Free Way To Get Rid Of Viruses
Get Rid Of Malware On Mac
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How To Check For Virus On Mac

You may have heard it's said that Macs don’t get viruses. That there’s no Apple virus. You may even have said it yourself. Sadly, it’s not true. The latest State of Malware Report by Malwarebytes describes a significant rise of Mac threats of over 400% in 2019. The report claims that cybercriminals now target Macs severely, due to increasing market share. So, do you still believe that Macs don’t get viruses? Continue reading to discover how to remove a virus from your Mac and protect your files from getting infected.

Can Macs get viruses?

To get rid of Trojan horses on a Windows PC, first open the Start menu and search for “Windows Defender.” Once you’ve opened the program, click the menu icon in the top-left corner and select “Virus & threat protection.” Next, click “Advanced scan”, check the “Full scan” box, and select “Scan now.”. On your Mac, choose Apple menu System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, then click General. Select the sources from which you’ll allow software to be installed: App Store: Allows apps only from.

Cleaning your Mac with Gemini and syncing your folders and images to iPhone ensures storage across your devices remains clear and concise, and you only keep the files you really want and need. Viruses on Mac are never fun to deal with, so be sure to take preventative measures. If you use a Mac, you may be under the impression that your computer cannot get a virus. Unfortunately, this is a misconception. There are fewer viruses that target Macs compared with the many that target PCs, but Mac viruses do exist. Some Mac viruses are designed to trick users into thinking they are anti-virus products.

Macs have been considered safer than Windows PC for a long time. Macs are indeed secure, thanks to various built-in features, such as GateKeeper, that doesn't allow installing anything not approved by Apple. But, as the Apple security features have improved, so is malware. According to the State of Malware report mentioned before, Macs are mostly attacked by adware and potentially unwanted programs (PUP), which macOS has no counteraction against. So, answering the question, yes, Macs do get viruses, and they may impact your sensitive file and data seriously.

How do I know if my Mac has a virus?

Before you remove a virus from a Mac, you need to be sure it actually has one. We’ve covered that in more detail in this article but here are a few pointers.

Your Mac starts behaving erratically and doing things you don’t expect;
Your Mac starts running very slowly as if something is hogging the processor;
You start seeing adverts on your desktop;
You find software or applications you didn’t install.
An app asks for your administrator password

These symptoms may mean your Mac has a virus, although there could be other explanations.

How to remove a virus from a Mac manually

Thankfully, there are lots of ways to do it. And Mac virus removal doesn’t have to cost money.

1. Delete browser extensions

One of the most common types of malware comes in the form of browser extensions. Even extensions that aren’t particularly malicious can be annoying, and if you didn’t deliberately install them, they’re malware. Here’s how to get rid of unwanted browser extensions.

Safari

Launch Safari.
Click Safari in the top menu, then choose Safari Extensions.
Look down the list and click on any extensions that look suspicious. Read the description of the extension. If you don’t remember installing it, click Uninstall.
Repeat until you’ve removed all the extensions you don’t want.

Chrome

Launch Chrome.
Click on the 3-dot icon in the upper right corner.
Select More Tools and choose Extensions from the menu that appears.
Look over the extensions in the browser window and click Remove on any that you don’t recognize.

Firefox

Launch Firefox.
Click the 3-line (hamburger) icon at the top right corner.
Choose Add-ons.
Click the Extensions tab and remove any you don’t recognize.

2. Uninstall apps

Malware comes in lots of different forms. And it even comes disguised as security software to help you get rid of viruses! Devious, huh?

If you’ve inadvertently downloaded an app that turns out to be a virus, you need to uninstall it immediately. There are a couple of ways to do this. Here’s the hard way.

Go to your Applications folder and drag the app to the Trash.
Go to ~/Library folder and look in the Application Support folder for any files related to the app and drag those to the Trash.
Look in the other folders in ~/Library, especially Launch Agents and Launch Daemons and remove any files related to the app from there. But be careful, if you remove files used by legitimate apps you could cause lots of problems.
Repeat Step 3 for your Mac’s main Library folder.

The easy way: Uninstall apps in a few clicks

Download and launch CleanMyMac X.
Click Uninstaller.
Check the box next to the application name.
Click Uninstall.

If you don’t know the name of the application, it’s more difficult. But if you use CleanMyMac X, all you have to do is scroll through the list of applications and look for any you don’t recognize or don’t need and remove them. CleanMyMac X removes every trace of an app, including files that you may overlook when you remove applications manually. This is particularly important for viruses, so it’s much better to use CleanMyMac X.
What makes this method even better, is that CleanMyMac X also shows you app leftovers that remained after the main app is gone.

3. Escape the virus: Create a new user profile

Usually, viruses are attached to a particular user profile on your computer. In this way, they are able to seize control of your admin profile. But you can start if from scratch and create a new user on your Mac. Don't worry, you will be able to transfer all your important data from one user to another.

Go to Apple menu > System Preferences, click Users & Groups.

Click the lock icon , then type in your admin password.
Use the plus sign to add a new user profile.

To move your important information from one user to another, you will need to access the Shared folder.

Click on the Finder > Go to Folder..
Paste in this: /Users

Can you see the Shared folder? Here you can copy the needed files from your old user account. Hurray, you've started a clean, virus-free life!

Bonus tip: Clean up your login items

Login items are apps that launch automatically upon startup. Malware programs would often sneak into your login items without you knowing. How to prevent them from launching?

Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences.
Click Users & Groups.
Click on the Login Items tab

From here you can manage them using the [+] and [—] buttons.

How to remove a virus from Mac automatically

While the above steps work very well in lots of cases, sometimes the Mac virus removal means using a dedicated application to scan and remove malware from your Mac.

Scan your Mac for viruses

There are lots of these applications available, and many of them are either free or allow you to at the very least scan your Mac for free to find out whether you need to take action. Be careful, however. It’s important to choose a tool from a reputable vendor. If you just google ‘Mac antivirus tool’ some of the results may well be for tools that are themselves malicious and instead of removing viruses from your Mac will infect it. We recommend using CleanMyMac X.

It can identify thousands of malware threats, including adware, spyware, ransomware, worms, cryptocurrency miners. And if CleanMyMac finds something suspicious, it will offer immediate removal. Besides, it ensures real-time Mac virus protection, informing you when you’re about to install something harmful. Here’s how to perform a full system scan:

Download CleanMyMac X (free download) and launch the app.
Click on the Malware Removal tab.
Click Scan.
Click Remove.

Disable the invisible agents

Some small supporting applications never show up in the Login items.

Apps To Get Rid Of Viruses On Mac