No virus can survive on the iPhone through a factory reset, so you should take the phone to an Apple store for servicing. Preventative maintenance As indicated, the chances of your iPhone getting. Smart Mac Cleaner is an Appesteem certified and therefore counts in the reliable mac cleaner tools. It takes complete care of your Mac be it declutter providing security from the malware and privacy issues online. The Mac cleaning.
Keep Apple devices in sync
Though iPhone viruses are rare, they can happen. Typically, this occurs through a few different methods, but it's almost never totally your fault.
Hackers are clever, and are always finding new ways to infect devices for nefarious purposes. You can get a virus from clicking links you don't recognize, or downloading sketchy apps.
A common method for hackers to load viruses and malware on your iPhone is via iMessage. You'll get a message telling you something urgent, and encouraging you to click a link to resolve an issue or claim a prize. When you do, your phone is subject to whatever is on the other end – and it's almost never good.
If you believe your iPhone has a virus, we'll show you how to clean your phone from virus threats, how tog et rid of a virus on your phone already, and discuss some apps that can help keep your Mac and iPhone safe from harm.
How to find out if My iPhone Has a Virus or Other Malware?
Plainly put, your iPhone will be acting strangely. Devices with viruses or malware are often slow, and can hijack normal functionality, like search. This is why removing viruses from iPhone or iPad is so important.
If your phone is acting abnormally, consider what links you may have clicked recently. There's no Safari virus on iPhone, but Safari can be a gateway for hackers to load malware or other bloatware onto your device.
You should also think about which apps you've recently downloaded. Apps are a direct way for hackers to gain entry to your phone, and it's not always as direct as it seems. Developers often use snippets of code called APIs that are open source to access services in the cloud, and hackers have been known to inject malware and viruses into APIs.
Though this article will show you how to clean your iPhone from virus threats, prevention is still the best path forward. Don't click links you're not confident in, and don't download sketchy apps from any source.
Why are iPhone viruses so rare?
Apple does a really good job of keeping the iOS ecosystem locked. The ‘walled garden' keeps virus threats at bay. Though some threats have been detected, Apple's diligence keeps the volume of viruses on iPhone really low.
Code developers submit is also checked routinely for suspicious API calls or strange text. When the review team detects an issue, they communicate with the developer.
How To Remove a Virus from iPhone
Now that we know why it happens, let's discuss how to get rid of virus on phone and keep it from occurring again.
Delete apps that look suspicious
Dig through the apps on your phone: do any look suspicious? Do you recall downloading each of them, and do you use them often enough to keep around?
The answer to 'how do i get a virus off my iPhone?' is often as simple as deleting an app. Apps have associated files, and deleting them typically removes the files they imported. All you need to do is press and hold on the app icon, and select 'Remove App' from the menu that appears.
Clear history and website data
Understanding how to delete virus from iPhone history is critical, too. Viruses can live in your browser history or website data, especially if you revisit a suspect website on your phone often. Viruses can re-inject files onto your phone, perhaps doing more damage.
Here's how to reset your website history and data:
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone
- Select 'Safari'
- Select 'Clear History and Website Data'
- Choose 'Clear History and Data' from the menu that appears
Restart your iPhone
Viruses and malware often happen while your phone is operating, and shutting your phone off completely can stop a virus or malware form working. It's a simple measure that can often save you a lot of headache.
Keep in mind you will have to shut your phone down; putting it into Airplane Mode won't do the trick. All you have to do is hold down the power button on the left side of your iPhone and the volume up button on the right side for a few seconds. On the screen that appears, slide the icon at the top of the screen to power your phone off.
Restore your phone from a previous backup version
Apple provides a small sliver of iCloud storage for backups, but it's often not enough to store many backups. It's also not a useful method if you've had a virus on your phone for a long while. Each backup iCloud has may also be corrupted!
This is why it's best to have your own backup program, and why AnyTrans is an app you should download for Mac right away.
AnyTrans allows you far more control over your backups than Apple allows via iCloud. The app allows you to download any files or folders to your Mac, and sync iOS devices to your Mac's storage. The wired connection to your Mac also sidesteps the often clumsy iCloud syncing protocols, and lets you get direct access to backups of your iPhone stored on your Mac or an associated external drive.
Because you have full control of where your backups are housed – and how many you hold onto – you can keep a reliably safe backup of your iPhone tucked away, and restore to it if you ever run into issues with viruses or malware on your iPhone. AnyTrans is really the safest solution for backing up and syncing your iPhone.
Reset with Factory Settings
If all else fails, or you simply want to start completely over with your iPhone, you can always reset your device to factory settings and start anew. Know that any data you haven't backed up will be lost, so it's a good idea to take advantage of everything AnyTrans has to offer before going this route.
First, you'll need to remove your iPhone from Find My iPhone, if it's enrolled. Here's how:
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone
- Select your name banner at the top of the screen
- Select ‘Find My'
- Select 'Find My iPhone'
- Toggle all settings off
To reset your phone to factory settings, follow these steps:
- Open the Settings app on your phone
- Select 'General'
- Select 'Reset'
- Select 'Erase All Content and Settings'
- Enter the passcode for your iPhone
- Tap 'Erase'
Your phone will begin the process of deleting all of your data and settings. It will then reboot as though it were a brand new phone.
Tips how to keep your iOS device secure
Remember, preventing issues is far better than solving them! Now that you know to never click a link you're not totally sure is legitimate, here are a few extra tips to ensure you never get another virus on your phone.
Download apps only from Appstore
Getting apps via other sources is possible, but you should never do it. Always download apps from the App Store, and never ‘sideload' apps from the web or a secondary app marketplace.
When downloading apps, always read reviews. If an app has a low rating, it may be because users notice signs of a virus without understanding the app is at fault. If review note the phone slows down when the app runs or any other odd behavior, skip the download.
Keep iOS system updated
Each time Apple updates iOS, it comes with tons of security improvements. Apple never discusses what fixes it has made, but the latest version of iOS is always the safest.
Similarly, don't download older iOS builds unless it's directly from Apple. Even if you're not crazy about the latest and greatest version of iOS, it's safer than downloading iOS from somewhere else, which could itself carry viruses and malware.
Keep app Updated
You know how app updates often say 'bug fixes and improvements'? That's because ‘bugs' and ‘improvements' are often security patches!
Always keep your apps up to date. Apps that haven't delivered updates in a long while may be carrying malware, too. Remember how we told you Apple checks code for suspicious activity? If a developer knowingly added a virus to their app and ships an update, Apple will check the code and hackers can be caught.
Pro tip: free gigabytes from unused file and photos
Keeping your Mac and iPhone in sync is popular, as having the same files, folders, and images across all of your devices just makes life easier. You can free up precious space for your synced apps, files, folders, and images with Gemini.
Gemini is dedicated to finding duplicate files, and deleting them if you choose. Your iPhone and Mac being totally harmonious sometimes means files and images are duplicated, causing unnecessary storage space to be occupied. You could ignore this, but why? Duplicate files are just clutter you don't need.
Cleaning your Mac with Gemini and syncing your folders and images to iPhone ensures storage across your devices remains clear and concise, and you only keep the files you really want and need.
Conclusion
Viruses on Mac are never fun to deal with, so be sure to take preventative measures. The last thing you'd want to do is have to reset your phone just because you clicked a strange link in a text message!
Gemini and AnyTrans help keep your iPhone synced, backed up, and free of unwanted files. Both are available for free as part of a seven day trial of Setapp, the world's most robust suite of apps for your Mac. While these two apps alone are reason enough to give Setapp a try, there are nearly 200 other apps available in the Setapp suite you'll love, too.
When your trial ends, access to Setapp is only $9.99 per month. It's an incredible bargain for access to over 200 apps, so why hesitate any longer? Give Setapp a try now!
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
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You may have heard it's said that Macs don't get viruses. That there's no Apple virus. You may even have said it yourself. Sadly, it's not true. The latest State of Malware Report by Malwarebytes describes a significant rise of Mac threats of over 400% in 2019. The report claims that cybercriminals now target Macs severely, due to increasing market share. So, do you still believe that Macs don't get viruses? Continue reading to discover how to remove a virus from your Mac and protect your files from getting infected.
Can Macs get viruses?
Macs have been considered safer than Windows PC for a long time. Macs are indeed secure, thanks to various built-in features, such as GateKeeper, that doesn't allow installing anything not approved by Apple. But, as the Apple security features have improved, so is malware. According to the State of Malware report mentioned before, Macs are mostly attacked by adware and potentially unwanted programs (PUP), which macOS has no counteraction against. So, answering the question, yes, Macs do get viruses, and they may impact your sensitive file and data seriously.
How do I know if my Mac has a virus?
Before you remove a virus from a Mac, you need to be sure it actually has one. We've covered that in more detail in this article but here are a few pointers.
- Your Mac starts behaving erratically and doing things you don't expect;
- Your Mac starts running very slowly as if something is hogging the processor;
- You start seeing adverts on your desktop;
- You find software or applications you didn't install.
- An app asks for your administrator password
These symptoms may mean your Mac has a virus, although there could be other explanations.
How to remove a virus from a Mac manually
Thankfully, there are lots of ways to do it. And Mac virus removal doesn't have to cost money.
1. Delete browser extensions
One of the most common types of malware comes in the form of browser extensions. Even extensions that aren't particularly malicious can be annoying, and if you didn't deliberately install them, they're malware. Here's how to get rid of unwanted browser extensions.
Safari
- Launch Safari.
- Click Safari in the top menu, then choose Safari Extensions.
- Look down the list and click on any extensions that look suspicious. Read the description of the extension. If you don't remember installing it, click Uninstall.
- Repeat until you've removed all the extensions you don't want.
Chrome
- Launch Chrome.
- Click on the 3-dot icon in the upper right corner.
- Select More Tools and choose Extensions from the menu that appears.
- Look over the extensions in the browser window and click Remove on any that you don't recognize.
Firefox
- Launch Firefox.
- Click the 3-line (hamburger) icon at the top right corner.
- Choose Add-ons.
- Click the Extensions tab and remove any you don't recognize.
2. Uninstall apps
Malware comes in lots of different forms. And it even comes disguised as security software to help you get rid of viruses! Devious, huh?
If you've inadvertently downloaded an app that turns out to be a virus, you need to uninstall it immediately. There are a couple of ways to do this. Here's the hard way.
- Go to your Applications folder and drag the app to the Trash.
- Go to
~/Library
folder and look in the Application Support folder for any files related to the app and drag those to the Trash. - Look in the other folders in ~
/Library
, especially Launch Agents and Launch Daemons and remove any files related to the app from there. But be careful, if you remove files used by legitimate apps you could cause lots of problems. - Repeat Step 3 for your Mac's main Library folder.
The easy way: Uninstall apps in a few clicks
- Download and launch CleanMyMac X.
- Click Uninstaller.
- Check the box next to the application name.
- Click Uninstall.
If you don't know the name of the application, it's more difficult. But if you use CleanMyMac X, all you have to do is scroll through the list of applications and look for any you don't recognize or don't need and remove them. CleanMyMac X removes every trace of an app, including files that you may overlook when you remove applications manually. This is particularly important for viruses, so it's much better to use CleanMyMac X.
What makes this method even better, is that CleanMyMac X also shows you app leftovers that remained after the main app is gone.
3. Escape the virus: Create a new user profile
Usually, viruses are attached to a particular user profile on your computer. In this way, they are able to seize control of your admin profile. But you can start if from scratch and create a new user on your Mac. Don't worry, you will be able to transfer all your important data from one user to another.
Go to Apple menu > System Preferences, click Users & Groups.
- Click the lock icon , then type in your admin password.
- Use the plus sign to add a new user profile.
To move your important information from one user to another, you will need to access the Shared folder.
- Click on the Finder > Go to Folder..
- Paste in this:
/Users
Can you see the Shared folder? Here you can copy the needed files from your old user account. Hurray, you've started a clean, virus-free life!
Bonus tip: Clean up your login items
Login items are apps that launch automatically upon startup. Malware programs would often sneak into your login items without you knowing. How to prevent them from launching?
- Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences.
- Click Users & Groups.
- Click on the Login Items tab
From here you can manage them using the [+] and [—] buttons.
How to remove a virus from Mac automatically
While the above steps work very well in lots of cases, sometimes the Mac virus removal means using a dedicated application to scan and remove malware from your Mac.
Scan your Mac for viruses
There are lots of these applications available, and many of them are either free or allow you to at the very least scan your Mac for free to find out whether you need to take action. Be careful, however. It's important to choose a tool from a reputable vendor. If you just google ‘Mac antivirus tool' some of the results may well be for tools that are themselves malicious and instead of removing viruses from your Mac will infect it. We recommend using CleanMyMac X.
It can identify thousands of malware threats, including adware, spyware, ransomware, worms, cryptocurrency miners. And if CleanMyMac finds something suspicious, it will offer immediate removal. Besides, it ensures real-time Mac virus protection, informing you when you're about to install something harmful. Here's how to perform a full system scan:
- Download CleanMyMac X (free download) and launch the app.
- Click on the Malware Removal tab.
- Click Scan.
- Click Remove.
Disable the invisible agents
Some small supporting applications never show up in the Login items. They are called the Launch agents and may as well be hacked by viruses. You can find them with the universal Mac cleaner, CleanMyMac. This app is notarized by Apple, so you are safe using it.
- Launch the app and go to the Optimization tab.
- Click Launch agents
How many apps do you see there? Remove any flash players, automatic updaters, or everything else that you find suspicious. Even if you deleted the main app itself, its launch agents may still occupy your drive. Here is what I have:
How to get rid of a virus on a MacBook Pro (or any other Mac) if all else fails
If you've run through all the steps above and are still having problems trying to remove a virus from a Mac, the next step is to restore from a Time Machine backup. The benefit of restoring from Time Machine is that you can do it quickly and easily by booting into the recovery partition and you can choose to backup to a state just before your Mac started behaving erratically.
The downside of this option is that any work you've done since the backup you restore from will be lost. You could manually copy files from your Mac to another drive or cloud storage service before you restore and then copy them back afterward. However, if one of those files is infected, you risk contaminating your Mac all over again. If there are documents you really need and that aren't backed up elsewhere, use one of the antivirus tools above to run a scan on them before you copy them to another disk. That way you'll know they're safe.
Here's how to restore from a Time Machine backup
- Make sure you're connected to your Time Machine backup drive.
- Restart your Mac, holding down the Command and R keys until you see the Apple logo. When the macOS Utilities screen appears, choose Restore from a Time Machine Backup. Click Continue.
- Choose the last backup before your Mac started misbehaving or you suspect you were infected with a virus.
Your Mac will now return to the state it was in when you made that backup.
If you don't have a Time Machine backup to restore from, the last resort is to reinstall macOS. This is a ground-zero approach. You'll need to wipe your startup drive completely clean and start again. That means reinstalling all your applications and copying all your data back to your Mac afterward. If you have a recent backup of your data, from before your Mac became infected, you can use that to copy data from after you re-install. If not, you'll need to back up important files now — but scan them with an antivirus tool first to make sure they're not infected.
To perform a clean install of macOS, you'll need a bootable installer disk. Creating one is beyond the scope of this article, but there is a comprehensive guide here.
Once you've made your bootable installer, plug it into your Mac, go to System Preferences, choose Startup Disk and select the disk you just plugged in. Restart your Mac, holding down Command-R and do the following:
- When the macOS Utilities screen appears, select Reinstall a new copy of macOS. Click Continue and then Continue again when the next window appears.
- Agree to the terms and conditions and select your Mac's internal disk.
- Click Install. Wait for your Mac to restart.
- Your Mac will start up as if it's a new Mac and you'll need to go through the process of setting it up from scratch.
- Once you've set it up, copy back the files you need from the backup and that you know aren't infected.
As you can see, there are many different ways to remove a virus from a Mac, depending on how badly infected it is and what kind of virus it is. The main thing to remember is if you suspect your Mac is infected, don't worry. It can be fixed! Move on to our little Q&A section to find answers to questions many users ask.
FAQ
Apple Virus Cleaner App
Do you need an antivirus for Mac?
Most of the antiviruses protect your Mac in real-time, making it apparent for you when an intruder appears. So, with antivirus software, you can be sure no PUP or adware can infect your computer. Antivirus is not a must-have software, but it indeed adds up a layer of protection if you use it.
Can you get a virus from opening an email?
Apple Virus Cleaner Reviews
What os does macbook pro use. Email viruses do exist, but you can't catch one just by opening an email. What you need to be cautious with are email attachments. If you don't know who that email comes from, avoid opening the attachment. It can contain PUP and other things you don't need on your computer.
How to do a virus scan on Mac?
To do a quick virus scan, inspect your Mac for the software you didn't intentionally install. Some apps can come in bundles hiding malicious programs that end up appearing on your Mac. For a more thorough virus scan, get CleanMyMac X. All you need to do, is to install the app, go to Malware Removal, and hit the Scan button.
How to remove fake 'Update Adobe Flash Player' pop-ups on Mac?
Try to find and delete the last app you installed before you started seeing such fake alerts. Also, remove browser extensions from the web-browser where you see such pop-up ads. Some malicious extensions can be responsible for this. If nothing helps, scan your Mac for viruses using the antivirus of your choice.