How to uninstall SearchBrowserSky app/extension from Mac

What is SearchBrowserSky

SearchBrowserSky is supposed to be an app that will improve the browsing experience, but according to security specialists, this application is adware. Adware is a type of malicious software. When adware hijacks your computer, it might carry out various harmful tasks. Some of the more common acts on MAC systems include: adware can show various pop-up deals and/or annoying deals;adware can redirect your internet browser to misleading webpages; adware software can slow down your MAC; adware software can change web browser settings.

Another reason why you need to get rid of SearchBrowserSky is its online data-tracking activity. It can monetize its functionality by collecting user info from your browsing sessions. This user info, subsequently, can be easily transferred third party companies. This puts your privacy info at a security risk. So, we recommend you remove SearchBrowserSky as soon as possible. This will also prevent the adware from tracking your online activities. A full SearchBrowserSky removal can be easily carried out using manual or automatic solution listed below.

How does SearchBrowserSky get on your MAC

Adware spreads with a simple but quite effective way. It’s integrated into the installer of various free programs. Thus on the process of setup, it will be added onto your MAC and/or web-browser. In order to avoid adware software, you just need to follow a few simple rules: carefully read the Terms of Use and the license, select only a Manual, Custom or Advanced installation mode, which enables you to make sure that the program you want to install, thereby protect your MAC from adware software.

Threat Summary

Name	SearchBrowserSky, SearchBrowserSky 1.0 app
Type	adware, potentially unwanted program (PUP), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, OSX.Trojan.Gen, MacOS.Agent-MT, Adware.MAC.Generic, Adware/Adload!OSX, Osx.Adware.Cimpli, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload and ApplicUnwnt
Distribution	Free software installers, torrent downloads, fake software updaters and suspicious pop up advertisements
Symptoms	Your browser is redirected to web pages you did not want, unexpected advertisements appear on web sites that you are visiting, your MAC system starts automatically installing unexpected apps, new toolbars suddenly added on your web-browser, your web-browser settings are being changed without your request, slow Internet or slow browsing.
Removal	SearchBrowserSky removal guide

How to remove SearchBrowserSky

Fortunately, we have an effective way that will assist you manually or/and automatically delete SearchBrowserSky from your browser and bring your web-browser settings, including new tab page, search provider by default and startpage, back to normal. Below you will find a removal guide with all the steps you may need to successfully remove adware and its components. Read it once, after doing so, please bookmark this page (or open it on your smartphone) as you may need to shut down your web-browser or reboot your machine.

To remove SearchBrowserSky, follow the steps below:

1. Remove profiles created by SearchBrowserSky
2. Check the list of installed applications
3. Remove SearchBrowserSky related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove SearchBrowserSky from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online

Remove profiles created by SearchBrowserSky

SearchBrowserSky can make changes to the Mac system such as malicious changes to browser settings, and the addition of malicious system profiles. You need to check the system preferences, find and remove malicious profiles and ensure your settings are as you expect.

Click the System Preferences icon ( ) in the Dock, or choose Apple menu ( ) > System Preferences.

In System Preferences, click Profiles, then select a profile associated with SearchBrowserSky.

Click the minus button ( – ) located at the bottom-left of the Profiles screen to remove the profile.
Note: if you do not see Profiles in the System Preferences, that means there are no profiles installed on your Mac, which is normal.

Check the list of installed applications

Check the list of installed apps and delete all unknown or dubious software. This is an important step, it so often happens that adware, browser hijackers and PUPs are built into free software, so by removing these applications you can get rid of browser redirects and intrusive ads.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Carefully browse through the list of installed applications and delete all suspicious and unknown programs.

After you have found anything questionable that may be the SearchBrowserSky or other PUP, then right click this application and choose “Move to Trash”. Once complete, Empty Trash.

Remove SearchBrowserSky related files and folders

Now you need to try to find SearchBrowserSky related files and folders, and then delete them manually. You need to look for these files in certain directories. To quickly open them, we recommend using the “Go to Folder…” command.

SearchBrowserSky creates several files, these files must be found and removed. Below is a list of files associated with this unwanted program.

• /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.SearchBrowserSky.system.plist
• ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.SearchBrowserSky.service.plist
• /Library/Application Support/.(RANDOM)/System/com.SearchBrowserSky.system
• ~/Library/Application Support/.(RANDOM)/Services/com.SearchBrowserSky.service.app

Some files created by SearchBrowserSky are hidden from the user. To find and delete them, you need to enable “show hidden files”. To do this, use the shortcut CMD + SHIFT + . Press once to show hidden files and again to hide them. There is another way. Click Finder -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal. In Terminal, paste the following text: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Press Enter. Hold the ‘Option/alt’ key, then right click on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch.

Click on the Finder icon. From the menu bar, select Go and click “Go to Folder…”. As a result, a small window opens that allows you to quickly open a specific directory.

Check for SearchBrowserSky generated files in the /Library/LaunchAgents folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
/Library/LaunchAgents

This will open the contents of the “/Library/LaunchAgents” folder. Look carefully at it and pay special attention to recently created files, as well as files that have a suspicious name. Move all suspicious files to the Trash. A few examples of files: installapp.plist, com.SearchBrowserSky.service.plist, macsearch.plist, search.plist, com.machelper.plist, com.net-preferences.plist and com.google.defaultsearch.plist, . Most often, adware, potentially unwanted programs and browser hijackers create several files with similar names.

Check for SearchBrowserSky generated files in the /Library/Application Support folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
/Library/Application Support

This will open the contents of the “Application Support” folder. Look carefully at its contents, pay special attention to recently added/changed folders and files. Check the contents of suspicious folders, if there is a file with a name similar to com.SearchBrowserSky.system, then this folder must be deleted. Move all suspicious folders and files to the Trash.

Check for SearchBrowserSky generated files in the “~/Library/LaunchAgents” folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
~/Library/LaunchAgents

Proceed in the same way as with the “/Library/LaunchAgents” and “/Library/Application Support” folders. Look for suspicious and recently added files. Move all suspicious files to the Trash.

Check for SearchBrowserSky generated files in the /Library/LaunchDaemons folder

In the “Go to Folder…” window, type the following text and press Go:
/Library/LaunchDaemons

Carefully browse the entire list of files and pay special attention to recently created files, as well as files that have a suspicious name. Move all suspicious files to the Trash. A few examples of files to be deleted: com.installapp.system.plist, com.machelper.system.plist, com.search.system.plist, com.macsearch.system.plist and com.SearchBrowserSky.system.plist. In most cases, potentially unwanted programs, adware and browser hijackers create several files with similar names.

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

You can remove SearchBrowserSky related files automatically through the use of MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM). We recommend this free malware removal tool because it may easily remove adware software, PUPs, toolbars and browser hijackers with all their components such as files, folders and system entries.

MalwareBytes AntiMalware can be downloaded from the following link.

After the downloading process is complete, close all windows on your MAC system. Further, run the saved file. Follow the prompts.

The MalwareBytes AntiMalware will automatically launch and you can see its main window as on the image below.

Next, click the “Scan Now” button . MalwareBytes Free program will scan through the whole MAC OS for the SearchBrowserSky adware software. A system scan may take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your Apple Mac. While the MalwareBytes Anti-Malware is checking, you can see how many objects it has identified either as being malicious software.

After finished, MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) will open you the results. When you are ready, click the “Quarantine” button.

The MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) will get rid of SearchBrowserSky and move the selected threats to the Quarantine.

Remove SearchBrowserSky from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

If you have ‘SearchBrowserSky adware’ removal problem, then remove unwanted extensions can help you. In the steps below we’ll show you the way to remove malicious extensions without reinstall. This will also allow to remove SearchBrowserSky adware from your web-browser.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top-right corner, expand the Google Chrome menu. In the menu go to ‘More tools’, then ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to remove SearchBrowserSky by reset Chrome settings.	Click on ‘menu’ button and select ‘Add-ons’. Go to ‘Extensions’ tab. To uninstall an add-on, click on ‘Remove’ button next to it. If you are still experiencing problems with SearchBrowserSky removal, you need to reset Mozilla Firefox browser.
Safari
On the top menu select ‘Safari’, then ‘Preferences’. Select ‘Extensions’ tab. Select an extension you want to delete and click ‘Uninstall’ button next to it.

How to stay safe online

To put it simply, you need to use an ad blocking utility (AdGuard, for example). It will stop and protect you from harmful web-pages, unwanted advertisements and pop-ups. To be able to do that, the ad-blocking program uses a list of filters. Each filter is a rule that describes a malicious web page, an advertising content, a banner and others. The ad blocking program automatically uses these filters, depending on the web pages you’re visiting.

1. Download AdGuard on your Apple Mac from the link below.
   
   

   AdGuard for Mac download
   3687 downloads
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: January 17, 2018
   
2. Once the downloading process is complete, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. When the setup is complete, press “Skip” to close the installation program and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial which will assist you get to know AdGuard better.
4. In most cases, the default settings are enough and you don’t need to change anything. Each time, when you start your MAC system, AdGuard will start automatically and stop unwanted advertisements, block harmful and misleading web pages.

Finish words

Now your MAC should be clean of the SearchBrowserSky adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted popup ads and unwanted harmful web-sites) and MalwareBytes Free (to periodically scan your computer for new malicious software, browser hijackers and adware). Make sure that you have all the Critical Updates recommended for Mac OS. Without regular updates you WILL NOT be protected when new hijackers, harmful programs and adware software are released.

If you are still having problems while trying to remove SearchBrowserSky from your internet browser, then ask for help here.