How to remove a browser hijacker and unwanted toolbars on Mac

If you only want to hide a Chrome toolbar

Not every unwanted toolbar is adware. If it is one of Chrome's own bars:

• The bookmarks bar under the address bar: press Shift-Command-B, or choose View › Always Show Bookmarks Bar to turn it off.
• Extension icons next to the address bar: click the puzzle-piece icon and click the pin next to an extension to unpin it.
• The toolbar in full screen: choose View › Always Show Toolbar in Full Screen to hide it until you move the pointer to the top of the screen.

A bar with a search box, coupons, weather or a brand you don't recognise is different: it was installed by an extension or an app, and the steps below remove it.

Signs of a browser hijacker

• Your searches briefly go through an unfamiliar address before the results appear, or the results come from a search engine you didn't choose.
• The home page or new tab page changes back after you fix it.
• Chrome or Edge shows “Managed by your organization” in its menu or settings, on a Mac that no company or school manages.
• More pop-ups, notifications and ads than before, even on sites that never had them.
• An extension you can't remove, because its Remove button is missing or greyed out.

1. Remove unknown extensions

• Chrome, Edge and Brave: type chrome://extensions in the address bar (edge://extensions in Edge, brave://extensions in Brave) and click Remove on anything you don't recognise or don't use.
• Safari: choose Safari › Settings, click Extensions, select the extension and click Uninstall. Safari extensions come inside an app, so Safari may send you to the Finder to delete that app.
• Firefox: open about:addons and remove unknown add-ons from Extensions.

When you're unsure about one, turn it off rather than remove it, and see whether the problem goes away.

2. Reset the search engine, home page and startup pages

• Chrome: in Settings, check Search engine and On startup, then open Reset settings › Restore settings to their original defaults. This turns off extensions and clears the startup pages, search engine and site permissions, but keeps your bookmarks, history and passwords.
• Safari: in Safari › Settings, set the home page under General and the search engine under Search. Under Websites › Notifications, deny sites you don't know.
• Firefox: open about:support and click Refresh Firefox, which removes add-ons and settings but keeps bookmarks and passwords.

3. If it comes back: profiles and browser policies

When a setting is greyed out, or Chrome says it is managed by your organization, the browser is following a policy set outside it. To see which, type chrome://policy in Chrome's address bar: every forced setting is listed there, such as a search engine, a home page or an extension that can't be removed.

1. Open System Settings › General › Device Management. Unless your workplace or school manages your Mac, select any profile listed there and click the − button to remove it.
2. Quit the browser completely with Command-Q and open it again. Check chrome://policy once more; the list should be empty.

If the policies are still there with no profile installed, adware may have written them straight into the browser's settings files. That is where a dedicated adware check helps.

4. Turn off a proxy you didn't set

Some adware sends all your web traffic through its own proxy to inject ads. Open System Settings › Network, click your Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection, click Details, then Proxies. Unless your workplace set one up, every switch there should be off.

5. Remove the app that brought it in

Hijackers usually arrive with a free download, a fake video player or “Flash” update, or a cracked app, and that app reinstalls them. Uninstall anything you don't remember installing from the Applications folder, then check System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions for items you don't recognise. See how to remove malware from a Mac for the launch agents and other places they hide.

Remove browser hijackers with Tidy My Mac

• Adware checks the settings hijackers change, including management profiles, forced browser policies, system proxies and the hosts file, explains each finding and removes it after you confirm.
• Browser Extensions lists the extensions in seven browsers, every profile included, and rates each by how much it can read and change.
• Startup Items shows what starts with your Mac, with the app each item belongs to, so the installer that keeps bringing the hijacker back stands out.