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Every time I restart macOS (v10.12.4) on Mac Mini Firefox opens. I don't even use Firefox routinely, however, occasionally I need it when old fashioned website doesn't work with Safari — boy, is it slow by comparison! I looked and relooked at preferences to see where to shut it off to no avail. What might I do to get it to stop. Thanks.
Mac mini, macOS Sierra (10.12.4)
To see if you still have the adware installed download and run Etrecheck. Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.
It's not generally normal to have so much malware/ adware installed, I'm afraid it points towards an inability to use the Mac safely. 97 & 45 threats seems like a lot to me (perhaps that isn't excessive - opinions thomas_r?)
You need to avoid installing from just anywhere - some download sites will add malware or adware into applications or installers. It can be a way for them to make money sadly. Go directly to the developer site as they are less likely to bundle junk with installers or apps (but even that has been known to happen).
Adverts can be a source of malware too, there is little you can do besides block adverts & avoid clicking any you see.
All the other 'safe computer use' rules apply. Avoid dubious websites, avoid links in unsolicited email, messages etc. Use a non-admin account & be wary when your admin password is requested. This may seem like a lecture but it concerns me that you have multiple Macs getting infected in similar ways.
As for the report…
Enable Gatekeeper (System Preferences > Security & privacy) to use App store & trusted developers - that will prevent a lot of junk from running. You can still chose to open unsigned apps (at your own discretion). Right click the app & chose 'open' then use your admin password to create an override that will run the unsigned app.
Soundflower is 5 years out of date, there is an uninstaller in the old download…
https://code.google.com/archive/p/soundflower
Newer versions now come from… (assuming you need it).
https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflower
Do you use Teamviewer & go to meeting? I'd consider uninstalling if you don't use them, remote access tools can be security risks if left out of date. There should be uninstall instructions on each of the sites (or a removal tool in a download or in the app).
I'm not sure about Diskwarrior 4.4 support on 10.12, I think you may need version 5 for that?
I can see why you are running out of RAM, perhaps once software update is finished it may settle down? Otherwise performance could be helped by doing less (maybe less Safari tabs). Ideally the Swap used will be 0 (or very close to it over several hours).
Drew Reece wrote:
97 & 45 threats seems like a lot to me (perhaps that isn't excessive - opinions thomas_r?)
That's pretty unusual most of the time. However, in the case of some VSearch variants, I've seen people with large numbers of VSearch files installed. Some variants of VSearch will resist removal, so this can be a result of improper removal. (If you try to remove the launch daemon or agent, the process will re-create it, and in some cases will create other new ones as well.)
Hi Drew, thank you yet again for all of your kind assistance. Interestingly enough I'm usually the guy telling friends and co-workers to avoid opening emails from whom you do not know, etc. Several also send me their emails asking if it Spam, etc., and it usually is or at least does not look valid. So, you can imagine my surprise and embarrassment from your critique. I'm obviously going to have to buck up and do a better job in the future than I have in the past.
Separately, I did not mean to imply that my MBA was having exactly the same problem as my Mini, but I thought I would take advantage of your guidance to ensure a clean system there, as well.
Finally, in direct response to your most recent guidance I have: 1) Deleted both Sunflowers, as I don't think I've even used them since installed back in 2012 or so; 2) I deleted GoToMeeting, as I can always download it, if needed for a meeting; 3) I recently installed (within last month) Teamviewer at the recommendation of a friend who found it — we both get calls from colleagues with Mac problems, and he says this allows him to control the friend's Mac for a more efficient troubleshooting episode. I expect to need it, although I haven't used it yet. I'm aware of being able to do the same thing via Messages, but I've never been able to get my friends to set up their Messages to accept takeover when desired; and 4) I deleted DiskWarrior, which I haven't used for years (thankfully, I only needed the one time when I bought it).
I don't really understand what you say in your last paragraph, "I can see why you are running out of RAM, perhaps once the software update is finished it may settle down? Otherwise, performance could be helped by doing less (maybe fewer Safari tabs). Ideally, the Swap used will be 0 (or very close to it over several hours)," but maybe I don't need to. I was not aware that I was running out of RAM, although I've looked at it a couple of times in response to reading Mac articles — I'm just never sure what to execute for improvement or not and how to measure improvement.
P.S. I'm not sure what you mean by fewer Safari tabs — Do you mean that I have too many so-called "Favorites," and that slows down my system performance?
I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." Same goes out to Old Toad, Kappy, and Thomas_r.
Great, I'm glad you are clearing up some of the stuff. It can be annoying if it gets left to build up & causes issues. The internet has a lot of stuff to look at & install, some of it can wait 'til never 🙂
The report has this about your RAM
1.66 GB softwareupdated
1.16 GB kernel_task
1.04 GB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(5)
721 MB mdworker(21)
475 MB Safari
3.64 GB Available RAM
31 MB Free RAM
12.36 GB Used RAM
3.61 GB Cached files
95 MB Swap Used
The last line is the amount of memory that the OS had to 'swap' to disk. Basically when you have too much info in RAM that the OS still needs it will save it on the HD as a short term measure. That would be fine except for the fact that RAM is many times faster than disks. So writing memory to disk is slow & when it reads it back into RAM it is also slow (remember the OS still needs it for whatever task).
Software update seems to be using lots of memory, I don't know why, hopefully that will settle to a reasonable level. Install any updates listed in the App store, reboot see if it stops appearing in reports.
mdworker is Spotlight's indexing agents, so those generally need to be left to do the indexing.
Safari is the next highest memory user that you have any control over, which is why I mentioned the Safari tabs. Safari is multiple processes including the 'com.apple.WebKit.WebContent' ones.
Safari tabs are just windows with multiple pages try 'File> New tab' to see what I mean, you may just use one window per page. It really doesn't matter which you prefer because the page takes up a little RAM & eventually it can build up to a large amount. Sites seem to be doing more with scripts & huge images these days, memory use is a pain for modern browsers.
You can monitor the 'memory pressure' in Activity Monitor, Memory tab, this has more info than you may want to read on the topic…
https://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/17/#compressed-memory
The TLDR is that Green & Orange are OK, Red is bad in the graph (only a thin sliver of red is visible on that example).
It is a complex topic but Apple made it as efficient as possible, ideally all your memory would be in use most of the time but it would never spill over into swapping to disk.
You'll need to check the background picture set in your System Preferences > Desktop settings - is it the same as the other user? I assume this is when logged in, the login window is blurred (even more than that image).
I'd uninstall Boom2 following the developers guidelines, it is consuming too much memory for such a tiny feature. It has a kernel extension so it has hooks into the OS, I don't know if quitting it is enough to stop it (you seem to say it doesn't help). Plug in some powered speakers & forget about overdriving the built in one is my suggestion. Reinstall the latest one if you need it, it is possible that an old version can cause trouble (I'm not sure if it current).
The swap used is cumulative, so you have to make makes some changes reboot & see how Etrecheck reports it. I'm not sure what time scale Etrecheck uses for the 'Top memory users'.
It's probably better to use the memory pressure graph as shown in the Ars Technica article I linked. Use Activity Monitor for realtime info, do some stuff, see what floats to the top of memory use, do some other stuff… rinse, repeat… If the graph is red you have run out of free memory, see what is accumulating more RAM.
If you can't get to grips with this I'd set some time aside to backup, erase & reinstall. You can restore your user data via Migration Assistant but the apps you use should be manually reinstalled. It seems like a lot of work but I'm not really sure what that malware junk has done. I have faith that it was cleaned up but there are still other issues. 16GB of RAM should be enough, but for whatever reason it isn't.
Post a full report if you want, it is troublesome to clear out everything & I tend to think sometimes it's not worth the time that it takes to do properly.
Hopefully someone else has a better answer 🙂
As a point of information --
A Mac was having RAM and CPU excessive use fluctuations as reported by Activity Monitor. It was not to the extent that you're experiencing but it was reported that "softwareupdated" was the culprit. Using the process of elimination, it was discovered that the PIA app was causing the intermittent spikes. The user was still trialing the app so decided to uninstall it rather than try working with PIA to see if the conflict could be resolved.
To test if it's causing any of your problems, uninstall it (if you haven't already) then remove any traces of it. Second item of User Launch Agents:
[loaded] com.citrixonline.GoToMeeting.G2MUpdate.plist (2017-03-15) [Support]
[loaded] com.pia.pia_manager.plist (2017-03-22)
I used these instructions to uninstall: https://helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/hc/en-us/articles/219498367-How-can-I -uninstall-reinstall-your-application-on…
Hi, Drew. Thanks, again, for staying with me.
... You'll need to check the background picture set in your System Preferences > Desktop settings - is it the same as the other user? I assume this is when logged in, the login window is blurred (even more than that image). — When I showed the pic of the Sierras, it is not a desktop image, i.e., it is the standard image that shows up whenever Sierra is launched. I'm not sure how to get to that image in the system, but I may be headed for a clean reinstall per your guidance, anyway.
... I've written to the Boom 2 people with my problem to see if they have another version to send to me. I was "special" to them in DEC, and they sent me a "new version," which is what I'm using — it is possible that is the culprit, so I've asked for either a later upgrade or my old version back to see if the "problem" goes away. It is possible they've heard of this problem from other users since DEC.
... I also believe ishrugged's recommendation is worthy of trial. I will go at it, as well.
... I did not know that the swap is cumulative, so I will pursue an iterative process to see if I can find problems, fix, and improve running.
... Like I mention above, I'm getting closer to biting the bullet and doing a clean install, but I need to plan that for a weekend.
As always, thanks for your assistance and this time thanks to ishrugged as well.
Boot into Safe Mode, Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode, and see if FF launches then. Reboot normally and check again.
System Preferences > Users & groups, Login items tab (with your own user account selected).
That should list items set to open on login - remove Firefox & any others you do not need.
Download the free Easy Find to search for files with "firefox" in it. This may help you find what is auto-launching it.
You can use a new admin user account and delete your old one. If needs be you can transfer data from the old account into the new one: Transferring files from one User Account to another.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac 10.9 and later
I did NOT realize that. I thought the problem was inside of FF. I will follow your latest instructions. Thanks for staying with this, before it pops up somewhere else!
Thank you, Old Toad. I will try to your suggestion, as well. Help always appreciated.
Stop Firefox from opening at restart
