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Can't unistall SecureAnywhere from Mac OSX

  • 20 January 2013
  • 64 replies
  • 4738 views

Hello,
I've been trying for hours to uninstall an expired trial of SecureAnywhere that keeps annoyingly prompting me to register.
 
Every time I drag to the Trash or try a tool like AppZapper, it says I can't uninstall because SecureAnywhere is running.
 
So then I go to Activity Monitor to kill the process. That seems to work for a moment, but then SecureAnywhere is running again.
 
Please help.
 
Thanks,
Jack
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Best answer by akim 24 January 2014, 18:54

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64 replies

Userlevel 7
Hi transcendev
 
Further to your reporting your situation I was just wondering what your current status is or isn't ;) in relation to WSA.  I suspect that it is the latter rather than the former...but we always like to know here in the Community...just incase a cause is not lost.
 
It would be good to hear your news.
 
Regards
 
 
Baldrick
My status wrt WSA?  I had purchased a three-seat license.  It is still active on the two (Windows) machines on which it has not yet misbehaved as it did on the Mac.
Userlevel 7
Hi transcendec
 
Thanks for the feedback.  Are you going to try a reinstall on your Mac or have you given up with WSA on that platform? Reason I ask is because whilst there do seem to be a few more install issues IMHO re. OSC, from what I read, there are many happy users of WSA under that OS.
 
It may therefore be worth any attempt, especially given that yo unow have the failsafe way of removing WSA should the same happen again.  Just a thought.
 
Have a great weekend.
 
Regards
 
 
 
Baldrick
This post helped tremendously; however, I did have to do a few extra things to get the program to reinstall. I noticed that Webroot also had two daemons running, WSDaemon and WFDaemon were the names if I remember correctly. Located at /usr/local/bin. I had to do the exact same thing for both of them in order to get the program to reinstall. If you leave them running, then you will still have a bit of Webroot on your system. Just go to the directory, chmod -x both of them, then kill them and you are good to go. After that I was able to reinstall and get Webroot to activate and update.
Userlevel 7
Hi theblueone4040
 
Welcome to the Community Forums...http://www.forumsextreme.com/images2/sBo_bouncing.gif
 
Thank you so much for your input...I think that this is an very valuable contribution to the Community 'knowledge' about this issue and something that we should certainly asking or advising any future users unfortunate enough to have a similar issue to check for.
 
Again, thanks so much for taking the trouble to feedback...this is just what we need & like iin the Community.
 
Hope to see you around?
 
Regards
 
 
Baldrick
same problem that keeps annoying me …every 50 seconds can't get my work done and the suppress process doesn't work !!!How do I uninstall that????
I'm glad you found a way, as for me I haven't yet and I don't really understand how you did what you did….I'm so upset by this thing …:(
Userlevel 7
Hi MARLOWE
 
Welcome to the Community Forums...http://www.forumsextreme.com/images2/sBo_jumping.gif
 
Sorry to hear that you have a problem...may have missed a post from you but would you be able to describe your problem?  I presume that it relates to being unable to uninstall WSA running under OSX?
 
If you have tried the advice/suggestions made in this thread and they have had no success then I would recommend that you Open a Support Ticket and provide Support with all the information on your issue/what you have tried yourself to resolve it, etc.
 
If however you need further help with the suggestions made in this thread then please post back and we will see what further we can do to help, or PM the poster of the suggestion and see if they can provide you with more detailed information as to their suggestion, ;)
 
Regards
 
 
Baldrick
I have they told me to phone I'm in France if you add the jet lag and the price of the call this is going to be pricy….But do I have the choice? English is not my native language …Really regret having installed this software ...
Userlevel 7
Hi MARLOWE
 
I am not sure I follow what is going here with Support but perhaps we can check with our Community Manager, as to whether he know as to whether there is an alternative to a phone call?  I presonally have never had to call Support, I have just communicated with them via the Support Ticket or by them connecting to my PC to have a look at the issue/carry out some changes to see if they would resolve the issue.
 
Hi Nic @ any other options for MARLOWE to get support for his uninstall issue?  Just wondering if a remote session would be possible (cheeky of me to ask...I know :p)
 
Regards
 
 
Baldrick
 
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Yeah I would suggest either corresponding by email or by chat, if he's having problems with phone.
Userlevel 7
Hi Nic
 
Thanks...for the confirmation.
 
Hi MARLOWE
 
If you have opened a Support Ticket then please update it to explain to Support your circumstances and to ask them to communicate with you by email or by chat (remote session) as suggested by Nic.
 
Regards
 
 
Baldrick
I did open a ticket support and update it…They told me to call a number but what a number the number doesn't work!!!!???
I'm stuck here, I'm a teacher and work a lot from home but this has become impossible ….this is most annoying! I'm resent installing this programme.
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
I'll put in a request to have them contact you again and figure out a method that works for everyone.  Sorry you had a bad experience!
I also had the issue of getting repeated prompts about "installation failed" and needing to re-enter the code, and being unable to kill/uninstall Webroot Antivirus.
 
I followed the suggestions posted by user Web_Rot a couple of pages back.  In my case, there were three processes running that I had to change permissions on before I could kill them and then uninstall:
  • /usr/local/bin/WFDaemon Webroot Mac Web Filter Daemon
  • /usr/local/bin/WSDaemon Webroot Mac Security Daemon
  • /Applications/Webroot SecureAnywhere.app/Contents/MacOS/Webroot SecureAnywhere
I'm reasonably happy with Webroot on my Windows PC's, but the Mac version is appaling.  I won't be reinstalling it until Webroot demonstrate they have half a clue about OSX.  Officially posting a method to remove the broken software that actually works would be a nice first step.  Developing software that didn't need these sort of hacks in the first place would be vastly better.
Userlevel 7
Badge +62
:DHello,https:///t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/20596, I also have an Mac with WSAC installed on it. You can launch Activity Monitor and shut down the Webroot down first and Drag and drop files associated with Webroot to the trash.
 
But mostly my advice would be to issue a support ticket right away with support remotely handling this uninstall and reinstall. If you've really want to handle it correctly without frustrations let Webroot Support do it for you.
 
Don't give up yet they are your best bet for uninstalling Webroot properly, via install.
 
So sorry for your issues here, My WSAC is running without a hitch with Mavericks OS,
 
Best Regards, Sherry
 
Sorry forgot to mention Welcome to the Webroot Forum Community where we all are here to help and support.
I know it's been several months since anyone posted, but I have the same problem so I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents for anyone getting this forum in Google results (as I did this morning).
 
EDIT: I suggest that only ADVANCED users attempt the following.  Serious damage COULD happen if done incorrectly.   For the average user, it would be best to have assistance of a Webroot Support.  (shorTcircuiT)
 
I followed what Web-Rot, Transcendev, gedaso, and theblueone4040 did. Thanks! For you Google searchers, here's the synopsis. As root:
ps aux | grep Webroot  (to find the process #s)
kill process # (kill each number for the daemons too - WSDaemon and WFDaemon)
chmod -x /Applications/Webroot SecureAnywhere.app/
chmod -x /usr/local/bin/WFDaemon
chmod -x /usr/local/bin/WSDaemon
 
So that got the annoying zombie pop-up to stop harrassing my user, but I couldn't delete the files and subdirectories with plain old rm -rf. Crazy to be root and be denied permission to folders (is this a Mac 'nix thing?) So even at the command line, I couldn't get rid of Webroot stuff!
 
But wait! At the suggestion of a learned colleague, I used rsync. Create a tempory empty folder, then rysnc it to /Applications/Webroot SecureAnywhere.app/ using the delete option:
 
rsync -r --delete tempempty/ /Applications/Webroot SecureAnywhere.app/
 
And boom done! Use carefully! I assume if you're following this and understand it, you'll be careful using rsync --delete !
 
So now my user can get back to work until Webroot tech support gets back to me. I submitted a ticket this morning but in the meantime I had to do this so she could work. I can understand earlier poster's frustration. As a sysadmin, to be logged in as an administrator/root, and yet be denied the ability to remove software or delete files/directories is an unpleasant feeling. I feel like when one is root, one should take no guff from software like this. From the GUI, meh, okay, protect users from themselves, but at the command line? Maybe there's a good reason, but it is frustating.
 
All that said, I have no problems with our Windows installations, and will be giving the Mac installations another shot as we upgrade to Yosemite and re-install the latest Webroot for Mac. Will report back if there is good info from tech support.
Userlevel 7
Badge +62
Hello ehumphrey,
 
Welcome to the Community!
 
Sorry to hear about your frustrations.
 
I'm not an expert with Mac commands. But I had to uninstall Webroot recently and I was able to uninstall Webroot from the safe mode without any problems. I am also running Yosemite with WSAC. without any issues.
 
Please do let us know what Support does for you for this would help alot of Mac users,
 
 
Best Regards,
 
Thank you,:D
Sherry,
We're still on Mavericks but moving to Yosemite later this week. Yay, I'll finally be rid of thes SMB/Windows share problems!
 
I had the same problem as others-- the persisten pop-up that would just report an error after entering the license key, the inability to uninistall via the desktop methods-- right-clicking on Webroot in the Applications folder>send to trash, nor by dragging to the trash. Trying to open the Webroot application to see if there was anything I could do there just resulted in the pop-up coming back.
 
As I noted, I will attempt to uninstall now that I have the processes stopped and reinstall after updating to Yosemite. I'll report results as I get them!
Userlevel 7
Badge +62
Hi ehumphrey,
 
Thank you so much ..there seems to be the problem of Mac users not being able to uninstall  Webroot.
 
I really appreciate you posting back..
 
Will be waiting for a response whenever you can.
 
 
Best regards!:D
 
 
Hi all, I'll add my name of mac users who can't uninstall the "Green W".  My problem is that when I try and drag it to the trash, it says "The item "Webroot SecureAnywhere" can't be moved to the Trash because it's open".  So I try and force-quit it and it doesn't respond.  If I try and open it, I get an error message saying "The application "Webroot SecureAnywhere" can't be opened.  -600"
 
so, I can't close it, can't open it, and can't delete it.  Eek!!!  Any help would be appreciated.
Scotland Chuck
Userlevel 7
Badge +62
Hello and Welcome to the Community Forum, @ 
 
 
I also have a Mac and I haven't a problems when following the instructions, Reboot the Mac first ok?
 
To uninstall Webroot SecureAnywhere, follow the instructions below.
  1. Shut down SecureAnywhere by clicking the Webroot icon [img]http://sw.nohold.net/Webroot/Images/wsa_icon.png[/img] in the menu bar and selecting Shut Down SecureAnywhere. [img]http://sw.nohold.net/Webroot/Images/macwebrootmenushutdown.png[/img] If prompted, confirm that you want to shut down SecureAnywhere.
  2. Open the Finder by clicking the Finder icon [img]http://sw.nohold.net/Webroot/Images/mac_finder_icon.png[/img] in the dock.
  3. Open the Applications directory. [img]http://sw.nohold.net/Webroot/Images/mac_click_applications.png[/img]
  4. Click and drag the Webroot SecureAnywhere program icon into the Trash [img]http://sw.nohold.net/Webroot/Images/mac_trash_icon.png[/img] in the dock. A confirming window appears. Click Uninstall. [img]http://sw.nohold.net/Webroot/Images/macuninstallwsa.png[/img] Webroot SecureAnywhere is now uninstalled. There is no need to restart your computer.
If this doesn't work then please go into Safe Mode and uninstall Webroot from there. If you still have porblems then Contact Suppot free of charge with an active subscription.
 
Hope this helps!
 
Best Regards,

 
Hi Sherry,
 
I don't have any Webroot Icons in the Menu Bar
 
Also, when I try and drag the icon into the trash, i get the message "The item "Webroot SecureAnywhere" can't be moved to the trash because it's open"  and I can't close it (see original message)
 
plan B???
 
SC
Userlevel 7
Badge +62
Hi!

Can you open the Activity Monitor located in the Launch Pad and force Webroot to quit? And try to follow instructions in uninstalling Webroot again.

Edit: You might want to issue that support ticket! If you haven't got Webroot in the menu bar.
Just reporting back-- after getting the pop-ups to stop, I was eventually able to get this fully resolved with the help of a remote session with the Mac expert tech at Webroot. He had to do some command line stuff in a terminal... sorry I forgot what is was! How useless of me.
 
I was watching him enter the commands and was thinking huh, that's what you need to do, ok! He said he would send me the commands so I didn't make an effort to copy them down. I forgot about it and I assume he did too as I don't have them.
 
Ah well, short answer, tech support is needed to console in to get the installation working properly.

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