How To: Uninstall Malware from Your Android Device

Sounds like you're still in Safe Mode, so reboot and they should come back.

So there were some fishy apps in the downloaded section; I don't know which one it was but I got rid of 3 and it seemed to work. One was "Google Play Services" which may have just been harmless, one was "My Account" which I have NO idea what it was and have never seen it in my life, and the other was System U| or something like that (yes with a hard line like that). This was for the Canadian version of the FBI scam which was a CSIS scam.

There were also updates to Google Play which I uninstalled, since I never use that app ever.

Oh and consequently, now my phone is running faster than it was before.

Last night when I was browsing the internet and I found an app that I wanted to install so I did the whole precaution thing i.e. Ran it through antivirus, checked the website I downloaded it from etc etc. But the second I install it, it spams my screen with a window wanting to give this app device administrator. I continually pressed no until (due to my fat fingers) I bumped yes. And boom ransomware. It even bypasses safe mode! I need help, please!

This is exactly what happened to me. I can't find anything about when it doesn't work in safe mode. It has my phone a mess. Any help would be appreciated

You may end up needing to perform a factory reset. But one thing you can try first is force-stopping the app from Settings -> Apps. Then, go to Settings -> Security -> Device Administrators. From there, try disabling the malware app's Device Administrator access, then quickly head to the Apps menu in Settings to uninstall it (before it runs again and spams for Device Admin). If the app won't let you disable Device Administrator access, you'll have to factory reset to remove it.

Mate you are a absolute legend!!!!!!!!!! for a week now my phone had this malware it even started asking me to deposit money from my bank account and it constantly spammed my phone to press continue to approve the deposit..

you've saved me from having to reset and lose all my data !! thank you so much mate :):):)

Same! I thought I was going to need to turn it back to factory default and the app that got downloaded on mine had no name and would bring a spam pop up every time I turned my phone on. Easy instructions to follow and right as I went into device administrator and stopped it from running I was just thinking "ooooh I got you now, dick" and it worked?????????????? great job!

i have a android 7 and nothing is working not even the hard reboot can ya help

You're using a Nexus, right? What's the malware doing? Have you tried forcing a reboot by holding down the power button?

Accidentally installed video codec HD. followed your instructions and its gone.
Thank you so much.

I have a galaxy on5 which with your helpful instructions I've gotten into safe 2 but I am still unable to get an uninstall button or to see downloaded apps . It appears to be Google services and google play what can I do? I can't even do a force stop and device admins are disabled its even messed with the keyboard! !@#$@!*please help??

Google Services and Google Play are core Android apps, so they can't be installed. Basically, they're required for your phone to run. They're not malware, though, so you shouldn't have to worry about them.

Your instructions worked to remove showbox on my Android device. The new showbox apk installs with admin perms so you can't uninstall it until you remove it's admin permissions. I followed your instructions, amd luckily, you were spot on. Thanks for posting useful advice for removing this malicious app.

This is the same thing that happened to me. Pretty sure this version was malware as everytime I unlocked my phone, it would take me to an ad popup or a google page of some sort. When I went to uninstall it, it was greyed out. This had me panicking. Thank you for throwing in that extra tidbit about the device administrator portion.

I used your recomendations to remove a fake app named Easycap Viewer (did not do anything when starting) and it worked very well. This is an easy and effective way I believe. Thank you for your help Theodore

Thank you! You are a genious. My phone was popping out advertisements out of no where. I deleted showbox, localcast and mlx player I dont know exacltly whicj=h one was it but it worked.

hi thanku so so much..mal ware brought into phone by show box app..was driving me crazy with innappropiate ads and stupid spam virus crap but you fixed it thanku thanku thanku:)

Whenever I on my net, everything stops working & white screen written "launcher loading" shows on screen. Also few unwanted apps get installed itself on it. I think an app named "com. google.provider" is main problem. i hv formatted my mobile & memory card but nothing is working. Please help me out.

Please I seriously need your help, I've tried everything you said, even to the point of using factory reset. Still I can't get rid of the malware. Please what do I do?

Can't get rid of it either

It worked on safe mode but when I came back out of safe mode (smiling) I was let down. My screen was blocked again and I repeated your steps. When I deactivated it, it still blocked my screen after getting out of safe mode. Please tell me what's wrong? is there anther method? should I restore my android back to factory settings?

deactivated the malware device manager but I cant deactivate the malware itself...

Dallas, either the malware screen block is real or I have no hope.

Just want to check, have you uninstalled the malware app after deactivating its device administrator privileges in safe mode?

If you have, it might be that you have multiple malware apps installed. So for that, boot into safe mode, deactivate anything with device administrator privileges, then carefully go through the all apps list, set it to "User Apps" if that's an option, then uninstall everything you don't recognize.

You can even take it a step further and hit "Disable" next to any questionable app that doesn't have the "Uninstall" button. If it doesn't say "Disable" or "Uninstall," then it's a required system app, so skip over it.

Really though, it should be a matter of uninstalling or disabling everything you can find that looks remotely fishy. After rebooting, you can go through one-by-one and re-enable any disabled apps, but do so carefully, and check that the malware doesn't come back after each.

Failing that, you might need to do a factory reset. If you can, back up important files to the cloud or transfer them to your computer with a USB cable, then you can manually trigger a factory reset by booting into recovery mode. The button combo for recovery mode is different for different phones. But for most, turn the phone off, then hold power and volume up. You'll see a little Android logo and a message that says "No Command." From there, press and hold power, then tap volume up.

Once you make it into recovery, you can use the volume buttons to highlight "wipe data/factory reset" then press power to perform a full wipe, which will almost always kill any malware.

Hi,
I have a Samsung galaxy s6 I am trying to delete gopilot. I downloaded from App Store. It has administrative rights.
So I went into safe mode and then security and device management I cannot click on deactivate.
Also if I try to click to take permission off the app setting crash error pops up
Please help

Try booting into safe mode again, but this time go to Settings -> Applications -> Application Manger.

From there, tap "More," then choose "Apps that can appear on top."

Go through that list and turn off the switch next to any app that you don't recognize. Particularly gopilot in this case, but it could be another app doing it.

Once you've done that, try going back to the Security -> Device Management screen. I'm thinking the app is using an overlay to prevent you from pressing "Deactivate" here, so with those toggle switches turned off, I'm hoping you'll be able to deactivate it finally.

If that works, you should be able to uninstall gopilot through Settings -> Applications -> Application Manager

You have no idea how helpful this was... I had some sort of malware installed, and when I finally located it, I had no access to it. It was constantly opening up phishing sites, and opened 3 or 4 pop-ups on this page alone. It literally had no face, so I couldn't tell what the application name was, but it did in fact have administrator privileges enabled, and like you said, when I disabled it, I was able to delete it and it's residual files. Thank you!

This site is a tremendous help for older less tech savy folks like me and...I assume some younger ones as well. I really appreciate the help you gave me in removing some very annoying and troublesome malware I got myself into. Thanks more than I can convey here. I am beginning to go forward without the malware and that really does make my day, my evening and my week all because of you. We appreciate what you do a lot....believe me.

THANKS IT HELPED GOD BLESS U

Hi a newbie here, and did all you said to do now all mine seem to be dated when installed and nothing new. The widgets are still sending messages of my phone having virus / trojan/ etc needs to be cleaned. I bought a antivirus {Total AV}, however says it protects only address i gave when purchase so i removed my chrome but still receiving notifications of so called infections// CHROME was only new thing i install & kept anything else i removed due to room on my cell/ btw it's a lgl android