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

What is SolveCenter

SolveCenter is an adware application that targets Apple computers. Adware is a form of malicious software designed to throw ads up on the web browser screen. SolveCenter generates revenue for its creator by periodically showing lots of advertisements and pop-up deals. You might experience a change in your startpage or search engine, new tabs opening or even a redirect to scam web-pages.

Does adware steal your personal information? Adware has the ability to collect a wide variety of confidential information about you (your ip address, what is a webpage you are viewing now, what you are looking for on the World Wide Web, which links you are clicking), which can later transfer to third parties.

How does SolveCenter get on your computer

Adware usually is bundled with some free software that users download off of the Internet. So, think back, have you ever download and run any freeware. In order to avoid infection, in the Setup wizard, you should be be proactive and carefully read the ‘Terms of use’, the ‘license agreement’ and other installation screens, as well as to always choose the ‘Manual’ or ‘Advanced’ setup mode, when installing anything downloaded from the Internet.

Threat Summary

Name	SolveCenter
Type	adware, potentially unwanted program (PUP), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	ApplicUnwnt, MacOS.Agent-MT, Adware.MAC.Generic, Adware/Adload!OSX, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, Osx.Adware.Cimpli and OSX.Trojan.Gen
Distribution	Free software installers, shady popup advertisements, torrent downloads and fake updaters
Symptoms	The web-site links redirect to a web sites different from what you expected, web-browser popups appear and recommend fake updates and other unwanted apps, your Apple Mac starts automatically installing unexpected programs, unexpected toolbars in your internet browser, your web-browser startpage has changed without your permission, your web-browser slows to a crawl.
Removal	SolveCenter removal guide

How to Remove SolveCenter adware (removal guide)

Not all unwanted software such as SolveCenter is easily uninstallable. You might see pop ups, deals, text links, in-text ads, banners and other type of ads in the Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari and might not be able to figure out the adware application responsible for this activity. The reason for this is that many adware applications neither appear in the Finder. Therefore in order to completely delete SolveCenter , you need to complete the following steps. Certain of the steps below will require you to close this web page. So, please read the step-by-step guide carefully, after that bookmark it or open it on your smartphone for later reference.

To remove SolveCenter, follow the steps below:

1. Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device
2. Delete SolveCenter related applications through the Finder
3. Remove SolveCenter related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove SolveCenter from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

SolveCenter 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 associated with SolveCenter.

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

Delete SolveCenter related applications through the Finder

Check out the Finder (Applications section) to see all installed programs. If you see any unknown and suspicious programs, they are the ones you need to remove.

Open Finder and click “Applications”.

Very carefully look around the entire list of software installed on your MAC system. Most probably, one of them is the SolveCenter . Once you’ve found a suspicious, unwanted or unused application, right click to it and choose “Move to Trash”. Another solution is drag the program from the Applications folder to the Trash.

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

Remove SolveCenter related files and folders

Now you need to try to find SolveCenter 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.

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

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

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

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

Check for SolveCenter 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 SolveCenter 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.search.system.plist, com.installapp.system.plist, com.machelper.system.plist and com.SolveCenter.system.plist. In most cases, adware, browser hijackers and PUPs 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 SolveCenter. Of course, very often potentially unwanted programs, adware and browser hijackers hides on a Mac device, 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, browser hijackers and potentially unwanted programs. Therefore, we suggest you to use MalwareBytes Anti-Malware to scan the Mac computer.

1. Installing the MalwareBytes AntiMalware is simple. First you’ll need to download MalwareBytes on your computer from the link below.
   
   

   Malwarebytes Anti-malware (Mac)
   20122 downloads
   Author: Malwarebytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: September 10, 2020
   
2. After the downloading process is done, please close all applications and open windows on your Apple Mac. Run the downloaded file. Follow the prompts.
3. The MalwareBytes will open and open the main window.
4. Further, press the “Scan” button to detect SolveCenter . Depending on your Apple Mac, the scan can take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour. When a malicious software, adware or potentially unwanted applications are detected, the count of the security threats will change accordingly. Wait until the the scanning is done.
5. After that process is complete, MalwareBytes Anti-Malware will show a list of all threats detected by the scan.
6. Once you have selected what you want to delete from your computer click the “Remove Selected Items” button.
7. Close the Anti-Malware and continue with the next step.

Remove SolveCenter from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

Remove unwanted extensions is a easy way to delete SolveCenter adware and return web-browser’s settings which have been changed by adware.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top right corner, click on Chrome’s main menu button, represented by three vertical dots. Select ‘More tools’, then ‘Extensions’. Click ‘Remove’ to uninstall an extension. Click ‘Remove’ in the dialog box. You can also try to delete SolveCenter 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 SolveCenter 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

The AdGuard is a very good ad-blocker program for the Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, with active user support. It does a great job by removing certain types of unwanted advertisements, popunders, popups, intrusive newtab pages, and even full page ads and web-site overlay layers. Of course, the AdGuard can stop harmful web sites automatically or by using a custom filter rule.

Installing the AdGuard is simple. First you will need to download AdGuard on your Microsoft Windows Desktop by clicking on the following link.

When downloading is done, 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. Press “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick guide which will assist you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you start your machine, AdGuard will launch automatically and stop unwanted ads, block malicious and misleading web pages.

To sum up

We suggest that you keep MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (to periodically scan your Apple Mac for new adware softwares and other malware) and AdGuard (to help you block annoying ads and harmful web-pages). Moreover, to prevent any adware software, please stay clear of unknown and third party apps.

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