Mac Randomly Reset all Settings and Finder

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Level 1

8 points

Mac Randomly Reset all Settings and Finder

I have an issue where all my settings and my Finder were set to default, all my files on my Mac seem to be fine but I'm a bit worried. I was using FreeFileSync to backup my home folder while listening to spotify and browsing with Chrome. Then I get a popup saying "open quit unexpectedly, Send to Apple" so I sent it to Apple, about 1 minute later it shows up again and Chrome randomly quits. I try to open it but it keeps closing. So the logical answer was to Restart my Mac. after it booted back up and I logged in I noticed my Mac was in Light Mode and my cursor was slower, and Finder show'd this when I opened it

I usually have a lot of my folders in it for easier access

I have no idea what happened to it but I need a fix please.

OS:

Macbook Air 2017

macOS Catalina 10.15.7

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 31, 2020 12:09 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

DiZoE

Level 4

3,009 points

Oct 31, 2020 2:28 AM in response to Ashteroide

Hey there! Hope I can help!

Thanks for the detailed description, for those symptoms, I’d:

Restart in safe mode, then restart again/

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/start-up-your-mac-in-safe-mode-mh21245/mac

It could be a form of malware that was unintentionally downloaded.

Open Finder > Applications and delete any applications you don’t recognize, or didn’t intentionally install yourself, and know their function, (And have a backup if important),

If the issue continues to happen:

Open System Preferences > Login Items:

Remove all unknown programs from there by pressing the “-“ after highlighting, to prevent them from opening again.

Also in System Preferences, look for a category called “Profiles” if it’s there, and you, or your institution or network admin didn’t install it themselves, you can remove it in the same fashion.

Also in System Preferences, go to Network > Advanced > Proxies, if there is a proxy enabled that you, or your network admin didn’t enable them selves, (Besides the very bottom one), disable it.

Restart and test. Restarting alone initiates Apples own defense system attempting to remove any known malware, which makes it easy.

If it continues to happen, I’d personally recommend downloading Malware Bytes for Mac, run that, restart.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/

If still having issues, I’d create a new network location, do another scan, restart again and test.

How to use network locations on Mac:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202480

If this is not the case, let me/us know cheers!

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Answer 2

Ashteroide Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 1, 2020 1:13 AM in response to DiZoE

Thank you DiZoe for the quick response, I have restarted my mac again after the issue but nothing happened. The popup showed up again and then.

"It could be a form of malware that was unintentionally downloaded."

I did see an extension from Chrome called "One Click Translate" that was reported for malware and was automatically removed though I don't think that would have been it.

All your other suggestions I can assure are regular.

I did reinstall MacOS Catalina just in case the system files became a bit corrupted. The only noticeable change was in Chrome most of my extensions were corrupted so I suspect it might have been OneClickTranslate, unfortunately there isn't a link to it anymore since it was removed.

Running Malwarebytes it shows no signs of any Malware, I consider myself a very cautious person on what I download and can usually spot a sketchy site

As of now everything seems back to normal and no permanent damage was caused thankfully, thank you for the Malwarebytes suggestion :)

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Answer 3

DiZoE

Level 4

3,009 points

Nov 1, 2020 2:05 AM in response to Ashteroide

Hey again! No worries! Whatever the cause, glad it’s working again!

Chances are if the extension is no longer available, there’s a good reason for it.

I am cautious myself, as I believe you are, but the bad guys work 247 to work on new creative ways to deceive, which is why, despite people’s reservations about it, I always stay up to date, and restart at any time I am weary of strange behavior (As you did).

I was going to say, if not some form of malware, then it may be a permissions issue, In either case, glad you sorted it out!

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Mac Randomly Reset all Settings and Finder

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