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Every night for the past few days my phone installs a new app that I never saw/wanted/heard of before. It all started with AppCaster (Which I never installed on my phone, it just showed up one morning).

I have uninstalled AppCaster and every other app that was installed without my knowing, and new apps are still showing up on my phone over night. I have downloaded and installed Avast which shows no issues after a scan.

I have checked the sites with access to my google account and I don't see anything that looks suspicious.

Has anyone else solved a similar issue? Does anyone have any ideas of what could be downloading these apps to my phone? How can I make it stop?

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    Does it really install apps -- or do you just find new icons on your homescreen? You might want to use AppBrain Ad Detector to see if there are any AirPush-like apps on your phone (which do things like placing new icons on your homescreen or push stuff to your notification bar). If you do find such an app: Leave a comment on its Playstore page, then uninstall it. Remember it's developer to never install one of his apps again. That's privacy intrusion, not "proper advertisement".
    – Izzy
    Commented May 28, 2013 at 15:35
  • I get a notification that says the app is installed and I uninstall it. I don't see icons on my homescreen.
    – MarkB42
    Commented May 28, 2013 at 15:43
  • installed AppBrain Ad Detector and didn't see anything with push notifications.
    – MarkB42
    Commented May 28, 2013 at 15:54
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    OK -- so we can rule that out. Was just the first thing coming to my mind. That leaves, maybe, someone with your Google credentials initializing those installs via the Playstore web interface. To rule that out as well, you could change your Google/GMail password.
    – Izzy
    Commented May 28, 2013 at 16:06
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    Didn't know you were using 2-factor -- but OK, cannot hurt. If that didn't help, I'm currently out of ideas (unless you're sleepwalking :) Maybe someone else can come up with what we might have missed up to here.
    – Izzy
    Commented May 28, 2013 at 17:52

2 Answers 2

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Here is a possible solution. My son had recently unwittingly installed AppCaster on our home PC, and this was causing the apps to be pushed to my phone. I uninstalled it from the Programs and Features under Control Panel, where AppCaster goes by the name "Mobile App Sync".

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  • Mobile app sync WAS installed on my computer. Uninstalled! Hopefully that does the trick.
    – MarkB42
    Commented Jun 6, 2013 at 22:46
  • Mine has been clear since I uninstalled it from my PC, so hopefully it will you you too.
    – TonyMN
    Commented Jun 7, 2013 at 16:11
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    That seemed to do it! Thanks. I never would have thought to look on my pc
    – MarkB42
    Commented Jun 8, 2013 at 14:33
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I had the same problem. A while ago, I didn't have access to my new Android phone, so I asked my friend to login with my Google credentials in the Play Store app to buy some apps on sale. So after a while, when I downloaded new apps, the phone of my friend got that apps and the other way around.

So, now my question is, did you entered your Google credentials into another android phone like I did? Did you install some apps on that phone? Try to remember if you did like I did.

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  • I have a phone that a lost a while ago that is still registered in the settings of the play store under my devices. However, the date that it was last used, according to that same page, is over 6 months ago.
    – MarkB42
    Commented Jun 4, 2013 at 12:44
  • @MarkB42 I don't know then. I saw the reviews of the AppCaster app that they have the same problem like yours, unknown installs on their device, so maybe is a malicious app that caused this.
    – kvizii
    Commented Jun 5, 2013 at 0:43
  • Yeah, I just wish I knew how to get rid of it. I should do a factory reset, but I'm dragging my feet at having to set everything back up... :/
    – MarkB42
    Commented Jun 5, 2013 at 18:44

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