Safari won't let me change search engine

[Ginna Phillips]

I do use superduper. All of my files are backed up again and again. I do have time machine, but haven't backed up to that recently. I'm not really producing much to backup these days. I've gone from self employed to an occasional freelancer with a job so if this computer were to die completely I'd be okay (unless this bing virus is causing larger problems).

I was able to change my default search engine in chrome. From google to yahoo and back. Not sure how to change to duck duck go. it is in the other search engines list but wasn't able to add it. Later on that one.

This not allowing me to use Malwarebytes. I thought I'd successfully disable gatekeeper but it still isn't working. I'm just going to switch to chrome as default and try handle this later. Thank you for your help. I don't recall being demeaning but if it was taken that way I apologize.

 

[honestone]

First, it would have been better if you had correctly stated what you are using for backups. As it is, stating "I've been using Backup my PC" is obviously wrong, and way off base. Where, by the way, did that come from?

Secondly, you STILL have some kind of Bing "virus" on your machine, and unless it started appearing AFTER your last SuperDuper! backup, you still need to get rid of it.

Third, regarding the issue you are having with Malwarebytes (why did you not try ClamXav?), the "gatekeeper" issue is most likely due to the setting in the System Preference entitled "Security & Privacy", and within that under the "General" heading. On that page, you'll see an "area" entitled "Allow apps downloaded from:", with 2 choices below that. I'll bet the one entitled "App Store" is the one "selected" (ie, the circle is filled in). If you change it to "App store and identified developer", that should fix the "gatekeeper issue".

The other thing you can do is to follow the instructions in this link for using Terminal:

http://osxdaily.com/2016/09/27/allow-apps-from-anywhere-macos-gatekeeper/

For sure, that Terminal Command method will work.

It is STRONGLY recommended that you get rid of that "Bing virus". Taking a nonchalant attitude about that is certainly not the way to go. Just because you were able to change the default search engine in Chrome still does not mean everything is fine. That Bing virus might spread even more.

As for making DuckDuckGo the default search engine in Google Chrome, this link explains how to do it:

https://www.omgchrome.com/duckduckgo-chrome-chrome-os/

Here is the link for the DuckDuckGo site:

https://duckduckgo.com/

As for being "demeaning", here is a quoter from one of your posts above:

"I'm frustrated that it feels like some of you are not reading what I've written"

We DID read what you said, even though the part about backing up was not accurate at all.

 

[Ginna Phillips]

I was using Sierra. I haven't skipped any. And yes, I overwrote it.

I just used Reimage to scan. It had one malware threat that it supposedly dealt with but I still can't change search engines. Im not having this problem at all with my laptop, I can change back and forth with no p(I just upgraded to Mojave on that one, this one is too old for that).

Excuse me- mypcbackup. I used ClamXAV on this iMac. I did not change the situation. I'm currently using it on my external drive. It's still processing. As I said, my laptop has no issues. When I finish with that I will reboot from the external and see what happens but it's taking awhile and I have to go to work so it might not be today.

This issue is fairly recent, or at least I changed after the 60 minutes story a month or 2 ago. I don't work on this computer that much now so I didn't notice it at first.

 

[honestone]

From a Duck-Duck-Go search, it looks like Reimage is a "decent" program. Also, you stated that you used ClamXav on your iMac, but that it found nothing. Is that correct?

Also, you state that "Im not having this problem at all with my laptop". This is a really weird one!

On your external drive, do you have SuperDuper! backups of both of your Macs? If so, how "in sync" is the iMac with your laptop? The reason I say that is what you can do is download the last version of High Sierra from the App Store (unless you still have a copy of that installation file), and copy it over to your MacBook Pro SuperDuper! backup. Then boot your iMac from the MacBook Pro SuperDuper! backup, use Disk Utility there to Erase and Format the iMac's internal drive. Next do a clean, fresh installation of High Sierra (via that High Sierra installation file you copied over earlier) onto the iMac, and finally "migrate"/copy needed "stuff" from the MacBook Pro SuperDuper! backup.

Again, all of that assumes both machines are "in sync" enough for you.

 

[Ginna Phillips]

Okay. No they are not it sync. There is a reason but I don't want to go into it. But I can probably use my external drive> I had to switch out the hard drive with a new one in this iMac, which I hadn't used for a year or so (due to the fact that it needed a new hard drive and I was unmotivated). Then one day this summer I knocked my iced tea over onto my laptop. (Sigh) I was able to rescue the hard drive. As I said I'm not using this very often so I put the new one in I super duper the contents of that one to new one. I haven't added much to it since then so I could do that. I was just hoping this was going to be an easier fix.
And I did purchase a newer laptop after that. So I have a laptop, an iMac and external hard drive. And a time capsule which hasn't been used for much more than a router for awhile now.
​

 

[honestone]

OK, just to get things clear:

1. Your newer laptop is fine, was running High Sierra, now Mojave (I assume you upgraded "in place", and hopefully that will be OK), and you are not having these "search engine" issues with Safari. Is that correct?

2. Your 2011 20" iMac is running High Sierra, and you are having "search engine" issues with Safari on that machine. Is that correct?

3. The next question you did not answer, even though I asked it VERY clearly above. So, I will be abundantly clear this time. You have an external drive, and you have been using SuperDuper! for backups. Now for the CLEAR part: do you have that external drive partitioned with at least 2 partitions, and do each of those partitions contain separate SuperDuper! backups for each of your Macs? That is, on partition #1, you have a SuperDuper! backup of your laptop (containing Mojave), and on partition #2, you have a SuperDuper! backup of your iMac (containing High Sierra). Is that CORRECT?

4. Even though the machines (and thus the backups) are not in sync, it would be OK to "migrate"/copy all the non-OS "stuff" (ie, applications, documents, settings, data files, etc.) from your SuperDuper! laptop backup to the iMac. Is that accurate or not?

One other thing: what hardware have you run ClamXav on, and what were the results? At a minimum, you needed to run it to scan your iMac, as that "seems" to be where the "search engine" issue is. But you mentioned above that you were running it "on" your external drive. Again, if it is partitioned, did you let it scan BOTH of those SuperDuper! partitions?

Really need succinct, direct answers to ALL these questions, as it would be very beneficial.

 

[ButchCutch]

I keep trying to change back to google since I seems to have turned to bing and all my pages open with a yahoo search. I may have done this after watching 60 Minutes but I'm hating this search engine. I can't seem to research a question without a billion links to online store sites and nothing at all relevant to my query. AND when I try to change it in preference it won't let me click on any other options.

And every time I look for advice on this I get an elementary stroll to the radio button where they patiently click on the google (or whatever), like I'm my mother or something. It isn't working! It won't allow me to change. Is there a secret way to change this or do I just have to make Chrome my default?

Oh, one other thing I have turned off my extensions already but that didn't help.

I was having a similar issue. Safari wouldn't let me search but but I could access the apple.com and bbc.com website. Turns out the reason why I was unable to search was that my clock on my Mac was set to 4 months ago. Updated to the correct time and bingo I could use google, duck and go etc again. - This may not fix your problem but it may help people who end up reading this thread like I did looking for a solution to the problem I was having.