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

What is OnlineTab

OnlineTab is a malicious application that belongs to the Adware category. Adware is a form of software designed to throw advertisements up on the browser screen. Adware generates revenue for its creator by often displaying lots of unwanted ads and pop-up deals. You might experience a change in your home page or search provider, new tabs opening or even a redirect to shady and scam pages.

Even worse, the OnlineTab adware can analyze the location and which Net web pages you visit, and then display advertisements to the types of content, goods or services featured there. Adware software developers can gather and sell your browsing information and behavior to third parties.

If you would like to remove OnlineTab and get rid of unwanted advertisements and are unable to do so, you can use the guidance below to scan for and remove adware and any other malicious software for free.

How does OnlineTab get on your computer

Usually, adware gets into Mac computers as part of a bundle with free applications, sharing files and other unsafe programs that users downloaded from the Internet. The creators of adware pays software developers for distributing adware within their applications. So, bundled applications is often included as part of the setup file. In order to avoid the installation of any adware: select only Manual, Custom or Advanced setup type and reject all third-party programs in which you are unsure.

Threat Summary

Name	OnlineTab
Type	adware, PUP (potentially unwanted program), Mac malware, Mac virus
Detection Names	Osx.Adware.Cimpli, ApplicUnwnt, Adware/Adload!OSX, MacOS.Agent-MT, Program:MacOS/Vigram.A, Trojan-Downloader.OSX.Adload, OSX.Trojan.Gen and Adware.MAC.Generic
Distribution	Freeware installers, torrent downloads, misleading pop up advertisements and fake updaters
Symptoms	The web-page links redirect to a webpages different from what you expected, advertising banners appear in places they shouldn’t be, your machine starts automatically installing unexpected applications, an unexpected toolbar appears in your web-browser, your web-browser home page has modified without your permission, speed test good but internet slow.
Removal	OnlineTab removal guide

How to Remove OnlineTab adware (removal instructions)

As with removing adware software, malware or potentially unwanted software, there are few steps you can do. We suggest trying them all. If you do only one part of the tutorial, then it should be use malicious software removal tool, because it should delete adware and block any further infection. But to completely delete OnlineTab you will have to at least reset your internet browser settings like newtab page, search provider by default and home page to default state, delete all unwanted and suspicious software, and remove adware with malware removal utilities. Some of the steps will require you to reboot your computer or exit this website. So, read this tutorial carefully, then bookmark this page or open it on your smartphone for later reference.

To remove OnlineTab, use the steps below:

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

Remove unwanted profiles on Mac device

OnlineTab 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. If there is Profiles in the list, then click on it, then select a profile associated with OnlineTab.

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

Delete OnlineTab associated software by using the Finder

The next step in removing browser hijackers, adware and PUPs by yourself is to go into the Finder, then Applications. Take a look at the list of software on your Mac computer and see if there are any suspicious and unknown applications. If you see any, you need to uninstall it. Of course, before doing so, you can do an Internet search to find details on the application. If it is a adware, browser hijacker and PUP, you will likely find information that says so.

1. Open the Finder.
2. Click “Applications”.
3. It will open a list of all apps installed on the computer.
4. Scroll through the all list, and uninstall questionable and unknown apps. Pay maximum attention to the program you installed last.
5. Drag the suspicious program from the Applications folder to the Trash.
6. Empty Trash.

Remove OnlineTab related files and folders

Now you need to try to find OnlineTab 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Scan your Mac with MalwareBytes

We recommend using MalwareBytes. You can download and install MalwareBytes to search for and delete OnlineTab related software from your Mac computer. When installed and updated, the malicious software remover automatically finds and removes all security threats present on the MAC system.

1. Visit the following page to download MalwareBytes Free.
   
   

   Malwarebytes Anti-malware (Mac)
   20841 downloads
   Author: Malwarebytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: September 10, 2020
   
2. After the downloading process is complete, please close all applications and open windows on your computer. Run the downloaded file. Follow the prompts.
3. The MalwareBytes will start and display the main window.
4. Further, click the “Scan” button to start scanning your MAC system for the OnlineTab adware. While the utility is checking, you can see number of objects and files has already scanned.
5. Once MalwareBytes Anti Malware has finished scanning your computer, the results are displayed in the scan report.
6. Review the report and then click the “Remove Selected Items” button.
7. Close the Anti Malware and continue with the next step.

Remove OnlineTab from Safari, Chrome, Firefox

This step will show you how to get rid of malicious add-ons. This can remove OnlineTab and fix some browsing issues, especially after adware infection.

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. 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 get rid of OnlineTab adware 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 OnlineTab 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

If you browse the World Wide Web, you cannot avoid malvertising. But you can protect your browser against it. Download and run an ad-blocking application. AdGuard is an adblocker which can filter out a large number of of the malvertising, stoping dynamic scripts from loading malicious content.

Visit the page linked below to download AdGuard.

After the download is complete, run the downloaded file. You will see the “Setup Wizard” screen. Follow the prompts.

Each time, when you start your machine, AdGuard will start automatically and stop unwanted advertisements, block harmful and misleading web sites.

To sum up

We suggest that you keep MalwareBytes Free (to periodically scan your MAC system for new adwares and other malicious software) and AdGuard (to help you block intrusive popup advertisements and harmful web sites). Moreover, to prevent any adware software, please stay clear of unknown and third party applications.

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