Speaking about browsing experience, it’s hard to think of a greater nuisance than a browser hijacker. This malware negatively affects browser performance, modifying its settings without the user’s permission. Luckily, it’s not too hard to get rid of it. Today, let’s see how to remove SearchMine from Mac.
- Delete App In Mac
- How Do I Remove Apps From Desktop
- How Do I Delete An App Off My Macbook Pro
- How To Delete Default Apps On Mac
- How Do I Delete An App Off My Macbook Air
What is SearchMine?
SearchMine is one of the browser hijackers currently bothering users. So what is it like to be attacked by this browser-distorting malware? Well, it’s all about redirects.
How to delete a Mac app using Launchpad To open Launchpad, click on F4 (the button that shows a grid of six squares). Locate the app you wish to remove. Press the Opton/Alt key. Now click on Delete to confirm you want to remove the program.
- Open Launchpad (by clicking its Dock icon, using the trackpad gesture, or searching for it in Spotlight), then click and hold any app icon until the icons start shaking. Click the “X” button next.
- How to Delete an App on Mac from Launchpad. The first way we want to recommend to you is using.
The culprit replaces custom settings and redirects the browser’s homepage and search engine to searchmine.net. In this way, it tracks your searches and generates revenue by bombarding you with intrusive ads.
The malware disguises itself as a Google search engine. It also displays links to well-known platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and AliExpress under the search bar.
All these make SearchMine look legitimate, but it’s just a pitfall. Once you enter your search query, you’ll get questionably accurate results that may forward you to other malicious websites with tons of ads.
How did it get into my computer?
SearchMine evades the macOS security system as it comes bundled with other seemingly legitimate software, such as fake Adobe Flash Player updates. To prevent malware from infecting your Mac, pay attention to what you agree to install. Always opt for a custom installation to reject the optional applications you never wanted to download.
How do I delete the SearchMine?
First, get rid of shady Profiles, then eliminate all the associated files, leaving no trace of the malware on your device. Finally, reset each browser you use on your Mac. Let’s go through the detailed step-by-step removal guide.
Step 1. Remove malicious Profiles
Configuration profiles help users manage the computer’s settings in a remote and centralized way. Generally, system admins use them to connect corporate devices with one network and control their behavior.
Browser hijackers exploit profiles to prevent users from getting infected browsers back to their default settings. Here’s how to check whether there are any profiles created by SearchMine on your Mac:
- Head over to the Apple menu > System Preferences.
- Click Profiles and look for questionable ones. Pay special attention to profiles called AdminPrefs, Safari Settings, or Chrome Settings.
- Press the ‘–’ button to delete a malicious profile from the list.
Note
The Profiles icon won’t display if you have no configuration profiles installed on your computer.
The Profiles icon won’t display if you have no configuration profiles installed on your computer.
Step 2. Delete the SearchMine app and all the related files
Now that you’ve removed the malicious Profiles, it’s time to check your Applications folder, Library, and Login Items for anything that looks out of place.
Get rid of the malicious app
- Go to the Applications folder > Utilities and launch Activity Monitor.
- Look for any processes with SearchMine in their name.
- If you detect any, select them and click the Force Quit button in the upper-left corner. Then, opt for Force Quit in the pop-up window.
- Now, head over to the Applications and search for the SearchMine app or anything that shouldn’t be there. Drag it to the Trash and empty it.
Did you know?
Apple renamed the Trash to Bin in the UK and some other regions with the macOS Catalina update.
Apple renamed the Trash to Bin in the UK and some other regions with the macOS Catalina update.
Remove suspicious Login Items
- Choose System Preferences in the Apple menu.
- Click Users & Groups, and go to the Login Items tab.
- If you find anything that looks like it might be the SearchMine browser hijacker, select it and hit the ‘–’ button to remove it.
Delete any trace of the scammer from your disk
- Choose Go to Folder from the Go menu in the Finder.
- Paste each of the following locations, one at a time, into the text box. Press Go after each location:
~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/Application Support - Search for any malware-related files in each folder. Trash them, but be careful not to delete files crucial for your system performance.
Step 3. Remove SearchMine from Safari, Chrome, or Firefox
How to remove SearchMine from Safari on Mac
- Go to Preferences in the Safari menu. Select the Advanced tab and check the box next to the “Show Developer menu in the menu bar.”
- Click the Develop menu and choose Empty Caches.
- Head over to the Safari menu > Clear History. Choose All History from the drop-down menu and hit Clear History.
- Go back to Preferences and select the Privacy tab. Click Manage Website Data to open a list of websites storing your browsing data.
- Select shady websites and hit Remove. Press Remove All to delete all sites at once. Click Done.
- Head over to the General tab and check the Homepage. Make sure it’s the one you want to use as your start-up page.
- Finally, go to the Extensions tab to check for a malicious one. Choose it and click Uninstall.
Note
Removing the data may log you out of some websites or change their behavior.
Removing the data may log you out of some websites or change their behavior.
How to remove SearchMine from Chrome
- Paste chrome://settings/ to the address bar and hit Enter.
- Choose Advanced > Reset Settings on the left-side panel.
- Click “Restore settings to their original default” and press the Reset Settings button on the dialog box to confirm the Chrome reset.
- Lastly, make sure there are no unwanted policies loaded into your Chrome browser. Head over to chrome://policy to check it.
- If there are any malicious policies, reset them. Open the Terminal app on your Mac and paste the commands below, hitting Enter after each one
defaults write com.google.Chrome HomepageIsNewTabPage -bool false
defaults write com.google.Chrome NewTabPageLocation -string 'https://www.google.com/'
defaults write com.google.Chrome HomepageLocation -string 'https://www.google.com/'
defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderSearchURL
defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderNewTabURL
defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderName - Restart Chrome. Now you can go back to Settings and change your search engine to your preferred one.
How to remove SearchMine from Firefox
- Paste about:support in the address bar and hit Enter. Click Refresh Firefox.
- Hit Refresh Firefox in the new dialog box to restore the default browser settings.
- The browser will restart and revert to its default settings. Once done, you’ll see the list of the data imported to the Old Firefox Data folder (find it on your desktop). Hit Finish to close it.
Remove SearchMine from Mac quickly and safely
Removing SearchMine from your Mac might be a tiresome task. Luckily, you can cope with it much quicker with dedicated anti-malware software. CleanMyMac X by MacPaw is an excellent choice to try out.
It deals with Mac-specific viruses and can destroy any threat with a few clicks, automatically removing all malware-related files. Here’s how to use its Malware Removal tool:
- Grab your copy of CleanMyMac X — here, for free.
- Launch the app and go to Malware Removal.
- Hit Scan.
- If any threats are found, press Remove. As simple as that!
CleanMyMac will also help you trash unwanted login items (just go to the Optimization module) and browser extensions, uninstall or reset apps, and manage your storage.
SearchMine behaves as a typical browser hijacker: it installs a malicious browser extension and takes control over your browser. Hopefully, this guide helped you catch and eradicate it.
Installing a new application on Mac is such a simple task and even when you don’t want it anymore, you can finally get rid of it by uninstalling it. This might look simple and easy to note for, but some cases of uninstallation do not remove stubborn apps, or their leftover data as should have been. Their tag along run in the system and takes over your precious space without letting you know.
If this is what you are facing, begin with restarting the system and remove the applications once again. Even after this if the stubbornness remains alive, let’s go ahead!
How To Delete Apps On Mac Using Manual Method?
The most basic and simple method that you must be using by now is deleting apps by dragging it into the trash. This method has been mentioned for confirmation whether you are following it correctly or not. Plus, don’t forget to take these steps right after restarting the system once again.
Step 1: Close the program which you want to delete.
Step 2: Reach to the Applications folder or click the hard disk icon. In fact, you can search for a particular application by searching it in Finder.
Step 3: Drag the icon to the Trash. Finally, empty the trash to delete apps on mac.
How To Delete Apps On Mac That Won’t Delete?
Because all the programs and apps on mac store themselves in the Application directory, you need to make some extra efforts to remove orphan files from the system.
To begin with, you need to repeat the steps mentioned above or uninstall the application by dragging in the trash & emptying it.
After this, open Library > Preferences. How?
Step 1: Open Finder and choose Go option from the menu.
Step 2: Once the menu unfolds, press the Option key for a few seconds until the Library option appears on the screen. Open the files by searching the name of software using Spotlight and draw them into the trash as soon as found.
And it’s done!
But the question is, do you really wish to follow a long method? And what if you want to uninstall multiple apps at the same time? We do not want you to search for the topic of ‘how to delete apps on mac’ every time, and hence recommending an easy way out.
How To Delete Apps On Mac That Won’t Delete Using A Smart Tool?
Now that you have been looking for a smart and efficient tool to delete apps on mac, we would like to recommend tried, tested and trusted by many, Smart Mac Care!
Now as the name says, this tool is taking care of your system at one end whereas helping in uninstallation of unwanted applications on another.
Smart Mac Care though contains many advanced features of its own, Uninstaller has major quality of improving the performance and space in Mac by scanning the unused apps and providing an option to delete them.
You do not even need to bring unwanted applications to the software as Smart Mac Care deals with such situations just like that.
If you look for what it can do more, duplicate files remover, disk usage with capacity, memory optimizer, and privacy protection are other unmissable features of the same.
How to Remove Apps Using Smart Mac Care?
Step 1: Install Smart Mac Care by clicking on the ‘Download’ link below.
Download now and save $20 on Smart Mac Care!
Step 2: The application will itself scan through the system to find the status of various parts of the system. Do not worry about the time taken as deep scanning does take some time!
Step 3: Reach the Uninstaller by coming to the panel of Advanced Features as shown in the image above.
Step 4: The scanning has already shown results to which you can select which app needs to be deleted and which ones not by marking on the white box beside. Select ‘Clean Now’ once selected.
This way, you can delete multiple applications, even those you were not aware of and lying in the system idle and eating space.
How To Delete Apps On Mac From Mac App Store?
If you do not want a particular application on the page of the Mac App store even, you have control for the same. Don’t worry, you can update or download it back from iTunes, in case future call its need.
So what you need to do is:
Delete App In Mac
Step 1: Open the Launchpad by pressing F4 or clicking on the ‘Rocket’ icon.
How Do I Remove Apps From Desktop
Step 2: Now whatever is opened in front will be taken over by app icons.
Step 3: Click on the unwanted app for a longer time and all the other icons will show some buzzing. Do not worry, just click on ‘X’ sign above unwanted app and select ‘Delete’ from the next prompt.
How Do I Delete An App Off My Macbook Pro
And it’s done!
What Are The Advantages Of Deleting Apps On Mac?
Let’s just say that even if you are not an organized person in real life, an organized space of computer system saves you from many problems in the near future. Let’s just look at why you should consider deleting those apps on the Mac that are not in use.
- Saves space for tomorrow: As you delete unwanted apps today, you are able to save a good space chunk for the future. Here, you can store new apps, movies, videos, and pictures with better space optimization.
- Performance Improvement: If you think that cluttered disk space doesn’t matter to the working performance, think again. When one part of the machine is not running straight, how could others be? And this is why your computer works better when optimum space is present by deleting unwanted apps on Mac.
Finally!
All the self-contained applications that an app invites into your system can be easily removed, hence removing even the last trace. From the various methods mentioned above, you can pick any of the manual method. But to be absolutely sure and let the work be done carefreely will definitely want you to try Smart Mac Care.
How To Delete Default Apps On Mac
Now that when you search for information on how to delete apps on mac that won’t delete, don’t stop trying new tools and giving yourself space and performance.
If you have found out the solution you came here for, let us know in the comment section below. Along with that, we welcome your suggestions and feedback as well. At the same time, do not forget to keep an eye on our Facebook & YouTube page for more updates.
How Do I Delete An App Off My Macbook Air
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