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Each time I connect to WiFi or the internet, my Samsung Galaxy Note 1 automatically downloads apps (mostly games) from the Google Play Store. This is not only annoying, but uses precious memory. I have already tried filtering in the Play Store, clearing the cache and clearing Play Store data.

What could be causing this, and how can I stop it from happening?

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    How can you tell it's downloading games from Google Play Store? What do you actually see on the screen? Describe any notifications or other messages.
    – Dan Hulme
    Commented Jun 9, 2014 at 7:51
  • Sounds like either malware, or someone with access to your account pushing these apps from the Play Store's web interface. Did this start happening after you installed a new app? Try changing your Google account password (or setting up 2-factor authentication.)
    – Chahk
    Commented Jun 9, 2014 at 13:39
  • Open Play Store > Settings > Auto Update Apps > Do not Auto Update. Turn on both Notifications for installing/updating new Apps.
    – Rahul Bali
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 20:14

6 Answers 6

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Please define what you mean by automatically downloads apps:

  1. downloading updates for the installed apps
  2. installs new random apps from the playstore

If it's the first one, then you need to go into Menu -> My apps & games -> Installed, click on one of the apps - then look for the menu button ( or the 3 dots in the upper right corner ) and disable auto-update.

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Assuming you are certain these games are being installed as time goes on rather than merely being part of the myriad apps Samsung preinstalls on all is phones, I would consider backing up your data and doing a factory reset although it is annoying. It sounds like there is some kind of malicious code that is installed on your phone and it could be doing worse things than installing games (eg capturing your keystrokes). Search Google for how to back up your Android phone - there are lots of guides. The factory reset will put your phone on the same condition it was in out of the box software wise. From then on be very careful about what you install, what webpages you visit and what email attachments you open. Good luck!

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I had a similiar problem. In my case it was the android emulator "BlueStacks". I connected BlueStacks to my google account and (automatically) activated synchronising. BlueStacks provided some games and installed them on my phone. Long time I dod not know why this happenes but than I saw this sync seeting in BLueStacks.
Maybe you hava similar problem.
Alternativly there are apps downloading other apps. There is an app checking if this happens. But unfortunately I don't remember it's name.

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This is due to some virus activities. I am also facing problems like this but when I factory reset my phone it is doing well and running smoothly. This may be due to any app that allows to download some specific apps to your phones.

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Seems like you have some malware installed in your device.

If you try clearing the playstore data, it wont work at all.

If you think apps are being installed alutomatically after you have installed any third party app out side of playstore, then try to detect the app and look for its permisions. If it seems suspicious, then uninstall it.

And the kill switch to solve this problem is to use an Antivirus.

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You can use this free antimalware to search your phone for malwares:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.malwarebytes.antimalware

You may also restrict background data for PlayStore so that it is unable to download anything in background.

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