doray

It occurred to me that if one's Malwarebytes for Mac's subscription lapsed (say, if something happened to the primary person on the account), would others on the account be notified so that they could protect their computers and get their own subscription? I contacted support, and they said no -- Malwarebytes would send an email only "to the address with which it is purchased." I'd like to suggest that this is unsafe for others on the account, and to submit a feature request that emails and/or notifications be sent to everyone on the account if their subscription is in danger of lapsing. Thank you.

Trying to reply to @treed's post, but I'm not sure how! As a layperson but someone who's interested in this topic, I have to say that laypeople often don't think too much about the potentially serious implications of things like turning off notifications. They're likely to think that they just don't want too many notifications from various apps, and not know whether one particular app will give too many notifications or not. They don't realize that they'll miss critical notifications that way -- if they think about it at all, they'd probably assume they would get critical notifications, such as updates being blocked or not being installed or the app being out of date.... And they tend not to open applications like Malwarebytes that much -- it tends to be more "set it and forget it." So they wouldn't see the information in the main window of the app. Point being that I think the Windows version works the way most people would expect it to and, I think, want it to: it shows critical notifications no matter what. I personally would suggest that the Mac version reconsider and hopefully in the future do the same.

Thank you, @treed!

Thanks, @exile360! You're a great help here on the forums. Some applications say that if you're having trouble installing their software, one thing to try is disabling your antivirus. Or people might think they should disable it when transferring/migrating between computers. So it's not necessarily a reflection on the product that people -- maybe misguidedly -- might feel a need to disable it. That said, giving an option to disable it for a specified period of time would be better than disabling it altogether. Maybe that plus notifications/reminders! Many people don't go into their Malwarebytes or anti-malware software on any sort of regular basis, so seeing a notification on restart of the product would not really be useful/helpful.

If you have the old Malwarebytes *Anti-Malware* for Mac and uninstall it from the menu bar (not just throw it out), would that affect the current Malwarebytes for Mac, maybe in terms of removing the database of threats or something? Would it be advisable to reinstall Malwarebytes for Mac after uninstalling the old Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac? @treed, I imagine you would be the one who'd know the answer to this! Thank you!

@treed, if a firewall or Little Snitch or something were blocking protection/database updates, would Malwarebytes for Mac give you a notification (assuming you didn't have notifications turned off)? I.e., would you know you couldn't download protection/database updates, even if you *didn't* open Malwarebytes' main window? Thanks again!

Also, does the built-in Mac firewall block Malwarebytes for Mac, or just 3rd-party apps like Little Snitch and Lulu?

Well, but the user could mean to disable it temporarily, and then forget to turn it back on and be left vulnerable. That's why I think a reminder or notification would be a good idea even if the user did manually disable protection.

@treed, thank you very much for your response! I'm surprised that Malwarebytes for Mac would not show critical notifications (such as Malwarebytes being out of date) even if the user turned off notifications. (I don't know if she did that or not, but I'll have her check.) From what I saw online, the Windows version of Malwarebytes works that way (i.e., it shows critical notifications no matter what). Is that possible to do for Mac as well?

@1PW and @treed: You asked if it would be adequate to modify or gray the status menu icon if malware protection was off. I think that should be done as well, and it's better than nothing, but people don't always notice or realize the significance of these things. So I believe a reminder or notification in addition would be called for. Maybe not immediately (because the person would realize they just turned it off), but after a certain period or periods of time, as a reminder to turn it back on. Thank you!

Thank you so much to both of you! Al, I'd like to give you a thumbs-up or somehow mark your answer as helpful, but I don't know how on this forum!

Hi again! Yes, she's online every day. Is it best practice to check for updates manually, even if you have automatic updates checked, just to make sure this doesn't happen again? Or is that unnecessary?

Thanks, exile360! I'm surprised it wouldn't have updated by now, even though new versions are metered out gradually, considering that her version is over a year old and is considered "legacy" and not active! Do you think it will update automatically at this point, or do we need to intervene?

My daughter's Malwarebytes for Mac is still on version 3.7.34. Mine is on version 4.4.X. Why would hers have not updated? She has the box checked to automatically check for updates every hour. What should she do? Does she need to uninstall, or can she just install over the existing version?

I was wondering if I should check, after upgrading to a new version of the OS, whether Malwarebytes transferred properly and is still working. Could it be an issue that an operating system upgrade might cause Malwarebytes for Mac to not transfer or work properly anymore? If so, my concern is that there might be no indication and the user likely wouldn't know it. (I'm not concerned about the upcoming kernel extension issue; I'm just wondering in general.)