What is this random “Do you need more hard disk on your Mac?” pop-up on a Mac about?

Question

I get a random popup that asks “Do you need more hard disk on your Mac?”

It happens only when I’m in Safari. It pops up on the top right hand corner of my screen.

Answer 1

I had the same problem on my Macbook Pro 15" (although I have 100 GB free space!). See screenshot here:

It appeared to be the famous Mac Cleaner that was involuntary downloaded with FileZilla a few days ago.

I solved it with AdwareMedic. Just download the program, scan your computer and remove the Mac Cleaner files.

Answer 2

I have exactly the same pop-up on my MAC, it happens after installing FileZilla.

Here is how I removed it. Found answer from Apple's forum:

You installed a fake "utility" called "Advanced Mac Cleaner." Like any software that purports to automatically "clean up" or "speed up" a Mac, it's a scam. To remove it, take the steps below. Some of the files listed may be absent. Back up all data before proceeding. If you paid for the software with a credit card, consider reporting the charge to the bank as fraudulent.

Step 1
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.pcv.hlpramc.plist

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

     Services ▹ Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)

from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item selected. Move the selected item to the Trash. Log out or restart the computer. *If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select Go ▹ Go to Folder... from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Step 2 Move the following item to the Trash as in Step 1:

/Library/Application Support/amc

This time you may be prompted for your administrator login password. There's no need to log out after taking this step.

Step 3 Move this item to the Trash:

~/Library/AdvancedMacCleaner

Step 4 Open the Applications folder and move an item named "Advanced Mac Cleaner" (if it's present) to the Trash. Empty the Trash.

For a full list of answers, click here to go to the Apple's forum.

It works great; no need to install any additional software.

Answer 3

I recently resolved this very same issue on my parents' Mac mini. If you're experiencing the same issue, then somehow some scamware/scumware named Advanced Mac Cleaner has made its way onto your Mac.

You don't need to download any extra software in order to solve the problem. Just follow these directions:

:: Summary ::

Here is a high-level view of the procedure you'll use in order to make sure the app is removed from a Mac running recent versions of Mac OS X.

• Activity Monitor Processes – Quit Process
• Login Items – Remove AMC
• Macintosh HD/Applications – Drag to trash
• User Library folder – Delete AMC folders
• User Library/Logs – Delete logs
• User Library/Application Support – delete AMC folders
• User Library/Caches – delete AMC files
• User Library/Saved Application State – delete AMC files
• User Library/Preferences – delete AMC files
• User Library/LaunchAgents – delete AMC files
• Empty Trash

:: Detailed Steps ::

1. Activity Monitor Processes

If the Advanced Mac Cleaner app isn’t actively doing anything, you won’t see it in your Activity Monitor.

Launch your Activity Monitor.app.

Look for the Advanced Mac Cleaner process.

Select the AMC app and then go to the Activity Monitor’s View menu and select Quit Process

But this isn’t the only process you need to stop. I found another app by clicking on the Disk tab on Activity Monitor. I found helperamc process running. I’m not exactly sure what this was, but I think it’s there to run the “nag” every once in a while. The nag comes with a loud audio voice that yells at you and tells you that your Mac has problems and AMC is there to help you fix it. I remember programming something like this in my younger days to freak out friends and make them think their computer was about to disintegrate.

2. Login Items

Now you don’t want AMC to start up once you log off and log back on. Make sure you go to System Preferences. You’ll find the items that start up on log in in the Users & Groups under the Login Items tab. Select the AMC application and click on the "-" button at the bottom to remove it.

3. Macintosh HD/Applications

The typical thing you do to remove an app is go to your Applications folder and drag AMC to the trash. But this doesn’t, at least it didn’t for me, remove every last trace of this Crapware / malware / adware.

4. ~/Library Folder

There are two folders to remove here. Drag these two to the trash.

• Advanced Mac Cleaner
• hlpramc

5. ~/Library/Logs

Again two files here to drag to the trash.

• Advanced Mac Cleaner.log
• helperamc.log

6. ~/Library/Application Support

Another two folders to remove here.

• Advanced Mac Cleaner
• hlpramc

7. ~/Library/Caches

These folders are a little more cryptic and probably make sense to most IT folks. You can already see it looks like a backwards web site name. Drag these two folders to the trash.

• com.pcv.hlpramc
• com.PCvark.Advanced-Mac-Cleaner

8. ~/Library/Saved Application State

There’s one folder here to drag to the trash.

com.PCvark.Advanced-Mac-Cleaner.savedState

9. ~/Library/Preferences

I found two preference files here.

• com.pcv.hlpramc.plist
• com.PCvark.Advanced-Mac-Cleaner.plist

10. ~/Library/LaunchAgents

Now this is very important step. Remove any entry that would tell your Mac to launch AMC when you log in or startup your Mac. Even if you dragged the app to the trash. It’ll still run it again on startup and all the folders and files you just deleted come back. Start from the beginning, do not pass go. Just start from step 1.

• com.pcv.hlpramc.plist
• com.PCvark.Advanced-Mac-Cleaner.plist

11. Empty Trash

To make sure AMC doesn’t get resurrected, empty the trash to get rid of any reference to the app. If for some reason you log back in and you get that annoying nag or some voice that starts yelling at you to download AMC to fix your Mac, you missed a step. Start from the beginning.

Now, by the time you read this, the folks in India responsible for Advanced Mac Cleaner may have changed things around so that this procedure isn't quite right. Please feel free to update the procedure or leave comments about extra steps you had to take in order to get rid of Advanced Mac Cleaner.

I originally found the directions here: http://chaosisbalance.com/index.php/how-to-s/mac-os-x/14-a-how-to-guide-removing-advanced-mac-cleaner-crapware-malware-adware-after-installing-filezilla-from-sourceforge-net

Answer 4

Step 1:Go to Activity Monitor. Quit Advanced Mac Cleaner process if you see it is active.

Step 2: Go to App Store and update all. If you dont want to update all, at least update your system and Safari if there are required updates.

Restart your mac.

Step 3: Click on the apple icon -> System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Login Items (of your account)

Delete all the items that are suspicious or look like the pop-out related.

Make sure the changes are saved.

Step 4: Go to Terminal and run the following lines

rm -rf ~/Library/Application Support/amc
rm -rf ~/Library/AdvancedMacCleaner
rm -rf ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.pcv.hlpramc.plist

Restart your Mac

The issue should have been resolved.