UPDATEDx3: [site-news] For Mobile Users Being Redirected To App Store

UPDATEDx3: We’ve been working for the past two days to solve the mobile redirects issue. After working with a group of 30 users who were having the problem, they are all now telling me they no longer are having any issues. If you are still experiencing problems with mobile redirects, please email me with the relevant details (your country, browser, operating system, what exactly happens, if it happens on every page or just once in a while, and a screenshot if possible). If I don’t hear from anyone via email, I’ll consider the problem solved. If you post in the comments that you are still experiencing the issue but then don’t email me any details, I’ll assume you aren’t being serious. Thanks guys.

UPDATEDx2: As we go through the process of isolating the problem, it appears that the issue could be caused by malware called adtrack.king.com on your phone that you may have gotten from various different apps that you downloaded. If you are having an issue with the redirects, please follow these steps (thanks to malwarefixes.com for posting the steps). If you still have the issue after doing so, please email me with the following details: how often it happens (every page? every now and then?), your country, your browser, your operating system.

adtrack.king.com Removal Procedures

Since browser redirect issue for adtrack.king.com is still under thorough diagnostics, we haven’t found the exact solution to stop it. For the meantime, we have gathered some procedures that might work on the affected devices.

Solution for iOS Devices:

Reset Settings:

1. Go to Settings and then click on General.

2. Scroll down to the bottom and click Reset. This method will reset some of the modified settings, not everything that is stored on the device.

Uninstall Apps:

1. Track the Apps you have installed recently. Removing them may help stop the adtrack.king.com hijacking issue. Some of the reported apps that are causing this are Iconmania and MineCraft. However there is no confirmation yet if users who got affected have downloaded the legitimate copies. It could be a version with code injected into it.

Logout Facebook Account:

It is said that Facebook app King Bling has something to do with this redirect problems. In some occasions, it will show an error “You don’t have a Facebook app user session! Please log in to the King Bling app in Facebook.” You may want to delete the app from Facebook or logout the account and see what will happen.

Solution for Android Devices

Clearing the Browser:

1. Open your web browser on Android device.
2. Press the Menu key. Select “More”, then “Settings”.
3. Scroll down until you see the three menu options: Clear cache, Clear history, and Clear all cookie data.
4. Execute each one by one. Press “Ok” when it confirms if you want to proceed.
5. Press the back button until you get back to the web browser. You may want to restart the browser to see the changes.

UPDATED: We’ve already gotten about 30 people willing to help, which should be enough for now. If I end up needing more people to help, I’ll update again. Thanks everyone.

ORIGINAL: Roughly 2% of 411 users have been experiencing a weird problem where they get redirected to the App Store when visiting on a mobile device. Trust us, we are not doing that on purpose. The issue is an internet-wide problem that has impacted all sorts of sites, from Facebook to NBC.com to NHL.com. TechCrunch has an article up explaining the issue in more detail.

We are not running ads that send redirects on purpose and our ad networks are all denying that the redirects are coming from them. Even the company behind the Candy Crush app, which is where most of the redirects are going, are denying that they are paying for redirects and want them stopped as well since it just leaves users hating them. It’s all very frustrating.

Since we cannot replicate the issue on our end, it is very difficult for us to isolate the problem and fix it. So, if you are one of the users who is having this issue, and you are willing to help us isolate the issue (meaning you will have to visit a test page and give us feedback as we remove and add different things until we isolate the root cause), please email me directly. Without a few users who are having the problem stepping up and helping us out, it will be difficult to fix. Thanks.