Bing has hijacked Safari on my MacBook Air

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Bing has hijacked Safari on my MacBook Air

Over the past couple of days, I’ve noticed that Bing is suddenly coming up as my search engine and my browser window appearance has changed. It’s more difficult to access my bookmarks because it’s thrown all sorts of garbage that I have to go through to get to my actual bookmarks folder. A couple of weeks ago I installed Ad Blocker Plus (free) and the issues began this week. I uninstalled ABP but I can’t get rid of Bing. I have changed my browser preferences but of course, it doesn’t help. I found some fixes on apple support but they’re from 2019 and 2022, so I expect solutions may have changed. I’m using DuckDuckGo now. My MacBook is about 10 years old, and the most recent version iOS that it will let me install is Monterey, so that’s what I’m running. Help if you can!

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Jan 21, 2025 1:40 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

John Galt

Level 10

148,254 points

Jan 21, 2025 2:51 PM in response to reginafromeasley

Read and follow Removing "Search Marquis" / "Search Baron" etc on your own - Apple Community. The salient point is to capture and post screenshots of those three folders. If you need help please write back.

FYI the Adblock Plus app is legitimate and free: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adblock-plus-for-safari-abp/id1432731683. If you downloaded something called Ad Blocker Plus or something like it from a source other than the Mac App Store it is likely to be malware. Not to worry, just start with those three screenshots please.

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

148,254 points

Jan 22, 2025 3:36 AM in response to reginafromeasley

Great! Glad it helped.

You can also use EtreCheck (link below), a comprehensive system information gathering and reporting program, which would readily identify any system-altering components responsible for the browser redirect you described.

https://etrecheck.com/en/index.html

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Answer 3

Jan 22, 2025 3:46 AM in response to reginafromeasley

Here is the solution :

Check Safari Settings:

Open Safari.
Go to Safari menu > Settings (or Preferences) > General.
Ensure your Homepage setting is correct. If it's not your preferred homepage, change it.
Navigate to the Search tab and confirm your preferred search engine.

Clear Caches and History:

In Safari, go to the Develop menu (you might need to enable it in Safari menu > Settings > Advanced > Show Develop menu in menu bar).
Select Empty Caches.
Then, go to History > Clear History… and select all history.

Remove Suspicious Extensions:

Go to Safari menu > Settings > Extensions.
Look for any suspicious or unfamiliar extensions and uninstall them.

Check for Malware:

Use a trusted malware scanner to check your system for any unwanted programs that might be causing the issue.

Reset Safari:

If everything else fails, you might want to reset Safari to its default settings1. This will remove all your data, so make sure to backup any important information.

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Answer 4

Jan 21, 2025 7:19 PM in response to John Galt

Thank you - I can't even recall a few times over the years that I've downloaded something without thinking it over first. I'll keep these instructions for future reference. I saw that first suggestion before you answered, and I did try it, but it seems that Monterey doesn't bring up all the same folder options. However, whatever I DID do, following those instructions worked! So thanks, and thank you also for the tip on Adblock plus for Safari.

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