Hello All, this is my first post here, so forgive me if I’m “breaking protocol.” I was going to reply in another thread but was given the warning that the last reply was over 20 days ago so I should start a new one unless I really meant to reply.
My phone is an LG Optimus V (VM670) running Android 2.2.1, Kernel Version 2.6.32.9 lge@android-build #4, Build Number FRG83.
The phone has never been rooted. I had (and still have) one other application, Android Lost, that is installed with Administrator privileges.
I simply cannot uninstall Avast! Anti-Theft and would really like to. The problem is that I cannot get the Administrator privilege turned off for this app. I have tried via the wizard and the native Location & security settings and neither will work. When I click on Avast! Anti-Theft (which I called Find Me - Avast!), I get the following warnign text, This administrator is active and allows the application Find Me - Avast! to perform the following operations: Erase all data. If I click the Deactivate button I get the “Do you really . . .Proceed?” question and hit the OK button. After that I always come straight back to the Device administrators screen with Find Me - Avast! still there and still checked.
What on earth am I doing incorrectly here? Any and all assistance much appreciated. I really want to get anti-theft removed since I need the space and (yes, I’ll admit it) prefer Android Lost for this function.
At this point, no, I can't deactivate Android Lost, either.
However, I hadn't attempted to do so until after trying to deactivate Avast! Anti-Theft. I'm not really certain whether or if there's an interrelationship here or not. This is very frustrating, that's for sure.
Well, I have heard of devices (LG) on which the device admin can’t be deactivated I don’t remember the solution if there was any though. Did you try to deactivate Anti-Theft (in the Basic Settings in AAT), restarting your device then removing the device admin?
I had long ago turned-off Anti-Theft within Avast! Mobile itself so that it was again visible. Since then I have tried deactivating administrator, doing a force stop and deactivating administrator, and anything else I can think of and nothing works.
I am also in the position where the LG Optimus V I'm using is not activated for actual phone service (intentionally), so no OS updates have ever been applied to Android on this device.
I now almost wish I'd rooted the thing to start with. Now I've got too much data on the device to even think of losing it all to root it. I can't believe (well, I can, but am aghast) that there could be a bug so significant in Android that certain "flavors" don't permit the deactivation of administrator privilege.
Well, this whole incident has me completely not sold on Avast! Mobile Security (AMS).
I thought I’d try uninstalling AMS and see if that would (and, logically, it should) sweep away anti-theft with it. Again no dice. AMS, other than Anti-Theft, uninstalled without a hitch, which is as it should be.
I’d been considering rooting my phone, so I did with the Gingerbreak APK. Using several cycles of removal with Titanium I was finally able to get “the thing that would not die,” AKA Avast! Anti-Theft, removed from my device.
This is a major, major issue. There is absolutely no excuse for creating an app that can be installed but then not uninstalled. If there is indeed an issue with Android 2.2.1 on LG devices with regard to not being able to remove administrator privilege, then it’s incumbent on software companies, and particularly anti-virus/security software companies, to be intimately familiar with those and not allow installation of any part of a suite of related apps that cannot be removed via conventional means.
I use Avast! free antivirus on my computer, and will continue to do so, but am also quite unhappy that it identifies Gingerbreak (and, I’d presume, other Android rooting programs) as a trojan. It is not a trojan and never has been. I don’t need to be protected from threats that do not exist and am capable of making informed decisions after doing research. I don’t care whether what I’m doing is “approved of” or not. There’s a clear difference between a real threat and a concocted one.
unfortunately I wasn’t able to reproduce such issue (and yes, we have LG 2.2 as well as 2.3.x devices here and they are working fine), it’s just that I have heard of such issues before (hard to fix/determine something I’m not able to reproduce). Since you rooted your device (and seems like Titanium backup is working for you just fine), you can try to do a backup and then install the Anti-Theft and see if it can be removed from device admins or not. If not, I can try to get exactly the same device you have and pinpoint the issue (even though it might not be available if it received an OS update already).
The Android rooting programs, as you call them, should be (and I think are) identified as a PUP which is just how things should be in my opinion.
I purchased this LG Optimus V not too terribly long after they became available and it has never been activated for use as a true mobile phone, so there have been no updates to Android on it. Unless you could find some new-old-stock ones somewhere out there the probability of ever locating one with this particular version of the OS on it is very slim. I know that the exploit that Gingerbreak used to root devices was corrected, so this had to be a fairly old release.
Were Android rooting programs identified as PUPs that would be one thing, but they aren’t. The last time I encountered something being noted as a PUP I was given the option to continue downloading it or not. The Gingerbreak APK was identified as a trojan and immediately quarantined. That is a misidentification of what this thing is, and particularly in the context of downloading it to my PC, where it can essentially do nothing. I have attached a copy of Avast’s WebShield log from my PC in relation to this attempted download. I had removed AMS from my smartphone before trying to download there, so I don’t know how it might have reacted to that download.
I do appreciate your assistance and guidance with this matter. I just wanted to make someone aware that there are “sophisticated users” out there who know exactly what rooting programs are and do and who wish to download them quite intentionally. It’s not a problem to warn about them as a potentially unwanted program, but the decision as to whether they can/should be downloaded should be left to the end user since they serve a useful, and non-destructive, purpose.
I understand entirely that it is well-nigh impossible to correct something you cannot replicate. That’s what’s so frustrating about intermittent and/or inconsistent errors.
I don’t remember the solution if there was any though. Did you try to deactivate Anti-Theft (in the Basic Settings in AAT), restarting your device then removing the device admin?