Randomly Downloaded iCloud Apps

I have a few questions that will hopefully clarify what is going on.

1. Can you post some screenshots of the apps that are installed on your devices?
2. What devices are you working with? (Macbook? iPhone? iPad?) It would help to have the specific type of device and what version of iOS or MacOS you are running on the respective devices.
3. Can you double check that all of the apps that are being installed on your devices aren't in your purchases?
4. If you perform a factory reset (on a iPhone) are they still being reinstalled?
5. Also are you signing into a Apple ID when you do the factory reset? Or telling the iPhone to restore from a backup?

• • Apple has a really good support article about iCloud Storage, this might help you figure out how to delete the old backups. i.e. Sometimes starting from ground zero is not a bad thing.

I have the 7Plus iOS and MacAir Catalina.

The app that appeared on iCloud is called WebSite Scanner and it’s a white icon in the App Store. When it appeared suddenly I checked the AppStore to see if I had downloaded it but the icon showed that it was never originally downloaded yet from the AppStore so I just deleted the appearing app in iCloud. This was in iOS while checking iCloud.

The one was called was on my Mac called uMobileCam Camera and appeared on Nov 5 in my Mac iCloud storage while checking the account. I also deleted that one too.

The app that is not able to be deleted or removed is called the Ulysses Classic app with a yellow butterfly as an icon and it’s been stuck in my iCloud storage for a while now as I can not remove from iCloud storage either by iOS or through Mac. It just won’t delete.

Ive never performed a factory reset yet on my Mac but I did on my phone a few months ago but I restored it from iCloud backups. Nothing solves the problems.

I am very concerned about the security of my accounts at this point as when I had called Apple Support for help the agent didn’t do nothing but said that he would need full unrestricted access to my iCloud storage account to be to begin to help and I just thought that it was strange for Apple to ask for that. I do not know what to do at this point. Even if upgrade to a new device the issues will still be there if my account is compromised.

Ok, so the screenshots were very helpful! Thanks for posting those.

The "Message Hands", "Classic Mac", "Messages Smileys", "Messages Hearts", are all Apple created apps that are specifically designed for your iMessage app on your iPhone & Mac. Those would have had to be installed on your devices by a person. They do not automatically install by themselves.

Can you clarify what you mean by iCloud? I ask this because its doesn't make sense for any App, from the App Store to install itself into iCloud. See below for details

The app that appeared on iCloud is called WebSite Scanner and it’s a white icon in the App Store. When it appeared suddenly I checked the AppStore to see if I had downloaded it but the icon showed that it was never originally downloaded yet from the AppStore so I just deleted the appearing app in iCloud. This was in iOS while checking iCloud.

"I've never performed a Factory Reset on my Mac yet. but I did on my phone a few months ago and restored it from iCloud backups."

^^^^^^^^ - Do a Factory Reset again, but set your phone up as a new phone and DO NOT RESTORE iCloud. that way nothing will be installed on your phone. You can still sign into your account, but don't restore from any backups.

If possible, try and delete the iCloud backups. This article should help - https://www.imore.com/how-delete-old-icloud-backups

Let me know how its goes. :)

Hi,

What I meant when I said that an app randomly appeared in my iCloud was that as I was checking the backups and iCloud storage I made an inventory of what data were on the iCloud Drive and the iCloud storage. Then about an hour later as I had went to check on the iCloud storage again to see if the Ulysses had been deleted, I noticed a new app right underneath the Ulysses that had appeared in the iCloud storage of which I don’t remember downloading or why I would download it. It was the Website Scanner app. So I decided to check the App Store to get more information on the app and when I pulled up the app on the App Store, it showed the “Get” button was still there meaning that I had never originally downloaded that app ever from the App Store before. So I went ahead and deleted the random app from my iCloud Storage but the Ulysses app is still not able to be deleted. Yes my phone has been acting weird lately with it randomly changing settings or restarting by itself to apps not working properly as it should such as the VPNs and the Facebook Messenger app. I don’t think it’s the hardware problem as the same thing is going on with my Mac as well. Please help.

Here are the screenshots of the problematic apps.