Panicking!! Please help.

My mac has been REALLY slow recently, like frustratingly slow. I have lots of ads hyperlinked in the text of websites I go on, and I can't stop pop ups from coming up everytime I click on a new link... Always the same one called 'detoxmymac.com' or something. The ads and pop-ups are driving me mad, and it doesnt matter which browser I use. I have a Macbook Pro from 2009. Im not sure on specific specs as I am a complete noob when it comes to macs, although I know you can find out in the preferences somewhere?

Please can someone help me and point me in a direction somewhere as someone has said I have a virus so I am panicking as I am starting Uni in September and my mac is just bull**** at the moment!

For the record I have Adblock and Ghostery installed.


Please help

They are Cookies ads. Sometimes you will see a alert box mentioning this website uses adcal. You could clear you cache and history. also in preference in safari click on privacy and below is a selection of cookie removals websites.

I cleared my cache and cookies and reset safari completely, yet I am still getting these hyperlink ads thank you so much for your reply, please if you have anymore insight i will be very grateful.

What does your privacy tab show in safari preference "Remove all website data". next is a detail button showing list of ad sites.

(outdated link removed)

not606 is another forum like this.

even with that list clear, i still get them.

Download and install these two extensions for Safari:

AdBlock for Safari

Ghostery for Safari

No more pop ups and tracking of your information.

He has those, see first post.
What extensions do you have?

She but yes I already have those.

These are my extensions...



thanks for taking the time out to help me.

Disable extensions temporarily and see if anything changes. If so disable all but adblock and ghostery, then turn on one by one and see which one starts ad's popping up.

Edit: in Ghostery, disable GhostRank, recommended.

I have uninstalled all extensions except adblock and ghostery. Ghostrank has been disabled and i have changed the settings to block everything as much as possible.. and no change. just to show you what im talking about i have uploaded a screenshot of how bad it is! i don't know how to get rid of it do i have a virus?

No virus, just something installed unknowingly. Clear Safari's cache (Reset Safari in the menu) and restart it.
Installed anything from Cnet or Softonic lately?

i have restarted it. Still no change. I dont know what Cnet or Softonic is unless i clicked something on accident and it downloaded... but i thought you had to open things you downloaded for them to actually install. i will have a look through my downloaded files and see if there is anything i dont recognize.

thanks again for your help i really appreciate it.

I went through my downloads, i cant see anything and deleted anything i didnt know what it was... No change. I have no idea what i am looking for... or what to do

Something is definitely wrong here... when i google something, it comes up with the same pop up i keep getting in the search results. i have almost a full page of this irrelevant 'mac cleaner' 'detoxyourmac' before i get to the real google results. SOOOO INFURIATING!! what is it!!



I also have 'visual search results' by dynamic pricer which is another pop up i keep getting that links to ebay stuff which is basically pictures of random crap on ebay. ive never even used ebay.

i dont understand whats going on

dopeantelope said:

Something is definitely wrong here... when i google something, it comes up with the same pop up i keep getting in the search results. i have almost a full page of this irrelevant 'mac cleaner' 'detoxyourmac' before i get to the real google results. SOOOO INFURIATING!! what is it!!

Click to expand...

For what it's worth. I just did the same Google search 3x (pop up blocker mac)…and I didn't get any of the MacKeeper/Mac Cleaner stuff!

These two apps are absolutely TOXIC!!!

- Nick

yeah so its definitely something on my mac. i dont know how to remove it or what it even is. would they be able to help me in the apple store? i just have no knowledge about macs/computers so i dont even know where to start or anything in regards to resolving this. hence looking for answers on here.

Are you SURE the term MacKeeper doesn't ring a bell? This sure looks like their dirty work ...

I Had the same Problem last week.I had to go to apple and get a senior to help me we did a complete erase and install no my Imac and it is back to perfect!

I'm a Mac newbie myself so I'm not sure how much help I can be. But when I first got mine a few months ago I got a popup about MacKeeper and how it would clean my mac. Being new to Mac, I was like "ok, sounds good to me" and downloaded. Only to start getting a ton of popups. So I found out that was. Went through and deleted everything I could find associated with it. I was still getting popups and installed AdBlocker. That seemed to fix the problem so I figured some popups must be normal. But then I started a new job that requires me to have antivirus. So I installed Avira. It came up and said there something they couldn't fix that was preventing me from downloading the software. After a ridiculous amount of searching I figured out it was a grouping of files that had come with the MacKeeper that I had missed. So the files very well could be in an area of your computer that a Mac newbie wouldn't look (like both of us). Here's the link to the post that allowed me to remove the last of the MacKeeper junk: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6417006

And I believe this is the link I originally used: How to avoid or remove Mac Defender malware in Mac OS X v10.6 or earlier

You may want to go through these steps just in case you downloaded upon first using the computer and forgot.

Instead of a complete erase and install try this:The Safe Mac » Adware Removal Guide
That removal tool is pretty good.