Genieo Virus

I had the same problem and also found

http://www.fixkb.com/2011/11/remove-genieo-on-mac.html

from Thomas Reed a great help along with Linc Davis (here see top replies).

I would add one lest thing. I went in to remove the necessary files and rebooted a few times but when clicking on the + to get a new tab the Genio page kept coming up. I went into Safari>General>Homepage and replaced genieo with google (my preference). Not entirely sure whether the virus is all gone now but will post here if I have further problems.

Thank You so much, you people that take the time to help when you don't need to.

Kyle

Kyle Brothers wrote:

I had the same problem and also found

http://www.fixkb.com/2011/11/remove-genieo-on-mac.html

from Thomas Reed

Just to be clear, I didn't actually write that. Someone else adapted my instructions from The Safe Mac there. Overall, those instructions look okay, though.

Yesterday morning my MacBook got hit by Genieo. This is the creepiest thing I have ever been hit with. Yesterday I removed all the files one by one as suggested by Linc and there were more than 50 files hiding n my library. I double checked everything and thought I had trashed them all but when I tried to reboot my computer it froze and refused to start. In the end I did manage to re-start my computer, repeated the process of checking everything, trashing 1 more Genieo still lurking in my library and the Bitdefender app I had downloaded found another one. But nothing helped, Genieo was still in control of my Safari browser. Yesterday evening I gave up, I rescued the most important files and returned my MacBook to the original factory settings. That helped, Genieo is gone now.

But thanks for everyone for advice and help. I learned a lot yesterday!

That's the danger in using one of the older posts on this subject. Genieo 2.0 showed up last week and changed the location and names of several files, so I suspect that Linc's instructions from November didn't cover everything in your case.

Glad you are finally rid of it and sorry you had to go to so much trouble.

For anybody else who might read this, thomas_r. has updated his instructions at Adware Removal Guide : Genieo.

And you should also uninstall Bitdefender again.

When searching in a mac use a search application like FindAnyFile from Thomas Tempelman.

I suspect that Linc's instructions from November didn't cover everything in your case.

Yup, all of Linc's existing posts on the subject of Genieo removal were rendered outdated and useless by the changes to Genieo. This is the danger of posting the instructions directly on these forums, where they cannot be edited or updated at any point.

Linc, if you're listening, are you ready to put your instructions in a user tip yet, so they can be updated easily as changes occur? As it is, you've probably got hundreds, maybe thousands, of posts on the topic of Genieo removal that are completely wrong at this point.

Hey, Jill!

"libgenkit.dylib” isn't a folder, it's a file inside the /usr/lib/ folder. Try the "reveal" trick again with the whole path: /usr/lib/libgenkit.dylib

That said, you may not have those .dylib files. I didn't find them on my computer.

And may I just add that thomas_r is a gentleman and a scholar? I've been going nuts for two days trying to figure out why my computer was crawwwwwlllling. I thought I'd gotten rid of that stupid Genieo when I trashed the main app, so I was freaked!

Luxorama wrote:

Hey, Jill!

"libgenkit.dylib” isn't a folder, it's a file inside the /usr/lib/ folder. Try the "reveal" trick again with the whole path: /usr/lib/libgenkit.dylib

It looks like Jill is running an older version of OS X which works a bit differently from modern versions, so thomas_r. recently modified his instructions for finding such files to use the Services Context Menu rather than the Finder's Go menu.

That said, you may not have those .dylib files. I didn't find them on my computer.

And most users won't any more as Genieo 2.0 no longer installs those files in that location. Again, thomas_r. has updated his instructions to cover both versions and as many variants as he's been able to locate and test.

I have followed all your instructions and I also consulted with the safe mac website but genieo still pops up everytime I open google chrome. Any suggestions?

Elizau wrote:

genieo still pops up everytime I open google chrome.

Pops up where? Please take a screenshot and post it here using the camera icon in the reply toolbar.

You must not have followed the instructions that told you to change your home page and search engine.

Not sure whether you want a home page and if so what you want it to be, but here are instructions for Make Google my homepage.

Ok just did that, and now the virus is definitely gone? Thanks for your help!

I just changed the homepage as you said and when I re-open google chrome, genieo still comes up! 😟

I don't want to reread the whole thread, but as mad said, you did not completely find follow the instructions to remove genieo.

One thing you must do now first is removing omnibar and then do the remove genieo sequence again.