How to get rid of AmpleApp Malware on Your Mac?

AmpleApp is a malicious program that can find its way inside your Mac computer and cause different types of problems.

Macs are usually thought to be more secure than other desktops (such as Windows PCs) because they have a lot of restrictions about what sort of things you can and cannot do.

But even on these secure systems, malware is a problem and one good example of it is AmpleApp.

In this post, let’s take a look at what AmpleApp is, how it can get into your system, and how you can diagnose it and ultimately remove it.

Understanding AmpleApp: What is it?

AmpleApp is basically adware. Once it gets inside your system, it can do different types of annoying things like suddenly showing you ads and pop-ups, etc.

This malware (or adware, to be a little specific) can show up particularly when you’re using your web browser like Chrome or Safari.

This makes it all the more dangerous. Since it is able to access your browser, it likewise means that it can access all sorts of sensitive information without your knowledge.

How Do You Know if Your Mac Has AmpleApp?

There are a couple of different symptoms that can alert you to the presence of AmpleApp on your Mac. Here are a few of them:

1. A lot of annoying pop-up ads: The first symptom of a possible AmpleApp attack on your Mac is that you will start seeing many annoying pop-up ads when using your system. These pop-ups may show up randomly when you’re doing your own work without any sort of prompting or warning.
2. If you are a Mac user, you will know that this type of occurrence is rare – if found at all – on these devices. So if you start to see the ads here and there every now and then, take it as an indication that your system is infected.
3. The notice of “AmpleApp is controlling this setting” in your Internet browser: As we said earlier, AmpleApp can show up when you are using your web browser. One indication of its presence is that when you try to change your search engine, you just can’t. You will be greeted with the alert that AmpleApp is controlling the particular setting.
4. The presence of an AmpleApp application: A more blatant symptom of AmpleApp is the simple presence of an application in your system with the same name. You may start seeing it in the Launchpad.

If you notice any (or all) of the three symptoms in your Mac, it means that you have AmpleApp issues. In that case, you can try out the steps that we’re mentioning below to resolve it.

How to get rid of AmpleApp malware on your Mac?

Here are some of the main methods that you can use:

1.      Find and use a good anti-virus software

The first and most obvious method that you can use to get rid of AmpleApp is to find and use good anti-virus software.

Anti-virus software has a simple enough functionality and it can be easily found online. While we are mentioning this step, particularly for AmpleApp, it’s the first thing you should do in case of any other similar issue as well.

The method of using anti-virus software varies on the one you pick. To help you with the latter, here is a list of some reliable software that you choose: (We’ve picked them from this post on Macworld)

1. Intego Mac Internet Security X9
2. Clario Antivirus 1.5
3. AVG Antivirus for Mac

Once you download and run the anti-virus of your choice, it should find the AmpleApp malware and get rid of it.

2.      Delete the AmpleApp Application and its Associated Files

Using the anti-virus option mentioned above can be useful and all, but you may be a bit wary to install one on your Mac. If that is the case and you want to remove the malware from your device manually, here is what you have to do.

1. First, you need to get rid of the application from your system
2. Then, you need to get rid of the application files (i.e., the program files) associated with AmpleApp
3. After that, you have to go to your web browser and cleanse it of the malware as well

Deleting the application itself is simple. Here is Apple’s guide on deleting apps from your Mac system. You can check it out.

The other steps are a bit more complicated.

Let’s first talk about the “associated” files, as we put it.

If you’re familiar with Windows PCs, you’ll know that when software is installed on the system, it comes with a whole bunch of program files that play a part in its overall running. Just as this is the case with Windows systems, the same is the case with Macs.

For Macs, these complementary and augmenting files can be found at three different locations in the system. These three locations are:

1. LaunchAgents
2. Application Support
3. LaunchDaemons

These are the names of the folders where the associated files are typically kept.

You basically have to visit each folder in your Mac and look for any files that are associated with AmpleApp. Then, you have to delete each of them.

After doing that, you have to move on to doing this same cleansing process for your browsers. We will chalk the process out for Safari since that is the default browser. For the others, you can check out this post.

1. First, open Safari and navigate to the Extensions menu. (Safari > Preferences > Extensions)
2. Then find any extensions related to AmpleApp
3. …delete said extensions
4. And reset your Safari settings to default (this can be done using the “Reset Safari” option

Conclusion

Viruses and malware aren’t the most welcome things on any device – but they can be all the more alarming on a Mac. Macs are considered to be more secure than most devices.

In the post above, we talked about one such pesky malware, i.e., AmpleApp, and how to remove it. You’ll know what to do the next time your Mac starts acting up.