Can you scan an Android device for malware from Windows?

Hello!

Recently my son's tablet started opening windows with ads while watching videos in VLC or Netflix or Disney+. Some times even when idle. After a few minutes the video was minimized in a small Picture-in-Picture window and a full screen ad was displayed. After the ad was finished the pop-up window closed automatically but the VLC remained small and Netflix or Disney+ returned to the home screen. I had to manually click on Continue watching to resume the movie. I tried to block all notifications and everything else I could think of, nothing changed. The annoying ad pop-ups kept showing. The only solution was to disable Wi-Fi so there was no internet access to display the ads, but then only VLC could be used with locally stored videos.

I tried a couple of free malware scanners, they found nothing and I didn't want to pay a monthly subscription in advance for other scanners just to do a one time scan. So I did the obvious, I connected it to my PC, took a backup of the data and then reset it to factory settings. Now I have reinstalled my apps and it is clean, but I am wondering, is there any malware scanner for Windows that can scan the tablet when connected via USB? It would be more convenient than spending too much time trying to find a useless free scanner or having to reset it. I doubt it, but I had to ask just out of curiosity.

Thank you in advance.

PS: It is an Android unrooted Samsung Tab A7 Lite tablet, if that makes any difference. I tried unsuccessfully to root it with Kingo Root and some other tools, so I gave up.

No you cannot.

However, the google play store has play protect, its own built in antivirus scanner.

You can find it under settings > security > app security > scan device.

I doubt its malware and more so adware.

Next time you see the bad notifications, hold down on it and it will show the app that is causing it. You can then uninstall the app and report the app on the google play store. You can also go into settings and go under notifications > notification history to find the bad notifications and see the app where they are sourced from.

If the notification shows chrome as the app causing the notifications, this is because website notifications were turned on for chrome and a bad website is taking advantage to scare/trick you. To turn them off, open chrome and go into the 3 dots and then settings. Go under notifications and turn off sites and web apps notifications. You can also check under additional settings in the app, and see a list of all websites providing notifications, which you can remove by tapping them.

Were any apps sideloaded? These are apps you did not get from the google play store. If you got apps from another source, uninstall them. Make sure to only get and install apps from the google play store.

I had already disabled notifications in Google Chrome and Google Search. I had even forced stop both applications, but after several minutes of watching video the annoying ad was displayed anyway. Yes, I sideloaded Paragon NTFS for Android in order to access a USB flash drive and I uninstalled it, but the damage had already be done. For anyone interested, I installed CX File Explorer that can access NTFS drives without any extras. It can also access my Windows shared resources via SMB that VLC cannot for some unknown reason (displays a message that the folder is empty). So if I want to play a remotely stored video without transferring it to the tablet, CX File Manager does a really good job. Pity it uses the IP address rather than the network name and I have to reconfigure it every time I restart my PC or my router and its IP changes.

spapakons said:

I had already disabled notifications in Google Chrome and Google Search. I had even forced stop both applications, but after several minutes of watching video the annoying ad was displayed anyway. Yes, I sideloaded Paragon NTFS for Android in order to access a USB flash drive and I uninstalled it, but the damage had already be done. For anyone interested, I installed CX File Explorer that can access NTFS drives without any extras. It can also access my Windows shared resources via SMB that VLC cannot for some unknown reason (displays a message that the folder is empty). So if I want to play a remotely stored video without transferring it to the tablet, CX File Manager does a really good job. Pity it uses the IP address rather than the network name and I have to reconfigure it every time I restart my PC or my router and its IP changes.

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If the video is in picture in picture you should be able to tap the overflow button (or swipe up and hold) to see a list of running apps. Tap the top of the app circle showing the video and choose app info to see what it is. I would suggest uninstalling vlc, and the apps that are giving you trouble, restart the phone, and then redownload them from the official google store.

If you are still having issues, might be worth doing a factory reset.

spapakons said:

Yes, I sideloaded Paragon NTFS for Android in order to access a USB flash drive and I uninstalled it

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No need for sideloading something like that. The google files app can access flash drives and is quite decent.

Most android issues are caused by people sideloading apps. I recommended never to do so unless their truly is no other option. And even then, make sure to check the permissions of the app.

Does the Google Files app also supports connection to network resources via SMB? I want to access my videos on my PC and play them without having to copy them to the tablet first. CX File Explorer does that.

Edit: I downloaded, it seems it has only local access, no network access. I will keep using CX File Explorer.

PS: I tried to install Paragon NTFS from Play Store but it was insisting I don't have adequate free space, although I had over 600MB. I decided to download the APK and sideload it, but apparently I chose the wrong download site and got malware.

spapakons said:

Does the Google Files app also supports connection to network resources via SMB?

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no, supports cloud but not smb. But ex file manager does, as well as xplore, and I heard good things.

spapakons said:

I tried to install Paragon NTFS from Play Store but it was insisting I don't have adequate free space, although I had over 600MB

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600MB is not much....most of that is probably reserved for updates. Go under your android settings and under storage try cleaning up space there. If you have a lot of files stored, see if your device has an option for an sd card to store your files on. Check your downloads folder and clean it up. The google files app has a nice cleanup section that finds duplicates and other things and can also help clean up space. If you use google photos you can delete pics on your device that are backed up by going to the backup section under your name in the top right in google photos.

In Windows world when one reads "600MB free space" he understands that he has 600MB to do whatever he wants with them. Given than most applications are of the order of 70MB most, it is ridiculous that there is not enough free space to install it. If the space is reserved for whatever reason, it should not show as free and confuse users. Common sense! Yes CX File Explorer is very good. Previously I was using EZ File Explorer and AndSMB to access remote shares but I switched to CX when I discovered it can do both with similarly easy to use GUI.

spapakons said:

In Windows world when one reads "600MB free space" he understands that he has 600MB to do whatever he wants with them.

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That's not actually true.....if your main hard disk or ssd where windows is installed on only has a certain amount of disk space free, if its less than a certain amount windows updates won't take place and the computer will be very slow.

Same with a phone.

On any device it's a good idea to have 3GB or 2GB at the very least free. Even more on an ssd holding windows.

2-3GB free on a smartphone? I would have to delete several videos and uninstall some games to do that. I could select some games I rarely play to uninstall, but I keep thinking "what if I want to play it again?" and hesitate. I could also delete some videos provided I backup them to my PC first. Another idea is to import some videos to Handbrake or other application and convert them to a more compact version with the HEVC codec and AC3 (aka Dolby Digital) sound. Then replace the original large videos with the more compact versions. However, this requires some free time I am not willing to sacrifice... I will see. Thanks.

spapakons said:

2-3GB free on a smartphone? I would have to delete several videos and uninstall some games to do that. I could select some games I rarely play to uninstall, but I keep thinking "what if I want to play it again?" and hesitate. I could also delete some videos provided I backup them to my PC first. Another idea is to import some videos to Handbrake or other application and convert them to a more compact version with the HEVC codec and AC3 (aka Dolby Digital) sound. Then replace the original large videos with the more compact versions. However, this requires some free time I am not willing to sacrifice... I will see. Thanks.

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out of curiosity what phone do you have? Most phones have at least 128GB storage which is pretty decent, a lot have 256 by default. That should be plenty for a good amount of data.

Also, double check and see if your phone supports an sd card. That way you can store files there without holding up your phones storage.

As for games, if they use google play games for login, this will backup your saved progress so you can uninstall ones currently not playing and then download them later when you want to, restoring your progress when you sign back in.

But definitely go through your apps and uninstall anything you no longer use. Settings storage can help with this, as a section is there for unused apps which have not been opened in a long time. There you can uninstall anything listed.

I have a Huawei Mate 10 Lite with 64GB storage. It is an old model back when Huawei still used Android on their smartphones. My card slot accepts either one SIM and a Micro SDHC card, or two SIM cards. I have two SIM cards so installing an Micro SDHC card is not an option, and no my model doesn't support eSIM cards. One workaround is to use a USB flash drive connected with an OTG (micro USB to USB) adapter, but as you can imagine is not very convenient. Another alternative is to store videos on my PC and access them remotely via SMB (aka Windows share).

spapakons said:

I have a Huawei Mate 10 Lite with 64GB storage. It is an old model back when Huawei still used Android on their smartphones. My card slot accepts either one SIM and a Micro SDHC card, or two SIM cards. I have two SIM cards so installing an Micro SDHC card is not an option, and no my model doesn't support eSIM cards. One workaround is to use a USB flash drive connected with an OTG (micro USB to USB) adapter, but as you can imagine is not very convenient. Another alternative is to store videos on my PC and access them remotely via SMB (aka Windows share).

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oh dang. That's old. Definitely consider an upgrade at some point. You can get some nice older pixel phones for cheap that work really well and are still supported without any bloatware. Like the pixel 6a. Has updates and support until July 2027.

Doesn’t malwarebytes have an android app?

dacrone said:

Doesn’t malwarebytes have an android app?

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they do indeed. But they did try a few of those free scanners they said, So I assumed that was one of them.

dacrone said:

Doesn’t malwarebytes have an android app?

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They have but requires prepaid subscription to let you use it! Not even a few days trial!

andrew129260 said:

oh dang. That's old. Definitely consider an upgrade at some point. You can get some nice older pixel phones for cheap that work really well and are still supported without any bloatware. Like the pixel 6a. Has updates and support until July 2027.

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Changing phone is not convenient because there is no easy way to backup my game progress without rooting the device and I hate to start every game from the first level all over again. I know some games keep progress in Facebook or elsewhere, but since some of them are mod versions for more lives, more moves etc (such as Candy Crush Saga), I cannot sync these with Facebook, probably banned. If I could root my phone I would use Titan Backup to backup the whole game data, including progress and restore to the new phone. Other than that, it would take some time to backup all data and migrate them to the new phone.

spapakons said:

They have but requires prepaid subscription to let you use it! Not even a few days trial!

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try all of those and see if any let you run scans for free. i'm sure one will..

No need now, I have already reset the device and reinstalled my games.