Can’t Uninstall NETGEAR Armor for macOS

1. Click on an empty area of your desktop or click the Finder icon  in the Dock. Finder is the icon that looks like a blue square with a smiley face.

 

2. Next, click Go at the top left of the screen, on the menu bar, and select Go to Folder… from the menu.

 

3. Type in /Library and click Go or press Return/Enter on your keyboard. The Library folder will open.

ⓘ Note:

• If some files and folders we are going to mention below no longer exist on your Mac, only delete the ones still available.

• If you encounter errors while trying to delete any of these items, continue with the Uninstall method 2.

 

4. Inside the Library folder, open Application Support and delete Antivirus for Mac and Netgear, highlighted in the image below.

 

5. Go back to the Library folder and delete the Netgear folder.

 

6. While still inside the Library folder, open the Extensions folder and delete these three files: FileProtect.kext, SelfProtect.kext and TMProtection.kext.

 

7. Next, open the Applications folder and delete Antivirus for Mac and Bitdefender folder.

 

That’s it! NETGEAR Armor for macOS was successfully removed.

ⓘ Note: The steps below work only on macOS Catalina 10.15 and older macOS versions. Find out which macOS your Mac is using. On Big Sur 11.5 and more recent macOS versions, please use the first uninstall method.

If you have a backup disk, we recommend you make a fresh backup before proceeding any further. Check out this article for more details – How to back up your Mac with Time Machine.

 

 

1. Restart your Mac and press Command (⌘)-R during the restart until you see the Apple logo. In some cases, you will be prompted to choose the language. Choose your desired language and click on the arrow at the bottom to continue.

 

2. The Utilities window will be displayed (this example is for Sierra OS, but it looks very similar to the previous OS versions).

 

3. Select Disk Utility and then click on Continue

4. Select your startup disk (in the example, Macintosh HD):

• If it’s already mounted, you will see the Unmount option. In this case, proceed with step 5.
• If it’s not mounted, click on Mount. If it’s locked by FileVault, you will be prompted for your administrator password to unlock it. Enter the same password you use for Mac login.

 

5. Quit Disk Utility to return to the Utilities window: click on Disk Utility in the menu bar (next to the Apple logo) and select Quit Disk Utility or simply close the window.

 

6. In the menu bar click on Utilities and select Terminal.

 

7. In the Terminal window type the following set of commands.

ⓘ Warning: Make sure you type the commands exactly as you see them below. Failure to do so may result in data loss.

Press Return/Enter on your keyboard after entering each command line:

LS /Volumes/ cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/Extensions/ LS rm –rf SelfProtect.kext LS cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/ LS rm –rf Netgear LS

 

That’s it! NETGEAR Armor edition was successfully removed. You can now restart macOS in normal mode. To do that, click on the  Apple logo in the top menu bar and choose Restart.