Aug 28, 2020 Keep in mind that the test virus isn't actually a virus, so it won't harm your computer. On Windows, you have a program called Windows Defender that should be on by default. On Mac, you'll need to use a third-party antivirus program like Malwarebytes or AVG. Step 4 – Re-check your Mac with Combo Clean Antivirus. To be sure that your Mac is not infected at all, it's recommended to run a full scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus. Combo Cleaner Antivirus is a professional Mac Antivirus and Mac OSX Optimization Tool for users. It is equipped with powerful detection engine against virus, malware, and adware.
- How To Download A Virus Into My Macbook Pro
- Get A Virus
- How To Download A Virus Into My Mac Computer
- Where Can I Download A Virus
Mar 12, 2019 A popular malware virus of 2017 was embedded into a Word document — a Mac Word file, not a PC one. In 2018, Apple discovered flaws in their Intel processor chips that could lead to two kinds of very ambitious strains of Mac viruses too.
/Mac Uninstaller /Top 6 Ways to Remove Virus from Mac
My Mac has been acting strange for the past few days, and my brother told me that there must be a virus behind it.
I don't know if I should believe him or not because I don't think Mac gets viruses like Windows do.
Anyway, I hope you can help me remove the virus from Mac.
Hi there! Mac can get viruses just like Windows. They can cause your Mac to run slow, so you should get rid of them.
There are different ways to do that. Read up to learn about them. We also have the perfect software to make the job easier for you.
Sound good? Let's dive right in..
Article GuidePart 1. How Can You Tell If Your Mac Has Viruses?Part 2. How to Remove Virus from MacPart 3. Remove Virus from Mac with iMyMac-CleanerPart 4. Conclusion
Part 1. How Can You Tell If Your Mac Has Viruses?
Powerful protection is built within Mac's system. It runs in the background without you noticing it, but it's there. Two programs make that possible.
The first is Gatekeeper, which prevents you from opening any malicious app on your Mac.
The second is Xprotect, which automatically scans downloaded files and checks for viruses. Both are very effective in keeping viruses and malware at bay before they can even start to spread.
These programs make virus and malware attack on Mac very rare. Of course, there are still malware and virus creators that target Mac users and a small fraction gets past Apple's antivirus protocols.
Viruses can get to your Mac in various ways. It can come in the form of a malicious software or malware. You could have downloaded a software that appears legitimate, but things are not always what they seem.
A virus may also get to your Mac with a downloaded file like an image or document. Installing a fake update of an app can also have the same effect.
Some viruses and malware are more dangerous than others. There are those that even steal data, for example, your credit card information and login credentials.
This is why viruses require immediate action.
Here's a list of symptoms that tell you if your Mac may have been attacked by viruses or malware:
Your Mac has been running slower than usual, and this happens every time you use it.
You see apps and software you didn't even install.
All sites that you visit seem to be filled with too many ads, even those sites where you least expect an ad to appear
Ads appear on your desktop.
How to remove the virus from Mac:
In case you notice them happening on your Mac, don't simply Google for an antivirus software for Mac and install whatever comes up first. That may be a malware in disguise.
Instead, follow our guide on how to effectively remove viruses from your Mac. We'll also teach you how to prevent a virus attack from happening again.
Part 2. How to Remove Virus from Mac
Empty the Download folder.
Since viruses most often come from what we download, it makes a lot of sense to get rid of everything in the Download folder. Drag them to Trash and press Empty Trash to permanently delete those files.
Get rid of browser extensions.
Browser extensions can sometimes be malware in sheep's clothing. This is even truer for those that you didn't even install. Delete them by doing as follows:
Safari
Launch Safari and click on Safari from the menu bar.
Select Preferences > Extensions.
Check the list of extensions and look for any extensions that seem malicious.
To delete an extension, select on it and hit Uninstall.
Chrome
Open Chrome, click on the menu and press Preferences.
At the top right corner of the window, you will see a three-dotted icon. Click on it.
Select More Tools > Extensions.
You will see a list of extensions on your Mac. Select one or more that you want to delete and click Remove.
Firefox
Run Firefox and select Tools from the menu bar.
Press Extensions and simply select any extensions that you want to delete and hit Remove.
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For your convenience, you can also use iMyMac-Cleaner Browser Cleanup to delete any unwanted browser extensions.
Uninstall any suspected malware
What should you do with an app that you think is actually malware? Well, the obvious solution is to uninstall it. Here's how you would normally uninstall apps from Mac.
Open the Applications folder and look for the app in question. Drag it to Trash.
Open a Finder window and click on the ~/Library folder to look for any related files of the app. Open the other folders under the ~/Library folder as well.
That's not the only way to uninstall software on your Mac, though. We suggest using iMyMac-Cleaner Uninstaller, which offers a simpler way to get rid of any unwanted software.
You can learn more about this tool in Part 3 of this post.
Use an antivirus software.
If deleting files or uninstalling apps isn't enough, using an antivirus tool may just do the trick. There is much reliable software out there, some free and some paid.
It is up to you if you're willing to shell out money for your Mac's security. As much as possible, stick with software from reputable developers.
Some malware can disguise as an antivirus and instead of fixing your problem, they can make it even worse. Do your research first and read reviews before downloading an antivirus.
For your reference, here is just some highly-rated antivirus software for Mac:
Intego Mac Internet Security X9
Norton Security for Mac
Sophos Antivirus for Mac
Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac
Reset your Mac.
If the above solutions didn't work for you, the next option is to reset your Mac and restore it with a backup.
Whether you use Time Machine or other tools to perform a backup, the backup must have been done before the time your Mac got infected.
If you restore a newly-made backup, you risk infecting your Mac again. That defeats the whole purpose of resetting your computer.
To restore a backup via Time Machine, follow the steps below.
Plug in the drive that you have used to create your Time Machine backup.
Restart your Mac and hold the Command and R buttons together until the Apple logo appears.
The macOS Utilities will appear. From the list of options, select Restore from a Time Machine Backup. Hit Continue.
Select a backup from the list of available backups.
You may also reinstall macOS, but you should consider this your last resort. Doing this step would erase everything on your Mac.
That includes your apps and files. Refer to this guide from Apple if you still want to proceed with this method.
Part 3. Remove Virus from Mac with iMyMac-Cleaner
It isn't that easy to uninstall apps on Mac. Dragging the unwanted app to Trash won't cut it. You have to delete the app's support files, some of them hidden, along with the app itself.
You will have to look for them in different folders, which can be confusing and time-consuming. Using iMyMac-Cleaner Mac Uninstaller can save your time and effort.
You'll see a step-by-step guide on how to use the software below.
Step 1: Download and Install iMyMac Mac Cleaner on Your Mac
Download iMyMac-Cleaner and wait for the installation to complete. Run the program and choose Mac Uninstaller from the left tab.
Step 2: Allow the Software to Scan Your Mac's Apps
Click the Scan button below the Trash icon. The program will start to look for your Mac's installed apps.
Step 3: Select Apps to Uninstall
When the scan is complete, you will see a list of your Mac's apps on the left side of the window. You will see the app's name, size, and storage location.
If you click on an app, you will see its related files. Select the apps that you suspect to be malware. To do that, tick the box next to the said app.
Hit Clean. Press Confirm to proceed.
Tip:iMyMac Mac Cleaner has the most desired features to find and empty your purgeable space on Mac, which many users deeply like it.
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Part 4. Conclusion
Now that you have gotten rid of the viruses on your Mac, you must do your part to keep your Mac virus-free. Do not download and install apps from untrusted sources.
The best place to search for apps is still via the Mac App Store. Aside from that, make sure to scan connected flash drives first before you open them or transfer any files.
Lastly, install a trusted antivirus tool on your Mac.
In the unlikely situation that your Mac gets infected again, make sure to use iMyMac Cleaner and Uninstaller to help you get rid of viruses and malware ASAP.
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Free DownloadYou 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. The latest State of Malware Report by Malwarebytes describes a significant rise of Mac threats of over 400% in 2019. The report claims that cybercriminals now target Macs severely, due to increasing market share. So, do you still believe that Macs don't get viruses? Continue reading to discover how to remove a virus from your Mac and protect your files from getting infected.
Can Macs get viruses?
Macs have been considered safer than Windows PC for a long time. Macs are indeed secure, thanks to various built-in features, such as GateKeeper, that doesn't allow installing anything not approved by Apple. But, as the Apple security features have improved, so is malware. According to the State of Malware report mentioned before, Macs are mostly attacked by adware and potentially unwanted programs (PUP), which macOS has no counteraction against. So, answering the question, yes, Macs do get viruses, and they may impact your sensitive file and data seriously.
How do I know if my Mac has a virus?
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 manually
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 recognize.
Firefox
- Launch Firefox.
- Click the 3-line (hamburger) icon at the top right corner.
- Choose Add-ons.
- Click the Extensions tab and remove any you don't recognize.
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
~/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 apps you could cause lots of problems. - Repeat Step 3 for your Mac's 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 X, all you have to do is scroll through the list of applications and look for any you don't recognize or don't need and remove them. CleanMyMac X 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 X.
What makes this method even better, is that CleanMyMac X also shows you app leftovers that remained after the main app is gone.
3. 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 a 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!
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
From here you can manage them using the [+] and [—] buttons.
How to remove a virus from Mac automatically
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.
Scan your Mac for viruses
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. Besides, it ensures real-time Mac virus protection, informing you when you're about to install something harmful. 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.
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.
- Launch the app and go to the Optimization tab.
- Click Launch agents
How To Download A Virus Into My Macbook Pro
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:
How to get rid of a 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.
But in case that fails, here is one suggestion:Try downloading the three 10.4 Tiger CDs (instead of the DVD version) and try burning those onto CDs, and use those instead. By - 2019, November 19 - 7:43pmAlright, well, from 'I only have dual-layer DVDs', my understanding is that you also tried burning 10.4.x Tiger on a dual-layer DVD, which I'm not sure would work.It's good you are trying out the 'single-layer Leopard DVD' download from here, provided you use a single-layer DVD with it. Download mac os x 10.5 leopard dmg. Then you can wipe off clean the partititon you temporarily used to do this install. Well, even if not, now that you have Tiger up and running (congrats!), you also have the option of using Mac OS X tools to help.For example, if you have a FireWire partition, you can use Disk Utility to 'burn' the Leopard installer into that partition (or, really, it could even be in a partition within your internal hard disk), and then boot from that to then actually install Leopard, onto another partition.
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 afterward. 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 reinstalling all your applications and copying all your data back to your Mac afterward. 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:
Get A Virus
- 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 start up 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! Move on to our little Q&A section to find answers to questions many users ask.
FAQ
Do you need an antivirus for Mac?
How To Download A Virus Into My Mac Computer
Most of the antiviruses protect your Mac in real-time, making it apparent for you when an intruder appears. So, with antivirus software, you can be sure no PUP or adware can infect your computer. Antivirus is not a must-have software, but it indeed adds up a layer of protection if you use it.
Can you get a virus from opening an email?
Email viruses do exist, but you can't catch one just by opening an email. What you need to be cautious with are email attachments. If you don't know who that email comes from, avoid opening the attachment. It can contain PUP and other things you don't need on your computer.
How to do a virus scan on Mac?
To do a quick virus scan, inspect your Mac for the software you didn't intentionally install. Some apps can come in bundles hiding malicious programs that end up appearing on your Mac. For a more thorough virus scan, get CleanMyMac X. All you need to do, is to install the app, go to Malware Removal, and hit the Scan button.
How to remove fake 'Update Adobe Flash Player' pop-ups on Mac?
Try to find and delete the last app you installed before you started seeing such fake alerts. Also, remove browser extensions from the web-browser where you see such pop-up ads. Some malicious extension can be responsible for this. If nothing helps, scan your Mac for viruses using the antivirus of your choice.