How to uninstall ConnectSystem app/extension from Mac (Virus removal guide)

What is ConnectSystem

ConnectSystem is an application that falls under the category of Adware. Adware is type of malicious software which displays unwanted advertising on a Mac, redirects search requests to advertising web-pages and gathers user information for marketing purposes. Adware can show banner ads, full-screen ads, pop-ups, videos, or other varieties of online advertising. Adware can attack your MAC system’s web browsers such as the Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Chrome. Maybe you approve the idea that the ads or pop-ups is just a small problem. But these annoying ads eat MAC OS resources and slow down your MAC system performance.

Another reason why you need to get rid of the ConnectSystem adware is its online data-tracking activity. It can gather your Internet surfing activity by recording URLs visited, IP addresses, browser version and type, cookie information, Internet Service Provider (ISP) and web-pages visited. Such kind of behavior can lead to serious security problems or user information theft. This is another reason why the ConnectSystem adware should be removed ASAP.

As evident, the adware software is quite dangerous. So, we suggest you get rid of it from your MAC sooner. Follow the tutorial presented below to remove ConnectSystem from your MAC system and Safari, Firefox and Google Chrome.

How does ConnectSystem get on your Mac

Adware most likely to occur during the install of freeware due the fact that PUPs like this are mostly hidden in the setup package. Thus, if you’ve installed some free programs using Quick(Standard) mode, you may have let adware software get inside your Apple Mac. Keep in mind that the Quick mode is unreliable because it do not warn about optional applications. Thus, additional programs will be installed automatically unless you choose Advanced/Custom method and uncheck its installation.

Threat Summary

Name	ConnectSystem, ConnectSystem 1.0 app
Type	adware, PUP (potentially unwanted program), Mac virus, Mac malware
Detection Names	Adware/Adload!OSX, OSX.Trojan.Gen, Osx.Adware.Cimpli, ApplicUnwnt, Adware.MAC.Generic, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload and MacOS.Agent-MT
Distribution	Free software installers, fake software updaters, torrent downloads and malicious popup advertisements
Symptoms	You keep getting redirected to dubious webpages, unwanted ads appear on web-pages that you are visiting, there is an unwanted program in the ‘Applications’ section of the Finder, new extensions suddenly installed on your web browser, unexpected changes in your web-browser like using a new default search provider, fast Internet but slow browsing speeds.
Removal	ConnectSystem removal guide

How to remove ConnectSystem adware

There are a few solutions that can be used to remove ConnectSystem adware. But, not all potentially unwanted apps like this adware software can be completely uninstalled using only manual methods. In most cases you are not able to remove any adware using standard Mac OS options. In order to remove adware software you need complete few manual steps and run reliable removal utilities. Most IT security specialists states that MalwareBytes utility is a right choice. This free tool is able to detect and remove ConnectSystem adware from your MAC and restore your web browser settings to defaults.

To remove ConnectSystem, execute the steps below:

1. Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device
2. Check the list of installed software
3. Remove ConnectSystem related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove ConnectSystem from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

ConnectSystem can install a configuration profile on the Mac system to block changes made to the browser settings. Therefore, you need to open system preferences, find and delete the profile installed by the adware software.

Click Apple menu ( ) > System Preferences.

In System Preferences, select Profiles. if there is no Profiles in the list of preferences, that means there are no profiles installed on the Mac. If there is Profiles in the list, then click on it, then select a profile associated with ConnectSystem.

To delete a malicious profile, click on the minus button ( – ) located at the bottom-left of the Profiles screen.

Check the list of installed software

One of the first things to attempt for removal of adware software is to check your Mac device installed applications screen and look for undesired and dubious apps. If there are any applications you do not recognize or are no longer using, you should uninstall them. If that doesn’t work, then you may need to run malicious software removal utility like MalwareBytes Anti Malware.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Carefully browse through the list of installed apps and delete all questionable and unknown apps.

When you’ve found anything questionable that may be ConnectSystem or other potentially unwanted app, then right click this application and select “Move to Trash”. Once complete, Empty Trash.

Remove ConnectSystem related files and folders

Now you need to try to find ConnectSystem 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.

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

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

Some files created by ConnectSystem 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 ConnectSystem 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: com.net-preferences.plist, com.ConnectSystem.service.plist, com.machelper.plist, search.plist, installapp.plist, com.google.defaultsearch.plist, and macsearch.plist. Most often, adware, browser hijackers and PUPs create several files with similar names.

Check for ConnectSystem 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.ConnectSystem.system, then this folder must be deleted. Move all suspicious folders and files to the Trash.

Check for ConnectSystem 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 ConnectSystem 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.macsearch.system.plist, com.machelper.system.plist, com.installapp.system.plist, com.search.system.plist and com.ConnectSystem.system.plist. In most cases, browser hijackers, adware and potentially unwanted programs create several files with similar names.

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

You can delete ConnectSystem associated files automatically with a help of MalwareBytes Free. We suggest this free malware removal tool because it can easily delete browser hijackers, toolbars, adware and potentially unwanted programs with all their components such as files, folders and system entries.

Click the link below to download MalwareBytes.

After the download is complete, run it and follow the prompts. Click the “Scan” button to detect ConnectSystem adware software. A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your MAC. While the tool is checking, you may see count of objects and files has already scanned. Make sure to check mark the items that are unsafe and then click the “Quarantine” button.

The MalwareBytes Free is a free program that you can use to remove all detected folders, files, malicious services and so on.

Remove ConnectSystem from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

This step will show you how to remove malicious extensions. This can remove ConnectSystem and fix some surfing problems, especially after adware infection.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
Click on ‘three dots menu’ button at the top right corner of the Chrome window. When the drop-down menu appears, choose ‘More tools’ and click on ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to get rid of ConnectSystem adware by reset Google 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 ConnectSystem adware software removal, you need to reset 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

The AdGuard is a very good ad blocking application for the Chrome, Safari and Mozilla Firefox, with active user support. It does a great job by removing certain types of annoying advertisements, popunders, popups, unwanted newtabs, and even full page ads and web-site overlay layers. Of course, the AdGuard can stop malicious web pages automatically or by using a custom filter rule.

1. Click the following link to download the latest version of AdGuard for Apple Mac.
   
   

   AdGuard for Mac download
   3686 downloads
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: January 17, 2018
   
2. When the downloading process is done, start the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. Once the installation is done, click “Skip” to close the install program and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial that will allow 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 intrusive advertisements, block harmful and misleading web-sites.

To sum up

Now your computer should be clean of the ConnectSystem adware. We suggest that you keep MalwareBytes Free (to periodically scan your machine for new adwares and other malware) and AdGuard (to help you stop intrusive pop up advertisements and malicious websites). Moreover, to prevent any adware software, please stay clear of unknown and third party apps.

If you need more help with ConnectSystem related issues, go to here.