Cleaning up left over BitDefender Uninstall Files, BD continues to drain battery

[blueflower]

Hi everyone I am brand new to Mac OS with a M1 Air. I had a free BitDefender subscription after buying a laptop and decided to use it on my Macbook. Problems started almost immediately, to cut a long story short since installing BD battery life has been chopped to 4 hours a day from all day into the night. I spent 20 minutes awhile ago removing every bit of bit defender from the computer all folders, files etc. However, the battery life still seems to be dropping. On windows i used CCleaner to remove all left over application files after an uninstall. Used the mac version of CCleaner but it doesnt seem to have that option.

Can anyone suggest software that I can use to rid my macbook of this horrible program (which to my mind is more of a virus than an anti-virus) and restore my battery life?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Pull up Activity Monitor - Applications Folder > Utilities > Activity Monitor and click on "Energy." That will show you the apps / processes that are using the most energy (battery).

Did you reboot your Mac after the uninstall? If not, you need to.

 

[blueflower]

Thank you for replying. Currently, activity monitor only shows Opera and MS Word as significant energy users. The battery life just does not seem to be holding up as well as yesterday since installing BD though sighs. At 64% now. Oh yes I did restart after uninstalling.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I highly recommend using AppCleaner (free) moving forward. https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

How comfortable are you with using your new Mac? If you felt comfortable, you could erase your drive and reinstall Big Sur. Granted, that is a bit overkill. However, it might be quicker than trying to hunt down and remove hidden bits and pieces of the old program.

Edited to add: From what I just read, BitDefender has a built in uninstaller. Did you happen to use that before using CCleaner?

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/1784/

 

[Honza1]

Applications which install kexts and/or start services etc., which very likely includes BitDefender, cannot often be fully uninstalled by AppCleaner type applications. The best here is probably install BitDefender again and run its uninstall script. And never install again antivirus software on macOS. It is source of way too many issues and problems. macOS does not need protections, it has its own defenses provided by Apple --- and you need to defend yourself by being reasonably smart and sensible.
If all fails, you may need to do backup and reinstall macOS in place (which will fix the system, hopefully undoing BD changes) - and if that does not help, make sure you have reliably working, tested, backup of your data and wipe system, install fresh and migrate ONLY data, not applications or system settings.
Hard lesson, but if you would do search here, antivirus horror story is weekly occurrence.

 

[Bitdefender_]

Hi everyone I am brand new to Mac OS with a M1 Air. I had a free BitDefender subscription after buying a laptop and decided to use it on my Macbook. Problems started almost immediately, to cut a long story short since installing BD battery life has been chopped to 4 hours a day from all day into the night. I spent 20 minutes awhile ago removing every bit of bit defender from the computer all folders, files etc. However, the battery life still seems to be dropping. On windows i used CCleaner to remove all left over application files after an uninstall. Used the mac version of CCleaner but it doesnt seem to have that option.

Can anyone suggest software that I can use to rid my macbook of this horrible program (which to my mind is more of a virus than an anti-virus) and restore my battery life?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Hi! First, we would like to mention that having a Bitdefender solution on your device will not impact the battery life, so the issue described here may have a different cause.
We highly recommend using a security solution on your macOS device, and we can help troubleshoot any tech situation that is related to Bitdefender, just reach our technical team at bitsy@bitdefender.com.
To have an idea of the possible threats present on a macOS system, check this article: https://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/mac-viruses-list-3668354/.
Thank you in advance!

 

[blueflower]

Hi! First, we would like to mention that having a Bitdefender solution on your device will not impact the battery life, so the issue described here may have a different cause.
We highly recommend using a security solution on your macOS device, and we can help troubleshoot any tech situation that is related to Bitdefender, just reach our technical team at bitsy@bitdefender.com.
To have an idea of the possible threats present on a macOS system, check this article: https://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/mac-viruses-list-3668354/.
Thank you in advance!

Please don't come into my thread spewing your falsehoods. You guys have already had to admit that your product decimates battery life as seen below. I agree with using a security solution so I got cleanmymac x and avg. Battery life is back to being awesome now. Hopefully, you will spend less time on this forum posting trash and more time improving your product.

The Biggest Battery Drainers Installed on Your Mac - Best Reviews

mac-optimization.bestreviews.net