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I am trying to get rid of Genieo which accidentally got installed on my MacBook Pro, when I considered using jEdit. I followed their Download link which appears to be on sourceforge, when the following screen appeared:

Screendump of jEdit download link

I should not have been so naive and I should have read more carefully, but since it is not uncommon in having to push yet another button when downloading and because I though sourceforge was a trustworthy resource, I followed the link, ending up with Genieo installed on my mac.

The result is that I am currently being spammed with Genieo driven popups. I want to get rid of this, but the only howto I can find points to Genieo's site where I can download an uninstaller.

I can't say that I trust a site which uses murky marketing tricks to lure people in using their software in the first place, so I am quite hesitant in downloading their uninstaller. I am afraid of what that might unleash on my Mac.

Is there any way to get rid of Genieo manually?

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  • did you know where it is on your drive? did you use spotlight to find it? another helpful method is to sort your finder files by date
    – Ruskes
    Mar 13, 2014 at 18:26

13 Answers 13

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Is there any way to get rid of Genieo manually?

The only way is to do so manually. Carefully follow Thomas Reed's Genieo Removal Guide to completely rid your machine of the offending adware. Here is an abbreviated version of Thomas Reed's guide:

  1. Quit Genio. Remove /private/etc/launchd.conf.
  2. If it's not present, move on. If it is, trash it and restart the machine (See the warning in the full guide about overlooking this step).

  3. Remove the following files, if present:

    /Applications/Genieo /Applications/Uninstall Genieo /Applications/Uninstall IM Completer.app ~/Library/Application Support/com.genieoinnovation.Installer/ ~/Library/Application Support/Genieo/ ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieo.completer.download.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieo.completer.update.plist /Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieoinnovation.macextension.plist /Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieoinnovation.macextension.client.plist /Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieo.engine.plist /Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieo.completer.update.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.genieoinnovation.macextension.client.plist /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.genieoinnovation.macextension.client /usr/lib/libgenkit.dylib /usr/lib/libgenkitsa.dylib /usr/lib/libimckit.dylib /usr/lib/libimckitsa.dylib

  4. Restart the machine again.

  5. Remove /Library/Frameworks/GenieoExtra.framework and empty the trash.

  6. Remove the Omnibar Extension from your browser. See full guide if you are unsure how to do so.

  7. Reset the Home Page, and possibly default search engine for your browser.

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  • First time my mac get's some sort of virus :( Thanks for the info!
    – gdaniel
    Jan 15, 2015 at 21:13
  • For those of you that get the Java SE 6 runtime is needed to run genieo or whatever after restarting your computer and also AFTER doing the above steps, in the location: /Incompatable Software/ I also found the following files: com.genieoinnovation.macextension.client.plist, com.geneioinnovation.maceextension.plist, Genieo.app, GenieoExtra.framework. Hope this helps, stay blessed
    – Coty Embry
    Aug 22, 2016 at 21:07
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I went to toolbar, on my mac. Genieo was on the top right hand side. I clicked on the icon and pressed "disconnect". This allowed me to move it into trash. It's the most annoying software which was attached to a budget planner. Hope this helps. It worked for me.

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Absolutely do not trust the genieo adware uninstaller, it's known not to work & leaves hidden software behind.

http://www.thesafemac.com/arg-genieo/ works,

as do the similar steps posted on Apple Support Communities :

https://discussions.apple.com/message/25139427?ac_cid=tw123456#25139427

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This program puts itself into the launchd.conf and is launched automatically when the Mac starts up. Temporarily, quit it, or uninstall it.

Then follow the steps below to Remove Genieo and if possible, run the Appcleaner utility to remove the traces.

Make sure you remove/uninstall it from the extensions on browser as well.

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  • 3
    Please write the steps down as an URL-only answer might become useless once the URL dies.
    – Rob
    May 17, 2014 at 11:53
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I got rid of Genieo by Showing Package Content and then moving individual components to the trash. I couldn't empty the trash because my OS said Genieo was still running and I wasn't able to quit it. But since apps can't launch when they're in the trash I did a restart and then I could empty the trash.

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  • did you look for the "running" Genieo using the Terminal "mdfind -name Genieo"
    – Ruskes
    Oct 11, 2014 at 18:57
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This is what they say:

How do I stop using Genieo?

With the following options you can choose to either temporarily deactivate Genieo, or fully uninstall it:

Disable Genieo from the browser button menu. This will stop Genieo's process of mapping browser activities and introducing new content to your Homepage. With this option, you can reactivate Genieo from the browser button menu again.

Remove Genieo's add-on from your browser. Fully uninstall Genieo by following these instructions.

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This is the most annoying thing EVER. Do NOT think that simply by Quitting or Disabling/Disconnecting the Geneio icon at the top that you are done with this thing!! It will come back and ask you if you want to use it as your Homepage/Search Engine and when you click No or Disable, it then becomes your search engine.

To remove it completely, as well as the steps in a post above to search for all of those files in Finder and then trash them - you must also Quit Geneio (at the top right side of your screen) AND remove Omnibar from your extensions. To remove Omnibar - Go to Safari in the Toolbar at the top of your screen --> Preferences--> Extensions icon (Blue pic). Remove to the trash BOTH Geneio AND Omnibar. Turn your computer off and restart before emptying the trash.

Worth also doing a search in Finder for Geneio or Omnibar and delete any of these. After everything is in the trash, restart and empty your trash.

I am finally rid of this thing now it would seem. Removing Omnibar was for me the final step that gave me back Google!

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If you have installed Spotify you ought to remove that too. It was freezing my Google Calendar

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  • This is in no way anywhere near relevant to the question asked.
    – Vogel612
    Oct 6, 2014 at 12:44
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If you get "permission denied" when using terminal to remove the lanchd.conf file, use this command instead

sudo rm -R /Volumes/"your HD name"/private/etc/launchd.conf

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I got this toolbar a few days ago. But luckily, I successfully removed it from my PC by following the manual guide. Open the affected browser and reset the settings. Also, I removed all suspicious extensions and applications from the Program Control Panel. Maybe you can try this way.

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Clean my mac 2 seemed to do a good job for me FWIW

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I just wasted 45 minutes trying to remove this Genieo malware so here goes my solution.

  • If you can, go to another Mac computer and download AppCleaner from Cnet's downloads.
  • Transfer the application to the computer with Genieo installed
  • On the impacted computer, unzip AppCleaner and open the Applications folder.
  • Move the Genieo application to the Trash and empty it afterwards. AppCleaner should take care of the rest
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  • Can you add a link to the app you are using here so others don't have to search for it on Cnet?
    – nohillside ♦
    Nov 1, 2014 at 18:45
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I downloaded uninstall from this site http://www.genieo.com/features/. It works.

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