How can I scan my iPhone for virus?

Per Apple AI, a summary: iPhone user reports Facebook app issues after following a link, including a reappearing icon and persistent data usage despite deletion.  They believe the phone has been hacked or modified.

Okay, then that gets a choice of paths to follow.

• 1️⃣ Benign corruption
• 2️⃣ Hacked

Which path will you pick?

1️⃣ If you pick “benign corruption”, then remove the Facebook app from the app library, and force-restart, and re-download the app. Failing that, back up, reset, and restore.

That app corruption can happen for various reasons, including iOS faults, app faults, and full storage capacity.

And the “you’ve been hacked!” popup scams are both bogus, and ubiquitous. Particularly on Facebook, but ad networks everywhere accept junk ads everywhere.

2️⃣ If you pick “hacked”, even given the prevalence of scam ads, then you get a device reset and with no restore, and overhauling all of your security including rotating passwords everywhere and that including rotating password-reset paths, enabling lockdown mode, ad blockers, etc., and then failing resolution of your issues with that or if the security problems persist, you’ll need dedicated security and forensic help.

This as you are the target for tooling worth many millions of dollars, and forensics and assistance with security practices needed for well-funded adversaries are well outside what advice and assistance can be offered via forums. That security advice may well include suggestions staying off Facebook, and moving to a feature phone.

Based on available reporting, iPhone exploits are rare, and targeted. Senior members of large business or private entities and government organizations, those with access to sensitive or classified or great wealth, active members of militaries involved in conflicts, dissidents, investigative journalists, someone that has prodigiously peeved someone immensely rich, etc., can be targeted. Most of us are not.

✅ Of the two paths, benign app and system corruptions and concerns over junk pop-ups are far more common. But some folks are targeted. Just not usually targeted with Facebook app crashes.

No, there is no virus scanner, for the same reason that you do not have a virus. No app can scan the contents of your phone or embed files in the System. With that said, there companies that will make a claim that they can scan your iPhone and will certainly take your money, but those are scams as well.

If you are looking for a resolution to a problem, then you will need to provide the details on what your are experiencing or why you suspect that.

Other than an advertisement, nothing happened here.

An advertisement lied to you about the ”virus scan”, and the advertisement then lied again about finding a virus.

You can completely ignore the advertisement that lied, and can ignore the lie about the malware scan, and can ignore the lie about the virus detection, and the lie about the virus itself.

There’s nothing wrong with your iPhone, no scan, no malware, no virus, just a very effective ad. An ad that lied.

I couple of things to check:

• Force Restart your phone. This will take a couple of attempts to get the speed and key presses correct and the last step of holding the side button could take of up 15 seconds before the Apple Logo appears. Ignore anything else on the screen during that time. - Force restart iPhone - Apple Support
• Check settings again to see if Facebook is still there, If you see it, pleas provide a screenshot of what you see.
• Swipe all the way to the left to enter the App Store and swipe down on the screen. This will show the apps in alphabetical order, so check if Facebook is there.
• Point 9 of your post says you pushed the GET button, and you should not be seeing the GET button for a previously downloaded app. If it shows GET, please provide a screenshot.
• Go to the App Store and tap your user icon in the upper right corner. After that, tap Purchased, then type "Facebook" in the search field and when it comes up, tap the cloud icon next to it or if you do not see the cloud next to it, what is there?

Meta had updated Facebook 3 days ago to attempt to fix bugs in the app, so not sure if you were using the previous version or if it had already been updated and there are bugs in the new version. Meta is notorious for introducing new bugs when the update the app.

JUSTME243 wrote:

Simply put current symptoms on my phone are that I have no access to FB, FB messenger, and I cant use any stored FB link (I've stored links I though useful in my "notes" folder.

Is it now that you do have the Facebook app, but you are not able to log into it? Previously I thought the issue was that you could not get the app. There has been a known issue when using both Facebook and Messenger where an update caused a bug that prevented you to log into Facebook. I believe the solution for that was to delete both apps, then download Facebook first and log in, then follow up by downloading Messenger and logging in.

Do review the other information provided if it still pertains to not being able to download the app including checking your iPhone Storage.

Hello,

None that are useful.

Please describe your symptoms and we will try to help.

JUSTME243 wrote:

Sorry if I wasn't clear. There IS something wrong. Please see items 6 thru 9 in my post.

I've got no FB and can not reload the app. Also FB messenger posts can not be opened.

The strange thing is that although I have deleted the FB app, FB still appears in "settings".

I'd believe "nothing happened" if i was able to restore access to FB.

Meta has had issues with their apps and website at times, Apple has had bugs, allowing storage to become full on an iPhone can cause issues, and networks and occasionally even hardware can glitch or fail.

As was stated above, I’d start with a forced-restart, and a check of storage capacity available.

Settings > General > iPhone Storage.

You’ll want to check for iOS updates too, and after force-restarting the iPhone, re-download the app from your previous purchases.

It’s also possible some or all of Meta services are (intentionally or unintentionally) blocked on the local network, so try from a different network.

Malware that blocks Meta? That seems wonderful! 🤪😉

JUSTME243 wrote:

I have powered down and powered up my phone a number of times to cold start my phone.

Since then I've deleted the FB app and tried to reload it from the app store. In the app store instead of "get" or "the little cloud symbol" the softkey says "open". The only thing that happens is that when I press the "open" softkey, the softkey darkens (to acknowledge my press), when I release it returns to normal (lightens back up again). Nothing loads or executes.

If you are encountering “open” in the app store and not the download icon, then the Facebook app has not been deleted.

If you have performed the forced-restart sequence on the iPhone (this is different than shutting down and restarting), then you’re headed for a backup, reset, and restore.

Your cache files had been corrupted and does happen without any exploit on your device. Another time you will see this corruption in the cache files is when you see multiple app icons on the screen for the same app. That is also why you saw that Facebook had not been removed from your device, because the cache files thought it was still there, and you were not able to open the app. Doing the Force Restart clears these cache files and I actually recommend doing it after every update as that is where the corruption usually happens.

After the Force Restart, I suspect your phone is working normally and if there still is a problem with the Facebook app, you should now be able to delete it and redownload. I don't think it is necessary to do the Backup/Restore as that is just another way to clear those cache files that you have now done with the Force Restart. If we cannot convince you that you don't have an exploit on your device, then you would need to do a Factory Reset and set the device up as new. This will completely wipe your device and all data that is not stored in iCloud will be lost. The Backup/Restore just places your device in the exact same state as before the Factory Reset and also clears those cache files.

Specifically for the Facebook app, Meta just sent out another update 1 hour ago where they claim it has fixed some bugs and resolved crashes that users had reported. It is version 503.0.0. That is the most recent update for the app, along will 10 previous updates for it in just the last month. After any Facebook update, there is a potential to see problems with the app, as there is very little testing for these bugs before the update is released and it is apparent by the number of updates they have to fix bugs, that they are relying on their users to test the product.