On this page are removal procedures to delete Similar Photo Cleaner from Mac systems. Also included is simple narrative so that users may understand how this PUP manages to sneak into the computer without consent.
Today, Apple products are becoming more popular, and hackers have seriously taken up the viruses for MAC, which caused the creation of this article. Here we will tell you everything about how the viruses penetrate your device, how you can protect yourself from such troubles, and how to remove the virus that penetrated the system. How to clean up Mac with CleanMyMac 3: Download and install CleanMyMac 3 on your Mac. Launch the program. Go to the Large and Old Files section on the menu. Review the details, select what to clean and then click Clean.
Potentially unwanted program that is targeting Mac systems continue to evolve and is now disguising as another optimization tool named Similar Photo Cleaner. Makers of this suspicious tool are still using the same technique to spread the program – by utilizing a bunch of misleading advertising campaign. Similar Photo Cleaner claims to find and delete redundant copies of digital picture and deletes them automatically to free up hard disk space.
Computer users are unfamiliar that Similar Photo Cleaner is a member of infamous optimizer family that produces a number of doubtful Mac programs including Mac Auto Fixer, Advanced Mac Tuneup, and many others. Once user agrees to run this type of enhancement tool, it will begin to simulate a scan and make it appear that some issues require immediate fixing. This corrupt program pretends to find numbers of duplicate photos, images, and graphic files. Next, Similar Photo Cleaner forces user to pay for the registration key in order for the program to impart full functionality. Without the key and while Similar Photo Cleaner is still on the system, it constantly reminds user on poor system performance due to crammed up hard drive.
Most victims who got Similar Photo Cleaner on their computer have no single hint how it penetrated the system without their knowledge. Users are unaware that they play part on the installation of this potentially unwanted program. Simply clicking on pop-ups and downloading freeware are just some simple and unwary ways to give Similar Photo Cleaner clear path to system installation. Because of this intrusive approach, users ended up looking for ways to get rid of the devious application.
To stop the annoyances and remove Similar Photo Cleaner from Mac system, we are presenting efficient and easy-to-follow procedures on this page. Also included are malware and virus scanners that are vital in removing malicious programs from Mac computer.
Screenshot Image:
Similar Photo Cleaner Removal Procedures
Below are several steps that you should carry out to delete Similar Photo Cleaner unwanted program from Mac computer.
We highly recommend executing both manual removal and thorough scanning of the system using the provided tool.
Fast and Easy Removal with Combo Cleaner
To quickly find and delete rogue programs from Mac system, we highly recommend scanning the computer with Combo Cleaner. This comprehensive and complete tool for Mac is equipped with an advanced virus, malware, and adware scan engines.
1Download Combo Cleaner from the link below.
2Double-click on the file to install the program. As show in the image below, drag the Combo Cleaner.app to Applications folder.
3 Open Launchpad and click on the Combo Cleaner icon to run the tool.
4Click on Start Combo Scan button to begin checking the computer for malicious objects.
Free virus scanner of Combo Cleaner checks and detects various kinds of threats. To remove them from the infected computer, you will have to purchase the full version of Combo Cleaner.
Manual Removal and Additional Scan
Close Similar Photo Cleaner Application
1 Close Similar Photo Cleaner opened window or running application.
2 On your keyboard, press Command + Option + Esc to open Force Quit Applications window. Alternatively, you can go to Finder > Go > Utilities > Activity Monitor.
3 Select Similar Photo Cleaner from the list of running processes and click on Force Quit button.
Delete Similar Photo Cleaner Login Items
4 Go to Apple menu and choose System Preferences from the drop-down list.
5 Open Users and Groups and click on Login Items button to show the list of applications that launches automatically.
6 Please select Similar Photo Cleaner and click on minus button (-) at the bottom of the window to remove this unwanted item.
Manually delete Similar Photo Cleaner items
7 Navigate the Apple Finder and click on 'Go'. Then, select 'Go to Folder'. Alternatively, use keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + G.
8 Copy and paste, or type the following line in the field and press Enter on your keyboard:
/Library/LaunchAgents
9 LaunchAgents folder should open at this point. Look for items with the following names or similar entry:
- com.SimilarPhotoCleaner.agent.plist
- com.SPC.agent.plist
- com.SimilarPhotoCleaner.mdchlpr
- com.SPC.mdchlpr
- Helperspc
10 Move each file to the Trash. This action may require administrator privilege. If you are not logged in as administrator, you need to provide required password.
11 Using the same 'Go to Folder' procedures, open this location:
~/Library/LaunchAgents
12 Look for the same files and folders and move it to Trash.
13 Next, we need to look at Application Support folder. Using the same method as above. Go to this location:
~/Library/Application Support
14 Locate the following items and move it to Trash:
- SimilarPhotoCleaner
- helperspc
- hlprspc
- spchlpr
15 Go back to Apple Menu, click Go, and then select Applications from the drop-down list.
16Delete the following folders just in case they do exist.
- SimilarPhotoCleaner
- helperspc
- hlprspc
- spchlpr
Scan with MBAM to check for Similar Photo Cleaner remaining objects
17Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac from the link below.
18 Drag the downloaded file MBAM-Mac-[version].dmg to Applications folder.
19 Under Applications folder, right-click on Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and select 'Open' from the given choices.
20 After opening the tool, click on the 'Scan' button to start checking the computer for presence of Similar Photo Cleaner and other malware.
21 When scanning is done, the tool will display all identified threats. Be sure to select malicious items.
22 Click on 'Remove Selected Items' to delete the threats.
We hope that the procedures and removal tool on this page was able to help you in removing Similar Photo Cleaner. Your computer should now be malware free.
Though it's not easy to hack into or break through a Mac's security, it is possible, especially if someone accidentally installs malware without realizing it. If your Mac is running slow or you're seeing unusual advertisements within your web browser you might have accidentally installed malware at some point. Don't worry. It happens to the best of us (not me, of course). There are things you can do without having to burn it all down.
The problem: Mac malware in the Library folder
Serenity Caldwell writing for iMore in 2017:
My father-in-law's MacBook Pro had been running into curious slowdowns for a two-year-old laptop and he kept on seeing weird sites taking over his Safari and Firefox search bars. It was clear to me that his browser had been hijacked.
We got rid of the browser hijack pretty quickly — I suggest using Cella's excellent how-to if you ever run into a browser hijack yourself — but the slowdowns were more curious. Upon further investigation, I found a couple of self-professed 'Mac security programs' that popped up, demanding money to 'clean your Mac from junk'.
Spoiler: These programs were the junk. And worst of all, they'd seemingly added a bunch of nonsense files into this computer's Library folder, with random folder names like 'prestidigitation' and 'beeswax'.
Now, I want to preface: I'd never seen an attack like this on a Mac before in my life, and finding this kind of full-Mac hijack is very rare. It's likely that he accidentally installed one of these 'security' programs (or had it installed), which spiraled out of control from there.
These hijacks didn't appear to be able to do much beyond slow down his machine with endless failed attempts to run a program — the process didn't have admin permissions, so it couldn't execute a thing from the library. But because they were there, they were constantly crashing aspects of his Mac. I knew I had a malfunctioning laptop on my hands, so I turned to my age-old troubleshooting checklist.
How to fix a corrupted Mac
If you're working on a computer that has slowed down beyond reasonable aging or is otherwise acting beyond the pale, here are my favorite tactics you can take to try and restore it to its former glory.
Update the system software
This is almost always the first thing I do when troubleshooting Macs: Chances are, the user hasn't installed a security update or other software updates that may be slowing their computer to a crawl.
- Click on the Apple menu icon in the upper left corner of the screen.
- Select App Store to open the Mac App Store.
- Click on the Updates tab at the top of the Mac App Store window.
- Install all relevant updates. (You may need the Apple ID and password for the machine.)
If the computer is running macOS Sierra, you can avoid having to do this troubleshooting step in the future by turning on Automatic Install in System Preferences, which can automatically download newly available updates in the background, and install them overnight.
- With the Mac App Store open, click on App Store in the upper left corner of the Menu bar.
- Click on Preferences.
- Under Automatically check for updates, check the following boxes:
- Download newly available updates in the background
- Install app updates
- Install macOS updates
- Install system data files and security updates
Check the disk for errors
If software updates aren't doing the trick, the next thing to check is the hard drive itself. With Apple's Internet Recovery partition, fixing a cranky drive is an easy process.
- Restart your Mac.
- During reboot, hold down Command-R until it starts up.
- Once rebooted, you should be in the Internet Recovery Partition. Select Disk Utility.
- Click Continue.
- In Disk Utility, click on the First Aid button,
- Click on Run to execute.
Your Mac will then run a cursory check on its hard drive to determine if there's anything wrong — and if so — if it can fix it.
Reset the NVRAM/PRAM and SMC
If neither app updates nor disk repair are helping, sometimes a good cache flush can get your Mac running just a bit more smoothly.
To reset the NVRAM (or, on older Macs, PRAM), reboot the Mac and hold down the following keyboard command during startup for at least twenty seconds: Command-Option-P-R.
After you reset your NVRAM, you may be required to reconfigure some system settings (like sound and time zones), which are stored in that cache.
An SMC reset is a bit more complicated, and Apple recommends it only after all other troubleshooting avenues have been exhausted.
If you're using a laptop:
- Shut down your Mac and plug it in.
- Restart the computer by pressing the Power button along with the keyboard command Shift-Control-Option.
- Release these keys, then just press the Power button to properly start your computer.
If you're using a desktop:
- Shut down your Mac.
- Unplug it and wait for at least 20 seconds.
- Plug the Mac back in and wait 5-10 seconds.
- Restart your Mac with the Power button.
Partition your disk (or erase it)
After exhausting all other avenues, this was the solution we came across to properly fix the broken laptop. The hard drive had been so corrupted by these 'security' programs that there was nothing I could do to fix it. When Safari launched over the login screen after a reboot, I knew my usual fixes wouldn't work: It was time to bring out the big guns.
In most cases, I'd grab an external drive, back up the corrupted disk, then wipe the drive clean with the Internet Recovery partition and start over. But there were a couple of reasons that wouldn't work here:
- We were on vacation, and lacking any sort of external media.
- With a semi-corrupted disk, we couldn't just clone the user folder and restore the new disk from a backup — we'd have to do a clean install, which meant moving files over one by one. If we'd missed something and moved all the old files to an external drive, my father-in-law would have had to carry it everywhere just in case.
Given that this laptop had a 500GB hard drive — only 40GB of which was being used — I had an alternate idea: I'd partition the drive, again using Internet Recovery, and install macOS Sierra on the new partition. Essentially, it would be a 'clean' new computer for my father-in-law to work on, but all the original data would still exist on the old partition in case he needed to grab a file.
Note: In order to partition your drive, you'll need enough free space on your drive to do so — at least 30GB. If you're light on space, you may want to back up your corrupted disk to a USB drive, instead.
How to create a partition on your Mac
- Open Finder from your dock.
- Select Applications.
- Scroll down and open the Utilities folder.
- Double-click to open Disk Utility.
- Select your hard drive in the Disk Utility window. It will be the first drive on the list. It might be named 'Fusion,' or 'Macintosh HD.'
- Click on the Partition tab.
- Click the plus (+) button.
- Change the size of the partition you wish to use by dragging the resize controls. The used space is represented in blue.
- Name the new partition.
- Click apply.
Disk Utility will check the disk and make changes. This will take several minutes.Disk Utility will then make the changes. After that's completed, quit Disk Utility to return to the main Internet Recovery menu.
- Click on Reinstall macOS.
- Click Continue.
- Click Agree to agree to Apple's licensing agreements.
- Choose the New Mac hard drive as the disk you'd like to install macOS onto.
- Press Install.
- The Mac will download a fresh copy of your operating system from the App Store and will install it. The speed of this process entirely depends on your Mac's connection speed to the Internet. You can wait an hour or longer on a slower connection.
- Your Mac will restart automatically into the new partition once the software has downloaded, then the installation of the operating system will continue.
After you finish setting up the new hard drive, it's time to move your files over. Because of the way partitioning works, your old hard drive partition will show up next to your currently-active partition, just like an external drive; you can then grab any files you need from it.
- Launch a Finder window.
- Under Devices in the sidebar, locate your original Macintosh HD.
- Copy any files you'd like to keep from your old hard drive to the new machine.
Note: If you want to copy over applications, I'd strongly suggest redownloading them from the source — the Mac App Store or the company's website — rather than trying to copy them over from the old partition.
From here, you can follow instructions for setting a Mac up from scratch when it comes to installing and customizing anything else.
I generally recommend keeping the old drive partition around for at least a few months in case you or your family member forgets to move something over; after that period, however, you can easily delete the old partition and move to the new partition full time.
Consider additional anti-malware protection
While malware on the Mac is rare, it does crop up, as we've demonstrated. Having the right tools to get rid of malware can be an important part of keeping your Mac safe and secure. There are a number of tools that you can choose from, including popular programs like BitDefender and Kaspersky, that will help you keep malware from infecting your Mac.
Questions?
Do you have any must-follow troubleshooting steps? Let us know in the comments.
Updated July 2019: Added a sub-section regarding anti-malware protection.
Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this guide.
Keep yourself secure on the web
Main
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.
Wow!Apple patent reveals amazing new in-car capabilities
An Apple patent published November 7 could reveal some pretty exciting new in-car features that Apple is working on.