ReachChoice Mac Malware - How to remove

ReachChoice is Mac malware that gets installed without your permission. It also refuses to be uninstalled. ReachChoice is meant to spy on you and to show you ads in your web browser. There are many versions of ReachChoice that have been plaguing Mac users for months now. Removing them requires you to find and delete the files that keep ReachChoice rooted in your Mac.

ReachChoice is a malicious app and should be deleted:

Type of threat	Adware, trojan.
How to get rid of ReachChoice	Delete malicious files (Combo Cleaner, other security apps), delete files related to the infection, uninstall ReachChoice from your Mac and your browser.
What ReachChoice does	Crashes your web browser, your extensions, and other online apps, messes with your webpages by reading your data and injecting ads.
How to avoid malware	Be careful on websites that show aggressive ads, block malicious sites, scan installers before running them.

How to delete ReachChoice

You can force quit ReachChoice and delete it, but it just comes back, often with a different name. It seems as if it just can’t be deleted normally. Luckily, it’s possible to get rid of it if you can just find the files that are keeping ReachChoice lodged into your Mac.

Before that, though, it may be good to scan your computer with an anti-malware program. Adware infections like ReachChoice come with fake software updates and other malicious downloads and such files should not stay on your computer. Any normal anti-malware tool, like Combo Cleaner, would be good – but stay away from all the malicious apps, like Mac Cleanup Pro or Mac Heal Pro, because these would just bring more trouble.

Then, when the most obvious malware is gone, check if ReachChoice (the app may have changed its name) is still there. If so, quit it: press Command+Option+Escape (press Cmd+Alt+Esc all at once) to open the Force Quit Applications dialogue. Or open Activity Monitor and quit ReachChoice from there. Another route is to start your Mac in safe mode (start your Mac, then hold the Shift button until you see the login screen) – here, most unnecessary apps don’t work.

Next, open your Finder and the Go to Folder dialogue (it’s in the Go menu). Navigate to:

• ~/Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchAgents,
• ~/Library/Application Support and /Library/Application Support,
• /Library/LaunchDaemons.

In these folders, look for files named ReachChoice or another adware name. For example, you may find files like ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.ReachChoice.plist, ~/Library/Application Support/com.ReachChoice/ReachChoice, etc. Delete them.

Keep in mind that many of the files in these folders are important to your applications. If you accidentally delete something important, be ready to bring it back from the Trash.

You should now be able to delete the ReachChoice application and browser extension. If you don’t know how to delete a browser extension, the last section of this article has instructions for the most popular browsers.

Finally, your Mac should be free from ReachChoice and its ads, pop-ups, and instability issues.

 

ReachChoice adware

ReachChoice doesn’t ask you to let it download and install. You can catch a window telling you that it finished installation, but you can’t stop it. It may try to hijack your mouse to try and force you to click buttons to accept its pop-ups. With ReachChoice on your Mac, your browser, browser extensions, and online apps sometimes stop working and your browser may even crash. That’s because ReachChoice affects web browsing:

• It may change your proxy settings. Some people whose Macs had a similar infection noticed that their traffic was being sent to an untrustworthy server. And this setting kept coming back after they disabled it.
• It can fill your web search results and other websites with ads. ReachChoice has the ability to read webpages and change them on the browser that it’s infected (Safari, usually).
• Your browsing activity is probably being recorded for targeted ads later. It’s possible that ReachChoice also records your passwords, credit card number, and other sensitive details – it can, but I don’t know that it does.

ReachChoice is Mac malware. It belongs to a big adware family that includes GlobalAdviseSearch, ProductEvent, AssistEngine, NameSync, ExploreSearchResults, DiscoveryEngine, and a bunch of others. You can see that most of them have the same icon – a green circle with a white magnifying glass.

How Mac adware spreads

You probably didn’t install ReachChoice yourself. This malware gets downloaded in fake software updates (like fake Adobe Flash updates) and other trojans. These usually get downloaded from malicious websites, which you see after following a deceptive ad or a redirect.

These ads and redirects appear on free sports, movie, TV, anime streaming sites, monetized URL shorteners, pirating websites. They are shared in links in social media that are said to point to the newest movie for free, in HD – or something equally unrealistic. Also, malicious ads appear on random sites that were infected with malware.

If you scan the downloaded file with a security program, you have a chance to avoid infections like ReachChoice. Just be careful of online pop-ups that tell you to download things. And consider using real-time web protection or an ad-blocker to stop bad sites from showing up in your browser.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove the ReachChoice extension manually

TopRemoving ReachChoice Mac Malware from Safari (Mac OS X)

• Click on the Safari menu.
• Choose Preferences.
  
• Click on the Extensions Tab.
• Click on the Uninstall button near the ReachChoice. Remove all other unknown or suspicious entries too. If you are not sure whether you need the extension or not, you can simply uncheck the Enable check-box to disable the extension temporarily.
  
• Restart Safari.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to ReachChoice Mac Malware, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the Safari menu on the top left corner of the screen. Select Reset Safari.
  
• Select which options you want to reset (usually all of them come preselected) and click on the Reset button.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

TopRemoving ReachChoice from Chrome

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Google Chrome window. Select “Settings”.
  
• Click “Extensions” on the left menu bar.
• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to ReachChoice Mac Malware. Click on the trash bin icon next to ReachChoice or other add-ons you want to remove.
  
• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.
  
• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.
  
• Restart Chrome.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to ReachChoice Mac Malware, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
  
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on the Reset settings button.
  
• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

TopRemoving ReachChoice from Firefox

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (or press Ctrl+Shift+A on your keyboard).
  
• Go through Extensions and Addons list, remove everything ReachChoice Mac Malware related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to ReachChoice, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
  
• Choose Troubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.