WebFence

Uninstall WebFence

Only an administrator can uninstall WebFence. That's on purpose: a child can't remove it.

The normal way

  1. Sign in to your administrator account, open WebFence and unlock it.
  2. Open Settings & Diagnostics and, under Maintenance, choose Uninstall WebFence….
  3. Choose what happens to your data:
    • Keep allowed sites, protected users, and activity on this Mac (the default): if you install WebFence again, everything is still there, including your license key or trial.
    • Delete allowed sites, protected users, and activity: removes all WebFence data, including the license key and the trial record. You'll need to enter your key again if you reinstall.
  4. Approve with your administrator password. macOS may ask once more to remove the system extension.

WebFence switches protection off first, then removes the network filter, the system extension and the background service, moves the app to the Trash, and checks that everything is gone. If something can only finish after a restart, it tells you; restart the Mac and run the uninstall again to confirm.

After uninstalling, protected accounts have unrestricted internet access.

If the app is damaged or missing

As an administrator:

  1. Network filter: System Settings ▸ Network ▸ Filters (on macOS 14: VPN & Filters), select WebFence and remove it. Internet access is restored immediately.
  2. System extension: drag WebFence from Applications to the Trash. Finder warns that the app is hosting system extensions; click Continue, then enter your administrator password to move the app.
  3. Background service and data (optional; Terminal, administrator password needed): 
    sudo launchctl bootout system/com.webfence.app.PolicyDaemon
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/com.webfence.app"
sudo security authorizationdb remove com.webfence.app.policy.modify
sudo security authorizationdb remove com.webfence.app.admin.view
sudo security authorizationdb remove com.webfence.app.uninstall
  4. Restart the Mac.

Please don't use sfltool resetbtm: it resets the background items of every app on the Mac, not just WebFence.

Macs managed with MDM

If you installed WebFence's settings with a device-management profile, remove those profiles first, then uninstall as above.

Stuck? Contact support.