SearchPrimary is an unwanted software from the adware (also known as ‘ad-supported’ software) family. How can Adware be dangerous to your MAC? Adware is type of software that presents unwanted advertisements on the MAC, redirects search requests to advertising webpages and collects user data for marketing purposes. Adware can display banner ads, full-screen advertisements, popups, videos, or other varieties of online advertising. Adware can attack your computer’s browsers such as the Mozilla Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Maybe you approve the idea that the ads or popups is just a small problem. But these annoying ads eat MAC OS resources and slow down your machine performance
Unwanted ads
Does adware steal your personal information? Adware software can collect personal data, including:
- IP addresses;
- URLs visited;
- search queries/terms;
- clicks on links and ads;
- web-browser version information.
Adware is bundled within certain free applications. So always read carefully the install screens, disclaimers, ‘Terms of Use’ and ‘Software license’ appearing during the install process. Additionally pay attention for third-party applications which are being installed along with the main application. Ensure that you unchecked all of them! Also, run an adblocker program that will help to block malicious and illegitimate web-pages.
Threat Summary
| Name | SearchPrimary |
| Type | adware, potentially unwanted application (PUA), pop ups, pop-up virus, popup advertisements |
| Symptoms |
|
| Removal | SearchPrimary removal guide |
Instructions that is shown below, will allow you to clean your MAC from the adware as well as remove SearchPrimary intrusive pop-ups from the Firefox, Chrome and Safari and other internet browsers.
How to Remove SearchPrimary app/extension (Adware virus removal guidance)
We can assist you get rid of SearchPrimary ads from your internet browsers, without the need to take your computer to a professional. Simply follow the removal instructions below if you currently have the unwanted adware on your MAC and want to remove it. If you have any difficulty while trying to get rid of the SearchPrimary, feel free to ask for our help in the comment section below. Certain of the steps will require you to restart your MAC OS or shut down this web page. So, read this guidance carefully, then bookmark this page or open it on your smartphone for later reference.
To remove SearchPrimary, perform the following steps:
- How to manually remove SearchPrimary
- How to remove SearchPrimary adware software with free software
- How to stay safe online
- Finish words
How to manually remove SearchPrimary
In this section of the article, we have posted the steps that will help to delete SearchPrimary adware software manually. Although compared to removal tools, this solution loses in time, but you don’t need to install anything on the MAC system. It will be enough for you to follow the detailed instructions with pictures. We tried to describe each step in detail, but if you realized that you might not be able to figure it out, or simply do not want to change the Microsoft Windows and web-browser settings, then it’s better for you to use tools from trusted developers, which are listed below.
Delete PUPs through the Finder
Check out the Finder (Applications section) to see all installed software. If you see any unknown and suspicious programs, they are the ones you need to delete.
Make sure you have closed all web-browsers and other applications. Next, delete any unrequested and suspicious programs from Apple Mac using the Finder.
Open Finder and click “Applications”.
Look around the entire list of programs installed on your MAC OS. Most probably, one of them is the SearchPrimary adware. Choose the suspicious application or the application that name is not familiar to you and uninstall it.
Drag the suspicious application from the Applications folder to the Trash.
Most important, don’t forget, choose Finder -> Empty Trash.
Remove SearchPrimary adware from Safari
If you find that Safari web-browser settings like search engine by default, home page and newtab having been replaced by SearchPrimary adware software which cause undesired popup advertisements to appear, then you may return your settings, via the reset web-browser procedure.
Click Safari menu and select “Preferences”.
It will open the Safari Preferences window. Next, click the “Extensions” tab. Look for unknown and suspicious addons on left panel, select it, then click the “Uninstall” button. Most important to delete all unknown extensions from Safari.
Once complete, click “General” tab. Change the “Default Search Engine” to Google.
Find the “Homepage” and type into textfield “https://www.google.com”.
Remove SearchPrimary adware software from Chrome
Run the Reset web-browser utility of the Chrome to reset all its settings like new tab, search engine by default and home page to original defaults. This is a very useful tool to use, in the case of web-browser redirects to unwanted websites such as SearchPrimary ads.
Open the Chrome menu by clicking on the button in the form of three horizontal dotes (
). It will show the drop-down menu. Choose More Tools, then click Extensions.
Carefully browse through the list of installed extensions. If the list has the extension labeled with “Installed by enterprise policy” or “Installed by your administrator”, then complete the following tutorial: Remove Google Chrome extensions installed by enterprise policy otherwise, just go to the step below.
Open the Google Chrome main menu again, press to “Settings” option.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Advanced” link. Now scroll down until the Reset settings section is visible, such as the one below and press the “Reset settings to their original defaults” button.
Confirm your action, click the “Reset” button.
Delete Search Primary from Firefox by resetting web browser settings
The Mozilla Firefox reset will delete redirects to annoying SearchPrimary ads, modified preferences, extensions and security settings. However, your themes, bookmarks, history, passwords, and web form auto-fill information will not be deleted.
Start the Firefox and press the menu button (it looks like three stacked lines) at the top right of the browser screen. Next, click the question-mark icon at the bottom of the drop-down menu. It will display the slide-out menu.
Select the “Troubleshooting information”. If you are unable to access the Help menu, then type “about:support” in your address bar and press Enter. It bring up the “Troubleshooting Information” page like below.
Click the “Refresh Firefox” button at the top right of the Troubleshooting Information page. Select “Refresh Firefox” in the confirmation prompt. The Mozilla Firefox will begin a procedure to fix your problems that caused by the SearchPrimary adware. Once, it’s done, press the “Finish” button.
How to remove SearchPrimary adware software with free software
There are not many good free antimalware applications with high detection ratio. The effectiveness of malware removal tools depends on various factors, mostly on how often their virus/malware signatures DB are updated in order to effectively detect modern malicious software, adware software, hijacker infections and other PUPs. We suggest to use several applications, not just one. These programs that listed below will help you remove all components of the adware software from your disk and system folders and thereby remove SearchPrimary ads.
Remove SearchPrimary adware software with MalwareBytes Anti Malware
Manual SearchPrimary adware removal requires some computer skills. Some files that created by the adware can be not completely removed. We recommend that use the MalwareBytes that are fully clean your machine of adware. Moreover, this free tool will help you to delete browser hijacker infection, malware, PUPs and toolbars that your MAC system may be infected too.
Click the link below to download the latest version of MalwareBytes for Mac OS.
20842 downloads
Author: Malwarebytes
Category: Security tools
Update: September 10, 2020
After downloading is complete, close all windows on your Apple Mac. Further, run the saved file. Follow the prompts.
The MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM) will automatically start and you can see its main window as shown on the image below.
Next, click the “Scan Now” button . MalwareBytes application will scan through the whole computer for the SearchPrimary adware. This process can take quite a while, so please be patient.
Once the checking is done, MalwareBytes Free will show a screen that contains a list of malicious software that has been detected. Review the scan results and then click “Remove Selected Items” button.
The MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM) will remove SearchPrimary that causes a lot of undesired ads.
How to stay safe online
We suggest to install an ad blocker program that may block unwanted web sites. The ad-blocker tool such as AdGuard is a application which basically removes advertising from the Web and stops access to malicious web-pages. Moreover, security experts says that using ad-blocking programs is necessary to stay safe when surfing the World Wide Web.
- Click the following link to download the latest version of AdGuard for Mac OS.
AdGuard for Mac download
3677 downloads
Author: © Adguard
Category: Security tools
Update: January 17, 2018
- After downloading is finished, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
- When the setup is done, click “Skip” to close the install program and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial that will help you get to know AdGuard better.
- In most cases, the default settings are enough and you do not need to change anything. Each time, when you run your MAC OS, AdGuard will start automatically and stop intrusive ads, block harmful or misleading web sites.
Finish words
Now your machine should be free of the SearchPrimary that causes undesired pop ups. We suggest that you keep MalwareBytes Free (to periodically scan your machine for new adwares and other malicious software) and AdGuard (to help you stop undesired popup ads and malicious web pages). Moreover, to prevent any adware, please stay clear of unknown and third party programs.
If you need more help with SearchPrimary related issues, go to here.
