I have a OnePlus phone running Android 6.9.2. It’s a double-SIM phone.
I am normally based in Europe, but came to Japan yesterday, bought a Japanese SIM card, and used Japanese mobile internet in the span of around 24 hours with no issue. Today, I started the avast app in order to possibly free some memory. The result was a siren announcing to everyone that “this phone has been lost or is stolen” and my phone is totally incapacitated:
- after I reboot, the phone accepts my pattern, starts, and at this point avast kicks in with the siren and a demand for a pin
- it fails to check the pin (it looks like it tries to connect over the network to verify it, but it fails – it looks like it’s unable to access the Net)
- when I try to “reset pin”, and I am asked to log into my G+ account in order to do that, it fails to accept my password (again, it looks like it is unable to connect, because the password is good)
- when I try to deactivate the alarm from the outside, that is from the avast account (on my laptop), it tells me that it fails to connect to my device
Let me make it clear: the phone has (or had) both wifi and roaming connectivity. I used internet for around 24 hours in Japan, over several wifi networks and via a Japanese sim card. I now seriously wish I hadn’t ever installed avast. I am to a large extent dependent on the phone. I paid for a Japanese sim, and suddenly avast hijacks my phone and blocks all attempts to fix that.
Let me also add that I replaced the original SIM card and restarted the phone, to the same effect. I can, after a bit of fighting, get to a screen where I input the first SIM’s pin, then after a few other attempts, I can type the second pin. So all is active, eventually, and I can see that I e.g. got an sms. But that’s it. And of course, this horrible screaming siren marks me everywhere as a thief.
How can I get that fixed, please? I am not even sure if I can factory-reset the phone, because avast blocks all my access to it. Thanks in advance.