Need help REMOVING avast anti-theft

[pittrek]

Last year I wanted to check if I don't have any virus on my phone. I mean I AM usually very careful on the internet, but I am quite new on the Android platform, so I wanted to be sure that I didn't do anything "wrong".

I was so stupid that I downloaded avast and installed it, now I can't get rid of it :-(

I have installed Avast, scanned the phone and found out that I have no viruses (meaning I still know how to behave online :-) ) However after a few hours of using the phone I found the behaviour of the phone too slow and decided to uninstall avast. I did uninstall it like every other app, everything looked like I got rid of it. Until the next time I connected my phone to my wifi network at home.

Now, every single time the phone connects to the internet (either via 3G or wifi), the phone plays an annoying melody, vibrates, and I get the message

"Upgrade avast! Anti-Theft
Download avast! Anti-Theft 2.0.4838"

If I tap it, I get scared a second time (loud noise + vibrating) and I get to the famous

Enter avast! PIN
4-6 digits
PIN Recovery not set
Please set the recovery phone number in the Settings

screen. What PIN ? I didn't specify any !!! If I try to put a "random" number I get an error, when I tap Cancel the app closes but I still have the damned notification in the notification bar ! I can't even delete it from it ! Again, "Enter avast! PIN".

Please, how can I get rid of this annoying piece of .... software ? I don't see ANY avast related application installed on my phone. I tried to re-install it, it didn't help. I didn't find any useful tip online :-( I even tried to upgrade Android several times since I installed avast, it didn't help.

My Phone :
Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-I910, NOT ROOTED
Android version 4.1.2

The phone is not rooted and I would prefer if I didn't have to do it, I don't want to lose the warranty.

PLEASE ... can somebody help me to get rid of everything avast-related ? I want my phone exactly in the same status as before. I don't want to hear the annoying incoming sms sound plus the vibration every single time I connect my phone to the Internet.

Thanks a lot

[Asyn]

-> https://support3.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=1034#idt_130

[pittrek]

Thanks for your reply, but it doesn't help me.

The first step says
At first, your avast! Password (4-6 digits, only numbers) will be needed. Please go into avast! Free Mobile Security and tap onto 'Settings'

I can't go to avast! Free Mobile security, it was uninstalled (at least that's what my phone "thinks", the application doesn't show in my list of installed applications)

[Asyn]

-> https://support3.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=1034#idt_140

[pittrek]

That's exactly what I'm trying to say,  I see no avast-related programs installed on the phone, I don't see it even in the "all apps" section, so I can't open "avast! Mobile". Unless the process which generates the "update" warning is "hidden" under a different name.

The phone "behaves" like avast was completely uninstalled, the only case when I see that some parts of it are still on the phone somewhere, is the update avast warning :-(

[Asyn]

What PIN ? I didn't specify any !!!

The default PIN is 0000.

Otherwise reinstall AMS to deinstall AAT.

[opdima]

Hi

I don't know whether you solved your problem or not but I can help if you haven't solved it yet. I was also having the same problem and I thougt that anti-theft would be removed when I unistall the avast antivirus application. However it didn't turn out that way. Although I removed the app, the anti-theft was still sending the sms to the numbers that I specified for the app before. Then I checked Google for the problem and got the solution from a forum. I did what they said and now I am literally relieved. Here is what you should do:

First go to app avast mobile security. Then go to settings and scroll down to the bottom. You will see avast! Anti-Theft removal wizard. Click it, enter your pin and then you can remove the anti-theft from the popped up menu. This is the solution which worked for me. Hope it works for you too.

[noodler]

There are apps to unroot your phone, if warranty is your concern. I had the same nagging Avast issue and the ONLY way I got it to go away was to use the Root Explorer program (for root users only), run a search on the word "avast", and BOOM, found one APK file with that name, even though I thought I had removed everything Avast-related from my phone.

The second I checked that file and hit delete, the warning vanished. So I guess root your phone and do that. You can always unroot later.