How to remove HistoryGrabber from Mac

Complete guide to delete HistoryGrabber

HistoryGrabber is a nasty adware application that appears on Mac. It performs multiple unwanted activities. The main one is to track the users’ browsing session and collect the web browsing data. It uses these data to design customized ads and leads users to questionable, phishing, scam, deceptive and even malicious, dangerous pages. Read this article if you want to know the complete guide to remove HistoryGrabber from system.

HistoryGrabber is a nasty Mac malware which is designed to cause intrusive ads. It gets added to Mac as additional or optional app added with downloads/ install setups of other programs. These are not displayed in Express install steps and so you may not have idea of its presence on your system. The main activity of HistoryGrabber, once added to the system is to change the browsers’ settings (such as homepage and new tab page address) to make you see as many ads as possible.

These ads are usually appear as browser pop-ups, text-embedded ads, banner ads, push notification promotions, redirect and transfer to third-party sites and ads on search results. These ads are designed with the content related to the users’ recent search session. The adware authors use Geo-location trackers, cookies, tags, pixels and LSOs or locally shared objects to collect the data like:

• Bookmarked sites,
• Clicks made online,
• Browser history,
• Pages visited and etc.

The customized content ads ensure that the users fall for them. They often bring users to shady pages like phishing or fake sites, rogue software download fraud, scams, virus domains, tech support scam, endless redirect loop schemes, scam surveys and etc. This is why, it is strongly recommended you to remove HistoryGrabber app as soon as possible. Below the post, you will find complete guide on how to easily delete the PUA from the Mac.

How did HistoryGrabber enter my PC?

PUAs are often distributed via the download/ installation setups of regular software. Bundling is the name given to the deceptive marketing method where packing of one app is done with unwanted and malicious additions. Rushed the download and skipped most of the installation steps often lead to the inadvertent installation of unwanted apps. Intrusive ads can cause PUAs download/ installation as well. Once clicked on, they run certain scripts to cause stealthy download/ installation. Some PUAs have their official promotional pages as well.

How to prevent PUAs installation?

It is recommended to use only official websites and direct links for any software download. Avoid p2p networks, free file hosting sites and third party downloaders/ installers – they often offer dubious and/or bundled content. During downloading/ installing, read all terms, study possible option, use Custom/Advanced settings and opt out all additionally attached apps and decline all offers. Intrusive ads should not be clicked as well. These ads often open some untrustworthy pages or sometimes download/ install unwanted apps by running certain scripts. If PUA already installed on the computer, use some reputable antivirus tool and remove it right away.

Remove Files and Folders Related to HistoryGrabber

Open the “Menu” bar and click the “Finder” icon. Select “Go” and click on “Go to Folder…”

Step 1: Search the suspicious and doubtful malware generated files in /Library/LaunchAgents folder

Type /Library/LaunchAgents in the “Go to Folder” option

In the “Launch Agent” folder, search for all the files that you have recently downloaded and move them to “Trash”. Few of the examples of files created by browser-hijacker or adware are as follow, “myppes.download.plist”, “mykotlerino.Itvbit.plist”, installmac.AppRemoval.plist”, and “kuklorest.update.plist” and so on.

Step 2: Detect and remove the files generated by the adware in “/Library/Application” Support folder

In the “Go to Folder..bar”, type “/Library/Application Support”

Search for any suspicious newly added folders in “Application Support” folder. If you detect any one of these like “NicePlayer” or “MPlayerX” then send them to “Trash” folder.

Step 3: Look for the files generated by malware in /Library/LaunchAgent Folder:

Go to Folder bar and type /Library/LaunchAgents

You are in the “LaunchAgents” folder. Here, you have to search for all the newly added files and move them to “Trash” if you find them suspicious. Some of the examples of suspicious files generated by malware are “myppes.download.plist”, “installmac.AppRemoved.plist”, “kuklorest.update.plist”, “mykotlerino.ltvbit.plist” and so on.

Step4: Go to /Library/LaunchDaemons Folder and search for the files created by malware

Type /Library/LaunchDaemons in the “Go To Folder” option

In the newly opened “LaunchDaemons” folder, search for any recently added suspicious files and move them to “Trash”. Examples of some of the suspicious files are “com.kuklorest.net-preferences.plist”, “com.avickUpd.plist”, “com.myppes.net-preference.plist”, “com.aoudad.net-preferences.plist” and so on.

Step 5: Use Combo Cleaner Anti-Malware and Scan your Mac PC

The malware infections could be removed from the Mac PC if you execute all the steps mentioned above in the correct way. However, it is always advised to be sure that your PC is not infected. It is suggested to scan the work-station with “Combo Cleaner Anti-virus”.

Once the file gets downloaded, double click on combocleaner.dmg installer in the newly opened window. Next is to open the “Launchpad” and press on “Combo Cleaner” icon. It is advised to wait until “Combo Cleaner” updates the latest definition for malware detection. Click on “Start Combo Scan” button.

A depth scan of your Mac PC will be executed in order to detect malware. If the Anti-virus scan report says “no threat found” then you can continue with guide further. On the other hand, it is recommended to delete the detected malware infection before continuing.

Now the files and folders created by the adware is removed, you have to remove the rogue extensions from the browsers.

Remove HistoryGrabber from Internet Browsers

Delete Doubtful and Malicious Extension from Safari

Go to “Menu Bar” and open “Safari” browser. Select “Safari” and then “Preferences”

In the opened “preferences” window, select “Extensions” that you have recently installed. All such extensions should be detected and click the “Uninstall” button next to it. If you are doubtful then you can remove all the extensions from “Safari” browser as none of them are important for smooth functionality of the browser.

In case if you continue facing unwanted webpage redirections or aggressive advertisements bombarding, you can reset the “Safari” browser.

“Reset Safari”

Open the Safari menu and choose “preferences…” from the drop-down menu.

Go to the “Extension” tab and set the extension slider to “Off” position. This disables all the installed extensions in the Safari browser

Next step is to check the homepage. Go to “Preferences…” option and choose “General” tab. Change the homepage to your preferred URL.

Also check the default search-engine provider settings. Go to “Preferences…” window and select the “Search” tab and select the search-engine provider that you want such as “Google”.

Next is to clear the Safari browser Cache- Go to “Preferences…” window and select “Advanced” tab and click on “Show develop menu in the menu bar.“

Go to “Develop” menu and select “Empty Caches”.

Remove website data and browsing history. Go to “Safari” menu and select “Clear History and Website Data”. Choose “all history” and then click on “Clear History”.

Remove Unwanted and Malicious Plug-ins from Mozilla Firefox

Delete HistoryGrabber add-ons from Mozilla Firefox

Open the Firefox Mozilla browser. Click on the “Open Menu” present in the top right corner of the screen. From the newly opened menu, choose “Add-ons”.

Go to “Extension” option and detect all the latest installed add-ons. Select each of the suspicious add-ons and click on “Remove” button next to them.

In case if you want to “reset” the Mozilla Firefox browser then follow the steps that has been mentioned below.

Reset Mozilla Firefox Settings

Open the Firefox Mozilla browser and click on “Firefox” button situated at the top left corner of the screen.

In the new menu, go to “Help” sub-menu and choose “Troubleshooting Information”

In the “Troubleshooting Information” page, click on “Reset Firefox” button.

Confirm that you want to reset the Mozilla Firefox settings to default by pressing on “Reset Firefox” option

The browser will get restarted and the settings changes to factory default

Delete Unwanted and Malicious Extensions from Google Chrome

Open the chrome browser and click on “Chrome menu”. From the drop down option, choose “More Tools” and then “Extensions”.

In the “Extensions” option, search for all the recently installed add-ons and extensions. Select them and choose “Trash” button. Any third-party extension is not important for the smooth functionality of the browser.

Reset Google Chrome Settings

Open the browser and click on three line bar at the top right side corner of the window.

Go to the bottom of the newly opened window and select “Show advanced settings”.

In the newly opened window, scroll down to the bottom and choose “Reset browser settings”

Click on the “Reset” button on the opened “Reset browser settings” window

Restart the browser and the changes you get will be applied

The above mentioned manual process should be executed as it is mentioned. It is a cumbersome process and requires a lot of technical expertise. And hence it is advised for technical experts only. To be sure that your PC is free from malware, it is better that you scan the work-station with a powerful anti-malware tool. The automatic malware removal application is preferred because it doesn’t requires any additional technical skills and expertise.

Download the application and execute it on the PC to begin the depth scanning. Once the scanning gets completed, it shows the list of all the files related to HistoryGrabber. You can select such harmful files and folders and remove them immediately.