to create separate users or the restricted profile users. The one downside of using restricted users seems to be that I believe it is still a shared install of the app/game, so all users share the same user data. What this means is that all of those users would share the same game progress (i.e., levels completed, achievements, points/coins collected, etc.). Is that what your experience has been?
The alternative is to setup separate users and install the app for each user. It doesn't actually take up more space (the actual app files are only saved once for each user install), but each user has its own app data.
I have also been investigating a similar setup for a tablet used by kids, and looking into whether to create separate users or the restricted profile users. The one downside of using restricted users seems to be that I believe it is still a shared install of the app/game, so all users share the same user data. What this means is that all of those users would share the same game progress (i.e., levels completed, achievements, points/coins collected, etc.). Is that what your experience has been?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good question, I've done a quick test using the game "Jewel Saga" and switched between the two restricted profiles. I confirm that, at least with this game (I did do perform other tests), each restricted account get its own progress and settings saved properly (Ej.: music on/off, level reached, number of stars earned per level ... ) .
As I said, this is just one test quickly performed on one application. So maybe the user experience varies regarding how applications handles data save with retricted profiles ?
Anyway, as long as my kids are not complaining, I'm fine
The alternative is to setup separate users and install the app for each user. It doesn't actually take up more space (the actual app files are only saved once for each user install), but each user has its own app data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know, thanks for the tip !
Has anyone managed to get lep's world 1 or 2 working in a restricted profile?
The developer doesn't seem interested in fixing the apps to allow it.
Lep's world 3 seems to work, despite the game spitting messages to the contrary
I have searched this forum and the web, still surprised about the poor integration of multiple devices in Google Play.
Can anybody tell me if there is any easy and fast way to transfer most of your app's to a new device?
I am amazed the lack of usability in this matter? Why is there not a column based page with all your registered devises from left to right and all the app's downwards, then a box to "tick" on each device to install or delete multiple app's in one go??? How hard can it be???
I know you can use Titanium but you need to be rooted and still go by each app individual or take all in one go, this do not make any sense since a newer device might not need all the app's.
On Google Play I can see all my app's and then install them one by one with a confirmation box for every one? long and boring task.
A column based set-up where you choose which app's to be installed on what device you have registered seems like a "no-brainer" to me but I have not been able to find anything that resembles that??
Does it exist and am I a knob or is this a major oversight by Google???
All suggestions are welcome.
Robert
The key here is you need to tell Google to restore your phone once you install an OS. If you did this, the Play Store automatically downloads all your previously installed apps.
Also, in Titanium you have the checkboxes on the side as you're asking for, you just deselect the checkboxes besides the red apps pretty much...
Hey !!
Do Andriod phones need antivirus or internet security as a must? If so provide me some links..
Thankxxxx in advance
The Answer Has been moved to a thread dedicated to security question and other advices to modify safely our Android Devices
Here is the post
Raiz said:
It absolutely doesn't, please don't download them, those are mostly commercial sh*t apps full of ads that plays with the fears of users.
Android Security advice :
• Just don't install apps that you don't trust (apk files and weird looking Google play apps)
• Never share your passwords with somebody not trusted, use a different one for each of you accounts.
Find more here :
https://forum.xda-developers.com/general/security
General security and privacy:
• a VPN isn't a magic app that allows you to go completely invisible, even I can find who you are simply by using your latest Instagram post, the government doesn't have money to spend spying on you anyway
• Public WiFi internet browsing is like taking a bath naked around other people, everybody can see what you're doing and can interact with your browsing by sending you pop up messages on your browser. In that case the VPN is useful. But please don't use anything other than your WiFi network to pay online.
• Change password at least once a year
• For God sake be careful on what you share on social medias !
• If someone blackmails you, just ignore him even if he show you he has your real password/footage of you doing nasty things, most of the time they haven't and tries to scare you. But take action on your account, just don't answer them.
• Not having any of your IRL infos online is a good idea, but it tends to be more and more difficult because of Google assistant, and other Google services that are super intrusive (I mean even with your YouTube Google know your tastes better than your buds). But don't panic, if you're not a terrorist or a criminal you're not risking your life.
Keep in mind that your security is fine most of the time if you have solid password, and you don't give them away, but your privacy is not if you have a social media account of any type. If you post something on the internet, remember it'll stay forever out there, whatever you do !
App that I use to keep my Android phone in good health (install them sometimes to clean up/check on my phone's state then I uninstall them):
Google File Go (cleans files)
AccuBattery (check the battery health)
CPU-Z(has everything you want to know about your device)
When I need to backup an app's data or the entire app:
Titanium Backup
Here you go, I gave you very few the security advises, there are plenty more, don't hesitate to check the internet out for more !
Have a nice day
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have 2 edits to your suggestions
1. Change your passwords monthly, preferably using a password manager that suggests really hard random passwords
2. Swift backup is much newer and more efficient than titanium backup ever was.
Sent from my OnePlus7Pro using XDA Labs
spart0n said:
I have 2 edits to your suggestions
1. Change your passwords monthly, preferably using a password manager that suggests really hard random passwords
2. Swift backup is much newer and more efficient than titanium backup ever was.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll update my first post continuously with every recommendation that'll follow on this thread to create the sort of "Index of Android Security". I created a new thread for security questions
Didn't knew about swift backup, what a great app!
patricia123 said:
Hey !!
Do Andriod phones need antivirus or internet security as a must? If so provide me some links..
Thankxxxx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Viruses don't really exist in android. You can be targeted with malicious code but that is only if you open, tap on or accept something without knowing what it is.
For instance, someone could send you a link or a photo that has malicious code embedded in it, when you open it or accept it, then the malicious code has access to your device and your data.
As long as you know that you are dealing with a trusted source, you should be fine. But, if you are the kind of user that goes all over the internet opening things without knowing what it is, you will quickly find yourself targeted by malicious code.
Become a responsible, informed user that is aware of the dangers and what kinds of things can be a problem and you should be fine.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk