A scan says there is one risk, that Web Shield is turned off
It says to go into Accessibility settings, select Avast Mobile Security and “Turn the switch on”.
That makes no sense. As per the other post, when I go to Settings then Accessibility (Samsung Galaxy S9, Android 10) there is no option to select any app or turn anything on. Accessibility on my phone and in that other post is all about things to do with helping blind and deaf people use the phone. Things like Visibility and Hearing enhancements and Interaction and Dexterity.
When I search in settings for Accessibility nothing else useful comes up.
Can someone please explain in detail which accessibility setting it it talking about and what I have to do to enable web shield.
That was the missing information that I needed thank you.
I think you should update the instructions to add the requirement to select Installed Services.
On this subject, I get lots of notifications on this very issue.
But a visit to Accessibility > Installed Services > Avast Mobile Security - it is ON.
Point:
Is this only about the Avast Mobile Security or Specifically for the Web Shield.
My reasoning for this is that I still get notifications that the Web shield is off, even when this setting it ON.
Is this a big fat false negative or a bug ?
If you experience this issue repeatedly, the issue is caused by a bug in Android, not the application.
Generally, if a background running app gets killed, in that case, Android automatically removes the Accessibility permission, and the user has to grant the Accessibility permission again (usually turn it off and back on). The only way to prevent this from happening is to “protect” the app from being killed. In most cases, the “Power saving features” (implemented by the manufacturer) are behind this “killing”.
Depending on your make and model, you might have to Switch Power Saving Modes to Off and also add the app to No restrictions in “Background Settings” (this is only general information)
Yes repeatedly on two phones Samsung A51 and backup Samsung A12.
The A51 is my main phone and has a sim card, the A12 has no sim and I use that when I go out for my daily exercise (GPS and fitness App).
Generally I only connect via WiFi at home and rarely on the A51, when I’m out I generally don’t use the phone for browsing, calls and texts only.
Both of these phones are on Android 11, the strange thing is this seems only to be on the Samsung A51 phone (not the Samsung A12). I also had it on my Nexus 6P primary phone before I replaced it with the A51.
I can’t understand why there would be a difference in the A51 and A12, Samsung general settings.
I think you can understand why users would blame Avast Mobile Security as there doesn’t seem to be any clear explanation on why it might happen and how to clearly resolve it.
All this back and forth only to find it is still a big fat Red Circle, trying the options you mentioned and have even just done a system restart!
A couple of back and forth actions, so much so that I really don’t know how, but it is now enabled
Each vendor decides what type of battery saving techniques to apply to its device, and they can even differ based on the model. You sometimes need to go through a few optimization apps to resolve the issue. The battery-saving settings you apply can sometimes be overwritten after a firmware, App or OS update.
There doesn’t seem to be any consistency (but the instructions on how to fix given in the web shield is off, isn’t at all clear) between my two phones.
Samsung A51, with sim card on board always has a Red circle (with fig 1) over the avast screen icon, even though the Web Shield is supposedly on, on the checks I have done.
Samsung A12, no sim card, same settings (as far as I can tell (having taken time to try and get them that way), not that installation of Avast Mobile Security hasn’t got that notification.
Before replying here I ran a couple of tests on the A12 (the Realtime Protection settings are the same as the A51), connecting to several sites via WiFi and went back to check the My Statistics, and 0 Zero web sites scanned.
Yet the My Statistics on the A51 has 5 sites scanned, but this mobile is the one that has a virtual permanent notification on the application icon. That often tells me the Web Shield is disabled. I didn’t see anywhere to zero these stats so I could run tests.
I would hazard a guess probably incorrect (as there is nothing to indicate this) is that the WiFi connections going through my modem/router are being scanned anyway ?
Essentially both connect via WiFi (on my desktops modem/router) as I rarely use my sim card (data allowance) to connect to the internet
There is, unfortunately, no consistency because of the difference in Android versions and the device make and models. In Avast Mobile Security, the instructions for enabling “Accessibility” are general for this very reason. Our developers are looking into ways of improving the instructions.
Concerning the scanned websites, they are scanned and counted only if the Web Shield is on. For this, you need to:
have the feature on
have the accessibility on
use a compatible browser
If there is still zero, then the pages are not scanned/checked by Web Shield.
It may be that on your A12, the accessibility is off (because of the power saving), or you used a browser that does not work with Web Shield.
For battery saving settings, you might find this useful https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/Prevent-stop-Android-app/ https://dontkillmyapp.com/
That’s the problem, the Web Shield appears to be on.
Even when there is the Red or Orange circle with the figure 1 on the Avast icon, when I open avast there are no notifications and the web shield appears to be on.
Unfortunately the support article hasn’t been updated for Android 11 on the Samsung section.
This only means that there is one notification displayed, it does not imply that Web Shield is not working.
Please visit this website (in Google Chrome) to test Web Shield: https://web-shield-test.avast.com/
The problem being on opening the App (for the Samsung A12 mobile phone) there are NO notifications and no matter what I do, nothing resolves that. Interestingly after testing the webshield-test link (and no alert) there is no figure 1 over the avast icon ???
The web Shield certainly doesn’t work as the My Statistics shows 0 websites scanned, despite browsing several different sites. A check on the link you gave opens the page blank.avast.com on my Samsung A12 & A51 Android 11
I have literally spent days on this, I did lots of tests on my Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 (Android 10, which was working) to try replicate the settings and or change some settings to see if I could find one that broke it. Reset it and try to find a way to apply this in the A12 and A51, I still couldn’t get the either to work and worse still I screwed the Tab S4, so much so that I ended up doing a system reinstall.
The upshot of this is Avast users who are in the unfortunate position of using a Samsung phone (pretty damn popular) and Android 11, they are screwed (sorry about the use of technical terms).
Unfortunately the Avast Website has zero information/help for Samsung mobiles on Android 11.
The Samsung Deep Sleep (Avast locked in this area, Allow Background Activity) is a killer and despite the extensive searches I have made (many, many, many hours) I am no closer to a solution. Possibly worse I have made so many changes and reversions, I haven’t a clue where I am.
Can you please confirm if you tested this link https://web-shield-test.avast.com/ in Chrome? If you test this in Chrome (not any other browser), you will be redirected to blank.avast.com, but you will also receive a pop-up notification/detection.
Web Shield, unfortunately, does not work with Firefox. For the Web Shield to work, the browser needs to cooperate with accessibility permission and make it possible for us to read the address you are currently browsing. Without this, there is no way to find out which page you are visiting and compare it with our database of malicious pages.
Nothing mentioned about that in any App description I have read. So I have been chasing my backside for days, trying to fix something that can’t be fixed, great news. Living in the belief that Avast Mobile Security was protecting my phone when connecting to the internet
Seems to work on my Android Tablet on Android 10 as the My Statistics on that do show Websites having been scanned and using Firefox on that.
So does it only work on Chrome or are there other browsers that are supported ?
It would be nice if this was made clear what browsers are supported.
