Skip to main content

Remove Mac Tonic virus

This entry explains why Mac Tonic is a potentially unwanted application, how it infiltrates a computer, what the impact is, and how to uninstall it from Mac.

There are plenty of reasons why the Mac Tonic utility doesn’t belong inside your Mac. First and foremost, it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing as it purports to optimize the host system and keep it safe from malware but actually behaves like a virus itself. A major giveaway is right on the program’s official website mactonic.net – its support section redirects to a page crammed up with references to Advanced Mac Cleaner, a notorious rogue optimizer that has been wreaking havoc for years. The light-fingered vendor didn’t even bother changing that. The affiliation with the above-mentioned harmful prototype isn’t the only wakeup call. Mac Tonic goes further in its claims – not only does it pretend to be a performance enhancement tool, but also it allegedly delivers security features, pseud ones of course.

Mac Tonic GUI, the Uninstaller feature

If it works, don’t touch it – this is probably one of the fundamental principles of the cybercriminals behind Mac Tonic as far as the distribution is concerned. Reluctant to reinvent the wheel, they continue to spread the toxic payload via a vast network of bundling related schemes. In other words, the culprit mainly arrives with multi-component installations, where the core app is benign and even useful, but the additional entities are certainly not welcome. The catch is that the presence of the bundle is not disclosed in a straightforward way, so people move on with their installs while having no clue that something else will creep into their Macs alongside the free Flash Player, video downloader or whatever program is mentioned in the clear.

Tons of disk usage issues ‘found’ by Mac Tonic

Once the potentially unwanted app is inside the host, it establishes persistence by adding a corresponding object to the login items. This way, the rogue will be launched every time the Mac is booted up. Once executed, the Mac Tonic virus displays a scan that mimics a thorough system traversal in search of redundant startup entries, duplicate files, disk usage issues, failed downloads, Flash bugs, memory malfunctions, as well as security threats. In compliance with the well-trodden tactic of its precursors, the pest will report a slew of problems on the Mac, even if it’s brand new and the user hasn’t had the time to get piles of unnecessary junk onto it. In addition to the recurrent scanning routine, the phony tool will also trigger annoying popup reminders about the numerous issues that were supposedly detected and need urgent fixing.

Logically enough, this activity boils down to duping the victim into registering the licensed version of the counterfeit cleaner, otherwise it won’t “repair” anything. Of course this is all bluff and the only right thing to do in such a scenario is uninstall Mac Tonic without hesitation and delay. Here’s what you need to do.

Mac Tonic malware manual removal for Mac

The steps listed below will walk you through the removal of this potentially unwanted application. Be sure to follow the instructions in the order specified.

• Open up the Utilities folder as shown below

Open up the Utilities

• Locate the Activity Monitor icon on the screen and double-click on it

Locate the Activity Monitor

• Under Activity Monitor, find the entry for Mac Tonic, select it and click Quit Process

• A dialog should pop up, asking if you are sure you would like to quit the Mac Tonic executable. Select the Force Quit option

• Click the Go button again, but this time select Applications on the list. Find the entry for Mac Tonic on the interface, right-click on it and select Move to Trash. If user password is required, go ahead and enter it

Malicious app icon under Applications

• Now go to Apple Menu and pick the System Preferences option

Pick the System Preferences

• Select Accounts and click the Login Items button. The system will come up with the list of the items that launch when the box is started up. Locate Mac Tonic there and click on the “-“ button

Malicious entry under Login Items

Use automatic tool to uninstall Mac Tonic virus from your Mac

The Mac maintenance and security app called Combo Cleaner is a one-stop tool to detect and remove Mac Tonic virus virus. This technique has substantial benefits over manual cleanup, because the utility gets hourly virus definition updates and can accurately spot even the newest Mac infections.

Furthermore, the automatic solution will find the core files of the malware deep down the system structure, which might otherwise be a challenge to locate. Here’s a walkthrough to sort out the Mac Tonic virus issue using Combo Cleaner:

  1. Download Combo Cleaner installer. When done, double-click the combocleaner.dmg file and follow the prompts to install the tool onto your Mac.

    Download Combo Cleaner

    By downloading any applications recommended on this website you agree to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. The free scanner checks whether your Mac is infected. To get rid of malware, you need to purchase the Premium version of Combo Cleaner.

  2. Open the app from your Launchpad and let it run an update of the malware signature database to make sure it can identify the latest threats.
  3. Click the Start Combo Scan button to check your Mac for malicious activity as well as performance issues.

    Combo Cleaner Mac scan progress

  4. Examine the scan results. If the report says “No Threats”, then you are on the right track with the manual cleaning and can safely proceed to tidy up the web browser that may continue to act up due to the after-effects of the malware attack (see instructions above).

    Combo Cleaner scan report – no threats found

  5. In case Combo Cleaner has detected malicious code, click the Remove Selected Items button and have the utility remove Mac Tonic virus threat along with any other viruses, PUPs (potentially unwanted programs), or junk files that don’t belong on your Mac.

    Combo Cleaner – threats found

  6. Once you have made doubly sure that the malicious app is uninstalled, the browser-level troubleshooting might still be on your to-do list. If your preferred browser is affected, resort to the previous section of this tutorial to revert to hassle-free web surfing.
0

Was this article helpful? Please, rate this.

There are no comments yet.
Authentication required

You must log in to post a comment.

Log in