MacBook – Safari hijacked by Safe Finder. Change homepage preference greyed out

macbook prosafarivirus

I must've downloaded this virus when I was prompted to download Flash thinking it was the real software. Now whenever I open Safari I get linked to this search engine. I had this issue with Chrome opening up TapuFind and a few other search engines – I fixed this by completely reinstalling Chrome.

I've tried many methods to remove it but can't get it to un-grey out:

  1. Tried changing in the preferences panel but it's greyed out.

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  2. I don't have "Profiles" in my System Preferences.

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  3. I tried using Malwarebytes but it didn't help.

  4. I tried a safe start with Safari (opening the app while holding down Shift) but that didn't allow me to edit the preferences panel.

  5. Tried booting into Safe mode, but again that didn't help to let me edit the homepage.

  6. Tried cleaning the Cache entirely but again, didn't help (as well at that list thing).

  7. I don't think I have a modified hosts file

    enter image description here

Is there anything else I can do to resolve this issue?

Best Answer

Deleting your Preferences properties file should do it.

  1. Close Safari completely.
  2. Open a Finder window and go to your Home folder (the one with your Username).
  3. Go to the View menu, and select "Show View Options". (Alternatively, you can hit Command+J.)
  4. At the very bottom of the options window, select (check the box) "Show Library Folder".
  5. Now browse through these folders: Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Preferences
  6. Once you drill down to Preferences, you'll see a file named com.apple.Safari.plist. That's your preferences file. Delete it.
  7. Re-open Safari. Your preferences should all now be back to default. You'll have to set things back the way you had them before, but you'll be rid of the messed-up settings.

That should do it!

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