softonic?

[sllewk]

Jake, good morning and I must inform you that my son in law is not in the slightest any sort of a computer expert, he has one (Windows er----10 I think). Knows how to switch it on/off and that about sums it up. My other son in law works with computers as a machine operator and refuses to play with them outside his place of employment. So I am up the creek without a paddle as regards any technical help. Post number 59 is my only option.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

 

[sllewk]

Hi, I am still battling Softonic as all my suppliers of the required vehicular transport are either down with the flu or otherwise engaged and I need that transport and labour. Now I have had a thought (oh you mad impetuous fool), if I reinstall Mojave from a thumb drive I have in stock I come to a couple of silly questions:- will doing that throttle Softonic and stop it in it's tracks and if I do it how much stuff would I loose? Better still I have back up in the form of SuperDuper and also Apple Time Machine. Now that might work (he said with tongue in cheek) IF I knew how to work either one or the other, I am running Mojave 10.14.6 but I am not really with it to do this sort of thing. Please do not get peed-off with me on this one, I am getting towards the end of my tether to be honest. At lunch time today I had 17 offers from Softonic having cleared them on Saturday lunch time.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

 

[MacInWin]

Keith, sorry you are still engaged in combat with the evil Softonic. If you do a clean installation of the OS, that would kill the Softonic demon. However, that would also erase all of your personal data on the machine (documents, pictures, whatever you have created) and you would need to reinstall your software that you may have added as well. In other words, it would be like going back to the day it came from the factory.

Restoring from Time Machine or the clone is definitely a possibility, even more so if they were created BEFORE the softonic attack. But if they were created after the attack, the backups may well have the same nasty software as you are seeing now.

So, in order to help with the decision, a quick set of questions:

1. Do you have anything you don't want to lose that you created or added to your iMac?
2. Do you have any software that you installed that you want to keep?
3. Would you be ok if the iMac was back to as it came from the factory?

To be honest, if you aren't comfortable doing what we suggested in the earlier posts in this thread the whole reinstall/restore process may well be beyond your skill level.

How about this: Get Etrecheck ( EtreCheck ) and install it, then run it to get the report. Save the report, then copy the entire thing and paste it into a post here so we can read it. We'll see if we can find where Softonic is getting started so we can kill it for you without the reinstall.

Etrecheck is pretty good and not difficult to run. Just go to the website I gave the link for, download it and you will find a .zip file in your Downloads folder. Double click on the zip file and it will extract the application into your Downloads folder. You don't need to do more, you can then run the software directly from there. You may get a warning that it came from a source that Apple is unaware of, but you can just open it anyway as it is perfectly safe. Pick a reason for the scan (it doesn't matter, pick anything) and the box to execute the software will activate. It will scan everything on your system and eventually show the report. In the left column, scroll to the bottom and there will be an icon labelled "Report" that has the data we need. Click on the report icon. On the top bar of the Etrecheck window will be a "Share report" button. Click it and then "Copy Report" (you may get a note about saving it and other stuff). Now come back to this website, open up a reply and press CMD-V to paste the entire report into the replay.

A few steps there, but nothing terribly difficult. What you are doing is running the report, then the Copy will put it on your clipboard and then you will paste it from there to a post here with the CMD-V keyboard shortcut. Easy, just follow the steps.

 

[pm-r]

Sorry if I missed on the details previously, but how are you receiving all the annoying softonic stuff?

There must be a way foryou to block them or kill them And a clean install can be rather ruthless with the loss of a lot of personal dada.

Patrick
---------

 

[MacInWin]

Patrick, to summarize the thread, we really don't know where the annoyances are coming from. Keith has been unable to upload any screenshots of the notifications, if that is what they are, and all searches for the offending app have been fruitless thus far. Keith was going to have the system taken to an Apple store, but has been unable to do that. I suggested etrecheck because it's pretty easy to use and to get the report into a post so we can see what is going on. Keith's technical skill level is, to be honest, not high, as evidenced by his inability to get the screenshots uploaded to a post even with fairly complete directions.

 

[Slydude]

@Keith If you can hang on tilll some time this coming weekend I can do a short video that shows exactly how to download and run EtreCheck and post the results to the forum. If I had been thinking I could have done that this past weekend.

Are these annoying messages occurring at the same time of day or is there some other pattern to when they appear? Apologies if you have covered this already and I missed it.

 

[Rod]

I had an idea that Softonic has a download manager of sorts, much like other similar sites. If you are wise you will notice you can perform a direct download but the site does everything it can to point you in the direction of using their app manager. It’s likely that might be responsible for notifications.
If that’s it a search with Find Any File should show it and allow it to be deleted.
FAF is available free from Thomas Templeman here: Thomas Tempelmann - Find Any File

 

[Slydude]

Good thinking Rod. That never occurred to me.

 

[MacInWin]

Been suggested already. Softonic hides under different names. Read the thread. Many good suggestions made already.


Sent from my iPhone using Mac-Forums

 

[Rod]

Aw, must’ve missed that on the other 4 pages.

 

[pm-r]

Patrick, to summarize the thread, ... ... ...
Keith was going to have the system taken to an Apple store, but has been unable to do that. I suggested etrecheck because it's pretty easy to use and to get the report into a post so we can see what is going on. Keith's technical skill level is, to be honest, not high, as evidenced by his inability to get the screenshots uploaded to a post even with fairly complete directions.

Thanks for the summary update Jake. My normal reading seems to be getting interrupted these days.

Anyway...
It sounds like it would be worth hiring a home visit Mac tech to get the problem resolved.

I'm sure there should be some good ones about that don't charge an arm and a leg.

That should certainly solve the problem, and money well spent.


Patrick
..........

 

[Rod]

Every time I try to write down what I think of as a fairly simple process in unambiguous point by point form I realise how complicated the process really is.
I guess it’s the old adage; “It’s easy when you know how.”
Keith, I’m sure if you had done as many clean installs of macOS as I have you wouldn’t need our help.

 

[sllewk]

To every-one, good morning; the time has come to bare all. At the age of getting on to 86 years old my mind is going pear shaped and I am showing signs of Dementia. Things I know I could do two years ago are beyond me, I cannot remember things my wife tells me in the morning when it comes to lunchtime. Oh no, I do NOT want pity - all I require is understanding when I pose silly questions and give daft answers. Things change on a daily basis in my slowly diminishing memory. Nevertheless I battle on as best I can.

On the computer front Windows was all right whilst on XP and then got worse until Windows 10 drove me to almost throwing the blessed thing out of the window. It was then that a visit to the local Apple store (Not Apple Shop but a franchise) set me up on an Apple in the shape of an Apple mini. Things moved on until in a large box one birthday came my iMac 21.5 inch model. Joy upon joy I had arrived, a new iMac, boy oh boy was I happy or what? Now I am in deep trouble of my own making; things are so blasted complicated and beyond my present capabilities. I am completely lost and that takes a lot of courage to quote to the wide world. My family are at best sympathetic and an endless source of support for which, in good moments, I am eternally grateful. Sorry to blether on but that about sums it up - thank you for putting up with me.
Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

 

[sllewk]

Hi, After my last post (#73) where I bared my soul I had what I thought was a massive surge in the brainbox:- why not do a system restore using Time Machine? Well I did and went back to December 2019, all went well because I used my MacBook Pro as a cheat sheet and followed instructions from there. This took place about 11.00hrs and as I type this I have found softonic is still there!!! I now pose the question asked a few posts ago:- has the "Company" who run Softonic stolen my ID (eg my IP address)? I am now completely banjaxed and I feel I must now await my son-in-law's visit. We will travel in his car into the great metropolis.I cannot explain my feelings at this moment.

Very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

 

[MacInWin]

Keith, you can rest assured that Softonic has not stolen your ID. They may have your IP address (that is public and therefore knowable, just like your street address) but they cannot do anything to the Mac that you haven't authorised. Just remember that you should not click on any of the links Softonic may send you, and to NEVER give out any financial information to any website unless you absolutely KNOW that it is someone you can trust. Banks and financial institutions will NEVER contact you on the internet or by email to ask for account information, so if you get an email asking for that, or a notification, or a prompt on a website, ignore it and call the bank or financial institution directly.

Sorry the restore on TM didn't go back far enough.

I am convinced that if we could get a screenshot of what you are seeing, or an etrecheck report of what is happening, we could fix this for you. Do you have any neighbors who might be able to assist you with that? Someone you trust? Even if they are relative novices, the various instructions in some of the posts are pretty explicit in how to accomplish that.

 

[MacInWin]

Aw, must’ve missed that on the other 4 pages.

Rod, this is a long thread. He's tried Malwarebytes, DetectX. Nothing. We tried to get a screenshot of what he is seeing, but he couldn't get the images to load. I think he tried FAF, but Softonic hides under names not related to Softonic, so that isn't going to succeed. Etrecheck was suggested several times, but again we don't have the report, if it was run.

What I suspect is that he downloaded something from Softonic and has something installed that is producing the nagging "notifications" he is seeing. From his descriptions I think it is just advertising from Softonic coming in through either his browser or an installed app. Could also be email, or texts from Softonic. We simply don't know exactly what is the vector for Softonic to nag him this way.

The really annoying thing is that this is probably a ten minute fix, if we can just see what is actually happening to his system! I know how frustrating it must be to him to have the issue and to be dependent on others to get it sorted.

 

[sllewk]

MacInWin,/Users/keithwells/Desktop/Screenshot 2020-02-10 at 15.06.51.png. I am so sorry but the line of letters and numbers is the only way I know of making a screen shot :- command-shift-4 all held until you left click , then move the cursor to object required, when you unclick a small object appears on your desktop, but you will know all about that move. Any other method is unknown to me -- sorry. I then click on the object and drag and drop where you need it to be. So sorry, I am being thick and stupid again!

very best regards from Keith in Derby England.

 

[sllewk]

Jake, the picture I have on my desktop changes to numbers etc when I drag it into Mac Forums. K

 

[MacInWin]

Keith, you are very close to getting it done. Once you have the image, instead of drag and drop, which does NOT work on this website, you have to upload the image. In post 24 and 27 I gave some pretty basic directions on how to do that. When you drag and drop the image, all we see is the name of the file that is on your computer. We need to be able to see the image, which requires that you upload it to here in a post, as described in post 24 and 27.

 

[sllewk]

chscag, hello I have tried to download reimage cleaner but MalwareBytes sees it as trouble (malware). Now as I have a paid for version of MalwareBytes I cannot find a method of dis-ableing it. By the way, do you have many useless twits like me on the forum?

Regards from Keith in Derby England.