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

What is SyncUpgrade

SyncUpgrade is an adware application that targets Mac computers. Adware is form of software that’s developed to add adverts into your Internet surfing or even desktop experience. SyncUpgrade can display unwanted ads, modify your homepage, search provider and search results, or even add toolbars to your internet browser. The adware run in the background when surf the Net, and it can slow down your Mac and affect its performance.

Does adware software steal your confidential data? The SyncUpgrade app can be used to gather a wide variety of your confidential information which may be later transferred third party companies. You do not know if your home address, account names and passwords are safe. So, you should delete adware as soon as possible. Here, in this post below, you can found the best possible tutorial on How to delete SyncUpgrade and get rid of unwanted advertisements from your Apple Mac for free.

How does SyncUpgrade get on your MAC

Most often, adware comes along with the setup packages from file sharing and torrents webpages. So, install freeware is a a good chance that you will find a bundled adware. If you don’t know how to avoid it, then use a simple trick. During the installation, select the Custom or Advanced setup type. Next, click ‘Decline’ button and clear all checkboxes on offers that ask you to install additional programs. Moreover, please carefully read Term of use and User agreement before installing any software or otherwise you can end up with another unwanted application on your MAC such as this adware.

Threat Summary

Name	SyncUpgrade, SyncUpgrade 1.0 app
Type	adware, PUP (potentially unwanted program), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, Osx.Adware.Cimpli, Adware.MAC.Generic, OSX.Trojan.Gen, Adware/Adload!OSX, MacOS.Agent-MT and ApplicUnwnt
Distribution	Freeware installers, torrent downloads, fake update tools and suspicious pop-up ads
Symptoms	When you go to a webpage, you’re often redirected to another webpage that you do not intend to visit, you experience a large count of of unwanted pop-up windows, unwanted program installed without your say-so, unwanted icons on your desktop, your internet browser search provider has replaced without your permission, slow Internet or slow browsing.
Removal	SyncUpgrade removal guide

How to Remove SyncUpgrade adware (removal guide)

In the few simple steps below, we will try to cover the Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari and provide general advice to delete SyncUpgrade adware. You may find some minor differences in your Mac OS install. No matter, you should be okay if you follow the steps outlined below: delete all suspicious and unknown software, reset web browsers settings, use free malware removal utilities. Read it once, after doing so, please bookmark this page (or open it on your smartphone) as you may need to exit your web-browser or reboot your MAC.

To remove SyncUpgrade, execute the following steps:

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

Remove profiles created by SyncUpgrade

SyncUpgrade 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 SyncUpgrade.

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.

Remove SyncUpgrade related software through the Finder

Some of PUPs, browser hijackers and adware can be removed using the Move to Trash tool which can be found in the Finder. So, if you are running 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 programs installed on your MAC OS. Most probably, one of them is the SyncUpgrade adware. Once you have found a suspicious, unwanted or unused program, right click to it and select “Move to Trash”. Another way is drag the program from the Applications folder to the Trash.

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

Remove SyncUpgrade related files and folders

Now you need to try to find SyncUpgrade 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

Manual SyncUpgrade removal requires some computer skills. Some files and system entries that created by the adware may be not completely removed. We recommend that run MalwareBytes to scan the Mac. Moreover, this program will help you to remove toolbars, browser hijackers, PUPs and adware that your MAC system can be affected too.

Visit the following page to download the latest version of MalwareBytes for Mac.

Once the downloading process is done, close all software and windows on your computer. Run the saved file. Follow the prompts.

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

Now click the “Scan” button for checking your MAC OS for the SyncUpgrade adware. This procedure may take some time, so please be patient. When a threat is found, the number of the security threats will change accordingly.

After MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) has finished scanning your MAC OS, MalwareBytes Free will show you the results. You may remove items (move to Quarantine) by simply press the “Quarantine” button. The MalwareBytes Anti-Malware will get rid of SyncUpgrade and move the selected items to the program’s quarantine.

Remove SyncUpgrade from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

Remove unwanted plugins is a simple method to delete SyncUpgrade adware software and return internet browser’s settings which have been changed by adware.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top right corner, click on Google Chrome’s main menu button, represented by three vertical dots. 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 delete SyncUpgrade 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 problems with SyncUpgrade 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

We suggest to install an ad blocking program. The ad-blocking tool like AdGuard is a program which basically removes advertising from the Web and blocks access to malicious web pages. Moreover, security experts says that using ad blocker software is necessary to stay safe when surfing the Internet.

1. Visit the following page to download the latest version of AdGuard for Mac OS.
   
   

   AdGuard for Mac download
   3686 downloads
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: January 17, 2018
   
2. After the downloading process is done, run the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. After the installation is complete, click “Skip” to close the setup program and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial which will assist 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 OS, AdGuard will start automatically and stop unwanted advertisements, block malicious and misleading web-sites.

To sum up

Now your MAC should be clean of the SyncUpgrade adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted popups and unwanted harmful web pages) and MalwareBytes (to periodically scan your MAC OS 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 hijackers, malicious apps and adware are released.

If you are still having problems while trying to delete SyncUpgrade from your browser, then ask for help here.