How can I reset safari 8 on os x yosemite. I have redirect problem on my browser. I want to search things from toolbar using google but it redirects me to a different search engine. I checked all extensions there is no one there that seems wrong. please help me.
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10), safari 8.0
In OS X 10.10, with the new update to Safari, you can't simply reset Safari like before. Now you have to actually go in and manually disengage anything plugged in to safari.
This means entering the Library folders for both the system and user accounts affected by the Trovi/Conduit/Search protect redirect malwares.
First up is closing Safari down. Quit it, or Force Quit it using the Command/Option/Esc shortcut. Next up is to navigate to Finder and remove traces of the pest in your user files.
While some antivirus programs are great for this, avoid MacKeeper like the plague, it basically will do the same thing. Do not ever use it.
I should warn you, deleting files in this part may affect your computer adversely. When in doubt, TIME MACHINE BACKUP!!!!
Mouse up to the "Go" top menu selection, and hold down the Option/Alt key. Magically, the Library folder will appear, which you'll need to click on, and go in to. The file path should be something along the lines of /Users/YOURNAME/Library. Inside this are a few folders that you'll need to pop in and check out. Application Support is one of them, this will house anything dealing with preference files or misc files for programs or apps, including in some cases, search redirect add ons. Find the name of your assailant, be it Trovi, Conduit, or the plethora of others out there that hijack your browser (take note of the website it launches when you go to your homepage, check Safari's system preferences to double check prior to this dive into your system files).
Once you've located files associated with the program, Command/Delete them, or just delete them however you normally would. Securely empty the trash to ensure that even if they're in use, they will be deleted.
Next folder on the list is back in the Library, so head backwards in the File path and scroll down to Internet Plug-ins. Inside this folder is anything Safari uses, either intentionally or not. Clear anything in there that doesn't look right, this Folder is normally empty by default anyways.
Next folder for inspection is back in the Library folder, named Safari. This is the real bread and butter here, and where you'll find .plist files galore. You should open and clear Extensions folder, LastSession.plist, as well as the Local Storage folder. Do not delete folders in this enclosing Safari folder, only files.
Empty the trash securely again. Next up is to check the system Library folder for any lingering pest files. The filepath for this folder is simply inside the main drive, Library will be on the same hierarchy as Users, System, Applications, and so on. Open the Library folder, open Application Support folder, and again, check for anything suspicious. Anything inside this folder is a series of preference files for applications used by users/the system. Hopefully there should be nothing in this folder to delete, but on occasion you'll see Trovi or other folders in there.
The next folder to check, back up the ladder in to Library, is the Internet Plug-ins folder. This will contain files for you to delete, likely as .plugin files.
The final folder to check is back in the Library, called Preferences. This is where hunting and pecking will be a time consuming affair. You will likely have roughly 100+ files inside this folder, each of them is a com.whatever.whatever.plist file. These are pretty important files. Among these plist files will very likely be a trovi or conduit plist with a com.trovi.whatever.plist file name. Delete that little file, securely empty your trash.
The final process to finish this all up will be to set your homepage in Safari back to what it used to be. Open it up (WITH YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION OFF), go to your Safari preferences, input your homepage, then save that and close Safari. Restart the Mac, then turn on your Wifi/ethernet connection, and open Safari. It should be hijack-free.
In OS X 10.10, with the new update to Safari, you can't simply reset Safari like before. Now you have to actually go in and manually disengage anything plugged in to safari.
This means entering the Library folders for both the system and user accounts affected by the Trovi/Conduit/Search protect redirect malwares.
First up is closing Safari down. Quit it, or Force Quit it using the Command/Option/Esc shortcut. Next up is to navigate to Finder and remove traces of the pest in your user files.
While some antivirus programs are great for this, avoid MacKeeper like the plague, it basically will do the same thing. Do not ever use it.
I should warn you, deleting files in this part may affect your computer adversely. When in doubt, TIME MACHINE BACKUP!!!!
Mouse up to the "Go" top menu selection, and hold down the Option/Alt key. Magically, the Library folder will appear, which you'll need to click on, and go in to. The file path should be something along the lines of /Users/YOURNAME/Library. Inside this are a few folders that you'll need to pop in and check out. Application Support is one of them, this will house anything dealing with preference files or misc files for programs or apps, including in some cases, search redirect add ons. Find the name of your assailant, be it Trovi, Conduit, or the plethora of others out there that hijack your browser (take note of the website it launches when you go to your homepage, check Safari's system preferences to double check prior to this dive into your system files).
Once you've located files associated with the program, Command/Delete them, or just delete them however you normally would. Securely empty the trash to ensure that even if they're in use, they will be deleted.
Next folder on the list is back in the Library, so head backwards in the File path and scroll down to Internet Plug-ins. Inside this folder is anything Safari uses, either intentionally or not. Clear anything in there that doesn't look right, this Folder is normally empty by default anyways.
Next folder for inspection is back in the Library folder, named Safari. This is the real bread and butter here, and where you'll find .plist files galore. You should open and clear Extensions folder, LastSession.plist, as well as the Local Storage folder. Do not delete folders in this enclosing Safari folder, only files.
Empty the trash securely again. Next up is to check the system Library folder for any lingering pest files. The filepath for this folder is simply inside the main drive, Library will be on the same hierarchy as Users, System, Applications, and so on. Open the Library folder, open Application Support folder, and again, check for anything suspicious. Anything inside this folder is a series of preference files for applications used by users/the system. Hopefully there should be nothing in this folder to delete, but on occasion you'll see Trovi or other folders in there.
The next folder to check, back up the ladder in to Library, is the Internet Plug-ins folder. This will contain files for you to delete, likely as .plugin files.
The final folder to check is back in the Library, called Preferences. This is where hunting and pecking will be a time consuming affair. You will likely have roughly 100+ files inside this folder, each of them is a com.whatever.whatever.plist file. These are pretty important files. Among these plist files will very likely be a trovi or conduit plist with a com.trovi.whatever.plist file name. Delete that little file, securely empty your trash.
The final process to finish this all up will be to set your homepage in Safari back to what it used to be. Open it up (WITH YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION OFF), go to your Safari preferences, input your homepage, then save that and close Safari. Restart the Mac, then turn on your Wifi/ethernet connection, and open Safari. It should be hijack-free.
Redirects in most cases are the result of adware or malware.
Download and run the AdMedic adware / malware removal tool here > AdwareMedic
This drove me INSANE. I removed everything following the admedic instructions...and Trovi still showed up when I opened Safari. Then I saw that Trovi.com was set as my homepage. Change it and no more Trovi. Preferences, General, new homepage address.
You might want to give CleanMyMac2 a try. I just ran into a situation where Safari 8 was acting really weird. Normally a download takes minutes, several at a time. For some reason all afternoon everything from downloads took like hours and even doing a mere screen capture was going abnormally slow ( Ctrl-Alt-3 was followed by a 2 second pause ). I just noticed the fans running like 2000 rpm and took a look at the Activity Monitor. Sure enough, Safari, which looked like it was doing nothing, not even downloading was taking like 164% CPU time. So, I shut it down via a Force Quit then found this post. After reading all the procedures on how to clean out varies Safari system folders I decided to give CleanMyMac2 a try. It went thru it's scan and sweep procedure in like a minute and then I reloaded Safari. I did a test download and it appears to be back to normal. Also did a clear history of course but that didn't make much a difference.
Do a backup, preferable 2 separate ones on 2 drives. Boot to the Recovery Volume (command - R on a restart or hold down the option/alt key during a restart and select Recovery Volume). Run Disk Utility Verify/Repair and Repair Permissions until you get no errors. Then re-install the Os.
Force Quit .
Press command + option + esc keys together at the same time. Wait.
When Force Quit window appears, select the Safari if not already.
Press Force Quit button at the bottom of the window. Wait.
Safari will quit.
Relaunch Safari holding the shift key down.
Turn off Wifi. Click Wifi icon in the menu bar and select “Turn Wifi off”.
Visit another website.
You won’t have internet connection.
Turn on Wifi. Click Wifi icon in the menu bar and select “Turn Wifi on”.
Select your Network.
More testing suggests that the new Safari under Yosemite is not as immune to malware as it was under Mavericks. Simply revisiting the same site and doing another download caused Safari to consume massive CPU time when downloading more than one file at a time. CleanMyMac 2 was able to reset Safari back to normal however.
Yep! About once a week I have to disable wi-fi close safari clear all history then use network cable for internet using Firefox then after a few days Safari works again
Explain more about the shift key during Safari relaunch. Previous Safari had a menu item to reset Safari and it really did clean out the Safari trash/tracks ... I still used NetShred to delete the deleted items. Safari 8 in Yosemite just has "Clear History ..." and does NOT clear out the Safari tracks.
I just wanted to say, I do not like this new version of safari. In windows I was always having trouble with the "webkit2webprocess.exe" all the time. It wasn't a problem before this yosemite update but now it is happening on my iMac version of safari as well! And apple has removed the reset safari feature as well! Not cool!
Truly grateful for this information. What I would like to be able to do though is to return safari to the previous version.
I do not like this version. How do I uninstall/revert back to the previous version? From the posts I have read, I am not
in a minority that wants the previous version of safari restored. Thank you again. 🙂
Yes, I hope someone here is communicating with Apple. S-8 works OK, but it seems we all want to be able to do a real "reset". The menu item "Clear History and Website Data..." is not very thorough. Please, Apple, give us back a real, truly effective "Reset Safari" function that works like it did in S-7.
Thanks for the directions. I had a terrible malware called:
systemadvisor1.com
Two hours wasted running VirusBarrier, AdwareMedic (this found another malware, unknown to me, yeah!) and ClamXav; all failed to find anything until your solution. I've bookmarked it for life.
Hi,
I have saved a lot of website shortcuts on my macbook air, they worked fine until recently and now they will not open. The same applies to any links on email. I have reset my Safari but still have the problem, this is driving me crazy, any advise please guys would be very appreciated
Mark
how to reset safari 8
