How To Disable the Antivirus on Mac

Have you installed an antivirus on your Mac computer, which is creating conflicts with other apps or causing slow system performance? Luckily, you can disable the app and get rid of your issues quickly.

To make the process easy for you, we took the time to write a comprehensive step-by-step guide on disabling antivirus on Mac. We’ll also discuss disabling a Chrome antivirus extension and hiding the AVG icon in your Mac Menu bar. 

Disabling the Antivirus on Your Mac

If you are wondering how to disable antivirus on your Mac, our following 2 step-by-step methods will help you go through the entire process effortlessly.

Method #1: Using the Spotlight Search Box

The quickest way to disable antivirus on a Mac is through the Spotlight search box with these steps.

1. Click the Spotlight button on the menu bar, represented as a magnifying glass.
2. Type in the name of your antivirus on the search field and select it from the list.
3. Once the antivirus interface is opened, search for the “Disable”, “Stop”, or “Turn Off” options and click on them.
4. Click “Yes” or “OK” on the next screen to confirm your action, and the antivirus will be disabled on your Mac.

Method #2: Using the Mac Menu Bar

You can also disable your Mac antivirus directly from the Menu bar in the following way.

1. Access the menu bar at the top of the Mac screen to see the installed antivirus.
2. Click the program, and a new drop-down menu will appear on the screen. 
3. Click “Disable” or “Stop” and confirm this action by clicking “Yes” or “OK”.

Disabling the Chrome Antivirus Extension on Your Mac

If you have been using Chrome on your Mac and installed an antivirus extension, you can disable it with these steps.

1. Launch Chrome on your Mac and go to the browser menu by clicking the three dots at the top right corner.
2. Click “More Tools”.
3. Click “Extensions”.
4. Switch the toggle next to your antivirus extension to disable it on your Mac Chrome browser.

Hiding the AVG Antivirus From Your Mac Menu Bar

If you don’t want to see the AVG icon on your menu bar, you can hide the app instead of disabling it in the following way.

1. Click your installed antivirus on the menu bar and select the “Open” option.
2. Click “AVG Antivirus”.
3. Click “Preferences”.
4. Under “General”, uncheck the box beside the “Show AVG antivirus icon in the taskbar” option, and the AVG icon will disappear from your Mac menu bar.

Warning Signs After Disabling the Antivirus on Your Mac

After disabling the antivirus on your Mac, examine the following warning signs and enable it if needed.

• Mac is performing slowly while running various software or during online browsing.
• The system is often freezing or restarting in the middle of a task.
• Mac’s web browser is changing the default Home page or search page. 
• Files and folders are taking a long time to open and won’t open at all. 
• Mac is displaying error message pop-ups frequently. 
• Processes consume all of the RAM or CPU resources.
• The system’s disk space is diminishing dramatically. 

Quick Steps To Resolve Virus Threats on Your Mac

If you suspect your Mac is infected with malware after disabling the antivirus, boot it in Safe Mode and verify that the system is running normally. Afterward, do these verification steps in the Normal Mode.

Head to the Activity Monitor, click the “CPU” tab, and look for the running processes that seem unfamiliar to you. Then, analyze the same kind of activity for the “Bytes Written” under the “Disk” tab, the “Memory” column under the “Memory” tab, and “Sent Bytes” under the “Network” tab.

Next, search for the unrecognized data on Google and force-quit or quit the process. Activate the antivirus again and run the scan to eliminate the malware in the system.

If somehow the malware is still present on your Mac, turn off the Wi-Fi, and re-scan with the antivirus. You can also boot into Safe Mode and manually delete the malicious data and apps.

Summary

In this guide, we have discussed how to disable antivirus on your Mac computer. We’ve also discussed the warning signs of an infected system after disabling the protection.

Moreover, we’ve also elaborated on a few methods to dig deeper into finding out the processes and tasks that may have been affected by a virus and causing your Mac to perform sluggishly. 

Hopefully, your question is answered in this article, and you can now quickly turn off the antivirus to stop consuming precious resources to complete your on-hand tasks. 

Frequently Asked Questions