softonic?

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Hello once again, trouble here with a 'reminder tag' for 'two notifications' on Softonic; it has only been happening these last seven to ten days, it comes up every time I 'wake my iMac and on a blank screen. Through careful searching I have found out "it is part of iTunes"? I neither need or use iTunes, I have other methods of listening to music with much better sound than my iMac. I have used my very limited knowledge of computers to search for the software - softonic but without any success at all. The only things I have found are as follows - it is part of iTunes and can mean trouble of all sorts (malware etc). I have searched with MalwareBytes and get an all clear report from them/it also reports of a softonic toolbar causing trouble??? I am sorry to be so vague but I am not very 'with it' on computers of any sort and can end up doing daft things if I am not very careful!!!

Am I worrying without reason about softonic or is there cause for concern?


Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.
 
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Softonic most certainly is not a part of iTunes. You may have some adware on your system. Download DetectX (see my signature) and see what it turns up. It's free to use for home users.
 
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Hi Lifeisabeach, thank you for your comments, I have downloaded DetectX and I have run it - "nothing found" was the result! I am at a complete loss as to what to do next as two good 'search software' bits of software cannot find it! There must be some software that can find the blasted thing as I am at a complete loss.
 

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Softonic isn't exactly harmful merely annoying at this point. It used to be a decent place to download software but now ads this junk to their downloads. Try this and see if it gets rid of things for you. These directions are for Safari but should be similar for other
web browser:

1. Start Safari and open its preferences )from the Safari menu or press command ,).
2. At top of the window that appears click the Websites tab (Globe).
3. Search the list for Softonic and change the setting to Deny.
4. Click in the General tab (first one) and make sure the settings are as you want them then close the window.
5. Quit Safari then launch it again to see if things are fixed.
 
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HELLO slydude, Prosperous New Year to you and yours. I have followed your instructions and searched the list but Softonic is not on it! It looks like I have picked up a bit of a 'bar steward' on this one, can I just ignore it and hope it will go away?

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.
 
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It will not go away. Softonic puts this crap-ware in any download from them. Looks like they have a new trick. You can try opening Notifications (the icon in the upper right corner of the screen with three dots and three lines, then clear all of the notifications you have received. See if that makes it go away. If not, you may have to go searching the hard way.
 

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Here's to a prosperous New year to you as well.

Have you added any new software recently?

If those messages pop up again, post back and we'll take another swing that things.

Don't, in the name of Queen and country, take a cricket bat to the Mac. While that would be effective it's also quite costly, Besides, spouses frown on such behavior.

×
 
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Here's to a prosperous New year to you as well.

Have you added any new software recently?

If those messages pop up again, post back and we'll take another swing that things.

Don't, in the name of Queen and country, take a cricket bat to the Mac. While that would be effective it's also quite costly, Besides, spouses frown on such behavior.

×
Not to mention the abuse of a perfectly good cricket bat!
 

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It will not go away. Softonic puts this crap-ware in any download from them. Looks like they have a new trick. You can try opening Notifications (the icon in the upper right corner of the screen with three dots and three lines, then clear all of the notifications you have received. See if that makes it go away. If not, you may have to go searching the hard way.

Hi Jake, I have followed your suggestion and it would appear to have worked but I will have to wait until morning when I wake the iMac from it's normal slumber. Many thanks, take care and will speak soon with confirmation. Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.
 
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Did you look in your browsers Preferences > Notifications?
 
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Hi there Ferrari, I have just completed that task and all appears well but as stated will have to wait until the morning when I wake the iMac from it's slumbers.
Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.
Did you look in your browsers Preferences > Notifications?
 
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Softonic still there!

Good morning every one, even though I received some super advice yesterday, (which I followed), softonic notifications are still appearing when I wake my iMac from overnight sleep. I am running Mojave 10.14.6 now, having downloaded it a couple of weeks ago (I think). I will have to keep a log of what I download in the future as my memory is none existent now I am getting on a bit in years. It has been mentioned that "If it is still there I will have to search deeper" (whatever that means). I am at a complete loss as to what to do next; that being so I request some more help please in trying to find softonic on my iMac.

I do have back up in the shape of Time Machine and SuperDuper (on two external hard drives) but do not have a clue as to how to use either bit of software!!! I am NOT computer literate by the biggest stretch of the imagination so please be gentle with me (I bruise easily by the way). Any help will be greatly appreciated this way, and I dread having to take the iMac into town as I use an electric wheelchair to get around when in the city of Derby. Thanks to all who have have suggestions.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.
 

chscag

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Good morning Keith. We combined both of your threads since they are the same subject.

It's a bit late here in the "colonies". Someone will get back to you in the morning.

Regards.
 

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, and I dread having to take the iMac into town as I use an electric wheelchair to get around when in the city of Derby.
Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.
You and I out to get together and have a few wheelchair races. We might be able to make a quid or two in side bets. At the very least we'll give the wives a good scare. :)

Seriously, I'm going to have to think a bit to see if I can think where the remains of that software could be.

@Charlie, Jake, et al If I understand Keith's situation correctly the problematic notifications are occurring when he wakes the machine from sleep. If the Mac is asleep and Keith wakes it at say 8:00 wouldn't that show in the logs along with the event that triggers the problem message.
 

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The logs would be a good place to start. I'll take a closer look at trying to find where the notification is being keyed from sometime in the AM or in the afternoon. Sunday's priority after ministry work is watching football! :wink
 
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Good morning again, I have just looked in notifications and there is another one from softonic; I clicked on it and it brought up a web page from Netflix. Now I have had Netflix in my 'favourites' for what seems absolute ages with no trouble at all, I like to watch "Shaun the Sheep"-- animation gives me some pleasure and wonderment!!! Now thinking on (with my now much addled brain) I do wonder if I remove Netflix from my favourites list will softonic go away? Perhaps a rush of blood in the direction of the brain gives me some hope; very funny "some hope!"

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.
 
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Keith, none of this has anything to do with what the message links into. Netflix is fine. Keep watching Shaun. (I love that animation!) What Softonic is doing is grabbing random bit and pieces and annoying you with links that do nothing, maybe to set you up to click on "yet another link" that is going to be not so innocent. So stop opening the notices.

Can you get a screenshot of what you are seeing? When it appears, press Shift-CMD-5 together. It should make a sound like a camera taking a photo. The screenshot will be on the desktop. I think you are running Mojave, so the shift-CMD-5 will open a little box at the bottom center of the screen, with a brighter box also appearing. The icons on the lower bar will allow you to capture the whole screen or just parts of it. You can read more about that here: How to take a screenshot on your Mac - Apple Support

Anyway, if you can capture the screen, maybe we can do more. So when the next notification pops up, screenshot, upload it here and we can see what is going on.
 

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@Keith Don't try what I'm about to suggest just yet. I'm throwing this out to see if the guys think it's worth trying.

If Keith were to download EtreCheck and run the system report do you think the offending stuff from Softonic would show up? If so, that should tell us the path to the offending files.
 
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Hi Jake, thank you for your unstinted interest, I have a screenshot/Users/keithwells/Desktop/Screenshot 2020-01-19 at 14.35.12.png/ Users/keithwells/Desktop/Screenshot 2020-01-19 at 14.35.12.png but I am batting out of my depth here, have not got a clue what I am doing or even if what I have put on screen is what you have asked for??? After taking the screenshot I deleted the notification but rest assured there will be more. I recall downloading two bits of software recently :- 'google chrome and google earth pro'. Not a big google fan but fancied a change. Maybe softonic arrived piggy back on one or the other?
Having looked at my efforts I do not think you will have what you asked for; I await the next notification to see if I can do better with cmd/shift/4.
Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.
 
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