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

What is SmartSearchSystem

According to security researchers, SmartSearchSystem is a malicious Mac app that falls under the category of Adware. It can cause all kind of problems within web browsers. SmartSearchSystem can cause unwanted browser redirects, unclosable windows or inline text links with annoying ads. These ads are used to promote sales or web-traffic to harmful webpages or publisher in order to generate profit. SmartSearchSystem can have spyware and keyloggers built into itself, leading to greater damage to your MAC and possible invasion of your privacy data.

Even worse, the adware is able to gather your surfing history and privacy info, including passwords and credit card numbers. In the future, marketing-type data about you can be used for marketing purposes. We suggest to remove SmartSearchSystem, as soon as you found it, as it can redirect your web browser to web-resources which may load other unwanted apps on your Apple Mac.

How does SmartSearchSystem get on your Apple Mac

Most of unwanted ads and pop ups come from browser toolbars and/or extensions, BHOs (browser helper objects) and optional apps. Most often, these items claim itself as software that improve your experience on the Net by providing a fast and interactive startpage or a search provider that does not track you. Remember, how to avoid the unwanted applications. Be cautious, start only reputable applications which download from reputable sources. NEVER install any unknown and suspicious programs.

Threat Summary

Name	SmartSearchSystem, SmartSearchSystem 1.0 app
Type	adware, PUP (potentially unwanted program), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	Adware/Adload!OSX, MacOS.Agent-MT, ApplicUnwnt, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Adware.MAC.Generic, OSX.Trojan.Gen, Osx.Adware.Cimpli and Program:MacOS/Vigram.A
Distribution	Free software installers, misleading pop up advertisements, fake software updaters and torrent downloads
Symptoms	Your web-browser is redirected to webpages you did not want, pop ups and newtab pages are loaded without your request, unexpected application installed without your knowledge, new toolbars suddenly installed on your web browser, your web-browser search provider has replaced without your permission, fast Internet but slow browsing speeds.
Removal	SmartSearchSystem removal guide

How to remove SmartSearchSystem adware

Fortunately, we have an effective solution which will assist you manually or/and automatically remove SmartSearchSystem from your web-browser and bring your web browser settings, including newtab, search engine and startpage, back to normal. Below you’ll find a removal guidance with all the steps you may need to successfully remove adware software and its components. Read this manual carefully, bookmark it or open this page on your smartphone, because you may need to close your web-browser or restart your MAC OS.

To remove SmartSearchSystem, complete the following steps:

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

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

SmartSearchSystem 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 related to SmartSearchSystem.

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 computer, which is normal.

Check the list of installed apps

The next step in deleting PUPs, adware and browser hijackers by yourself is to go into the Finder, then Applications. Take a look at the list of applications on your Mac device and see if there are any dubious and unknown apps. If you see any, you need to uninstall it. Of course, before doing so, you can do an Internet search to find details on the program. If it is a potentially unwanted program, browser hijacker and adware, you will likely find information that says so.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

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

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

Remove SmartSearchSystem related files and folders

Now you need to try to find SmartSearchSystem 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

If you’re still having issues with the SmartSearchSystem removal or just wish to scan your Mac device occasionally for adware and other malicious software, then download MalwareBytes Free. It’s free for home use, and searches for and removes various unwanted apps that attacks your MAC system or degrades Apple Mac performance. MalwareBytes Anti Malware can delete adware, PUPs, browser hijackers and toolbars as well as malware, including ransomware and trojans.

MalwareBytes can be downloaded from the following link.

After the download is finished, close all programs and windows on your Apple Mac. Run the saved file. Follow the prompts.

The MalwareBytes Anti Malware will automatically start and you can see its main screen as displayed below.

Now press the “Scan” button to start checking your MAC OS for the SmartSearchSystem . A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your computer. When a threat is detected, the number of the security threats will change accordingly. Wait until the the checking is finished.

When MalwareBytes is done scanning your Apple Mac, MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) will open a scan report. Make sure all threats have ‘checkmark’ and click the “Quarantine” button. The MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) will get rid of SmartSearchSystem adware software.

Remove SmartSearchSystem from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

Annoying SmartSearchSystem adware software or other symptoms of adware software in your web browser is a good reason to locate and get rid of malicious extensions. This is an easy way to restore internet browsers settings and not lose any important information.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top right corner, click on Chrome’s main menu button, represented by three vertical dots. Select ‘More tools’, then ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to get rid of SmartSearchSystem 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 issues with SmartSearchSystem adware 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

If you browse the Web, you cannot avoid malvertising. But you can protect your browser against it. Download and use an ad blocking program. AdGuard is an adblocker that can filter out a lot of of the malvertising, blocking dynamic scripts from loading harmful content.

AdGuard can be downloaded from the following link.

After the downloading process is finished, run the downloaded file. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen.

Follow the prompts. AdGuard will then be installed. A window will show up asking you to confirm that you want to see a quick guidance. Click “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick guidance that will allow you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you start your machine, AdGuard will start automatically and stop annoying advertisements, block malicious and misleading web-sites.

To sum up

Once you’ve complete the few simple steps above, your Apple Mac should be clean from this adware and other malicious software. The Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Chrome will no longer display unwanted ads when you browse the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, if the guide does not help you, then you have caught a new adware, and then the best way – ask for help.

Please create a new question by using the “Ask Question” button in the Questions and Answers. Try to give us some details about your problems, so we can try to help you more accurately. Wait for one of our trained “Security Team” or Site Administrator to provide you with knowledgeable assistance tailored to your problem with the SmartSearchSystem malware.