Mystery Baidu News Process on iOS 8 (iPhone 6 Plus)? How to Remove?

[johntdavis]

I'm one of those currently trying to track down the source of the too-fast battery drain on my new iPhone 6+ with iOS 8.1.1. To that end I've been taking a very close look at things and just downloaded Battery Doctor to get a list of running processes currently using the battery. I was very surprised (and alarmed) to see a string of Chinese characters listed as a process name, as I've never downloaded any apps with names in Chinese script.

Google Translate says the process is "Baidu News." Since I've never installed any Baidu app and can't read Chinese, I have no idea how this is running or why, or how to shut it down.

I checked Settings.app and there is no entry for Baidu News.

Is this part of iOS 8? If it is, how do I turn it off? If it's not, what can I do to get rid of it?

Thanks!

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8.1.1

 

[dilap]

I'm one of those currently trying to track down the source of the too-fast battery drain on my new iPhone 6+ with iOS 8.1.1. To that end I've been taking a very close look at things and just downloaded Battery Doctor to get a list of running processes currently using the battery. I was very surprised (and alarmed) to see a string of Chinese characters listed as a process name, as I've never downloaded any apps with names in Chinese script.

Google Translate says the process is "Baidu News." Since I've never installed any Baidu app and can't read Chinese, I have no idea how this is running or why, or how to shut it down.

I checked Settings.app and there is no entry for Baidu News.

Is this part of iOS 8? If it is, how do I turn it off? If it's not, what can I do to get rid of it?

Thanks!

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8.1.1

I know this may be a stupid question, but are you jailbroken? If you are really worried, I would do a restore, and install your apps manually. It isn't a default

 

[johntdavis]

This is a brand new phone. It's barely been out of the box two weeks. I've never jailbroken it.

That said, I did restore from a backup of an iPhone 5. I'm almost positive that phone was never jailbroken, but I can't be sure...

I'm using battery doctor to run a health check on the battery now. If it comes back clean, I'm going to seriously consider setting the phone up as a new device.

 

[dk001]

This is a brand new phone. It's barely been out of the box two weeks. I've never jailbroken it.

That said, I did restore from a backup of an iPhone 5. I'm almost positive that phone was never jailbroken, but I can't be sure...

I'm using battery doctor to run a health check on the battery now. If it comes back clean, I'm going to seriously consider setting the phone up as a new device.

Have you considered reaching out to Apple (via store) to express concern over this? On a brand new device I would be extremely concerned.

 

[johntdavis]

Have you considered reaching out to Apple (via store) to express concern over this? On a brand new device I would be extremely concerned.

I'm going to try restoring the device as new, first. If the weird process doesn't show up, it was something bizarre with my old phone that got pushed over to the new one.

 

[Abazigal]

I'm one of those currently trying to track down the source of the too-fast battery drain on my new iPhone 6+ with iOS 8.1.1. To that end I've been taking a very close look at things and just downloaded Battery Doctor to get a list of running processes currently using the battery. I was very surprised (and alarmed) to see a string of Chinese characters listed as a process name, as I've never downloaded any apps with names in Chinese script.

Google Translate says the process is "Baidu News." Since I've never installed any Baidu app and can't read Chinese, I have no idea how this is running or why, or how to shut it down.

I checked Settings.app and there is no entry for Baidu News.

Is this part of iOS 8? If it is, how do I turn it off? If it's not, what can I do to get rid of it?

Thanks!

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8.1.1

Baidu is a search engine in China, which is quite popular inside since Google is all but banned. Go to Settings --> Safari and check what your default search engine is.

Just a quick check - do you have any chinese keyboard enabled? This option only becomes available when you have a chinese keyboard enabled under settings (together with sina weibo and tencent weibo available as sharing options - they are like the China version of Twitter).

If you go to settings -> General -> keyboard, what keyboards have you added?

Interestingly enough, Baidu News is also an app. Have you downloaded any such news apps recently?

 

[johntdavis]

Baidu is a search engine in China, which is quite popular inside since Google is all but banned. Go to Settings --> Safari and check what your default search engine is.

Just a quick check - do you have any chinese keyboard enabled? This option only becomes available when you have a chinese keyboard enabled under settings (together with sina weibo and tencent weibo available as sharing options - they are like the China version of Twitter).

If you go to settings -> General -> keyboard, what keyboards have you added?

Interestingly enough, Baidu News is also an app. Have you downloaded any such news apps recently?

Thanks for the info. I checked these settings as you suggested.

My Safari default search is Google.
I only have 2 keyboards enabled: US standard and Emoji.
I haven't downloaded Baidu News. It's not anywhere on my phone or in iTunes.

It's still showing up in Battery Doctor's list, even though it disappeared for a while.

I've gotten all my photos off the phone and made a list of every folder and app. I'm resigned to the idea that I'm going to need to set up the phone as a new device.

I'm not sure what I'll do if it comes back after that.

 

[Abazigal]

Thanks for the info. I checked these settings as you suggested.

My Safari default search is Google.
I only have 2 keyboards enabled: US standard and Emoji.
I haven't downloaded Baidu News. It's not anywhere on my phone or in iTunes.

It's still showing up in Battery Doctor's list, even though it disappeared for a while.

I've gotten all my photos off the phone and made a list of every folder and app. I'm resigned to the idea that I'm going to need to set up the phone as a new device.

I'm not sure what I'll do if it comes back after that.

Weird. Good luck with your restore then, and hope it resolves your issues. Let us know how it goes.

 

[johntdavis]

Weird. Good luck with your restore then, and hope it resolves your issues. Let us know how it goes.

I'm going to leave it on overnight one more time to see how it does in Standby mode. Even if it suddenly starts behaving I'm still deeply disturbed by an untraceable Baidu process running. I can't think of any good reason it would be there. It didn't show up in the other process checking app, though... Still, I can't just ignore it. What's it doing, and who's it talking to? I do a lot of commerce on my phone, so I'm more than a bit nervous.

I'll probably end up calling Apple before I do a restore-as-new nuking. I bought the new phone because the battery on my old one was hosed. So it's been very frustrating to deal with battery draining issues on this one. The worst part is this is apparently a huge problem, so I can't say it's my weird phone alone having the issue.

I wonder if restoring the phone as new will fix the skippy audio/video I'm occassionally getting in YouTube and Pandora's apps, along with sometimes jerky UI animations (not that those really bother me)...

 

[Abazigal]

I'm going to leave it on overnight one more time to see how it does in Standby mode. Even if it suddenly starts behaving I'm still deeply disturbed by an untraceable Baidu process running. I can't think of any good reason it would be there. It didn't show up in the other process checking app, though... Still, I can't just ignore it. What's it doing, and who's it talking to? I do a lot of commerce on my phone, so I'm more than a bit nervous.

I'll probably end up calling Apple before I do a restore-as-new nuking. I bought the new phone because the battery on my old one was hosed. So it's been very frustrating to deal with battery draining issues on this one. The worst part is this is apparently a huge problem, so I can't say it's my weird phone alone having the issue.

I wonder if restoring the phone as new will fix the skippy audio/video I'm occassionally getting in YouTube and Pandora's apps, along with sometimes jerky UI animations (not that those really bother me)...

It sounds like you may have gotten some sort of wirelurker malware, which is spread by first downloading the software to your Mac PC, then syncing it over to your iPhone.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/wirelurker-malware-iphone-windows,news-19888.html

I am not sure how to remove or check for it though.

 

[johntdavis]

It sounds like you may have gotten some sort of wirelurker malware, which is spread by first downloading the software to your Mac PC, then syncing it over to your iPhone.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/wirelurker-malware-iphone-windows,news-19888.html

I am not sure how to remove or check for it though.

Wow. Okay. I'm actually pleased that there might be a treatable cause for this. I've never jail broken this phone or—as far as I can remember, the old one—but I have plugged the old one into random computers to charge. Maybe that did it.

I will try the detector you linked to tomorrow.

Thanks!

 

[FreeState]

Battery Doctor is by a company in China. That's probably the process your seeing.... The app is actually a skinned web browser (it brings up Southwest Airlines flight status bar in the ap on a Southwest Flight).

Website from the iTunes developer link http://www.ijinshan.com/dcys/

 

[Salvor Hardin]

Battery Doctor is by a company in China. That's probably the process your seeing.... The app is actually a skinned web browser (it brings up Southwest Airlines flight status bar in the ap on a Southwest Flight).

Website from the iTunes developer link http://www.ijinshan.com/dcys/

If that's the case he should try using another app that can show him processes like this https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/system-monitoring-tools/id496856602?mt=8
Leave Battery Doctor running in the background, check if that Baidu process is listed in the other app then see if it goes away after uninstalling Battery Doctor.

 

[johntdavis]

Just wanted to say that ditching Battery Doctor fixed the problem.

Thanks!

 

[tiartrop]

Just a quick check - do you have any chinese keyboard enabled? This option only becomes available when you have a chinese keyboard enabled under settings (together with sina weibo and tencent weibo available as sharing options - they are like the China version of Twitter).

Thanks for this tip, I thought they appeared because I used Chinese-based sim card, I never thought that using the Chinese keyboard would trigger this, even the Traditional ones.