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

What is BrowserActivity

BrowserActivity is an adware app. Adware can cause problems for your Mac. Adware software can display annoying ads on your computer screen so that your cannot stop them, redirect your web-browser to malicious web-pages, and it can cause scam websites to pop up on your web browser. Adware might end up on your Apple Mac after you download and install free applications from a questionable source.

Does adware steal your personal information? The BrowserActivity adware may monetize its functionality by collecting sensitive information from your browsing sessions. This user data, afterwards, can be easily used for marketing purposes. This puts your user data at a security risk.

If you are unfortunate have adware, you can follow the few simple steps below that will allow you to remove BrowserActivity and thus get rid of unwanted ads from your browser.

How does BrowserActivity get on your Apple Mac

Adware most likely to occur during the install of freeware due the fact that unwanted apps like this are usually hidden in the installation package. Thus, if you’ve installed some free software using Quick(Standard) method, you may have let adware get inside your computer. Keep in mind that the Quick mode is unreliable because it do not warn about third-party software. Thus, additional software will be installed automatically unless you choose Advanced/Custom method and disable its installation.

Threat Summary

Name	BrowserActivity, BrowserActivity 1.0 app
Type	adware, PUP (potentially unwanted program), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	MacOS.Agent-MT, Adware.MAC.Generic, ApplicUnwnt, Adware/Adload!OSX, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, OSX.Trojan.Gen, Osx.Adware.Cimpli and Program:MacOS/Vigram.A
Distribution	Free software installers, fake updaters, torrent downloads and suspicious popup ads
Symptoms	You keep getting redirected to unfamiliar websites, advertising banners appear in places they shouldn’t be, there is an unexpected program in the ‘Applications’ section of the Finder, an unwanted extension appears in your web browser, your browser start page has modified without your permission, your web-browser slows to a crawl.
Removal	BrowserActivity removal guide

How to remove BrowserActivity adware software

Fortunately, we’ve an effective solution that will help you manually or/and automatically remove BrowserActivity from your Mac and bring your browser settings, including newtab, startpage and default search provider, back to normal. Below you’ll find a removal guidance with all the steps you may need to successfully delete adware and its components. Read it once, after doing so, please bookmark this page (or open it on your smartphone) as you may need to exit your browser or reboot your MAC system.

To remove BrowserActivity, perform the steps below:

1. Remove profiles created by BrowserActivity
2. Check the list of installed applications
3. Remove BrowserActivity related files and folders
4. Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes
5. Remove BrowserActivity from Safari, Chrome, Firefox
6. How to stay safe online
7. To sum up

Remove profiles created by BrowserActivity

BrowserActivity 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 BrowserActivity.

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, which is normal.

Check the list of installed applications

One of the first things to attempt for removal of adware is to check your Mac computer installed programs screen and look for unwanted and dubious apps. If there are any programs you do not recognize or are no longer using, you should delete them. If that doesn’t work, then you may need to run malware removal tool such as MalwareBytes Free.

1. Open the Finder.
2. Click “Applications”.
3. It will display a list of all software installed on the computer.
4. Scroll through the all list, and remove dubious and unknown programs. Pay maximum attention to the application you installed last.
5. Drag the dubious application from the Applications folder to the Trash.
6. Empty Trash.

Remove BrowserActivity related files and folders

Now you need to try to find BrowserActivity 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

You can delete BrowserActivity associated files automatically with a help of MalwareBytes. We recommend this free malicious software removal utility because it can easily remove PUPs, toolbars, browser hijackers and adware with all their components such as files, folders and system entries.

Installing the MalwareBytes Free is simple. First you will need to download MalwareBytes by clicking on the following link.

When downloading is finished, run it and follow the prompts. Press the “Scan” button to search for BrowserActivity adware. Depending on your MAC, the scan can take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour. While the MalwareBytes Anti Malware is scanning, you may see how many objects it has identified either as being malware. When you’re ready, click the “Quarantine” button.

The MalwareBytes Anti-Malware is a free application that you can use to delete all detected folders, files, malicious services and so on.

Remove BrowserActivity from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

If you are still seeing BrowserActivity adware that won’t go away, you might have malicious plugins installed on your internet browser. Check your browser for unwanted extensions using the steps below.

Google Chrome	Mozilla Firefox
In the top-right corner, expand the Chrome menu. 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 BrowserActivity adware software by reset 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 BrowserActivity 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 application for the Firefox, Chrome and Safari, with active user support. It does a great job by removing certain types of intrusive ads, popunders, pop-ups, annoying new tabs, and even full page advertisements and website overlay layers. Of course, the AdGuard can block harmful websites automatically or by using a custom filter rule.

1. Visit the page linked below 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
   
2. After the download is finished, launch the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” program window. Follow the prompts.
3. Once the installation is done, click “Skip” to close the installation program and use the default settings, or click “Get Started” to see an quick tutorial that 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, AdGuard will run automatically and stop unwanted advertisements, block malicious and misleading web-sites.

To sum up

Now your computer should be clean of the BrowserActivity adware. We suggest that you keep AdGuard (to help you stop unwanted popups and annoying malicious websites) and MalwareBytes (to periodically scan your MAC system for new adware softwares and other malware).

If you are still having problems while trying to remove BrowserActivity from the Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari, then ask for help here here.