Switch from Bing to Google not working for Safari

[tomllama]

Safari has mysteriously switched from google as the search engine to Bing.
I check preferences and it says that google is default but, while i sometimes get a google results page flashed on the screen, it is immediately replace by a screen with Bing as the search engine and results.
I've quit safari and restarted it, but it continues to ignore whatever I have selected as the default search engine (I even tried to with to DuckDuckGo and that was ignored too).
Anyone know what's going on?

Safari v 12.0
MacOS 10.13.6

 

[FNH15]

Safari has mysteriously switched from google as the search engine to Bing.
I check preferences and it says that google is default but, while i sometimes get a google results page flashed on the screen, it is immediately replace by a screen with Bing as the search engine and results.
I've quit safari and restarted it, but it continues to ignore whatever I have selected as the default search engine (I even tried to with to DuckDuckGo and that was ignored too).
Anyone know what's going on?

Safari v 12.0
MacOS 10.13.6

Do you have any extensions? Also note that this forum is for Mojave (10.14).

 

[tomllama]

Yah, sorry about the High Sierra/Mojave mixup - I wasn't paying attention to the thread I was in.

I have extensions for 1Password and ABP enabled.

 

[212rikanmofo]

Why not give DuckDuckGo a try. Unless you don't care about your privacy and being tracked.

 

[tomllama]

Uh, as I mentioned in the initial post, I tried DuckDuckGo too and Safari refuses to use it. No matter what I select it has decided Bing is to be used.

 

[212rikanmofo]

Uh, as I mentioned in the initial post, I tried DuckDuckGo too and Safari refuses to use it. No matter what I select it has decided Bing is to be used.

That's very strange then. Perhaps try deleting your safari preferences file and let it create a new one to see if that resolves the issue for you.

 

[kohlson]

You may have been (browser) pwned. Check: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7973564

Also, check you SysPrefs Users&Groups login tab.

 

[tomllama]

Damn. I've upgraded to Mojave and that didn't help.
Trashing all safari prefs didn't help
Looking for trovi didn't find anything

What do you suggest I look for in SysPrefs or Users& Groups? There are no strange users or groups and I use a mini server as a network account server (no issues on other computers).

 

[kohlson]

I suggested looking in Users & Groups login tab, as sometimes unexplained programs are loaded from there.

A quick test, also from Users & Groups. Create a new user, and from that login see if the problem persists. If not, then the issue is definitely something related to "your" user.

Another tool that may be of use is EtreCheck, which is free for a limited number of uses.

 

[tomllama]

Good suggestion.

I had already looked for any funky startup items (there were none and no new ones).
I checked and it is limited to 'me', logging in as another user and search worked fine.

I downloaded EtreCheckPro and ran it. It found some files it thought might be AdWare. I deleted a number of them and it solved the problem.

Thank you.