Completely uninstall/reinstall SelfControl app?

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Level 1

19 points

Completely uninstall/reinstall SelfControl app?

This week I installed SelfControl, the app that locks you out of the internet for a specified amount of time.

It worked great for a couple of days. Now it's stuck on 0:00 and won't work anymore. I have internet, but I can no longer use the software.

I dragged the app to the trash and reinstalled it, but the problem persists. Apparently there are some prefs or hidden files that I don't know of.

How to completely wipe the slate clean and start over?

-JOHN

ps. Found some code online to type into the terminal, was not able to make it work. Also found a contact for the app developer, who does not respond. (Just so you know I've done the homework and haven't come up with anything.)

Posted on Feb 13, 2013 8:35 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 9, 2017 5:47 AM in response to Plenty7

I UNINSTALLED without downloading other software.

Steps

1. Go into finder

2. On the left there is a tab named applications (should be 4th one down)

3. Drag and drop the Selfcontrol application into your trash bin on the bottom right hand side of the task bar.

DONE

Hope this helps

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Answer 2

CT

Level 7

24,239 points

Feb 13, 2013 8:39 AM in response to Plenty7

You might look in ~/Library/Preferences and see if there is a plist file you can trash. (Note the tilde, paste that path into the Finder>Go>Go to Folder... dialog.)

charlie

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Answer 3

Plenty7 Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 13, 2013 8:48 AM in response to CT

Nope. The idea behind SelfControl is that it's hard to crack so you don't have easy access to the web. Supposedly you can even delete the app and it still works until the timer runs out. In my case, the timer ran out, gave me access to the web again, but I can't get the app to work anymore. It's stuck at zero.

If found this "solution" on google, but either it doesn't work or I don't know how to use the terminal. I noodled around in the terminal for the first time, but I wan't able to make anything meaningful happen.

The manual fix:

Judging from the code itself it seems that it's just the

/etc/hosts

file that is being edited to block sites from being accessed. If that's the case, open up a Terminal, enter:

sudo cp /etc/hosts /etc/hosts.fail sudo cp /etc/hosts.bak /etc/hosts

This should restore the backup that SelfControl created for you.

If that doesn't work, you can also try to manually edit the hosts file and remove all blocked sites:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

The blocked sites will start after the line with

# BEGIN SELFCONTROL BLOCK

and go until

# END SELFCONTROL BLOCK

So, just remove all these. Press

Ctrl-O

, then

Enter

to overwrite the file. Note that your hosts file should always include the following at the top:

## # Host Database # # localhost is used to configure the loopback interface # when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry. ## 127.0.0.1   localhost 255.255.255.255 broadcasthost ::1             localhost fe80::1%lo0 localhost

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Answer 4

Plenty7 Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 13, 2013 8:57 AM in response to Plenty7

Found my own solution.

Used a program called AppCleaner 2.1 to uninstall. It did the job.

I reinstalled the program and it's working fine.

-JOHN

ps. By the way, CT ... when AppCleaner was running, it listed a few plists - like you mentioned - that I was unable to locate using finder or looking through folders. I don't know how SelfControl works to hide its stuff, but it works.

Well, almost. I was still able to uninstall it.

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Answer 5

Plenty7 Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 13, 2013 9:10 AM in response to Plenty7

Dang. I spoke too soon.

I did get past the "zero" timer problem ... and the app did open "fresh" ... but it's not working.

I fear I might have done some damage in the terminal with that above code? I didn't know what I was doing and entered some of that stuff, but perhaps incorrectly.

Anyway to get a completely clean uninstall / reinstall?

-JOHN

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