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An unusual issue recently cropped up for some Samsung Galaxy users. Their device marked the Samsung Messages app as harmful, preventing them from using it. The device showed a security warning pop-up and urged them to disable the harmful app. It turns out that a temporary failure of Google’s servers caused this error and there was no problem with Samsung Messages. The company has now provided a solution for those who still can’t use the app.
Samsung outlines a fix for the Samsung Messages “harmful app” issue
According to a post on Samsung forums by a community moderator, the Samsung Messages app showed the “harmful app” security warning because of a temporary issue on Google servers that broke Play Protect. The latter is a built-in service that protects Android devices from malware and harmful apps. It is enabled by default on all Android devices with Google Play Services.
According to Google, Play Protect scans 125 billion apps daily. If the service detects something malicious with the app you are using, it sends an alert and urges you to disable the app. This is what happened in this case. The only problem is that it falsely detected something harmful with the Samsung Messages app. While Google has fixed the error, some people may have already disabled the app from the warning pop-up.
If you’re unable to access the app following this error, you can enable it following these steps. Firstly, open the Settings app and go to the Apps menu. Now, tap on the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the screen and select “Reset app preferences.” Finally, select “Reset” on the pop-up screen to confirm your decision. This should make Samsung Messages work normally again, the company states.
Note that these steps will enable all apps that you have disabled before. It will also reset your notification settings for apps, background data restrictions, and permission restrictions. You might be better off manually enabling Samsung Messages from the app list. Simply find the app on the list, tap on it go into the info page, and tap on Enable. The issue should be gone now.
These steps will work for all apps installed on your phone
It’s unclear whether the recent failure of Google’s servers caused similar security errors with other apps or only Samsung Messages was affected. Nonetheless, these steps will reset app preferences for all apps installed on your phone. So if you have mistakenly disabled an app, follow the steps above to enable it. Make sure to regularly update apps to stay safe from potential security issues and avoid sideloading apps from unknown sources.
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