Noaholiver2

Q: does apple carry out a virus check remotely?

My Macbook is becoming very slow, I am constantly being requested for passwords for a variety of reasons mail, accountsd, and many more, i cannot open preview for some unknown reason. It is now driving me crazy. Any Ideas what is wrong? Whilst discussing this with my web designer he suggested a virus. I replied that Apples do not have virus attacks to which he replied that was a myth.

 

Tom

MacBook Pro, iOS 7.1.2

Posted on Mar 18, 2015 2:11 PM

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Q: does apple carry out a virus check remotely?

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Mar 18, 2015 2:13 PM in response to Noaholiver2
    Level 10 (271,169 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 18, 2015 2:13 PM in response to Noaholiver2

    No, they don't. It's your responsibility. Tell your web designer he hasn't a clue. There are no extant viruses.

     

    Things You Can Do To Resolve Slow Downs

     

    If your computer seems to be running slower here are some things you can do:

     

    Start with visits to:     OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney;

                                      The X Lab: The X-FAQs;

                                      The Safe Mac » Mac Performance Guide;

                                      The Safe Mac » The myth of the dirty Mac;

                                      Mac maintenance Quick Assist.

     

    Boot into Safe Mode then repair your hard drive and permissions:

     

    Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions Pre-Lion

     

    Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.

     

    Repair the Hard Drive - Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks

     

    Boot to the Recovery HD:

     

    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the Utilites Menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD disk icon and click on the arrow button below.

     

    When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.

     

    Restart your computer normally and see if this has helped any. Next do some maintenance:

     

    For situations Disk Utility cannot handle the best third-party utility is Disk Warrior;  DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible.

     

    Note: Alsoft ships DW on a bootable DVD that will startup Macs running Snow Leopard or earlier. It cannot start Macs that came with Lion or later pre-installed, however, DW will work on those models.

     

    Suggestions for OS X Maintenance

     

    OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.  Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger.  These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or later and should not be installed.

     

    OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive.

     

    Under no circumstances should you install so-called maintenance software from MacPaw or ZeoBit (CleanMyMac/CleanMyDrive or Mac Keeper, respectively.) You do not need special software to maintain your computer.

     

    Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection

     

    If you are having an immediate problem with ads popping up see The Safe Mac » Adware Removal Guide and AdwareMedic.

     

    Open Safari, select Preferences from the Safari menu. Click on Extensions icon in the toolbar. Disable all Extensions. If this stops your problem, then re-enable them one by one until the problem returns. Now remove that extension as it is causing the problem.

     

    The following comes from user stevejobsfan0123. I have made minor changes to adapt to this presentation.

     

    Fix Some Browser Pop-ups That Take Over Safari

     

    Common pop-ups include a message saying the government has seized your computer and you must pay to have it released (often called "Moneypak"), or a phony message saying that your computer has been infected, and you need to call a tech support number (sometimes claiming to be Apple) to get it resolved. First, understand that these pop-ups are not caused by a virus and your computer has not been affected. This "hijack" is limited to your web browser. Also understand that these messages are scams, so do not pay any money, call the listed number, or provide any personal information. This article will outline the solution to dismiss the pop-up.

     

    Quit Safari

     

    Usually, these pop-ups will not go away by either clicking "OK" or "Cancel." Furthermore, several menus in the menu bar may become disabled and show in gray, including the option to quit Safari. You will likely have to force quit Safari. To do this, press Command + option + esc, select Safari, and press Force Quit.

     

    Relaunch Safari

     

    If you relaunch Safari, the page will reopen. To prevent this from happening, hold down the 'Shift' key while opening Safari. This will prevent windows from the last time Safari was running from reopening.

     

    This will not work in all cases. The shift key must be held at the right time, and in some cases, even if done correctly, the window reappears. In these circumstances, after force quitting Safari, turn off Wi-Fi or disconnect Ethernet, depending on how you connect to the Internet. Then relaunch Safari normally. It will try to reload the malicious webpage, but without a connection, it won't be able to. Navigate away from that page by entering a different URL, i.e. www.apple.com, and trying to load it. Now you can reconnect to the Internet, and the page you entered will appear rather than the malicious one.

     

    An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.

    Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.

    See these Apple articles:

     

      Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection

      OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware

      OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware

      OS X Mavericks- Protect your Mac from malware

      About file quarantine in OS X

     

    If you require anti-virus protection Thomas Reed recommends using ClamXAV. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for this recommendation.)

     

    From user Joe Bailey comes this equally useful advice:

     

    The facts are:

     

    1. There is no anti-malware software that can detect 100% of the malware out there.

    2. There is no anti-malware that can detect everything targeting the Mac.

    3. The very best way to prevent the most attacks is for you as the user to be aware that

         the most successful malware attacks rely on very sophisticated social engineering

         techniques preying on human avarice, ****, and fear.

    4. Internet popups saying the FBI, NSA, Microsoft, your ISP has detected malware on

        your computer is intended to entice you to install their malware thinking it is a

        protection against malware.

    5. Some of the anti-malware products on the market are worse than the malware

        from which they purport to protect you.

    6. Be cautious where you go on the internet.

    7. Only download anything from sites you know are safe.

    8. Avoid links you receive in email, always be suspicious even if you get something

        you think is from a friend, but you were not expecting.

    9. If there is any question in your mind, then assume it is malware.

     

    Troubleshooting Applications

     

    I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX, Mavericks Cache Cleaner, or Cocktail that you can use for removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache, log, or temporary files can cause application or OS X crashes as well as kernel panics.

     

    If you have Snow Leopard or Leopard, then for similar repairs install the freeware utility Applejack.  If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line.  Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. Applejack does not work with Lion and later.

     

    Basic Backup

     

    For some people Time Machine will be more than adequate. Time Machine is part of OS X. There are two components:

     

    1. A Time Machine preferences panel as part of System Preferences;

    2. A Time Machine application located in the Applications folder. It is

        used to manage backups and to restore backups. Time Machine

        requires a backup drive that is at least twice the capacity of the

        drive being backed up.

     

    Alternatively, get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):

     

      1. Carbon Copy Cloner

      2. Get Backup

      3. Deja Vu

      4. SuperDuper!

      5. Synk Pro

      6. Tri-Backup

     

    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore.  Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files. For help with using Time Machine visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.

     

    Referenced software can be found at MacUpdate.

     

    Additional Hints

     

    Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity as free space.

     

    Add more RAM. If your computer has less than 2 GBs of RAM and you are using OS X Leopard or later, then you can do with more RAM. Snow Leopard and Lion work much better with 4 GBs of RAM than their system minimums. The more concurrent applications you tend to use the more RAM you should have.

     

    Always maintain at least 15 GBs or 10% of your hard drive's capacity as free space, whichever is greater. OS X is frequently accessing your hard drive, so providing adequate free space will keep things from slowing down.

     

    Check for applications that may be hogging the CPU:

     

    Pre-Mavericks

     

    Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder.  Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu.  Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order.  If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar.  Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process.  See if that helps.  Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.

     

    Mavericks and later

     

    Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder.  Select All Processes from the View menu.  Click on the CPU tab in the toolbar. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order.  If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar.  Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process.  See if that helps.  Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.

     

    Often this problem occurs because of a corrupted cache or preferences file or an attempt to write to a corrupted log file.

  • by Allan Eckert,

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert Mar 18, 2015 2:29 PM in response to Noaholiver2
    Level 9 (53,640 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 18, 2015 2:29 PM in response to Noaholiver2

    If that is the best your web designer can come up, I strongly suggest you find another. He is worthless.

     

    Please download and install EtreCheck from http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

     

    Run it and post the report here

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. Mar 18, 2015 2:51 PM in response to Noaholiver2
    Level 7 (30,924 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 18, 2015 2:51 PM in response to Noaholiver2

    Noaholiver2 wrote:

     

    My Macbook is becoming very slow, I am constantly being requested for passwords for a variety of reasons mail, accountsd, and many more, i cannot open preview for some unknown reason.

     

    Can you provide a screenshot of one of these password requests? Make a screenshot by following the directions here:

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5775

     

    Be sure no sensitive personal information is displayed. To add that image to a post here, click the camera icon in the post editor toolbar.

     

    If I had to guess, without any further information, I'd guess that this may be due to either a keychain issue or a permissions issue.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Mar 18, 2015 4:10 PM in response to Noaholiver2
    Level 10 (207,983 points)
    Applications
    Mar 18, 2015 4:10 PM in response to Noaholiver2

    Back up all data before proceeding.

    This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership, permissions, and access controls to the default. If you've intentionally set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it, but you do need to follow the instructions below.

    Step 1

    If you have more than one user, and the one in question is not an administrator, then go to Step 2.

    Triple-click anywhere in the following line on this page to select it:

    sudo find ~ $TMPDIR.. -exec chflags -h nouchg,nouappnd,noschg,nosappnd {} + -exec chown -h $UID {} + -exec chmod +rw {} + -exec chmod -h -N {} + -type d -exec chmod -h +x {} + 2>&-

    Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

    Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

    ☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

    Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.

    You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.

    The command may take several minutes to run, depending on how many files you have. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear, then quit Terminal.

    Step 2 (optional)

    Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1, if you prefer not to take it, or if it doesn't solve the problem.

    Start up in Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select

              Utilities Terminal

    from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open. In that window, type this:

    resetp

    Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:

    resetpassword

    Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not going to reset a password.

    Select your startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.

    Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.

    Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.

    Select

               Restart

    from the menu bar.