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App Behaving Like a Virus

B

BobiOSGamer

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 30, 2020
38
4
I went through Apple support three times and got the run around about factory resetting or contact the developer (which goes to an old Twitter page.) The problem is happening on my iPad and iPhone even though I only installed it once on my IPad.

How would contacting the developer to stop the app from reinstalling itself? I thought iOS and iPad OS was a secure sandbox?

One chat support agent said he/she didn’t have an Apple device so they couldn’t duplicate it. (What?) The other agent said every agent should have access to or be able to virtually simulate a device.

I asked how to report an app, but no one has an answer.

This app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tobidy-music-iplay-er/id1346566748 (I suggest not installing it.)

I removed it, and now whenever I download a new app, the app tries to reinstall itself (see attached photo.)

There is no report function in the Appstore and I do not see a way to report a highly suspicious behaving app to Apple.

Thank you.
 

Attachments

  • EA9648C9-D768-4F0E-8959-E6C399E4F8AC.jpeg
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The provided screenshot suggests you haven't deleted the app, but that the App Store is simply letting you know that it is a 32-bit app not updated for 64-bit only devices and iOS versions.

I'm curious enough that I've downloaded it on my iPad. So we'll see how this goes :)
 
Yep. I did choose delete. And that didn’t work. I searched Spotlight and the app was still there. I choose to remove it then, but now it’s still saying it wants to download. I never installed it on my iPhone but through iCloud it’s trying to install.
 
Try rebooting your iPad and then deleting again. Wondering if there’s some kind of process that’s stuck that needs to be cleared out through a reboot.
 
BobiOSGamer said:
Yep. I did choose delete. And that didn’t work. I searched Spotlight and the app was still there. I choose to remove it then, but now it’s still saying it wants to download. I never installed it on my iPhone but through iCloud it’s trying to install.
Click to expand...

Well. I downloaded it on my iPad. I opened it, clicked around, closed it, deleted it, and it's gone. Gone from the Home Screen, gone from Spotlight, gone. Went to the App Store and it's got a cloud icon to "redownload" but it doesn't try doing so on its own.
 
casperes1996 said:
Well. I downloaded it on my iPad. I opened it, clicked around, closed it, deleted it, and it's gone. Gone from the Home Screen, gone from Spotlight, gone. Went to the App Store and it's got a cloud icon to "redownload" but it doesn't try doing so on its own.
Click to expand...
What happens if you have auto downloads and auto updates enabled, then try to download another new app or two?
 
Tried that several times. The only thing stopping it now is turning off auto download/updates.

Side thoughts:

I’m surprised that Apple asked me to contact the app’s developer for an auto download OS issue.

What happened to the report app option in the Appstore?
 
Last edited:
casperes1996 said:
Just tried. Perfectly normal behaviour. New app downloads. That's it. Nothing else.

Try deleting the app from Settings instead of the Home Screen
Click to expand...
Thank you. I will try. If it’s still a problem, I guess I’ll do a reset. What version of iOS / iPad OS are you using?
 
casperes1996 said:
Well, my phone is on 14.6 and through the iCloud sync thing it was also exposed to my testing. My iPad is on iPadOS 15 dev beta 2
Click to expand...
Got it. I’ll keep the auto download stuff off until 15. Maybe it’ll repair itself. I read that iPadOS 15 comes with the app library feature. I’m looking forward to that. :)
 
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