What is this "Pipiade" pop up on my MacBook Air?

Hi mvasy11

Has anyone managed to delete the virus?

It's not a virus.

Apple, what are you doing?

Apple is not here.

Help us delete it or give us a trick to stop these viruses.

The solution is described throughout the nine or ten pages or whatever this discussion is up to by now.

About those "<app> will damage your computer" messages - Apple Community describes how to remove it.

wha34, please follow the instructions below.

First, ensure you have a reliable backup of your Mac, in case something should go wrong with continued troubleshooting. To learn how to do that, please read Back up your Mac with Time Machine.

• A backup is a fundamental prerequisite regardless of whatever method you may choose uninstall adware, and would apply even if your Mac were running perfectly well. Do not overlook this fundamental requirement. It's important.

Next: This step will prevent the scam products from loading so that they can be removed while they are inactive. Restart in "Safe Mode", and log in: How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support. Starting in Safe Mode takes longer than usual so let it finish. The rogue processes affecting that Mac are inoperative in "Safe Mode".

The following files and / or folders need to be deleted while using your Mac in "Safe Mode":

First screenshot:

Second screenshot:

Third screenshot:

Drag those selections of files to the Trash. You may be asked to authenticate. Confirm they are no longer present in that folder. Leave all the others alone for now.

Next: open Safari and select the Safari menu > Preferences (or Settings) > Extensions. If you see any Safari Extensions that you do not recognize or understand, simply click the Uninstall button and they will be gone. No Safari Extensions are required for normal operation. Then, select the General pane and review your Homepage selection. Then, select the Search pane and confirm your desired Search Engine. Repeat those equivalent actions for any other browser you may use (Brave, Firefox, or Opera for example).

There may also be adware-associated app icons in your Mac's Applications folder. Open it and examine its contents. Any unwanted or mysterious app icons should be obvious to you, but again please don't remove anything if you are uncertain—ask first. Identify any suspicious apps by name, or post another screenshot.

Next: In an abundance of caution, examine System Preferences (or Settings) > Extensions. Determine if there are any System Extensions that may have been installed without your knowledge. Ask if you're uncertain.

Remaining in System Preferences, check for the presence of any Profiles. Profiles are installed by organizations with a need to manage Macs deployed in institutional corporate or educational environments (for example), but have also been exploited by adware creators and similar malcontents. If any Profiles are installed on your Mac an icon like this will appear in System Preferences:

If you see that icon in System Preferences, select it. To remove a Profile, select it, then click the [—] (minus) button and authenticate.

Remaining in System Preferences, open Users & Groups. Select your User Account's Login Items. You may or may not find those Applications in its list. If you do, select them then click the [—] (minus) button to remove them from Login Items.

You can then restart your Mac and log in as usual. Evaluate its operation and ensure everything is working as you expect it should.

Next: if you want to eradicate all remaining adware remnants post a screenshot of the following folder, in the same manner as you did earlier:

~/Library/Application Support

It is normal for that folder to contain many items, but anything associated with the above adware may contain identical names. If you find a folder or folders bearing those names, drag those folders to the Trash. Without the files you already removed or the reintroduction of similar malware, they can do nothing but occupy space. These can be removed if you wish, but again don't remove anything if you are uncertain.

Finally: If any of the above actions result in abnormal operation or if something else stops working, the easiest way to recover would be to restore the Time Machine backup you created as a prerequisite, so the importance of that fundamental step cannot be overemphasized.

sariasola2023, please follow the instructions below.

First, ensure you have a reliable backup of your Mac, in case something should go wrong with continued troubleshooting. To learn how to do that, please read Back up your files with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support.

• A backup is a fundamental prerequisite regardless of whatever method you may choose uninstall adware, and would apply even if your Mac were running perfectly well. Do not overlook this fundamental requirement. It's important.

Next: This step will prevent the scam products from loading so that they can be removed while they are inactive. Restart in "Safe Mode", and log in: Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support. Starting in Safe Mode takes longer than usual so let it finish.

The following files and / or folders need to be deleted while using your Mac in "Safe Mode":

Drag those selections of files to the Trash. You may be asked to authenticate. Confirm they are no longer present in that folder. Leave all the others alone for now. Please read my comments regarding certain other files later.

Next: open Safari and select the Safari menu > Preferences (or Settings) > Extensions. If you see any Safari Extensions that you do not recognize or understand, simply click the Uninstall button and they will be gone. No Safari Extensions are required for normal operation. Then, select the General pane and review your Homepage selection. Then, select the Search pane and confirm your desired Search Engine. Repeat those equivalent actions for any other browser you may use (Brave, Firefox, or Opera for example).

• Specifically for Google Chrome: If you use it, you will also need to reset the Chrome product to its default settings. To learn how to do that read https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/3296214?hl=en

There may also be adware-associated app icons in your Mac's Applications folder. Open it and examine its contents. Any unwanted or mysterious app icons should be obvious to you, but again please don't remove anything if you are uncertain—ask first. Identify any suspicious apps by name, or post another screenshot.

Next: In an abundance of caution, examine System Preferences (or Settings) > Extensions. Determine if there are any System Extensions that may have been installed without your knowledge. Ask if you're uncertain.

Remaining in System Preferences, check for the presence of any Profiles. Profiles are installed by organizations with a need to manage Macs deployed in institutional corporate or educational environments (for example), but have also been exploited by adware creators and similar malcontents. If any Profiles are installed on your Mac an icon like this will appear in System Preferences:

If you see that icon in System Preferences, select it. To remove a Profile, select it, then click the [—] (minus) button and authenticate.

Remaining in System Preferences, open Users & Groups. Select your User Account's Login Items. You may or may not find those Applications in its list. If you do, select them then click the [—] (minus) button to remove them from Login Items.

You can then restart your Mac and log in as usual. Evaluate its operation and ensure everything is working as you expect it should.

Next: if you want to eradicate all remaining adware remnants post a screenshot of the following folder, in the same manner as you did earlier:

~/Library/Application Support

It is normal for that folder to contain many items, but anything associated with the above adware may contain identical names. If you find a folder or folders bearing those names, drag those folders to the Trash. Without the files you already removed or the reintroduction of similar malware, they can do nothing but occupy space. These can be removed if you wish, but again don't remove anything if you are uncertain.

Finally: If any of the above actions result in abnormal operation or if something else stops working, the easiest way to recover would be to restore the Time Machine backup you created as a prerequisite, so the importance of that fundamental step cannot be overemphasized.

download malware bytes and have t check your system. The website you went to to get your problem is what is fishy.

I had the same issue. After installing AVG, using it with standard free license I managed to somehow get rid of it after a smart scan [it takes up to several minutes only]. Maybe you can try it and see if it works for you as well. Hope my resolution can be useful. :)

Ok thanks. In anticipation of that I prepared the following three screenshots showing the files that need to be removed.

Drag the files indicated in the red boxes to the Trash.

Are you comfortable following the general instructions I provided for everyone? The salient points are that those files need to be removed while in Safe Mode, and don't do anything without a backup.

Those folders look ok Heather.

The instructions posted by ninasz are perfectly ok and will work. The idea is to find the rogue processes in Activity Monitor and kill them ("kill" being a programming term of art) but the challenge is to correlate those processes to the files that launch them. That can be a daunting task for the average Mac user, and explaining how to do it is even more challenging. If there were a simple, one-click solution Apple would have already implemented it.

I have endeavored to keep things simple, and created the following new User Tip toward that end:

About those "<app> will damage your computer" messages - Apple Community

You are welcome to recommend it to others.

JMGonzales393, you posted screenshots of two identical folders. Please review my instructions (quoted below) and try again.

In the end, you will have captured the contents of the following three separate folders:

~/Library/LaunchAgents

/Library/LaunchDaemons

/Library/LaunchAgents

Thanks.

hitham272, there is one folder missing from your screenshots. Please review my instructions (excerpted below) and try again.

John Galt wrote:

In the end, you will have captured the contents of the following three separate folders:

~/Library/LaunchAgents

/Library/LaunchDaemons

/Library/LaunchAgents

guys when it says it again just press "show in finder" if there isn't a button like that just press "ok" it happend to me like 3 months ago and i was ignoring it and my laptop is completely fine so when it pops up "show in finder" press it and u'll see like a pipiade iinstaller and all other files, delete them all nothing important is in there I think its a problem solved for me 👍

The same happened to me today and it popped up twice and i asked my dad and he said to just throw it in the trash and not open it (I downloaded some files related to school the day before if it helps)

The first two screenshots are identical:

Nevertheless, restart your Mac in "Safe Mode" and remove all the files in that folder. Then, restart your Mac normally and determine if the problem has been resolved. If not, please review my instructions and try again.

Back up your Mac as a matter of course. To learn how to use Time Machine please read Back up your files with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support

Anastasia_Nikolaevna wrote:

Ok, so as I understood from the instructions, I have to do a backup first. I do not have space in my memory, so what do I do?

If you value the information on your Mac, a backup is just a fundamental requirement.

If you do not value the information on your Mac, then you do not need a backup, but that just means the prospect of permanently losing all the information it contains does not trouble you in the least.

None of that is strictly related to eliminating the "Pipidae" nag, and no you don't need a backup to get rid of it. Its appearance is the consequence of something you installed, perhaps a long time ago. macOS is just catching up to the need to inform you of that fact. For more information on that subject, please read Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community.

The bottom line is that nothing can prevent you from deliberately installing something on a Mac. macOS protects itself, but only you can protect you from deliberately installing junk. Should you manage to do that though, knowledgeable helpers on this site can help you fix it. But please consider the need to back up your Mac. Any device can fail at any time for any reason, or for no apparent reason at all.

I understand the inability to create a backup.

The reason for using Time Machine is that it is the ultimate "undo" in the event something goes wrong. If you follow my instructions, then nothing will go wrong. However, humans are imperfect. We make mistakes, we sometimes overlook little details, and don't follow instructions to the letter. That does not mean people are dumb or careless, it's just human nature. A backup is simply a defense against human fallibility and electronic / mechanical failure — which can occur at any time.

Fixing the annoying "Pipiade" dialog comes down to these essential steps:

1. Identify the problematic files (you did that already),
2. Restart in "Safe Mode" (which renders those files inactive so that they can be deleted),
3. Drag the suspect files to the Trash,
4. Restart the Mac normally.

That's it.

• If those steps do not fix the problem, you can simply repeat them from the beginning.
• If following those steps results in some other, unexpected problem, all you need to do is drag the files from the Trash back to their original locations, and again you can start from the beginning.

Nor harm can result from following those instructions.

katalin99 there is one screenshot missing from your post. It is either

~/Library/LaunchAgents

or

/Library/LaunchAgents

Please review my instructions (quoted below) and try again.

In the end, you will have captured the contents of the following three separate folders:

~/Library/LaunchAgents

/Library/LaunchDaemons

/Library/LaunchAgents

Following instructions is the key to success.