McAffe Antivirus Removal Tool

Hi Italiabella,

I'd suggest you download and use the following application to remove "all" components of McAfee from your system.

https://www.revouninstaller.com/

I've been using this product for years and it has never let me down. What you want to do is use the Forced Uninstall option in it. Whilst it's not free to use forever, you can install the 30 day fully functional trial and then simply uninstall it once it's done what you need it to do.

If you choose to install it and need help on how to use it, don't hesitate to ask here and I'll be happy to step you through what you need to do.

Hope that's helpful.

Regards, Andrew

sorry i forgot to tell you this is an iMac. and i did use a macaffe unistal tool years ago and it worked like magic. but i forgot where i found that magic tool,

Hello Jazz,

please help me a little bit. i rest the how to document you sent. But i don't see anywhere where to download the unistaller for Mac. What am i missing. the Mcaffe antivirus has already been uninstalled from the programs. i need a tool that clean whatever left over is still in the system. i remember that years ago i run a Mcaffe removal tool and in 5 minutes i was able to install the new Norton.

where can i find the clickable download removable tool in your how to please.

Andrew, i also use revounistaller, but in this case the antivirus is already gone. so how revounistalled can help me ?

No problem. In the future, you can also add another tag to specify the Mac OS X alongside of Anti-Virus Apps too to help indicate to EE members which OS if you forget to specify in the post initially too.

Sorry as well, since you removed it, you may need to take another route, not sure if it will let you re-install McAfee again with the tool back or if it still detects lingering files. Did you reboot after the removal? 

Also, if you've decided on Norton that's or wish to test it out thats quite alright, just provided a few more tips in my post above reg. anti-virus options and web browser safety.

yes i rebooted and thank you for you recommendation but i am happy with the Norton. i just need to find some help finding and downloading the right Mcaffe removal tool. removing the lingering files.

any suggestion ?

so you are saying that in a mac if i reinstall Mcaffe it will come with an uninstaller ?

It should based on what they are stating in their article if its still current that is, or you may get an error stating McAfee still exists already when you attempt a re-install, one or the other could occur or the install back again may just fail.

Otherwise if that fails, I would also refer to first very bottom portion of the KB article I came across since I too cannot find that tool online - see below about looking at the productconfig files, but of course do not reinstall McAfee a third time. Potentially, you could contact McAfee Support directly  they should know exactly which files to eliminate causing the conflict error on your Mac OS X or may be able to assist with helping use that tool or verify if the KB article is outdated or if the tool name etc changed., I assume their support technicians deal with those types of situations a lot where remnant files cause errors.

You may be able to search for McAfee files on your station manually then delete and remove them from the trash, but its possible they are deeply rooted in the system so you may need a third party tool as Andrew suggested:

McAfee KB - How to install, configure, uninstall McAfee software on macOS (TS101226) 
source screenshot:



Forgot to ask when you initially removed it did you have web browsers Safari, Chrome, others open at the time, their KB article mentioned "ensuring browsers were closed down lingering extensions or plug-ins tied to McAfee could exist there too." If you do a quick keyword search on your Mac in Finder for McAfee does anything come up overall also without trying to re-install it. Do you find any files that way tied to McAfee as well?

ok thankyou Jazz!

I also added an updated comment in my previous post at the bottom about the browser extensions or web browsers also. How's it going?

Hello Everyone,

finally i was able to solve this problem. I called McAffe techcnial support and they told me that there are not removal tools for a Mac. but they run 6 strings command and removed completely the antivirus. i asked for those strings so i could have shared them with you all, but they didn't gave me to me. they said if i need again to call back in :)

thank you everyone,

Thanks for letting us know! Glad its resolved and removed fully! I wish they would add the "6 strings of commands" for Mac to their KB article section too, which would definitely help others in the same situation when transitioning to other AV products. Thanks for trying to share the steps though. Good to know McAfee support was able to extinguish the remnants another way.

Thank you for closing your question and updating us with the result Italiabella. Quite a few askers don't bother doing that and it frustrates a lot of Experts to the point where they'll sometimes not bother helping that member with future questions. I'm also very pleased to learn your problem has been resolved :)

Andrew, i also use revounistaller, but in this case the antivirus is already gone. so how revounistalled can help me ?

It involves using the "Forced Uninstall" function of Revo Professional, but as you've mentioned McAfee is already gone, a bit difficult to step you through it. Have a read of how it works in Revo's Help documentation.

Kind regards,

Andrew