Getting started
When it first opens, Sorvel only sees your Downloads, like any Mac App Store app. To let it scan your whole Mac:
Scans
A quick scan checks the places where malware usually hides: downloads, apps, startup items. A full scan checks every file Sorvel can open. Every scan has its report (the "Details…" button in the history): where Sorvel looked, what it found and what it left out, such as photos, videos or very large files.
A threat is found
Click "Quarantine": the file is isolated inside Sorvel and can't run anymore. You can restore it at any time from the Quarantine page, or delete it for good.
A clean file is flagged
No detection tool is perfect. Restore the file, then choose "Always Ignore This File" in the "More" menu. Write to us at contact@absyt.com with the name of the detection: we'll fix the database for everyone.
Startup items
On the Startup Items page, the switch stops an item from starting at your next login; a program already running keeps going until you log out. Apps that open at login and system services are turned off in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions: the "Manage…" button takes you there.
Uninstalling an app or an extension
On the Applications page, the trash button moves the app to the Trash along with the files it left in your Library, which you tick one by one. Apps installed for all users are protected by macOS: Sorvel shows them in the Finder and macOS asks for your password. To remove a browser extension, quit the browser first.
The security checkup
It checks macOS's security settings. FileVault and the firewall can't be read by Mac App Store apps: Sorvel says so, doesn't count them and opens the right System Settings pane. For System Integrity Protection, the "How to Turn It On…" button gives the steps.
The detection database
It updates on its own, independently of the app's updates, and every version is signed by Absyt. You can choose to install it yourself in Settings › Detection database.
Sorvel's limits
No security software catches every threat, and none is safe from a false alarm. Sorvel adds to macOS's built-in protections without replacing them. It can neither block a program before it opens nor stop a program already running: Apple keeps those powers for tools distributed outside the App Store. To stay protected:
Uninstalling Sorvel
Before you go, turn back on from Sorvel the startup items you had switched off, and restore or delete the files in quarantine. Then quit Sorvel and drag it from the Applications folder to the Trash.
Contact us
Write to contact@absyt.com. Tell us your version of macOS and, if possible, attach a screenshot. The privacy policy explains what we do, and above all what we don't do, with your data.