softonic?

[IWT]

Up till now, I haven't mentioned it because I can't see how it could relate to the "Softonic issue".

Keith did run EtreCheck and to quote:

It shows two Major faults - there are two anti virus running on this machine

Whilst probably not relevant to the current problem, having even one antivirus app running is unnecessary - having two, competing with each other, is not ideal to put it mildly.

Of course, we don't know what AV apps are running. Maybe it is Malwarebytes and Detect X Swift, which are used occasionally. That would be okay.

But not okay if they were two conventional AV systems running continuously in the background.

Just an observation.

Ian

 

[sllewk]

IWT, Ian Good morning to you. I have checked the two major faults, Gatekeeper is 'on' and the other one is something called 'System Integrity Protection' also reported as 'on'. I have had the iMac a couple of years now and cannot remember switching either of them on! In fact will go as far as to say that I have not got a clue about the 'System Integrity Protection' and would not know where to find it. There are 32bit programs that will not run under the newest OS, but not bothered about that as I think Mojave is as new as I wish to go at the moment. I have looked at the Etrecheck report and in all honesty do not know what to do with it - or how for that matter.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby.

 

[Horsa]

Hi Keith,

Don't worry - both Gatekeeper and S.I.P. are normal parts of the operating system and will not be doing any harm at all.

Gatekeeper is the thing that ensures the system only runs software that has been "Signed" and verified, thus protecting you from malware.

System Integrity Protection guards against malicious attempts to modify system files on your machine.

You don't need to have turned them on. Both of them are ON by default unless the user turns them off - and in the case of S.I.P., doing that would require booting into Recovery Mode and issuing a command-line instruction.

Neither of them is an anti-virus suite (whether or not you need one of those is up to you - some Mac users don't bother with AV).


I am rather surprised that EtreCheck would show Gatekeeper and S.I.P. as being "Major faults", though!

 

[IWT]

I am rather surprised that EtreCheck would show Gatekeeper and S.I.P. as being "Major faults", though!

I'm not sure EtreCheck did. In post #119, Keith posted that the two major faults EtreCheck mentioned were the presence of two active AV running on the machine; which is why I posted #121. Keith made a very generous response.

Ian

 

[sllewk]

Hi Horsa & IWT, Whilst EtreCheck reports two AV's (Gatekeeper and SIV) in their initial report as 'major issues' towards the end they contradict the issue by saying something like "you may run them if required". That being so why call them a major issue in the first place?
I also recall earlier in this very long post that some-one ( possibly MacInWin) asked me to send the report to the this post! Now as explained I am a very simple man, not very intelligent and easily get uptight but I have not got a clue as to how to send that longish report? If you require the answer to a specific piece of info please ask and I will try to provide an answer.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

 

[IWT]

Thank you Keith. Always nice to hear from you and thanks for your time & effort.

Neither Gatekeeper nor SIP are in any way antivirus apps; but essential components of the Apple Operating System, designed to protect you.

They are turned "on" by default - you didn't turn them on, you'll be glad to hear;D

But, having used EtreCheck for years, I'm astonished that it should (a) consider them as "Major Faults" and (b) classify them as Antivirus apps running on your machine.

Ian

 

[sllewk]

Ian,Thank you also for your time and efforts on my behalf.

Very best regards from Keith.

 

[MacInWin]

Keith, The directions for posting the Etrecheck report are in post #102. You don't need to try to interpret it, we'll do that for you. The exact instructions are just below the last picture in the post. But it's up to whether or not you want to bother with it. I would suggest you do, as there may be other things we can suggest to make your system more stable for you.

 

[sllewk]

EtreCheck version: 5.4.8 (5091)
Report generated: 2020-02-15 08:28:56
Download EtreCheck from EtreCheck
Runtime: 2:01
Performance: Excellent
Sandbox: Enabled
Full drive access: Disabled

Problem: No problem - just checking

Major Issues:
Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.
More than one antivirus app - This machine has multiple antivirus apps installed.

Minor Issues:
These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems or opportunities for improvement.
Clean up - There are orphan files that could be removed.
32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps will not work on macOS 10.15 “Catalina”.
Limited drive access - More information may be available with Full Drive Access.

Hardware Information:
iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017)
iMac Model: iMac18,2
1 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-7500) CPU: 4-core
8 RAM - Upgradeable by an Apple Authorized Service Provider
BANK 0/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR4 2400
BANK 1/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR4 2400

Video Information:
Radeon Pro 560 - VRAM: 4 GB
iMac (built-in) 4096 x 2304

Drives:
disk0 - APPLE HDD HTS541010A9E632 1.00 TB (Mechanical - 5400 RPM)
Internal SATA 3 Gigabit Serial ATA
disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB
disk0s2 [APFS Fusion Drive] 1000.00 GB
disk2 [APFS Virtual drive] 1.03 TB (Shared by 4 volumes)
disk2s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) (Shared - 45.71 GB used)
disk2s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (Shared)
disk2s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (Shared)
disk2s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (Shared - 3.22 GB used)

disk1 - APPLE SSD SM0032L 28.00 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)
Internal PCI-Express 8.0 GT/s x2 NVM Express
disk1s1 - EFI [EFI] 315 MB
disk1s2 [APFS Fusion Drive] 27.69 GB
disk2 [APFS Virtual drive] 1.03 TB (Shared by 4 volumes)
disk2s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) (Shared - 45.71 GB used)
disk2s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (Shared)
disk2s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (Shared)
disk2s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (Shared - 3.22 GB used)

disk3 - TO Exter nal USB 3.0 250.06 GB
External USB 5 Gbit/s USB
disk3s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB
disk3s2 - T**********e (Journaled HFS+) 249.72 GB (116.33 GB used)

disk4 - LaCie P9223 1.00 TB
External USB 5 Gbit/s USB
disk4s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB
disk4s2 - S********r (Mac OS Extended) 999.86 GB (39.70 GB used)

Mounted Volumes:
disk2s1 - Macintosh HD
1.03 TB (Shared - 45.71 GB used, 976.04 GB available, 973.68 GB free)
APFS
Mount point: /

disk2s4 - VM [APFS VM]
1.03 TB (Shared - 3.22 GB used, 973.68 GB free)
APFS
Mount point: /private/var/vm

disk3s2 - T**********e
249.72 GB (116.33 GB used, 133.38 GB free)
Journaled HFS+
Mount point: /Volumes/T**********e

disk4s2 - S********r
999.86 GB (39.70 GB used, 960.16 GB free)
Mac OS Extended
Mount point: /Volumes/S********r

Network:
Interface usbmodem14610: MT6229 5
Interface usbmodem14660: MT6229 4
Interface usbmodem14630: MT6229 3
Interface usbmodem14620: MT6229 2
Interface usbmodem14120: MT6229
Interface usbserial-A506M7RN: FT232R USB UART
Interface usbmodem146200: MT6229 6
Interface usbmodem146100: MT6229 7
Interface en0: Ethernet
Interface en6: iPad
Interface en5: iPhone
Interface en1: Wi-Fi

Interface en4: Bluetooth PAN
Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

System Software:
macOS Mojave 10.14.6 (18G1012)
Time since boot: About 5 days

Notifications:
Notifications not available without Full Drive Access.

Security:
System Status
Gatekeeper: Enabled
System Integrity Protection: Enabled

Antivirus software: Apple, AdGuard, and Malwarebytes

32-bit Applications:
5 32-bit apps

Kernel Extensions:
/Library/Application Support/Malwarebytes/MBAM/Kext
MB_MBAM_Protection.kext (4.0 - SDK 10.11)

/Library/Application Support/com.adguard.Adguard/kext
com.adguard.nfext.kext (1.0.17 - SDK 10.13)

System Launch Agents:
[Not Loaded] 16 Apple tasks
[Loaded] 156 Apple tasks
[Running] 128 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons:
[Not Loaded] 37 Apple tasks
[Loaded] 167 Apple tasks
[Running] 129 Apple tasks
[Other] One Apple task

Launch Agents:
[Running] com.ecamm.iglasses3agent.plist (Ecamm Network, LLC - installed 2019-11-19)
[Loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2020-02-10)
[Loaded] com.google.keystone.xpcservice.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2020-02-10)
[Running] com.malwarebytes.mbam.frontend.agent.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2019-11-18)

Launch Daemons:
[Loaded] com.BlueStacks.AppPlayer.bstservice_helper.plist (BlueStack Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-07-31)
[Loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (? 401cc4ee - installed 2017-08-31)
[Loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (? ab4dc6ae - installed 2017-08-31)
[Other] com.fujifilm.importer.plist (? 80994af4 - installed 2017-02-10)
[Loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2020-02-10)
[Loaded] com.malwarebytes.HelperTool.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2017-10-24)
[Running] com.malwarebytes.mbam.rtprotection.daemon.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2019-11-19)
[Running] com.malwarebytes.mbam.settings.daemon.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2019-11-18)
[Running] com.tclementdev.timemachineeditor.scheduler.plist (Thomas CLEMENT - installed 2019-09-26)

User Launch Agents:
[Running] com.shirtpocket.backupbytime.plist (Bruce Lacey - installed 2020-02-10)

User Login Items:
[Not Loaded] AppCleaner SmartDelete (Julien Ramseier - installed 2018-04-23)
Modern Login Item
/Applications/AppCleaner.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/AppCleaner SmartDelete.app

[Not Loaded] DesktopClockFreeHelper (App Store - installed 2019-11-04)
Modern Login Item
/Applications/Desktop Clock free.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/DesktopClockFreeHelper.app

Internet Plug-ins:
AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 17.012.20098 (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-13)
FlashPlayer-10.6: 25.0.0.171 (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-13)
AdobePDFViewer: 18.009.20050 (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-13)
Flash Player: 25.0.0.171 (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-13)
DirectorShockwave: 12.1.5r155 (? - installed 2018-02-13)
EPPEX Plugin: 10.0 (? - installed 2018-01-16)

Audio Plug-ins:
AppleTimeSyncAudioClock: 1.0 (Apple - installed 2019-09-18)
BluetoothAudioPlugIn: 6.0.14 (Apple - installed 2019-11-11)
AirPlay: 2.0 (Apple - installed 2019-09-18)
AppleAVBAudio: 760.6 (Apple - installed 2019-09-18)
BridgeAudioSP: 5.52 (Apple - installed 2019-11-11)
iSightAudio: 7.7.3 (Apple - installed 2019-09-18)

Safari Extensions:
ABP - App Store (installed 2020-02-13)
ABP Control Panel - App Store (installed 2020-02-13)

3rd Party Preference Panes:
Flash Player (installed 2018-02-13)

Time Machine:
Time Machine information not available without Full Drive Access.
20 local snapshots
Oldest local snapshot: 2020-02-14 07:31:48
Last local snapshot: 2020-02-15 07:31:48

Performance:
System Load: 0.67 (1 min ago) 0.74 (5 min ago) 1.08 (15 min ago)
Nominal I/O speed: 0.17 MB/s
File system: 36.14 seconds
Write speed: 813 MB/s
Read speed: 1458 MB/s

CPU Usage Snapshot:
Type Overall
System 0 %
User 1 %
Idle 99 %

Top Processes Snapshot by CPU:
Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)
Other processes 2.80 % (?)
EtreCheck 2.61 % (App Store)
Dock 0.03 % (Apple)
trustd 0.03 % (Apple)
iGlasses 0.02 % (Ecamm Network, LLC)

Top Processes Snapshot by Memory:
Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location)
EtreCheck 654 MB (App Store)
Dock 287 MB (Apple)
Finder 89 MB (Apple)
AppleSpell 76 MB (Apple)
suggestd 64 MB (Apple)

Top Processes Snapshot by Network Use:
Process (count) Input / Output (Source - Location)
Other processes 2 MB / 812 KB (?)
routined 0 B / 0 B (Apple)
universalAccessAuthWarn 0 B / 0 B (Apple)
homed 0 B / 0 B (Apple)
backgroundtaskmanagementagent 0 B / 0 B (Apple)

Virtual Memory Information:
Physical RAM: 8 GB

Free RAM: 1.91 GB
Used RAM: 3.88 GB
Cached files: 2.21 GB

Available RAM: 4.12 GB
Swap Used: 110 MB

Software Installs (past 30 days):
Install Date Name (Version)
2020-02-10 XProtectPlistConfigData (2113)
2020-02-10 MRTConfigData (1.54)
2020-02-10 SuperDuper!
2020-02-11 Full Deck Solitaire (1.80)
2020-02-11 PhotoScape X (4.0.2)
2020-02-13 EtreCheck (5.4.8)
2020-02-13 Adblock Plus (2.1.1)
2020-02-14 Google Earth

Clean up:
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.fujifilm.importer.plist
./PCAutoSaveSv
Executable not found


Diagnostics Information (past 7-30 days):
Directory /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports is not accessible.
Enable Full Drive Access to see more information.

End of report

 

[MacInWin]

Good job, Keith! I see nothing in that report to worry about. The two antivirus software report is about Malwarebytes and Apple's own, plus Ad Guard. Nothing to worry about there, but you really do not need Malwarebytes running all the time. For now, you can leave it, but if you want to turn that off, we can give some instructions. It's not doing any harm, but it may not be needed to be running all the time.

The rest of the report seems ok. You do have a piece of software called "iglasses" that I see was installed about the time you said the problems started. When I searched for it, the only places to download were all dodgy sites (Softonic, Download.com, etc). That may well be where the mess came from. The software may be useful, I don't know anything about it, but the website you probably used to get it may have been the source of the problems. There may be a lesson to be learned there about not getting software from these kinds of aggregation sites. To be honest, if you don't need iglasses, I'd delete it. But if you do, it's probably not doing any harm by itself, it was the source that was the issue.

Other than that, it looks OK.

 

[sllewk]

Jake, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the time you have spent on my behalf. It is wonderful to be so helpful to some-one you do not know. Very much appreciated this way; I shall delete Iglasses in the near future. I also think the this thread can be officially closed now, Thanks to all who have contributed their time and knowledge.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

 

[MacInWin]

Keith, we don't close threads here, we just let them age out until somebody comes along and opens it. Then we call it a "zombie" and try to move the zombie-waker to a new thread. That's part of the "fun" here! Come back again anytime, we are open 24/7!

 

[sllewk]

Good morning Jake, Never the less many many thanks to you and every-one else who contributed.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

 

[sllewk]

Jake, good morning> Please allow me to have a wee bit of fun:- 24/7. I will analyse those figures, first 24, that makes me think of hours in one day. We will remember that fact. Now we look at 7, that makes me think of a week, we will also remember that fact. If we now put those two facts together we we get one one day and one week; so whatever is being discussed it operates 'one day per week'. Take it even further and we get 24th July. That means you are in business one day per week or once a year!! Nice going if you can get it! By the way there is a sign on a local shop door 'SEMI-AUTOMATIC DOOR - PLEASE PUSH'.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England

 

[pm-r]

Other than that, it looks OK.

FWIW:

Compatibility Note: iGlasses is not compatible FaceTime or Photo Booth in Apple's macOS 10.14 (Mojave) or macOS 10.15 (Catalina).

iGlasses for Mac - Effects and Adjustments for your Webcam, iSight, FaceTime Camera - Ecamm Network

- Patrick
======