How can I purge profile data from my Mac system?

Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here.

Use the “additional text” button and paste the report into the text box.

I suspect you’re going to have trouble getting more help without an etrecheck report, plus I’ve never sen it show any personal info.

Reinstalling, creating a new user, jumping thru hoops and ranting will not solve the problems.

The solution is to Turn Off everything Saved to iCloud on all of your devices and then stick with that setup.

Just keep in mind that, all of your devices will act as stand-alone devices and not automatically share anything.

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As for other incessant Message and/or Notification aggravation may have nothing to do with iCloud.

If you want to curb the annoying Notification pop-ups, then you need to turn those Off as well.

A “managed user” via Screen Time can create profiles. I don’t know if that is the reason you have them.

If some entity has your Mac serial number in its MDM database, there is no way to remove them without getting that company to remove them. If that was the case, you would have seen a message indicating the entity was configuring your Mac at reinstall.

At one time there was an  Etrecheck Application available on the Apple Apps Store.

Due to certain constrains place upon the Developer by APPLE, the developer chose to remove it from the Store and make is available Directly from them.

This specific application is well known,  on these Forums,  as a Go To for trouble shooting and avoiding all the question / answer and question / answer to finally get the issue pinned down.

It is also known and reported by Reliable Sources that,  sometimes APPLE SUPPORT has invoked using this same Developer Distributed Version of Etrecheck application to trouble shot computer issues 

Lastly - should you decide to use and post the Report now or at a later time, we are willing to have a very close look and offer some insights 

Concerns about the application itself

I am using this application on 3 of my own computers for various reasons " Just Checking " Option

It might not make sense to you but it may well be interpretable by one or more of the senior experts who try to help users on these forums. Etrecheck reports holds no personal information so why not post it?

Hominahomina wrote:

My EtreCheck reports make no sense, that's why. I boot from a drive that's just been created, a pristine 15.5 install. I run EtreCheck and generate a report for that drive. That report displays three unloaded system extensions that have not only never been installed but when I select "Show in Finder" for one of those extensions, the window that's displayed is FOR A DIFFERENT DRIVE than the one from which I booted and is being reported on. Make that make sense.

It's difficult to make it make sense because it's all inherently confusing.

EtreCheck shows all 3rd party system modifications, including those that are installed and running, those that are installed but not active at the time, and those that are not installed, but could be. System Extension are particularly tricky because they can be in many different states, some of which are particularly problematic. Rather than trying to confuse these issues even further, I have a policy to just report everything, running or not, loaded or not.

The operating system will see apps located on any visible volume. And Apple is moving 3rd party system modifications from the classic locations in places like "/Extensions" and "~/LaunchAgents" to inside app bundles, wherever those might be found. What that means is that if you have 3rd party system modifications inside an app on some external drive, EtreCheck will show them because they really could be loaded into the operating system at any time.

There are stark discontinuities between what's SUPPOSED to be in an EtreCheck report and what's ACTUALLY in the EtreCheck reports I'm seeing.

This is s technical support forum for Apple products. If you are seeing problems with your EtreCheck report, this is really not the appropriate place to discuss them. I would be happy to do that via e-mail if you want.

I have seen other people report similar problems. If I could see your EtreCheck report, discontinuous or not, it might be helpful to understand this issue. This isn't a common problem. So perhaps I've missed something. To be honest, profiles are not something that EtreCheck does particularly well. I don't have access to any of those enterprise MDM systems so it's a bit of a mystery. I can tell you that Apple implements ScreenTime using profiles, so that probably explains Apple tech support was focused on that. But it's quite possible that there some other oddball system service that is also using profiles and I've missed it.

If you don't want to post your EtreCheck report, that's fine. You have my official blessing. But people may ask you to run some lower-level tools manually (like the kinds that EtreCheck runs for you) to gather more information. And this is the internet. Be careful about what people ask you to do. Not everyone is trustworthy.

Have you ever installed any “security” software. I have heard some of them will do silly stuff like that.

Hominahomina wrote:

Your suggested solution is no solution, at all. That I cannot remove the aforementioned restrictions IS the problem. These settings' On/Off toggles are disabled.

Sounds like maybe you are logged into a Standard User account that is restricted from making those changes.

If so, Log out of the Standard User Account and Log into your Admin. User Account.

see > New user or group setup on Mac - Apple Support

Hominahomina wrote:

I've never knowingly installed a profile.

I've also tried to prevent each of my devices from using iCloud. Nonetheless, OS 15.5 System Settings>Apple Account>iCloud>See All on my 2019 Mac Pro displays four settings that have been "configured by a profile" - Contacts, iCloud Calendar, Reminders, and Safari.

For four days I've been in a protracted tech support session with Apple.

Reinstalling the OS, creating a new user, creating a different boot drive...

all the usual gymnastics, has not added an iota of comprehension on my part regarding WHAT caused this and how to remedy it.

A fresh system with a new user does not display the problem; so what?

Knowing that did not get me or any of the numerous tech reps with whom I've interacted any closer to purging these spurious settings and solving the problem.

Presumably my system has a state of being wherein no profiles have ever been installed; HOW do I go about restoring that state manually? Which plists et al. need to be purged, and where are they located?

The tedium and time involved in recreating my system from scratch are immense - a solid week at minimum.

By comparison manual reconfiguration seems a pleasant walk on a nice day. And

what's with the relentless, "Some iCloud Data isn't Syncing" messages and popups? I try hard not to use iCloud for anything, so WHY would syncing even be an issue? Is there a way for me to put iCloud in the grave - and keep it there - or does using an AppleTV, iPhone, or Mac condemn me to incessant message aggravation?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: purge profile data from system

Sounds like you have some corruption in your user account.

your statement here sounds promising...

"A fresh system with a new user does not display the problem; "

Hominahomina wrote:

Apple TS have been no help at all in discovering what occurred. I figured I'd try here, too. If an Etrecheck report is a necessity, then I'm done.

Why?

Seriously, I'd like to know why. Do tell, please.

BDAqua wrote:

The report may well hold clues for us.

Live in hope and die in despair

I would seem reasonable to conclude that OP is determined to keep certain information a mystery

Just saying, after all the prompts, encouragement and cajoling we arrive at this point ?