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

What is SyncExplore

SyncExplore is a potentially unwanted application (PUA) that belongs to the Adware category . Adware is considered by many to be synonymous with ‘malware’. It’s a type of malicious software that serves unwanted advertisements to computer users. Some examples include popup advertisements, different offers and deals or unclosable windows. Adware software can be installed onto your Apple Mac via infected web sites, when you open email attachments, anytime you download and install free applications.

Does adware steal your confidential information? SyncExplore can be used to gather a wide variety of your privacy data that can be later transferred third party companies. You do not know if your home address, account names and passwords are safe.

If you would like to remove SyncExplore and clean your web-browser of intrusive advertisements and are unable to do so, you can follow the guide below to detect and get rid of adware and any other malware for free.

How does SyncExplore get on your Apple Mac

Usually, adware gets into MAC computers as part of a bundle with free applications, sharing files and other unsafe apps which you downloaded from the Web. The makers of adware pays software authors for distributing adware within their apps. So, bundled applications is often included as part of the installer. In order to avoid the install of any adware software: choose only Manual, Custom or Advanced installation type and reject all third-party apps in which you are unsure.

Threat Summary

Name	SyncExplore, SyncExplore 1.0 app
Type	adware, potentially unwanted application (PUA), Mac virus, Mac malware
Detection Names	MacOS.Agent-MT, Osx.Adware.Cimpli, ApplicUnwnt, OSX.Trojan.Gen, Adware.MAC.Generic, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A and Adware/Adload!OSX
Distribution	Freeware installers, suspicious pop-up ads, torrent downloads and fake software updaters
Symptoms	You keep getting redirected to dubious web pages, unclosable window appear and recommend fake Flash updates, unwanted program installed without your knowledge, unwanted web-browser toolbars, your web-browser home page has modified without your permission, slow Internet browsing speeds.
Removal	SyncExplore removal guide

How to Remove SyncExplore adware (removal steps)

The answer is right here on this web page. We have put together simplicity and efficiency. It will allow you easily to remove SyncExplore adware from your Mac. Moreover, you can select manual or automatic removal solution. If you are familiar with Mac computers then use manual removal, otherwise use a free antimalware utility designed specifically to delete adware software. Of course, you can combine both methods. Certain of the steps will require you to restart your MAC OS or exit this web-site. So, read this instructions carefully, then bookmark this page or open it on your smartphone for later reference.

To remove SyncExplore, follow the steps below:

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

Remove profiles created by SyncExplore

SyncExplore 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 computer. If there is Profiles in the list, then click on it, then select a profile associated with SyncExplore.

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

Remove SyncExplore related applications through the Finder

Check the list of installed apps on your Mac and delete all unknown and recently installed programs. If you see an unknown program with incorrect spelling or varying capital letters, it have most likely been installed by malicious software and you should clean it off first with malicious software removal tool like MalwareBytes.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Very carefully look around the entire list of apps installed on your MAC. Most likely, one of them is the SyncExplore adware software. Once you’ve found a questionable, unwanted or unused program, right click to it and choose “Move to Trash”. Another way is drag the program from the Applications folder to the Trash.

Don’t forget, select Finder -> “Empty Trash”.

Remove SyncExplore related files and folders

Now you need to try to find SyncExplore 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

If you carefully followed the previous steps, then you should be able to get rid of SyncExplore. Of course, very often browser hijackers, adware software and potentially unwanted programs hides on a Mac computer, disguising itself as legitimate apps and files. Therefore, in some cases, it is difficult for an inexperienced user to decide whether a particular file is part of PUPs, adware software and browser hijackers. Therefore, we recommend you to run MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) to scan the Mac device.

1. Download MalwareBytes Free from the following link.
   
   

   Malwarebytes Anti-malware (Mac)
   20988 downloads
   Author: Malwarebytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: September 10, 2020
   
2. After downloading is finished, close all programs and windows on your Apple Mac. Open a folder in which you saved it. Run the downloaded file and follow the prompts.
3. Click the “Scan” button for scanning your MAC for the SyncExplore adware. This task can take quite a while, so please be patient. When a threat is detected, the count of the security threats will change accordingly. Wait until the the scanning is complete.
4. After the scan is done, the results are displayed in the scan report. All detected threats will be marked. You can delete them all by simply click “Quarantine”.

Remove SyncExplore from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

If you’re still seeing SyncExplore that won’t go away, you might have malicious extensions installed on your browser. Check your web browser for unwanted addons using the steps below.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top right hand corner, click on ‘three vertical dots’, and this will open up the main menu on Google Chrome. 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 SyncExplore 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 issues with SyncExplore 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-blocker tool (AdGuard, for example). It will block and protect you from malicious web-sites, unwanted advertisements and pop-ups. To be able to do that, the ad blocking application uses a list of filters. Each filter is a rule that describes a malicious web site, 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 by clicking on the link below.
   
   

   AdGuard for Mac download
   3772 downloads
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: January 17, 2018
   
2. After the download 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 setup program and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial that 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 intrusive ads, block harmful and misleading websites.

To sum up

Now your MAC should be clean of the SyncExplore adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted pop ups and unwanted malicious web pages) and MalwareBytes Anti Malware (to periodically scan your MAC for new malicious software, hijackers and adware software). Make sure that you have all the Critical Updates recommended for Mac operating system. Without regular updates you WILL NOT be protected when new browser hijackers, malicious programs and adware are released.

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