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

What is MainCharacterSearch

MainCharacterSearch is a malicious app that belongs to the Adware category. Adware is something which you should be aware of even if you run Safari, Google Chrome or other modern web-browser. This is the name given to applications that have been created to show unwanted ads and pop up commercials onto the web-browser screen. These advertisements are often presented as advertising banners, pop-ups or push notifications. Clicks on the ads produce a monetary payoff for the adware developers. Adware can work like Spyware, since it sends confidential information such as searches and trends to advertisers.

Even worse, the MainCharacterSearch adware can collect marketing-type data about you to get profit. It can analyze your browsing, and gain access to your confidential information and, afterwards, can share it with third-parties. Thus, there are more than enough reasons to remove adware software from your MAC.

As evident, MainCharacterSearch is quite dangerous. So, we recommend you remove it from your computer as soon as possible. Follow the guidance presented below to remove MainCharacterSearch from your Apple Mac and Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

How does MainCharacterSearch get on your MAC

Adware usually spreads bundled with free apps. So, when you installing free programs, carefully read the disclaimers, select the Custom or Advanced install type to watch for additional apps that are being installed, because some of the apps are PUPs and adware.

Threat Summary

Name	MainCharacterSearch, MainCharacterSearch 1.0 app
Type	adware, potentially unwanted program (PUP), Mac virus, Mac malware
Detection Names	Osx.Adware.Cimpli, MacOS.Agent-MT, ApplicUnwnt, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, Adware.MAC.Generic, OSX.Trojan.Gen, Adware/Adload!OSX and Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload
Distribution	Freeware installers, torrent downloads, dubious pop-up ads and fake updaters
Symptoms	Your web-browser is redirected to websites you did not want, unclosable window appear and recommend fake updates and other unwanted applications, your MAC starts automatically installing unwanted apps, new toolbars suddenly added on your web browser, your MAC system settings are being modified without your request, slow Internet browsing speeds.
Removal	MainCharacterSearch removal guide

How to remove MainCharacterSearch from Mac

Fortunately, we have an effective way that will help you manually or/and automatically get rid of MainCharacterSearch from your browser and bring your web browser settings, including home page, newtab page and search engine by default, back to normal. Below you’ll find a removal tutorial with all the steps you may need to successfully delete adware software and its traces. Read this manual carefully, bookmark it or open this page on your smartphone, because you may need to exit your web browser or reboot your MAC system.

To remove MainCharacterSearch, perform the steps below:

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

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

MainCharacterSearch 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.

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 device. If there is Profiles in the list, then click on it, then select a profile related to MainCharacterSearch.

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

Check the list of installed applications

Go to the Finder and delete questionable programs, all programs you do not remember installing. It is important to pay the most attention to applications you have recently installed. If you don’t know what a program does, look for the answer on the Web.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

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

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

Remove MainCharacterSearch related files and folders

Now you need to try to find MainCharacterSearch 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

Manual MainCharacterSearch removal requires some computer skills. Some files and system entries that created by the adware can be not fully removed. We suggest that run MalwareBytes to scan the Mac device. Moreover, this application will allow you to get rid of PUPs, adware, browser hijackers and toolbars that your machine can be affected too.

Installing the MalwareBytes Free is simple. First you’ll need to download MalwareBytes on your computer by clicking on the following link.

When downloading is complete, close all apps and windows on your Apple Mac. Open a directory in which you saved it. Run the saved file and follow the prompts.

Once installation is done, you will see window as displayed in the figure below.

Now press the “Scan” button to begin checking your computer for the MainCharacterSearch adware. A system scan may take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your MAC OS.

After finished, MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) will display you the results. You may delete threats (move to Quarantine) by simply press “Quarantine” button.

The Malwarebytes will now remove MainCharacterSearch adware and move the selected threats to the program’s quarantine.

Remove MainCharacterSearch from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

If you have ‘MainCharacterSearch ‘ removal problem, then remove unwanted plugins can help you. In the steps below we will show you the way to get rid of harmful extensions without reinstall. This will also allow to remove MainCharacterSearch adware from your web-browser.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top right hand corner, click on ‘three vertical dots’, and this will open up the main menu on Chrome. When the drop-down menu appears, select ‘More tools’ and click on ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to remove MainCharacterSearch 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 MainCharacterSearch 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 want to remove unwanted advertisements, web-browser redirects and popups, then install an ad blocker program such as AdGuard. It can block unwanted ads and pop-ups, stop web sites from tracking your online activities when using the Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari. So, if you like surf the Internet, but you don’t like annoying ads and want to protect your MAC from malicious web-pages, then the AdGuard is your best choice.

Visit the following page to download AdGuard.

After the downloading process is complete, 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 instructions that will allow you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you run your MAC system, AdGuard will start automatically and stop intrusive ads, block malicious and misleading web-pages.

Finish words

Once you’ve done the steps outlined above, your Apple Mac should be clean from this adware and other malicious software. The Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari will no longer display any unwanted ads when you surf the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, if the step-by-step instructions 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 MainCharacterSearch adware.