A window keeps popping up for an an app called Advanced Mac Cleaner. Is this legit? Should I do it or is it a third party scam?
MacBook Pro
Hi Linc,
When I am trying to follow your instructions in step 1, after I right click the highlighted link, I don't get a "services", "reveal" option. I have El Capitan 10.11.4 from late 2009. Any assistance to get rid of advanced mac cleaner would be so greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Thanks, this helped me from almost gone mad 😝
Do you still use the malwarebytes for cleaning your mac or not?
Thnx for replying.
Not who you responded to, but I find MalwareBytes Anti-Virus for Mac to be a very useful tool. Unlike typical AV software, MBAM is a cleaning tool, not something that eats up system resources continually, and slowing the entire computer down.
Like any such tool, it can only clean what it knows about. The adware makers have been going overboard as of late, creating new junk, or changing existing adware so that the file names they install constantly change. So such a tool also has to be constantly updated to be aware of what to find and remove.
That doesn't mean it's bad. Manual methods will fail for the same reason. If you don't know what to look for, you can't know what to remove. People write the MalwareBytes app, and people write the manual methods. Both will have a percentage of failures removing adware.
My suggestion is to run MalwareBytes for Mac first. Let it find and remove as much as it can. If after that you still have persistent adware issues, then you'll need to dig manually to find things. Also, MBAM has a button in it to inform them of such issues. You can then choose to send a system snapshot to them. They can then examine it for items that are causing the problem and update the app to recognize them.
This didn't work for me. I couldn't find any of those files on my computer. Any other ideas anyone. It is still popping up every time I start up my Mac. I have moved the application to trash. I have moved Advanced Mac Cleaner folders to trash. I have moved AMC folders to trash. It's still popping up at start up! Help!
How do I prevent the Advanced Mac Cleaner App from opening when I restart?
There are various web pages that show the manual method to remove this garbage. How recent they are will determine how well they work. But for your basic question, you need to remove the startup item in your user account. Open the System Preferences and click on Users & Groups, then your account name in the left column. Click on Login Items at the right. Highlight any reference to Advanced Mac Cleaner or Mac Defender. Click the - button to remove it.
This only stops the automatic launch at startup or restart. Follow the directions at the bottom of this site to remove items related to Advanced Mac Cleaner. Note that the first step is the kill the process already running in RAM by using the Activity Monitor. Do that before removing the Login Items entry.
If you do any other searching around, be aware of sites like this one. They list the first method as downloading MacKeeper to remove Advanced Mac Cleaner. MacKeeper itself is as much of a scam as AMC. That's like using a sledgehammer to fix your watch. They do at least add some useful manual information by adding file locations to look for. At the same time, they very idiotically suggest removing the entire Applications folder! Now, they may have used Paint 2 as an example of removing a suspicious app within the Applications folder, but that's not how they wrote the wording above the image. It simply says, >>Applications >> Move to Trash. I could see a lot of inexperienced users putting the entire Applications folder in the trash following the instructions verbatim.
Advanced Mac Cleaner has a removal tool for download on their own site, but I wouldn't trust that to do what it says for a moment.
Notice that between the two sites, the files they list to find and manually remove are different. That's part of why these types of apps are so difficult to remove. The makers of this crap keep changing the names of the files, the number of them they install, and where on the drive they're installed to. So even these together may not get everything. To summarize:
1) Make a full backup before proceeding with manual instructions. Accidentally removing the wrong thing (like the entire Library folder either at the root of the drive, or the same named folder in your user account) will require reinstalling the backup.
2) Open Activity Monitor in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder. Sort by name and look for Advanced Mac Cleaner or Mac Defender in the list. Highlight it (or both, one at a time) and click the X button to kill the process.
3) Remove the similarly named entry from your Login Items.
4) Locate and remove any of these files you find. The tilde ~ means they're in your user account, not the main Library folder.
/Library/Application Support/Advanced Mac Cleaner/
~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Advanced Mac Cleaner NPAPIPlugin.plugin
/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/Jack
/Library/InputManagers/CTLoader/
/System/Library/Frameworks/Advanced Mac Cleaner.framework
~/Library Folder – Advanced Mac Cleaner; hlpramc
~/Library/Logs – Advanced Mac Cleaner.log; helperamc.log
~/Library/Application Support – Advanced Mac Cleaner; amc
~/Library/Caches – com.pcv.hlpramc; com.PCvark.Advanced-Mac-Cleaner
~/Library/Saved Application State – com.PCvark.Advanced-Mac-Cleaner.savedState
~/Library/Preferences – com.pcv.hlpramc.plist; com.PCvark.Advanced-Mac-Cleaner.plist
~/Library/LaunchAgents – com.pcv.hlpramc.plist; com.PCvark.Advanced-Mac-Cleaner.plist
How to make sure of that?
I followed all the steps above many times but each time I restart my computer the advanced Mac Cleaner is there again!!!!!!! 😢
THANK YOU!
This didn't work for me after step 1. But I see Advanced mac cleaner in the applications Folder, can't I simply delete it to trash?
I'm IT challenged, but Geek Squad wants $150.00. I literally just set up the machine.
i can't seem to locate it. please help!!
I have this question. But whom am I asking? This came on without permission, I can't get it off. When I called the number provided, the man wanted to access my computer. I believe this is a scam and a virus but I thought MAC did not get viruses. I don't believe the man who answered is American but Indian. I also have someone trying to access my gmail. It seems to be a person from Africa.
Regardless of the nationalities, how do I get this off my computer, Mac adware cleaner?
Did you actually read this thread, if and when you do follow the advice given to others who downloaded it, wittingly or unwittingly.
See the links in my post above yours and other attempts in this thread.
Can't the app be tossed into the trash and then empty the trash?
What is Advanced Mac Cleaner?
