Almost every website shows ads in your browser. Some of these ads lure you to download softwares to install on your PC. One of these softwares is MacOptimizer. MacOptimizer, displays annoying popups on your Mac from system level and asks you to download the Mac Adware Cleaner to protect your mac from malware, adware and other security threats. Eventually, you may be asked to pay for the software which does absolutely no work on your system or the adware can as well cause further harm to your system.

The solution is to uninstall MacOptimizer and all the files it owns to stop the adware from performing further actions on your system.

Method 1: Scanning with MalwareBytes

  1. Download MalwareBytes anti-malware from here.
  2. Locate the mbam-mac-xxx.dmg file in your Downloads folder, double click the file and complete the installation. Provide your password when you're asked for it.
  3. Launch MalwareBytes from your Applications folder.
  4. Click on Scan and perform a complete scan on the complete system.
  5. From the scan results, you should see Mac Optimizer and possibly other malware on your system. Select all the items and click Remove selected items.
  6. Reboot your Mac and check if Mac Optimizer has been removed.

Method 2: Removing Mac Optimizer Manually

  1. Launch a Finder by clicking Finder in your dock.
  2. Click -> Go then Go to Folder and browse to the following locations and delete any "mohlp" or "Mac Optimizer" folder or files there:/Users/[user]/Library/Application Support
    /Users/[user]/Library/Caches
    /Users/[user]/Library/Logs
    /Users/[user]/Library/Preferences[user] is the username on the Mac.

  1. Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences and then click Users & Groups.
  2. Select the your user account and click Login Items.
  3. Select "Mac" and then click Remove below the list on the right. Even though it's named as Mac, you'll notice the icon is not Mac related
  4. Reboot your Mac and confirm if the annoying popups have stopped.

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Kevin is a dynamic and self-motivated information technology professional, with a Thorough knowledge of all facets pertaining to network infrastructure design, implementation and administration. Superior record of delivering simultaneous large-scale mission critical projects on time and under budget.