The popup that says your Samsung Galaxy S9 is infected with a virus might be due to an app with malicious code in it. These apps are often offered by some third-party websites that cater cracked applications. Installing these kinds of apps will cause harm to your device and having virus infection popups is just one of those things that could happen.
In this post, I will walk you through in troubleshooting your Galaxy S9 that keeps showing a popup saying it’s infected with a virus or any other malware. Continue reading if you’re one of the owners of this device as this article may be able to help you one way or another.
Before we move on, if you are looking for a solution to a different problem, visit our Galaxy S9 Help Guides page for we have already solved some of the most common issues with this phone. Find issues that are similar with yours and feel free to use the solutions we offered.
Now, going back to our troubleshooting, here’s what you need to do if your Galaxy S9 keeps on showing up the virus infection popup…
- Don’t touch or tap any link (if any) that the popup wants you to go
- Run your phone in Safe Mode to disable the popup
- Uninstall the app you think is triggering the popup
- Factory reset your Galaxy S9
Do not open the links. Most of the time, virus infection popups would want you to go to a certain link to download yet another app that claims to be able to get rid of the virus but in reality, it’s the virus itself. Developers of these kinds of apps also want you to visit their websites and so to deprive them of what they want, do not click on the link they want you to go. Instead, know the app that triggers the popup as you would need such information in the next step.
Reboot your phone in Safe Mode and uninstall app. As long as the application doesn’t have admin permissions, it should not run while the phone is in safe mode. That’s the reason why you need to reboot your Galaxy S9 in Safe Mode once a virus infection message shows up on the screen. While in safe mode, you can easily get rid of the app that triggers the popup that’s why it’s imperative you know which of the apps is causing the problem as you can uninstall it to get rid of the popup.
This is how to run your phone in safe mode:
- Turn the device off.
- Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen appearing on the screen.
- When SAMSUNG appears on the screen, release the Power key.
- Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
- Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
- When Safe mode appears in the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume down key.
And here’s how to uninstall the app you think is causing the problem..
- From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
- Tap Settings > Apps.
- Tap the desired application in the default list.
- To display preinstalled apps, tap Menu > Show system apps.
- Tap UNINSTALL > OK.
After uninstalling the app, reboot your phone in normal mode again to test if the virus infection message still pops up. If it still does, then you have no other choice but to factory reset only to remove such pesky issue.
Backup files and reset your phone. At this point, it’s necessary to factory reset your Galaxy S9. it will surely get rid of the virus infection popup but you will have to take time backing up files you don’t want to lose especially ones that are stored in your phone’s internal storage. After the backup, remove your Google account from your phone so as not to trigger the Factory Reset Protection once the reset is performed. Here’s how to do the master reset on your Galaxy S9:
- Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Samsung account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Samsung credentials to finish the master reset.
- Turn off the device.
- Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
- When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
- Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
- Press Power button to select.
- Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
- Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
- When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
- Press the Power key to restart the device.
After the reset, install apps you want to use one by one and avoid sideloading apps offered by third-party websites.
I hope that we’ve been able to help you fix the problem with your device. We would appreciate it if you helped us spread the word so please share this post if you found it helpful. Thank you so much for reading!
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