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

What is MainSearchAdvise

According to security experts, MainSearchAdvise is a malicious app that belongs to the Adware category . Adware is not as dangerous as such as a computer virus or Ransomware, but its presence can bring various pop ups and/or unwanted ads. Actually developers of adware software is associated with some merchants and by showing advertising to users they earn profit for yourself. These adverts not only bother your browsing experience but also redirect your web browser to misleading web pages.

Does adware steal your privacy data? The MainSearchAdvise adware can gather and transmit user info without your knowledge. Adware can be used to track information about web sites visited, web-browser and system information, and your MAC system IP address.

By following tutorial below it is easy to detect and get rid of adware from Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome and your machine. Learn how to remove MainSearchAdvise and adware apps, as well as how to run a full machine virus scan.

How does MainSearchAdvise get on your Apple Mac

Adware software mostly comes on the MAC OS with free applications. Most commonly, it comes without the user’s knowledge. Therefore, many users aren’t even aware that their MAC system has been infected with PUAs and adware. Please follow the easy rules in order to protect your machine from adware and PUPs: don’t install any suspicious applications, read the user agreement and select only the Custom, Manual or Advanced installation method, don’t rush to press the Next button. Also, always try to find a review of the application on the Web. Be careful and attentive!

Threat Summary

Name	MainSearchAdvise, MainSearchAdvise 1.0 app
Type	adware, potentially unwanted application (PUA), Mac virus, Mac malware
Detection Names	Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Adware/Adload!OSX, Adware.MAC.Generic, OSX.Trojan.Gen, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, MacOS.Agent-MT, Osx.Adware.Cimpli and ApplicUnwnt
Distribution	Free software installers, torrent downloads, fake software updaters and misleading pop-up ads
Symptoms	Your web-browser is redirected to web-sites you did not want, ads appear in places they shouldn’t be, unwanted program installed without your consent, unwanted web browser toolbars, your browser home page has modified without your permission, low ping but slow Internet.
Removal	MainSearchAdvise removal guide

How to Remove MainSearchAdvise adware (removal guidance)

To delete MainSearchAdvise from your Mac, you must delete all suspicious software and every file that could be related to the adware. Besides, to restore your web browser newtab page, default search engine and homepage, you should reset the infected web-browsers. As soon as you’re finished with adware removal procedure, we advise you scan your Mac with malicious software removal utilities listed below. It will complete the removal procedure on your Apple Mac.

To remove MainSearchAdvise, complete the steps below:

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

Remove profiles created by MainSearchAdvise

MainSearchAdvise 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 MainSearchAdvise.

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 device, which is normal.

Check the list of installed applications

Check the list of installed software on your Mac computer and uninstall 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 malware and you should clean it off first with malicious software removal tool such as MalwareBytes Anti Malware.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Very carefully look around the entire list of applications installed on your MAC OS. Most probably, one of them is the MainSearchAdvise . Once you have found a dubious, unwanted or unused program, right click to it and select “Move to Trash”. Another solution is drag the program from the Applications folder to the Trash.

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

Remove MainSearchAdvise related files and folders

Now you need to try to find MainSearchAdvise 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

We advise using MalwareBytes AntiMalware. You can download and install MalwareBytes to search for and remove MainSearchAdvise associated applications from your Mac device. When installed and updated, the malicious software remover automatically finds and deletes all security threats present on the Apple Mac.

Download MalwareBytes AntiMalware on your machine by clicking on the link below.

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

The MalwareBytes AntiMalware will automatically start and you can see its main window as shown on the screen below.

Next, click the “Scan Now” button for scanning your Apple Mac for the MainSearchAdvise adware software. This process may take quite a while, so please be patient. While the utility is scanning, you can see number of objects and files has already scanned.

When MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) is done scanning your MAC, the results are displayed in the scan report. Make sure to check mark the threats that are unsafe and then click the “Quarantine” button.

The MalwareBytes Anti Malware will begin to remove MainSearchAdvise adware.

Remove MainSearchAdvise from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

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

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top right corner, click on Google Chrome’s main menu button, represented by three vertical dots. 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 remove MainSearchAdvise adware 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 MainSearchAdvise adware 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

In order to increase your security and protect your Apple Mac against new intrusive ads and malicious web pages, you need to use ad-blocking program that stops an access to malicious advertisements and webpages. Moreover, the program can block the open of intrusive advertising, that also leads to faster loading of web sites and reduce the consumption of web traffic.

1. AdGuard can be downloaded from the following link.
   
   

   AdGuard for Mac download
   3687 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 finished, click “Skip” to close the installation application and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial which will help you get to know AdGuard better.
4. In most cases, the default settings are enough and you do not need to change anything. Each time, when you start your MAC system, AdGuard will start automatically and stop unwanted ads, block harmful and misleading web sites.

Finish words

Now your MAC OS should be free of the MainSearchAdvise adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you block unwanted popup ads and unwanted harmful web sites) and MalwareBytes Free (to periodically scan your computer for new adwares and other malicious software).

If you are still having problems while trying to get rid of MainSearchAdvise from the Chrome, Firefox and Safari, then ask for help here here.