You may have heard it's said that Macs don’t get viruses. That there’s no Apple virus. You may even have said it yourself. Sadly, it’s not true. According to AppleInsider portal, the number of detected Mac viruses jumped up 60% in 2019. And, it’s not just viruses you have to be wary of. There are all sorts of different forms of malware, from bits of code that download themselves and show you adverts for things you have no interest in, to really nasty bugs that steal your personal data.
How do I know if my Mac has a virus?
Get your applications from the Mac App Store or the developer’s website. Avoid running unsigned software—that means only allowing apps downloaded from the “App Store and identified developers”. Unlike on Windows, there’s no Add/Remove programs window where you can go to see what’s installed and quickly uninstall it on a Mac. Open Safari program. Go to Safari menu. Pick “Inclinations”. This will open the Safari settings exchange box. If it’s not too much trouble select “Expansions” tab to see rundown of installed augmentations. Select Advanced Mac Cleaner from the rundown. If not discovered, it might be covering up under an alternate name.
Before you remove a virus from a Mac, you need to be sure it actually has one. We’ve covered that in more detail in this article but here are a few pointers.
- Your Mac starts behaving erratically and doing things you don’t expect;
- Your Mac starts running very slowly, as if something is hogging the processor;
- You start seeing adverts on your desktop;
- You find software or applications you didn’t install.
- An app asks for your administrator password
These symptoms may mean your Mac has a virus, although there could be other explanations.
How to remove a virus from a Mac
Thankfully, there are lots of ways to do it. And Mac virus removal doesn’t have to cost money.
1. Delete browser extensions
One of the most common types of malware comes in the form of browser extensions. Even extensions that aren’t particularly malicious can be annoying, and if you didn’t deliberately install them, they’re malware. Here’s how to get rid of unwanted browser extensions.
Safari
- Launch Safari.
- Click Safari in the top menu, then choose Safari Extensions.
- Look down the list and click on any extensions that look suspicious. Read the description of the extension. If you don’t remember installing it, click Uninstall.
- Repeat until you’ve removed all the extensions you don’t want.
Chrome
- Launch Chrome.
- Click on the 3-dot icon in the upper right corner.
- Select More Tools and choose Extensions from the menu that appears.
- Look over the extensions in the browser window and click Remove on any that you don’t recognise.
Firefox
- Launch Firefox.
- Click the 3-line (hamburger) icon at the top right corner.
- Choose Add-ons
- Click the Extensions tab and remove on any you don’t recognise.
2. Uninstall apps
Malware comes in lots of different forms. And it even comes disguised as security software to help you get rid of viruses! Devious, huh?
If you’ve inadvertently downloaded an app that turns out to be a virus, you need to uninstall it immediately. There are a couple of ways to do this. Here’s the hard way.
- Go to your applications folder and drag the app to the Trash.
- Go to your ~/Library folder and look in the Application support folder for any files related to the app and drag those to the Trash.
- Look in the other folders in ~/Library, especially Launch Agents and Launch Daemons and remove any files related to the app from there. But be careful, if you remove files used by legitimate app you could cause lots of problems.
- Repeat Step 3 for your Mac’ main Library folder.
The easy way: Uninstall apps in a few clicks
- Download and launch CleanMyMac X.
- Click Uninstaller.
- Check the box next to the application name.
- Click Uninstall.
If you don’t know the name of the application, it’s more difficult. But if you use CleanMyMac, all you have to do is scroll through the list of applications and look for any you don’t recognise or don’t need and remove them. CleanMyMac removes every trace of an app, including files that you may overlook when you remove applications manually. This is particularly important for viruses, so it’s much better to use CleanMyMac.
What's makes this method even better, is that CleanMyMac X also shows you app leftovers that remained after the main app is gone.
What's makes this method even better, is that CleanMyMac X also shows you app leftovers that remained after the main app is gone.
3. Use a malware removal tool
While the above steps work very well in lots of cases, sometimes the Mac virus removal means using a dedicated application to scan and remove malware from your Mac.
There are lots of these applications available, and many of them are either free or allow you to at the very least scan your Mac for free to find out whether you need to take action. Be careful, however. It’s important to choose a tool from a reputable vendor. If you just google ‘Mac antivirus tool’ some of the results may well be for tools that are themselves malicious and instead of removing viruses from your Mac will infect it. We recommend using CleanMyMac X.
It can identify thousands of malware threats, including adware, spyware, ransomware, worms, cryptocurrency miners. And if CleanMyMac finds something suspicious, it will offer immediate removal. Here’s how to perform a full system scan:
- Download CleanMyMac X (free download) and launch the app.
- Click on the Malware Removal tab.
- Click Scan.
- Click Remove.
![How to get rid of the mac cleaner virus safe mode How to get rid of the mac cleaner virus safe mode](/uploads/1/2/4/2/124277536/546214694.jpg)
4. Escape the virus: Create a new user profile
Usually viruses are attached to a particular user profile on your computer. In this way they are able to seize control of your admin profile. But you can start if from scratch and create a new user on your Mac. Don't worry, you will be able to transfer all your important data from one user to another.
Go to Apple menu > System Preferences, click Users & Groups.
- Click the lock icon , then type in your admin password.
- Use the plus sign to add new user profile
To move your important information from one user to another, you will need to access the Shared folder.
Click on the Finder > Go to Folder...
Paste in this: /Users
Can you see the Shared folder? Here you can copy the needed files from your old user account. Hurray, you've started a clean, virus-free life!
Click on the Finder > Go to Folder...
Paste in this: /Users
Can you see the Shared folder? Here you can copy the needed files from your old user account. Hurray, you've started a clean, virus-free life!
Bonus tip: Clean up your login items
Login items are apps that launch automatically upon startup. Malware programs would often sneak into your login items without you knowing. How to prevent them from launching?
Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences
Click Users & Groups
Click on the Login items tab
Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences
Click Users & Groups
Click on the Login items tab
From here you can manage them using the [+] and [—] buttons.
How to disable the invisible agents
Some small supporting applications never show up in the Login items. They are called the Launch agents and may as well be hacked by viruses. You can find them with the universal Mac cleaner, CleanMyMac. This app is notarized by Apple, so you are safe using it.
Download the cleaner here — the link to a free edition
Launch the app and go to the Optimization tab
Click Launch agents
How many apps do you see there? Remove any flash players, automatic updaters, or everything else that you find suspicious. Even if you deleted the main app itself, its launch agents may still occupy your drive. Here is what I have:
Download the cleaner here — the link to a free edition
Launch the app and go to the Optimization tab
Click Launch agents
How many apps do you see there? Remove any flash players, automatic updaters, or everything else that you find suspicious. Even if you deleted the main app itself, its launch agents may still occupy your drive. Here is what I have:
To prevent your Mac from infection, the above app has a real-time monitor tool. It sees that no harmful apps place their code in your Launch Agents. It monitors several such locations that could be gateways for viruses.
How to get rid of virus on a Macbook Pro (or any other Mac) if all else fails
If you’ve run through all the steps above and are still having problems trying to remove a virus from a Mac, the next step is to restore from a Time Machine backup. The benefit of restoring from Time Machine is that you can do it quickly and easily by booting into the recovery partition and you can choose to backup to a state just before your Mac started behaving erratically.
The downside of this option is that any work you’ve done since the backup you restore from will be lost. You could manually copy files from your Mac to another drive or cloud storage service before you restore and then copy them back afterwards. However, if one of those files is infected, you risk contaminating your Mac all over again. If there are documents you really need and that aren’t backed up elsewhere, use one of the antivirus tools above to run a scan on them before you copy them to another disk. That way you’ll know they’re safe.
Here’s how to restore from a Time Machine backup
- Make sure you’re connected to your Time Machine backup drive.
- Restart your Mac, holding down the Command and R keys until you see the Apple logo. When the macOS Utilities screen appears, choose Restore from a Time Machine Backup. Click Continue.
- Choose the last backup before your Mac started misbehaving or you suspect you were infected with a virus.
Your Mac will now return to the state it was in when you made that backup.
If you don’t have a Time Machine backup to restore from, the last resort is to reinstall macOS. This is a ground-zero approach. You’ll need to wipe your startup drive completely clean and start again. That means re-installing all your applications and copying all your data back to your Mac afterwards. If you have a recent backup of your data, from before your Mac became infected, you can use that to copy data from after you re-install. If not, you’ll need to back up important files now — but scan them with an antivirus tool first to make sure they’re not infected.
To perform a clean install of macOS, you’ll need a bootable installer disk. Creating one is beyond the scope of this article, but there is a comprehensive guide here.
Once you’ve made your bootable installer, plug it into your Mac, go to System Preferences, choose Startup Disk and select the disk you just plugged in. Restart your Mac, holding down Command-R and do the following:
- When the macOS Utilities screen appears, select Reinstall a new copy of macOS. Click Continue and then Continue again when the next window appears.
- Agree to the terms and conditions and select your Mac’s internal disk.
- Click Install. Wait for your Mac to restart.
- Your Mac will startup as if it’s a new Mac and you’ll need to go through the process of setting it up from scratch.
- Once you’ve set it up, copy back the files you need from the backup and that you know aren’t infected.
As you can see, there are many different ways to remove a virus from a Mac, depending on how badly infected it is and what kind of virus it is. The main thing to remember is if you suspect your Mac is infected, don’t worry. It can be fixed!
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Safe Cleaner For Mac is a potentially unwanted program (PUP) that trying to pretend as useful and effective. To clean up junk and unwanted files, to optimize, and to improve overall Mac performance are some of the promises of Safe Cleaner For Mac. Though the way it promoted seems convincing, hence, it does not possess any real value.
This bogus program often obtained by most Mac users by accident. Some may get Safe Cleaner For Mac while visiting malicious web site. Some may acquire it as they install a piece of free software. While some other obtained this adware by means of fake security alert.
Once it infiltrates the computer, Safe Cleaner For Mac perform fake scan. Then it shows results stating that viruses and some issues have been detected and need to be fixed. However, to be able to fix or remove the alleged viruses and help you out from this mess, you do have to purchase first the full version of the program.
In simple term, the real motive of Safe Cleaner For Mac is to gain online ad revenue. It even promotes products that you don’t need in the first place. As there were no real issues that need to be fixed. If there is one issue now that your system is dealing with is that, the presence of Safe Cleaner For Mac itself.
Safe Cleaner For Mac gives totally opposite to what it offers to its users. Therefore, there is no reason not to remove this adware program from your system. Dealing with Safe Cleaner For Mac with urgency is very important to prevent added issue.
To get rid of Safe Cleaner For Mac, you may use the removal steps included on this page.
Safe Cleaner For Mac is rogue optimization tool. So as to mislead and attract users, this adware program claims that this can fix a lot of Mac problems and can perform multiple cleaning tasks.
Threat Summary
Threat: | Safe Cleaner For Mac |
Type: | Adware |
Brief Description: | Adware are unwanted programs that can pose serious threats on Mac computer. |
Description
Safe Cleaner For Mac is a potentially unwanted program (PUP) that trying to pretend as useful and effective. To clean up junk and unwanted files, to optimize, and to improve overall Mac performance are some of the promises of Safe Cleaner For Mac. Though the way it promoted seems convincing, hence, it does not possess any real value.
This bogus program often obtained by most Mac users by accident. Some may get Safe Cleaner For Mac while visiting malicious web site. Some may acquire it as they install a piece of free software. While some other obtained this adware by means of fake security alert.
Once it infiltrates the computer, Safe Cleaner For Mac perform fake scan. Then it shows results stating that viruses and some issues have been detected and need to be fixed. However, to be able to fix or remove the alleged viruses and help you out from this mess, you do have to purchase first the full version of the program.
In simple term, the real motive of Safe Cleaner For Mac is to gain online ad revenue. It even promotes products that you don’t need in the first place. As there were no real issues that need to be fixed. If there is one issue now that your system is dealing with is that, the presence of Safe Cleaner For Mac itself.
Safe Cleaner For Mac gives totally opposite to what it offers to its users. Therefore, there is no reason not to remove this adware program from your system. Dealing with Safe Cleaner For Mac with urgency is very important to prevent added issue.
To get rid of Safe Cleaner For Mac, you may use the removal steps included on this page.
Procedures to Remove Safe Cleaner For Mac
Removal steps on this page will help you get rid of the threat effectively using tools and virus scanners. Please make sure that you will carry out the guide in exact order.
Remove Safe Cleaner For Mac from Safari browser
1. Open Safari browser.
2. Go to Safari menu.
3. Choose 'Preferences'.
4. This will open the Safari settings dialog box.
5. Please select 'Extensions' tab to see list of installed extensions.
6. Select Safe Cleaner For Mac from the list. If not found, it may be hiding under a different name. Look for unknown or suspicious item.
7. Turn off the extension by removing the Check Mark on the box beside 'Enable Safe Cleaner For Mac extension'. You can also Uninstall the extension if you need to permanently remove it from the computer.
8. Please close Safari browser at the moment and proceed to the next procedure.
Manually delete all files dropped by the adware
1. Navigate the Apple Menu bar and click on 'Go'. Then, select 'Go to Folder'.
2. Copy and paste, or type the following line in the field and press Enter on your keyboard:
/Library/LaunchAgents
3. LaunchAgents folder should open at this point. Look for items with the following file name:
- Safe Cleaner For Mac.update.plist
- Safe Cleaner For Mac.AppRemoval.plist
- Safe Cleaner For Mac.download.plist
- Safe Cleaner For Mac.ltvbit.plist
- .com. Safe Cleaner For Mac.agent.plist
- .com.SoftwareUpdater.agent.plist
4. Move each file to the Trash. This action may require administrator privilege. If you are not logged in as administrator, you need to provide required password.
5. Go to a different folder again using procedure from Step 1 and copy and paste or type the following line:
~/Library/LaunchAgents
6. Do the same process as in Step 3 and move each file to the Trash.
7. Next, we need to look at Application Support folder. Using the same method as above. Go to this location:
~/Library/Application Support
8. Find the same files as in Step 3 and drag them to the Trash.
9. Go back to Apple Menu and then select Applications from the drop-down list.
10. Delete the following folders just in case they do exist.
SoftwareUpdater Safe Cleaner For Mac
Note: Malware may use alternative names instead of Safe Cleaner For Mac to mislead security programs as well as users. If in case the above list is not present, please look for unfamiliar or suspicious items containing the same extension as update.plist, ltvbit.plist, and download.plist.
Scan with MBAM to easily get rid of Safe Cleaner For Mac
1. Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac from the link below.
2. Drag the downloaded file MBAM-Mac-[version].dmg to Applications folder.
3. Under Applications folder, right-click on Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and select 'Open' from the given choices.
4. After opening the tool, click on the 'Scan' button to start checking the computer for presence of Safe Cleaner For Mac and other malware.
5. When scanning is done, the tool will display all identified threats. Be sure to select malicious items.
6. Click on 'Remove Selected Items' to delete the threats.
We hope that the procedures and removal tool on this page was able to help you in removing Safe Cleaner For Mac. Your computer should now be malware free.