I buy and sell a lot of phones on marketplace, ebay, craigslist, etc.
You guys have any neat tricks or apps that help to find any sort of tracking apps or software ion mobile phones?
If you’re buying a used phone, the safest move is to assume it’s sketchy until you wipe it yourself. There’s no perfect “spyware detector,” so the best fix is a clean reset plus a couple quick checks.
iPhone: check Settings, General, VPN & Device Management. If there’s a management profile you can’t remove, I’d pass. Then erase all content, update iOS, and set it up as new. Also make sure it’s not tied to someone else’s Apple ID.
Android: check for weird stuff in Device admin apps, Accessibility permissions, Notification access, and any unknown VPN. Run Play Protect, then factory reset (recovery reset if you want to be extra safe).
Big red flag: if management controls can’t be removed or settings keep coming back after a reset, I’d return it or in your case I guess get rid of it ASAP since you likely can’t return these phones you’re buying
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if you’re on a droid, check All Devices Detector finder: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.monystudio.detectorhiddendevices&hl=en_US
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There is actually a built-in tracking checker on all android phones, not sure if you knew that. It’s to check for things like air tags in your vicinity. I know this thread is about tracking apps and weird hidden stuff on your phone, but figured this may be helpful to someone.
go to Settings > Safety & Emergency > Unknown tracker alerts and toggle “Allow alerts” to on
malware bytes has a free scanning tool to find and remove spyware, tracking, and other nasty stuff on your devices.