Weird iPhone behavior: virus? Malware? Hacked? Punked?
September 17, 2013 9:56 AM Subscribe
Why is my iPhone doing these things?
As we were drifting to sleep, my husband and I were awakened by strange tones of music that sounded like some sort of phone alert but did not sound like any of our recognizable phone alerts. We got up and checked our phones. Mine was in iTunes when I turned the screen on - weird but since I don't have any music on my phone, seemingly not the cause of the noise.
My alarm had previously been set to 7:20 am. We went to sleep and were awakened at 7:30 by *the Candy Crush Saga opening screen music*. Which is recognizable to both of us since we both play. However, I never downloaded the game to my phone, only to my iPad. And I recently deleted it. And it opened itself on my phone.
Next to its icon on my phone desktop was a bookmark linking to Ask Metafilter questions in the health and fitness category. I also did not put that bookmark there.
So now I am thoroughly confused. I went to my alarm clock app to see why it hadn't gone off at 7:20 and found alarms enabled for 12:22 AM and another evening time which I can't recall, both set to play alarm tones that I did not recognize. I never put alarms for these times in my phone.
I went to my browser and found that Yahoo was now the default search instead of google. And all my previously opened browser tabs were gone and replaced by spammy-seeming yahoo ad pages.
So, how did all of this happen? I am tempted to think my husband or another of my housemates got into my phone and was playing a prank on me, but how would they set Candy Crush to open and play music on its own? If this is a prank, it seems too random to be funny. Is this some sort of malware? Can anyone explain what's happening?
iPhone 5 if it matters, running iOS 6, plugged into a wall charger at the time all this happened.
As we were drifting to sleep, my husband and I were awakened by strange tones of music that sounded like some sort of phone alert but did not sound like any of our recognizable phone alerts. We got up and checked our phones. Mine was in iTunes when I turned the screen on - weird but since I don't have any music on my phone, seemingly not the cause of the noise.
My alarm had previously been set to 7:20 am. We went to sleep and were awakened at 7:30 by *the Candy Crush Saga opening screen music*. Which is recognizable to both of us since we both play. However, I never downloaded the game to my phone, only to my iPad. And I recently deleted it. And it opened itself on my phone.
Next to its icon on my phone desktop was a bookmark linking to Ask Metafilter questions in the health and fitness category. I also did not put that bookmark there.
So now I am thoroughly confused. I went to my alarm clock app to see why it hadn't gone off at 7:20 and found alarms enabled for 12:22 AM and another evening time which I can't recall, both set to play alarm tones that I did not recognize. I never put alarms for these times in my phone.
I went to my browser and found that Yahoo was now the default search instead of google. And all my previously opened browser tabs were gone and replaced by spammy-seeming yahoo ad pages.
So, how did all of this happen? I am tempted to think my husband or another of my housemates got into my phone and was playing a prank on me, but how would they set Candy Crush to open and play music on its own? If this is a prank, it seems too random to be funny. Is this some sort of malware? Can anyone explain what's happening?
iPhone 5 if it matters, running iOS 6, plugged into a wall charger at the time all this happened.
Is your iPhone jailbroken?
Apps can send custom alerts with special sounds that if they go off can open the app when you unlock the screen next.
So the way that works is Candy Crush sends a notification to your phone that your friend needs help unlocking the next area or something. You go to swipe to unlock your phone and in doing so it opens that app.
I can't explain most of the other behavior, but if the app wasn't actually uninstalled and popped a notification it's not unusual for those to have custom sounds and open up when you unlock the phone.
posted by TimeDoctor at 10:24 AM on September 17, 2013
Apps can send custom alerts with special sounds that if they go off can open the app when you unlock the screen next.
So the way that works is Candy Crush sends a notification to your phone that your friend needs help unlocking the next area or something. You go to swipe to unlock your phone and in doing so it opens that app.
I can't explain most of the other behavior, but if the app wasn't actually uninstalled and popped a notification it's not unusual for those to have custom sounds and open up when you unlock the phone.
posted by TimeDoctor at 10:24 AM on September 17, 2013
Response by poster: My phone is not jailbroken. I am using the charger it came with, which could be bad. I've never had anything like any of this happen before.
posted by mai at 10:30 AM on September 17, 2013
posted by mai at 10:30 AM on September 17, 2013
This sounds like bad app behavior. Check the reviews and consider both deleting this app and notifying Apple.
posted by bearwife at 10:34 AM on September 17, 2013
posted by bearwife at 10:34 AM on September 17, 2013
However, I never downloaded the game to my phone, only to my iPad.
Depending on how your devices are set up, if they share the same Apple ID what you download to one will automatically sync to the other (assuming there is a version for that device). If you delete an app on one device, it is not removed from the other.
No ideas on the odd alarm times though.
posted by mikepop at 10:37 AM on September 17, 2013 [4 favorites]
Depending on how your devices are set up, if they share the same Apple ID what you download to one will automatically sync to the other (assuming there is a version for that device). If you delete an app on one device, it is not removed from the other.
No ideas on the odd alarm times though.
posted by mikepop at 10:37 AM on September 17, 2013 [4 favorites]
I went to my browser and found that Yahoo was now the default search instead of google. And all my previously opened browser tabs were gone and replaced by spammy-seeming yahoo ad pages.
Are you using Safari on a computer as well? Safari can sync bookmarks and other things across phones/computer/iPads. If it is more likely that someone else was using your computer vs. using your phone, that's one possibility to investigate.
posted by mikepop at 10:41 AM on September 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
Are you using Safari on a computer as well? Safari can sync bookmarks and other things across phones/computer/iPads. If it is more likely that someone else was using your computer vs. using your phone, that's one possibility to investigate.
posted by mikepop at 10:41 AM on September 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
You don't happen to have a toddler, do you? Mine has done all kinds of weird stuff to my phone.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:53 AM on September 17, 2013
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:53 AM on September 17, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks for all the answers so far. I just want to add that I don't sync my phone to download the apps I have on my iPad. None of my other apps has downloaded automatically.
posted by mai at 10:58 AM on September 17, 2013
posted by mai at 10:58 AM on September 17, 2013
My guess is you have an app that is pushing notifications. Check through your Settings and see if this is the case. App developers can sometimes have a habit of changing the default settings on an app when you update it. The Facebook app, for instance, will sometimes do this.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:10 PM on September 17, 2013
posted by Thorzdad at 12:10 PM on September 17, 2013
Response by poster: ok so here is something similar related to the charger so I think it might be that.
posted by mai at 8:54 PM on September 17, 2013
posted by mai at 8:54 PM on September 17, 2013
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posted by Inspector.Gadget at 10:14 AM on September 17, 2013