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

What is BrowserState

According to security specialists, BrowserState is a malicious application that belongs to the Adware category. Adware is software responsible for unwanted ads. Some adware will bring up adverts when you is browsing the World Wide Web, while other will build up a profile of your browsing habits in order to target adverts. In general, adware have to be installed on your Mac, so it’ll tend to be bundled with other software in much the same method as PUAs, spyware and browser hijackers.

Does adware steal your privacy data? Adware can monetize its functionality by gathering confidential data from your browsing sessions. This user data, later, can be easily sold to third party companies. This puts your privacy info at a security risk. So, if you happen to encounter the adware, then be quick and take effort to remove it immediately.

How does BrowserState get on your MAC OS

The adware software was probably installed on your machine when you installed certain free applications such as Email checker, PDF creator, video codec, etc. Because more often than not, adware can be bundled with the installation files of Softonic, Cnet, Soft32, Brothersoft or other similar software download web-sites. Thus, you must be very careful when running any files downloaded from the Net! Always read the User Agreement, Software License and Terms of Use carefully. In the installation wizard, you should select the Advanced, Custom or Manual installation option to specify which components and bundled applications to install, otherwise you risk infecting your computer with adware or PUAs (potentially unwanted apps).

Threat Summary

Name	BrowserState, BrowserState 1.0 app
Type	adware software, potentially unwanted application (PUA), Mac virus, Mac malware
Detection Names	OSX.Trojan.Gen, Osx.Adware.Cimpli, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, MacOS.Agent-MT, Adware.MAC.Generic, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, ApplicUnwnt and Adware/Adload!OSX
Distribution	Free software installers, suspicious pop up ads, torrent downloads and fake updaters
Symptoms	Your web browser is redirected to web pages you did not want, pop-ups and newtabs are loaded without your request, new entries appear in your Applications folder, unexpected web browser plugins or toolbars keep coming back, your web-browser search provider has replaced without your permission, your web browser slows to a crawl.
Removal	BrowserState removal guide

How to remove BrowserState from Mac device

Fortunately, we have an effective solution that will assist you manually or/and automatically remove BrowserState from your internet browser and bring your browser settings, including default search engine, newtab and startpage, back to normal. Below you’ll find a removal guidance with all the steps you may need to successfully remove adware and its components. Some of the steps will require you to reboot your MAC or close this web page. So, read this guidance carefully, then bookmark this page or open it on your smartphone for later reference.

To remove BrowserState, follow the steps below:

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

Remove profiles created by BrowserState

BrowserState 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 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 BrowserState.

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

Delete BrowserState related software through the Finder

Some of adware, browser hijackers and PUPs can be removed using the Move to Trash tool that is located in the Finder. So, if you’re using any version of Apple Mac and you have noticed an unwanted program, then first try to delete it through the Finder.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Very carefully look around the entire list of applications installed on your MAC system. Most likely, one of them is the BrowserState . Once you have found a suspicious, unwanted or unused program, right click to it and select “Move to Trash”. Another method is drag the application from the Applications folder to the Trash.

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

Remove BrowserState related files and folders

Now you need to try to find BrowserState 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

If you carefully followed the previous steps, then you should be able to delete BrowserState. Of course, very often browser hijackers, potentially unwanted programs and adware software 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 adware software, PUPs and browser hijackers. Therefore, we suggest you to use MalwareBytes Free to scan the Mac.

MalwareBytes Anti Malware can be downloaded from the following link.

Once the download is complete, close all applications and windows on your machine. Open a directory in which you saved it. Run the saved file and follow the prompts.

Once install is complete, you will see window as shown on the screen below.

Now press the “Scan” button to perform a system scan with this tool for the BrowserState adware.

After the scan get completed, MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) will show a scan report. Make sure to check mark the threats that are unsafe and then press “Quarantine” button.

The Malwarebytes will now delete BrowserState .

Remove BrowserState from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

This step will show you how to remove harmful add-ons. This can get rid of BrowserState adware and fix some surfing issues, especially after adware infection.

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. Select ‘More tools’, then ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to remove BrowserState 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 BrowserState 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

If you want to delete intrusive advertisements, web browser redirects and pop-ups, then install an ad-blocking program like AdGuard. It can block unwanted advertisements and pop-ups, stop web-sites from tracking your online activities when using the Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Chrome. So, if you like surf the Web, but you don’t like unwanted advertisements and want to protect your Apple Mac from malicious websites, then the AdGuard is your best choice.

AdGuard can be downloaded from the following link.

Once the download is finished, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen. Follow the prompts.

Each time, when you start your machine, AdGuard will launch automatically and stop unwanted pop-up advertisements, block harmful and misleading web sites.

Finish words

Now your MAC should be clean of the BrowserState adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted pop-up advertisements and unwanted harmful webpages) and MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) (to periodically scan your MAC system for new malware, hijackers and adware). Make sure that you have all the Critical Updates recommended for Mac OS. Without regular updates you WILL NOT be protected when new browser hijackers, harmful software and adware are released.

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