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laurenstapley
Contributor
Message 1 of 5

Bing Redirect Virus

Somehow I have ended up with a fake antivirus called "Mac Cleanup Pro" on my macbook. Ever since it's made it's way into my mac I'm constantly being redirected from Google to Bing. Typing in my browsers search bar takes me to Bing- even going directly to google.com and using their search bar doesn't work. It will load Google for a slpit second before continuing on to load Bing. If I try to go back a page it won't allow me to go back to Google at all. I've run so many scans with McAfee and it doesn't seem to be detecting it at all. I've even tried cleaning up Google Chrome which is the browser I always use as I've read online that sometimes it's the browser itself and that it could have had something to do with the extensions I had. I reset all my settings in Chrome and even deleted Bing as a search engine option. I've also searched through all of my files and folders on my computer looking for anything suspicious and deleting all folders that I thought may be the cause but... to to avail. Nothing has worked and I'm completely stumped and annoyed at this point.

Labels (5)
4 Replies
Felix_I
McAfee Retired
McAfee Retired
Message 2 of 5

Re: Bing Redirect Virus

Hi Lauren,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention and from your information about the Bing Redirect Virus which you stated that it started after you found “Mac Cleanup Pro” on your Mac computer.

With the information about your concern Lauren, at the top left side of your computer screen were you have options like the Apple Icon, Finder, etc. Please click on “Go” and then click on Applications. Once Applications is open, please check for “Mac Cleanup Pro” application and any other applications you feel you did not install on your Mac and then drag icon to Trash on your computer to uninstall the application.

Once you have uninstalled the application (“Mac Cleanup Pro”) from your computer, please click on “Go” again and then click on “Go to Folder”, you should have a prompt with a box where you need to type /usr/Library and then click on Go.

Please check in Library under these folders - Application Support, Cache, Preferences, Preferences Panes, LaunchAgent, LaunchDaemons. Check if you can find any traces of “Mac Cleanup Pro” files in Library. If you do find any trace of “Mac Cleanup Pro”, please right click on move to trash and once all the traces are moved to trash, please empty your trash.

Once you have followed the steps, please try resetting your Chrome Browser again and checking if you still have bing.com as your search before restarting your computer. Once your computer is restarted, try to access any site on your computer and see if you are good with the redirect or pop up.

Regards,

Felix

Was my reply helpful? If this information was helpful in any way or answered your question, please select Accept as Solution in my reply and together we can help other members?

Geeks
Contributor
Message 3 of 5

Re: Bing Redirect Virus

  1. Click on Finder.
  2. Go to Applications folder.
  3. Look for suspicious applications you can't remember installing. Right-click them and select Move to Trash.
  4. Empty Trash.

Open Safari and click on Safari button in the top left corner. Select Preferences in the menu that appears on the screen.

Now, go to Extensions tab. Look at the left to see all installed extensions, click on suspicious ones and hit that Uninstall button as shown in the picture. Confirm your choice by clicking Uninstall again. Repeat until you get rid of all unwanted extensions.

  1. In Preferences, open the General tab. Here, check what URL is set as your homepage. Delete it and type in whatever URL you want to set as your Safari Start Page.
  2. Next, go to the Search tab. Here, choose what Search engine you want to set as default.
  3. Next, click on Manage websites... then Remove all... and then Done.
  4. Click on Safari > Clear History..
  5. Then choose to clear All history and hit Clear History button to confirm.
  6. Go to Safari > Preferences and then open Privacy tab. 
  7. Click Manage Website Data... then Remove All. To finish, click Done.
  8. Finally, clear Safari cache. In Safari Menu, click Develop > Clear Cache.

Detailed fix with pictures on https://geeksadvice.com/remove-bing-redirect/

Geeks
Contributor
Message 4 of 5

Re: Bing Redirect Virus

  1. Click on Finder.
  2. Go to Applications folder.
  3.  Move to Trash.Uninstall-from-Mac
  1. Open Chrome and type chrome://extensions into address bar and press Enter.
  2. Here, look for suspicious extensions, and Remove them.
  3. Don't forget to confirm by pressing Remove in the confirmation pop-up.

remove-suspicious-chrome-extensions

  1. In Chrome address bar, type chrome://settings and press Enter.
  2. Scroll down to the On startup section. Check for suspicious extensions controlling these settings, and Disable them.
  3. Additionally, you can set browser to Open a specific page or set of pages via these settings. Simply choose this option, click Add a new page, enter your preferred URL (f.e. www.google.com) and press Add.

change-hijacked-homepage-chrome-settings

  1. In Chrome URL bar, type chrome://settings/searchEngines and press Enter. Make sure you type searchEngines, not searchengines. Additionally, you can go to chrome://settings and find Manage search engines option.
  2. First, look at the list of search engines and find the one you want to set as default. Click the three dots next to it and select Make Default.
  3. Finally, look through the list and eliminate suspicious entries. Right-click the three dots and select Remove from the list.

Change-chrome-search-engine-easily

  1. The final option is to reset Google Chrome. Type chrome://settings in the URL bar, press Enter  and then scroll down until you see Advanced option. Click it and scroll to the bottom of the settings.
  2. Click Restore settings to their original defaults.
  3. Click Restore settings to confirm.

Reset-Chrome-browser

For other browsers read full tutorial remove Bing redirect

brunobanani
Contributor
Message 5 of 5

Re: Bing Redirect Virus

There are many sources behind the issue. Most likely, there is an extension in Chrome controlling particular settings. It might be that your account sync settings on all the devices.

To that end, I recollect having SearchPulse redirect on Chrome on Mac. I cleaned it quite easily by removing the extension and fixing up affected settings, but in a while it was back. This happened as I launched my Windows desktop and signed in to the account that still has the redirects presets intact, and so Google synced Mac to restore the redirect.

So my advice is that you may check your other devices.

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