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

What is OffersPrimary

OffersPrimary is an adware application that targets Mac computers. Adware is short for ‘ad software’. Additionally, some malicious software contains adware or behaves similarly to adware. Adware shows unwanted ads that appear in pop ups or sponsored links on computer screens. In order to display unwanted ads as often as possible adware can change browser and system settings. The authors of adware software do so in order to make money via third-party ad network. Thus every click on the advertisements earns revenue for them.

Another reason why you need to delete OffersPrimary is its online data-tracking activity. It can gather user info, including:

• IP addresses;
• URLs visited;
• search queries/terms;
• clicks on links and ads;
• internet browser version information.

If your browser has been affected with the adware software, you must have done any of the steps below. Once you have removed OffersPrimary from your Mac by following our steps below, make sure not to commit the same mistakes again in the future.

How does OffersPrimary get on your Apple Mac

Adware usually come as a part of free applications, malicious doanloads and fake updates. So, when you installing a new software, carefully read the disclaimers, choose the Custom or Advanced install type to watch for third-party programs that are being installed, because certain of the programs are PUPs and adware.

Threat Summary

Name	OffersPrimary
Type	adware, potentially unwanted application (PUA), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	MacOS.Agent-MT, Adware/Adload!OSX, ApplicUnwnt, Adware.MAC.Generic, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, OSX.Trojan.Gen and Osx.Adware.Cimpli
Distribution	Freeware installers, fake software updaters, torrent downloads and shady popup ads
Symptoms	Every time you perform an Internet search, your browser is redirected to another web page, you experience a large amount of of unwanted advertisements, new entries appear in your Applications folder, unwanted icons on your desktop, unexpected changes in your web-browser like displaying new tabs you didn’t open, speed test good but internet slow.
Removal	OffersPrimary removal guide

How to remove OffersPrimary from Mac computer

In the few simple steps below, we will try to cover the Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox and provide general help to delete OffersPrimary . You may find some minor differences in your Apple Mac 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 tools. Read it once, after doing so, please bookmark this page (or open it on your smartphone) as you may need to close your browser or restart your MAC OS.

To remove OffersPrimary, follow the steps below:

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

Remove profiles created by OffersPrimary

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

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

Remove OffersPrimary associated software by using the Finder

Check the list of installed programs on your Mac device and uninstall all unknown and recently installed applications. 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 utility such as MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM).

Make sure you have closed all web browsers and other programs. Next, delete any undesired and suspicious apps from MAC system using the Finder.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Look around the entire list of software installed on your machine. Most probably, one of them is the OffersPrimary adware. Choose the suspicious program or the program that name is not familiar to you and remove it.

Drag the questionable program from the Applications folder to the Trash.

Most important, don’t forget, select Finder -> Empty Trash.

Remove OffersPrimary related files and folders

Now you need to try to find OffersPrimary 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

If you’re still having issues with the OffersPrimary removal or just wish to check your Mac computer occasionally for adware software and other malicious software, then download MalwareBytes Free. It’s free for home use, and searches for and removes various undesired programs that attacks your computer or degrades machine performance. MalwareBytes can delete adware software, browser hijackers, toolbars and potentially unwanted programs as well as malware, including ransomware and trojans.

1. Download MalwareBytes Free on your MAC system by clicking on the link below.
   
   

   Malwarebytes Anti-malware (Mac)
   20851 downloads
   Author: Malwarebytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: September 10, 2020
   
2. After downloading is complete, please close all programs and open windows on your MAC system. Run the downloaded file. Follow the prompts.
3. The MalwareBytes Free will launch and show the main window.
4. Further, click the “Scan” button to locate OffersPrimary . A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your MAC system. While the MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) is checking, you can see count of objects it has identified either as being malware.
5. After MalwareBytes completes the scan, MalwareBytes Free will show a list of all threats found by the scan.
6. Make sure all threats have ‘checkmark’ and press the “Remove Selected Items” button.
7. Close the AntiMalware and continue with the next step.

Remove OffersPrimary from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

If you are still getting OffersPrimary adware software, then you can try to remove it by removing harmful extensions.

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 get rid of OffersPrimary 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 OffersPrimary 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

It is important to use adblocker applications such as AdGuard to protect your MAC from harmful web-pages. Most security experts says that it’s okay to block ads. You should do so just to stay safe! And, of course, the AdGuard can to block misleading and other unwanted webpages.

1. Download AdGuard on your MAC by clicking on the following link.
   
   

   AdGuard for Mac download
   3687 downloads
   Author: © Adguard
   Category: Security tools
   Update: January 17, 2018
   
2. Once the downloading process is done, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. When the setup is complete, click “Skip” to close the setup program and use the default settings, or press “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 don’t need to change anything. Each time, when you run your computer, AdGuard will start automatically and stop annoying advertisements, block malicious and misleading web-pages.

Finish words

We suggest that you keep MalwareBytes (to periodically scan your machine for new adware and other malicious software) and AdGuard (to help you block intrusive popups and malicious web-sites). Moreover, to prevent any adware software, please stay clear of unknown and third party apps.

If you need more help with OffersPrimary related issues, go to here.