Smart Mac Care Unwanted Application (Mac)

What is Smart Mac Care?

Smart Mac Care is a rogue application identical to Mac Tonic, Advanced My Cleaner, Mac Mechanic, and many others.

By offering system optimization/cleaning functionality, Smart Mac Care attempts to give the impression of legitimacy, however, this application is categorized as a potentially unwanted application (PUA). Smart Mac Care is likely to infiltrate systems without users’ permission and gives no real value for regular users.

This PUA allows users to perform a full system scan. Once the scanning is finished, users are presented with many potential supposed threats/infections that must be eliminated immediately. The 'free' version of Smart Mac Care is apparently incapable of doing so and, therefore, users are encouraged to purchase a 'full' version. This is a scam.

The entire list of potential threats/infections is false - your computer is probably safe and virus-free. Smart Mac Care's developers generate revenue by tricking gullible users into purchasing useless full versions - the software simply cleans the fake list. Therefore, you should never purchase the full version.

As mentioned above, Smart Mac Care typically infiltrates systems without users’ permission. There is a high probability that it came together with a number of other potentially unwanted applications such as adware or browser hijackers.

These apps deliver intrusive advertisements, cause unwanted redirects, and gather sensitive information. Therefore, we strongly advise you to eliminate Smart Mac Care and other suspicious applications/browser plug-ins immediately.

Threat Summary:

Name	Smart Mac Care PUA
Threat Type	Mac malware, Mac virus
Symptoms	Your Mac became slower than normal, you see unwanted pop-up ads, you get redirected to shady websites.
Distribution methods	Deceptive pop-up ads, free software installers (bundling), fake flash player installers, torrent file downloads.
Damage	Internet browsing tracking (potential privacy issues), displaying of unwanted ads, redirects to shady websites, loss of private information.
Malware Removal (Mac)	To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your Mac with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. ▼ Download Combo Cleaner for Mac To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. Limited seven days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

There are dozens of deceptive applications, all of which share similarities with Smart Mac Care. By offering "useful features", potentially unwanted applications often trick users to install, however, these programs are designed only to generate revenue for the developers.

Deceptive applications provide no real value for regular users - all claims are false. Potentially unwanted applications deliver intrusive advertisements, cause unwanted redirects, gather sensitive information, and (sometimes) promote in-app purchases. In doing so, PUAs pose a direct threat to your privacy and Internet browsing safety.

How did Smart Mac Care install on my computer?

Smart Mac Care is free for anyone to download on its official website, however, due to the lack of knowledge and careless behavior of many users, this PUA often infiltrates without consent. Research shows that developers proliferate Smart Mac Care using intrusive advertising and "bundling" methods.

Intrusive ads redirect users to malicious websites and execute scripts that stealthily download and install rogue apps. "Bundling" is stealth installation of third party programs together with regular software/apps. Developers hide "bundled" apps within "Custom/Advanced" settings (or other sections) of the download/installation processes.

Many users are likely to click dubious ads and skip download/installation steps - behavior that often leads to inadvertent installation of PUPs. In this way, they expose their systems to risk of various infections and compromise their privacy.

How to avoid installation of potentially unwanted applications?

To prevent infiltration by potentially unwanted applications, be very cautious when browsing the Internet and downloading/installing software. Intrusive ads typically seem legitimate, but when clicked, redirect to dubious websites. Most are delivered by adware-type PUAs.

Therefore, if you experience dubious redirects, eliminate all suspicious applications and browser plug-ins. Furthermore, carefully analyze each window of the download/installation dialogs and opt-out of all additionally-included programs. Software should be downloaded from official sources only, using direct download links.

Most third party downloaders/installers are monetized using the "bundling" method (they promote rogue apps). Therefore, they should never be used. The key to computer safety is caution. If your computer is already infected with Smart Mac Care, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for macOS to automatically eliminate this adware.

Screenshot of Smart Mac Care app:

IMPORTANT NOTE! Smart Mac Care adds itself to the list of applications that automatically run upon each user log in. Therefore, before commencing, perform these steps:

• Go to System Preferences -> Users & Groups. 
• Click your account (also known as Current User).
• Click Login Items.
• Look for the "Smart Mac Care" entry.  Select it, and click the "-" button to remove it.

Instant automatic Mac malware removal: Manual threat removal might be a lengthy and complicated process that requires advanced IT skills. Combo Cleaner is a professional automatic malware removal tool that is recommended to get rid of Mac malware. Download it by clicking the button below:
▼ DOWNLOAD Combo Cleaner for Mac By downloading any software listed on this website you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. Limited seven days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

Quick menu:

• What is Smart Mac Care?
• STEP 1. Remove Smart Mac Care related files and folders from OSX.
• STEP 2. Remove rogue extensions from Safari.
• STEP 3. Remove deceptive plug-ins from Google Chrome.
• STEP 4. Remove bogus add-ons from Mozilla Firefox.

Video showing how to remove adware and browser hijackers from a Mac computer:

Smart Mac Care removal:

Remove Smart Mac Care-related potentially unwanted applications from your "Applications" folder:

Click the Finder icon. In the Finder window, select “Applications”. In the applications folder, look for “MPlayerX”,“NicePlayer”, or other suspicious applications and drag them to the Trash. After removing the potentially unwanted application(s) that cause online ads, scan your Mac for any remaining unwanted components.

Remove adware-related files and folders

Click the Finder icon, from the menu bar. Choose Go, and click Go to Folder...

Check for adware generated files in the /Library/LaunchAgents/ folder:

In the Go to Folder... bar, type: /Library/LaunchAgents/

In the "LaunchAgents" folder, look for any recently-added suspicious files and move them to the Trash. Examples of files generated by adware - "installmac.AppRemoval.plist", "myppes.download.plist", "mykotlerino.ltvbit.plist", "kuklorest.update.plist", etc. Adware commonly installs several files with the exact same string.

Check for adware generated files in the ~/Library/Application Support/ folder:

In the Go to Folder... bar, type: ~/Library/Application Support/

In the "Application Support" folder, look for any recently-added suspicious folders. For example, "MplayerX" or "NicePlayer", and move these folders to the Trash.

Check for adware generated files in the ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ folder:

In the Go to Folder... bar, type: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

In the "LaunchAgents" folder, look for any recently-added suspicious files and move them to the Trash. Examples of files generated by adware - "installmac.AppRemoval.plist", "myppes.download.plist", "mykotlerino.ltvbit.plist", "kuklorest.update.plist", etc. Adware commonly installs several files with the exact same string.

Check for adware generated files in the /Library/LaunchDaemons/ folder:

In the "Go to Folder..." bar, type: /Library/LaunchDaemons/

In the "LaunchDaemons" folder, look for recently-added suspicious files. For example "com.aoudad.net-preferences.plist", "com.myppes.net-preferences.plist", "com.kuklorest.net-preferences.plist", "com.avickUpd.plist", etc., and move them to the Trash.

Scan your Mac with Combo Cleaner:

If you have followed all the steps correctly, your Mac should be clean of infections. To ensure your system is not infected, run a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus. Download it HERE. After downloading the file, double click combocleaner.dmg installer. In the opened window, drag and drop the Combo Cleaner icon on top of the Applications icon. Now open your launchpad and click on the Combo Cleaner icon. Wait until Combo Cleaner updates its virus definition database and click the "Start Combo Scan" button.

Combo Cleaner will scan your Mac for malware infections. If the antivirus scan displays "no threats found" - this means that you can continue with the removal guide; otherwise, it's recommended to remove any found infections before continuing.

After removing files and folders generated by the adware, continue to remove rogue extensions from your Internet browsers.

Remove malicious extensions from Internet browsers

Remove malicious Safari extensions:

Open the Safari browser, from the menu bar, select "Safari" and click "Preferences...".

In the preferences window, select "Extensions" and look for any recently-installed suspicious extensions. When located, click the "Uninstall" button next to it/them. Note that you can safely uninstall all extensions from your Safari browser - none are crucial for regular browser operation.

• If you continue to have problems with browser redirects and unwanted advertisements - Reset Safari.

Remove malicious extensions from Google Chrome:

Click the Chrome menu icon (at the top right corner of Google Chrome), select "More Tools" and click "Extensions". Locate all recently-installed suspicious extensions, select these entries and click "Remove".

• If you continue to have problems with browser redirects and unwanted advertisements - Reset Google Chrome.

Remove malicious extensions from Mozilla Firefox:

Click the Firefox menu (at the top right corner of the main window) and select "Add-ons and themes". Click "Extensions", in the opened window locate all recently-installed suspicious extensions, click on the three dots and then click "Remove".

• If you continue to have problems with browser redirects and unwanted advertisements - Reset Mozilla Firefox.

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