How to remove search.epolife.com browser hijacker from Mac? What is search.epolife.com? Search.epolife.com is a fake Internet search engine identical to search.jakecares.com, search.javeview.com, and many others. On initial inspection, this dubious site may seem legitimate, however, be aware that this site gathers various information about your web browsing activity. Mac CleanUp Pro is an application which may easily make changes to your Safari browser without your agreement. The application operates as a browser hijacker and has the ability to impose some sponsored homepage domains, search engines and toolbars on your Chrome, Firefox, Safari or any other browser that you are using as your default.
Review this guide to learn what the Trovi adware is, how it compromises computers, and how to completely remove it from an infected Mac machine.
Update: March 2019
Malware-free macOS is unfortunately turning into a delusion at a steady pace. The good news is it’s not as susceptible to viruses as Windows, but potentially unsafe applications such as adware have been capable of compromising Mac machines for quite a while now. The infection which is the subject of this article is called Trovi, and it’s an extreme nuisance and a big time web surfing experience spoiler. This potentially unwanted code is commonly flagged by antivirus utilities as adware, that is, a program taking advantage of hijacked Internet traffic in order to monetize it and promote certain services. It has been in circulation since 2014 and hasn’t undergone any filtering or blacklisting countermeasures up till the present moment. Five years after discovery, the malware continues to make new victims who are at their wit’s end trying to get rid of the irritating redirects and bring serenity back into their digital lives.
The Trovi threat is known to be closely affiliated with Conduit, or Conduit Search – one of the prevalent homepage hijackers in the wild. So if you’ve got one on your machine, the other is probably there as well. Just like its Conduit satellite, Trovi is distributed as part of freeware whose spreading pattern in no way presupposes declaring that any sort of bundle is coming along. Scrutinizing the Terms of Service for random free multimedia utilities or browser helper objects might help avoid the contamination but, first off, not necessarily, and secondly, there aren’t a whole lot of users doing that as a rule.
This adware changes the web browsing preferences on the infected workstation, namely the values for homepage and default search engine. The Mac versions of Chrome, Firefox, as well as Safari therefore start to act up, constantly returning www.trovi.com or trovigo.com instead of the URLs for the above settings previously configured by the user. There is no actual danger stemming from the landing web page for this adware except for the annoyance aspect. Trovi.com bears a tangible value to its creators, though, because it displays ads to the victims. Whether you click on those banners and sponsored links or not, it’s profitable to Trovi authors. Also, while having no real search functionality in itself, this service redirects all searches to Bing.
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Trovi may re-infect your Mac multiple times unless you delete all of its fragments, including hidden ones. Therefore, it is recommended to download Freshmac and scan your system for these stubborn files. This way, you may reduce the cleanup time from hours to minutes. Download NowLearn how Freshmac works. If the utility spots malicious code, you will need to buy a license to get rid of it.
Trovi may re-infect your Mac multiple times unless you delete all of its fragments, including hidden ones. Therefore, it is recommended to download Freshmac and scan your system for these stubborn files. This way, you may reduce the cleanup time from hours to minutes. Download NowLearn how Freshmac works. If the utility spots malicious code, you will need to buy a license to get rid of it.
On top of the conspicuous browser redirect activity, the Trovi malware deploys a sort of reconnaissance on the plagued Mac. In particular, it drops tracking cookies and gathers the victim’s sensitive data, such as the browsing history, email address, and details of account logon instances. The architects of this campaign then take advantage of the harvested information themselves or sell it to third parties that may conduct targeted phishing attacks and generate spam. The longer the infection remains on board a computer and active, the higher the likelihood of identity theft.
It’s worth pointing out separately that although you only see the impact of Trovi in the way your web browsers behave, it spreads its cyber tentacles much further than that and drops malicious components into multiple paths in the host Mac. The goal of this multi-level compromise tactic is to establish persistence and prevent easy cleanup. That’s why the removal of this adware should be performed in several stages that include resetting the affected web browsers and eliminating the malicious app proper. Below are detailed instructions on what needs to be done.
Trovi manual removal for Mac
The steps listed below will walk you through the removal of this malicious application. Be sure to follow the instructions in the order specified.
- Open up the Utilities folder as shown below
- Locate the Activity Monitor icon on the screen and double-click on it
- Under Activity Monitor, find the entry for Trovi, select it and click Quit Process
- A dialog should pop up, asking if you are sure you would like to quit the troublemaking process. Select the Force Quit option
- Click the Go button again, but this time select Applications on the list. Find the entry for Trovi on the interface, right-click on it and select Move to Trash. If user password is required, go ahead and enter it
- Now go to Apple Menu and pick the System Preferences option
- Select Accounts and click the Login Items button. The system will come up with the list of the items that launch when the computer is started up. Locate Trovi there and click on the “-“ button
Get rid of browser redirects to Trovi.com
To begin with, settings for the web browser that got hit by the Trovi virus should be restored to their default values. The overview of steps for this procedure is as follows:
- Reset Safari
- Open the browser and go to Safari menu. Select Preferences in the drop-down list
- Once the Preferences screen appears, hit the Privacy tab at the top. Find the option that says Remove All Website Data and click on it
- The system will display a confirmation dialog that also includes a brief description of what the reset does. Specifically, you may be logged out of some services and encounter other changes of website behavior after the procedure. If you’re okay with that, go ahead and click the Remove Now button
- In order to selectively clear data generated by certain websites only, not all of them, hit the Details button under the Privacy section of Safari Preferences
- This feature will list all websites that have stored potentially sensitive data, including cache and cookies. Select the one, or ones, that might be causing trouble and click the appropriate button at the bottom (Remove or Remove All). Click the Done button to exit.
- Reset Google Chrome
- Open Chrome, click the More (⁝) icon in the top right-hand part of the window, and select Settings in the drop-down
- When on the Settings pane, select Advanced
- Scroll down to the Reset settings section. Under the Restore settings to their original defaults option, click the Reset settings button
- Confirm the Chrome reset on a dialog that will pop up. When the procedure is completed, relaunch the browser and check it for malware activity.
- Reset Mozilla Firefox
- Open Firefox and select Help – Troubleshooting Information
- On the page that opened, click the Reset Firefox button
Get rid of Trovi virus using Freshmac automatic removal tool
When confronted with malicious code like Trovi on Mac, you can neutralize its toxic impact by leveraging a specially crafted system utility. The Freshmac application (read review) is a perfect match for this purpose as it delivers essential security features along with must-have modules for Mac optimization.
This tool cleans unneeded applications and persistent malware in one click. It also protects your privacy by eliminating tracking cookies, frees up disk space, and manages startup apps to decrease boot time. On top of that, it boasts 24/7 tech support. The following steps will walk you through automatic removal of the Trovi Mac infection.
- Download Freshmac installer onto your machine. Double-click the Freshmac.pkg file to trigger the installer window, select the destination disk and click Continue. The system will display a dialog asking for your password to authorize the setup. Type the password and click Install Software
- Once the installation has been completed, Freshmac will automatically start a scan consisting of 5 steps. It scans cache, logs, unused languages, trash, and checks the Mac for privacy issues.
- The scan report will then display your current system health status and the number of issues detected for each of the above categories. Click the Fix Safely button to remove junk files and address privacy issues spotted during the scan.
- Check whether the Trovi redirect problem has been fixed. If it perseveres, go to the Uninstaller option on Freshmac GUI. Locate an entry that appears suspicious, select it and click Fix Safely button to force-uninstall the unwanted application.
- Go to Temp and Startup Apps panes on the interface and have all redundant or suspicious items eliminated as well. The Trovi malware shouldn’t be causing any further trouble.
![Why Does Advanced Mac Cleaner Keep Coming Back From Trash Without Why Does Advanced Mac Cleaner Keep Coming Back From Trash Without](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126254904/531458411.jpeg)
So, your Mac is running out of storage. You try to figure out what’s taking up your disk space by clicking the Apple logo on the top-left of the screen, selecting About This Mac, and hitting the Storage tab.
To your surprise, you see a yellow bar representing “System” that seems to occupy way more space than you think it should. In the example above, it only shows 33.87 GB, but take a look at this Apple discussion — some Mac users report that System Storage takes an astonishing 250 GB.
![Why does advanced mac cleaner keep coming back from trash without time Why does advanced mac cleaner keep coming back from trash without time](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126254904/870247706.jpg)
Worse yet, you have no idea what’s included in “System” storage, because clicking the “Manage” button brings you to this System Information window… and the “System” row is greyed out.
Why does my Mac system require so much space?
What does it contain?
Is it safe to remove some of those system files?
How do I regain more storage space?
Questions like these may easily get to your head. Although my Mac now has a good amount of disk space available, I’m always wary of files that are taking up more space than they should.
I have no idea why “System” is greyed out while “Documents,” “System Junk,” “Trash,” etc. allow you to review the files based on size and type. My hunch is that Apple does this on purpose to prevent users from deleting system files that could lead to serious issues.
What Files Are Included in System Storage on Mac?
During my research, I found many people report that Apple counts iTunes backup files and app caches (e.g. Adobe video cache files) in the System category.
Since it’s greyed out and we are unable to click on that category for deeper analysis, we’ll have to use a third-party app to assist.
CleanMyMac X is perfect for this kind of analysis. Since I tested the app in our Mac cleaner review, it immediately came to my head when I saw “System” was greyed out in Storage. Note that CleanMyMac isn’t freeware, but the new “Space Lens” feature is free to use and it allows you to scan your Macintosh HD, and then show you an in-depth overview of what’s taking up disk space on your Mac.
Step 1:Download CleanMyMac and install the app on your Mac. Open it, under “Space Lens” module, first click the yellow “Grant Access” button to allow the app to access your Mac files and then select “Scan” to get started.
Step 2: Soon it’ll show you a folder/file tree and you can hover your cursor over each block (i.e. a folder). There you can find more details. In this case, I clicked “System” folder to continue.
Step 3: The file breakdown below indicates that some Library and iOS Support files are the culprits.
The interesting part is that the System file size shown in CleanMyMac is much smaller than the size shown in System Information. This puzzles me and makes me believe that Apple definitely has counted some other files (not real system files) in the System category.
What are they? I have no clue, honestly. But as reported by other Mac users who experienced the same issue, they said Apple also considers app caches and iTunes backup files as System files.
Out of curiosity, I ran CleanMyMac again for a quick scan. That app found 13.92 GB in iTunes Junk. Further review revealed that the junk files are old iOS device backups, software updates, broken downloads, etc.
But even after adding this amount to the original system files returned by DaisyDisk, the total size is still a bit less than what’s returned in System Information.
If cleaning the System Storage is still not enough to bring your Mac available disk space to a normal level (i.e. 20% or more), see below.
What Else Can I Do to Reclaim More Disk Space?
There are tons of ways out there. Here are a few of my favorites that should help you get back a decent amount of space quickly.
1. Sort all files by size and delete old large files.
Open Finder, go to Recents, and look at the Size column. Click on it to sort all recent files by file size (from large to small). You’ll have a clear overview of what items are eating up a large amount of space, e.g. From 1 GB to 10 GB, and from 100 MB to 1 GB.
In my MacBook Pro, I found a few large videos that could be transferred to an external drive.
Note: If the Size column doesn’t show up, click on the Settings icon and select Arrange By > Size.
2. Run CleanMyMac.
If you are not a power Mac user, another way to help you quickly locate unnecessary files is using CleanMyMac, an app that won our award for the best Mac cleaner software. As you can also see in my detailed review here, I believe CleanMyMac is a must-have app for all basic users.
3. Remove duplicate files with Gemini 2.
Don’t forget those duplicates and similar files! They can stack up without you being aware of it. Finding them is sometimes time-consuming. That’s what Gemini 2 is designed for. Simply select a few frequently used folders (e.g. Documents, Downloads, etc.) in the main zone of Gemini.
It then scans them and returns all the duplicate files that might be worth removing. Of course, it’s always a good practice to review them before doing so. You can also read our Gemini review here.
Wrapping It Up
Ever since Apple introduced the Optimized Storage feature on macOS Sierra and High Sierra, users got the option of saving space by storing content in the cloud. Apple also has several new tools that make it easy to find and remove unneeded files.
That bar under the Storage tab is beautiful. It does allow you to get a quick overview of what’s taking up the most space on our hard drive. However, it still lacks insights on the “System” category as it’s greyed out.
Hopefully, the guides above have helped you figure out the reasons you’ve got so much “System” data, and most importantly you’ve reclaimed some disk space — especially for new MacBooks pre-installed with flash storage (usually 128 GB or 256 GB) — the storage is so precious!