Antivirus for Mac, with real-time protection

Do Macs need antivirus?

macOS has good protections of its own: Gatekeeper checks who signed an app, XProtect blocks known malware, and notarization means Apple has scanned what a developer ships. But all three are about apps. Malware for the Mac also arrives as a disk image from a fake download page, a script inside an archive, a pirated app, or an attachment someone forwarded, and it often only needs you to open it once.

A second opinion on what you download is cheap insurance. Tidy My Mac's antivirus checks files before you open them, and it also checks the places malware hides afterwards: the launch agents that start it at every login.

Real-time protection for what you download

With Real-time protection on, Tidy My Mac watches your Downloads and Desktop folders, at any depth, and scans each file as it arrives or changes. It waits for a browser to finish writing a download before scanning it, so a half-finished file isn't reported.

Real-time scans use the same generous limits as a Deep scan, so installers and disk images, where downloaded Mac malware usually comes from, are scanned in full rather than skipped for their size. Photos, video and audio are left out.

Real-time protection runs while Tidy My Mac is open. Files that arrive while it is closed aren't missed: when the app next opens, it picks up where it left off and scans everything that landed in the meantime.

Quick, Normal and Deep scans

A long scan doesn't have to finish in one sitting. If you quit the app, cancel, or an update restarts it, the scan remembers how far it got, and you can resume it from there instead of starting over.

You can also schedule a Quick virus scan to run daily or weekly, and Tidy My Mac sends a notification with the result.

Quarantine, not deletion

Anything the antivirus finds is moved into quarantine, a folder of the app's own, with its permissions to run removed, so a double-click can't start it. Tidy My Mac remembers where each file came from and which threat it matched.

From the Quarantine list you can Restore a file to exactly where it was, if you are sure it is a false alarm, or Delete it for good. Each threat is labelled by severity, and ClamAV's harmless test files (such as EICAR) are shown as test files, not as threats.

Virus signatures that stay current

Scans run against ClamAV's signature databases, which Tidy My Mac downloads from ClamAV's own servers and keeps up to date on a daily schedule, checking for changes at most every 12 hours. ClamAV verifies each database's digital signature before loading it. A snapshot ships inside the app, so even the first scan works without an internet connection. Signature updates are included in your trial and subscription.

What stays on your Mac

Full Disk Access

macOS protects Desktop, Documents and Downloads with a separate permission for each folder. Tidy My Mac asks once for Full Disk Access instead, at first launch. Until it is granted, scans leave those folders out rather than raise a macOS prompt for each one, and real-time protection waits until it is on. You can revoke it at any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access.