How to Remove Search Marquis from Safari on Mac

Search Marquis shows up as a changed search provider, a homepage you never set, or pages that open on their own in Safari. The fix starts in Safari's extension list, not in your Applications folder.

Disable and uninstall the extension, point search and homepage back where you want them, then clear website data and history. Run one test search afterward to confirm the redirect is gone.

In this guide, I have covered:

What a Search Marquis hijack looks like in Safari

Your searches land somewhere you never picked, or Safari opens a page you didn’t ask for the moment it launches. That’s how Search Marquis usually announces itself on a Mac.

The cleanup targets three things: the extension list, the search and homepage settings the hijack changed, and the stored data that keeps the redirect alive. Should a page labeled Search Marquis open at any point, don’t enter passwords or payment details on it.

On current macOS versions, Safari uses Settings…. Older releases show Preferences… instead, though the panels involved here are the same.

Quit Safari before changing its settings

A running copy of the hijack can quietly put its settings back while you’re editing them, so close Safari first.

Quitting normally takes a second. When Safari refuses to close, Force Quit does the same job.

1. Press Cmd + Q to quit Safari normally.
2. If Safari remains open, click the Apple menu.
3. Choose Force Quit….
4. Select Safari in the Force Quit Applications window.
5. Click Force Quit.

You’ll know it worked when Safari no longer appears in the Force Quit Applications list.

Disable and remove the Search Marquis extension

Look in Safari’s extension list before you hunt through folders on your Mac. Most Search Marquis installs sit there as an extension you never added, or under a name that only loosely resembles the one you’re expecting.

Disable it before uninstalling. Turning it off stops the behavior right away, which tells you whether you’ve found the right one.

1. Launch the Apple Safari app on your Mac computer.
2. Click on the Safari menu from the menu bar at the top, and select Settings... sub-menu.
   It will open the Safari Settings window.
3. Switch to the Extensions tab in the Settings window.
   It will display the list of all the Safari extensions installed.
4. Uncheck the checkbox in the left side pane to Disable the extension.

You’ll know it worked when the search provider stops changing and Safari stops opening pages on its own. Leave the extension disabled until you finish the uninstall step below.

TIP: Judge the extension by behavior, not by name. Anything you don’t recognize that touches search, tabs, or your start page is worth disabling first.

If the panel looks different on your macOS version, the Safari extensions guide walks through the same menu.

Uninstall the Search Marquis extension

Disabling stops the behavior for now. Uninstalling is what keeps the extension from being switched back on later.

1. Open Safari.
2. Choose Settings… from the Safari menu.
3. Select Extensions in the settings sidebar.
4. Select Search Marquis in the extension list.
5. Click Uninstall.
6. Confirm the removal if Safari asks.

You’ll know it worked when Search Marquis no longer appears under Safari > Settings > Extensions.

Restore Safari’s search engine

Removing the extension doesn’t always bring back the provider you had before the takeover.

If a search still opens Search Marquis, the provider is still pointing there. Change it in Safari’s Search panel.

1. Open Safari.
2. Choose Settings… from the Safari menu.
3. Select Search in the settings sidebar.
4. Open the Search Engine menu.
5. Choose Google or another search provider you trust.

The panel may look different on your version of macOS. The walkthrough for changing Safari’s default search engine covers the same path.

You’ll know it worked when a test search returns results from the provider you picked.

Reset the homepage

The startup page is the other setting a hijack likes to touch. Check the Homepage field instead of leaving an unfamiliar URL in place.

1. Open Safari.
2. Choose Settings… from the Safari menu.
3. Select General in the settings sidebar.
4. Inspect the Homepage field for an unfamiliar URL.
5. Choose Safari’s default start page or replace the field with a trusted URL.

Reopen Safari and you should land on the page you chose, with no detour.

Clear Safari website data

Cookies and cached files can carry the redirect past the extension removal, so do this step even after Search Marquis is gone.

Website data covers every site you’ve visited, not just the ones involved here, and clearing it signs you out of those sites. That’s the trade-off, and it’s why this comes after the extension work.

1. Launch the Safari app on your Mac computer.
2. Click on the Safari menu from the menu bar, and select the Settings... sub-menu. It will open the Safari Settings window.
3. Switch to the Privacy tab, and click to open the Manage Website Data... button. It will load the list of websites currently storing the cache and cookies in the browser.
4. Hit on the Remove All command and then the Done button. It will flush the cookies and cache for all sites in Safari.

You’ll know it worked when Safari stops restoring the old homepage or bouncing you to the redirect.

Note: Clearing the cookies will log out of the online signed-in account, and you need to log in again.

The Safari data reset is covered in more detail in Clear Cookies and Cache from the Safari app.

Prefer to wipe history along with cookies and cache? Clearing all browsing data in Safari covers both in one pass.

Clear Safari history

Redirects that started during a stretch you can date are easy to isolate in History. Use this cleanup when you remember roughly when the unwanted pages began showing up.

1. Open the Safari app on your Mac.
2. Click on the History and select Clear History from the menubar.
   It will open the clear history pop-up window.
3. Select the Time Range from the drop-down and hit on the Clear History command button.
   That's it, the browsing history will be removed from the selected range.

You’ll know it worked when the Search Marquis pages and their redirects no longer show up in History.

Check for a separate unwanted app

Sometimes the extension isn’t the whole story. If an unfamiliar app appeared around the same time as the redirects, Activity Monitor is where to look next.

1. Open Finder.
2. Choose Applications.
3. Open Utilities.
4. Open Activity Monitor.
5. Look for a process whose name matches an app you can positively identify.
6. Open that app’s uninstaller if it provides one.
7. Remove the app with its uninstaller.

Spotlight works too if you’d rather skip the Finder path.

Be extremely careful in Activity Monitor. Do not force quit unknown macOS processes; an unfamiliar name is not proof of malware, and quitting a system process can cause problems.

You’ll know it worked when a program you positively identified as unwanted is no longer running.

Check for immediate changes while offline

When Safari reverts the search provider or homepage the moment it reconnects, pull the Mac off the network before you repeat the extension and settings checks.

1. Open System Settings from the Apple menu.
2. Select Wi-Fi.
3. Turn Wi-Fi off.
4. Disconnect the Ethernet cable if you use one.
5. Open Safari.
6. Check the Extensions list again.
7. Check the Search and General settings again.
8. Reconnect to the network.

Reconnect only after you’ve rechecked both panels and found nothing new.

Verify that Search Marquis is gone

Reopen Safari and check the provider and the start page. A test search tells you more than the settings panel does.

1. Type a normal search term in Safari’s address bar.
2. Confirm that the results page belongs to the search provider you selected.
3. Open your start page.
4. Confirm that the page no longer redirects.
5. Choose Settings… from the Safari menu.
6. Select Extensions.
7. Confirm that Search Marquis no longer appears in the list.

Searches that still land on Yahoo or Bing point to a different hijack. The fix for Yahoo and Bing redirects in Safari follows the same pattern.

Reset Safari if the redirect returns

Clean extension list, clean settings, clean data, and the redirect still comes back. At that point a full Safari reset is what’s left.

Removing Safari changes your normal browser setup, so treat it as a last resort after the checks above.

RELATED: Remove the Safari app from your Mac