i’d like to delete some old vpn profiles that are cluttering up the services list in the network pane of system preferences, but i can’t figure out how. the minus/remove button is greyed out when any of them are selected. i originally installed them through the profiles system preferences pane (they came in as mobileconfig files) and have since deleted the profiles themselves but their ghosts live on in the network pane. the best im able to do there right now is make them inactive, which forces them to the bottom of the list, but i would like to remove them completely. this is not a managed device; its my own personal macbook and i am the admin. appreciate any advice!
update: i figured it out! i was able to erase the ghost vpn profiles by removing them from /Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkextension.plist.
I’m facing the same issue with Netskope on a Mac. I can’t remove it from com.apple.networkextension.plist (of the system, not the user) because there is no way to edit or replace this plist.
here’s an example of what these profiles look like via the /usr/bin/profiles -L -v command. to be clear, the profiles have been deleted and no longer show up when running this command. i just don’t really know what i’m talking about and figured there could be some helpful info in here for someone who might understand https://i.imgur.com/jDoLnHZ.jpg
Old post but hopefully some one will come across this and be able to help me but how did you edit /Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkextension.plist no matter what I do I dont have the access and cant give myself access with an Administrator account
I Found a method to delete the com.apple.networkextension.plist you need to start the mac in recovery mode.
Restart the mac go into recovery mode (“Hold Command-R” for offline mode) (Hold down power button on silicone chip macs). Open the terminal from utilities > terminal
Cd /volumes/(name of harddrive)/library/preferences
ls (to check you are in the right dir)
rm com.apple.networkextension.plist
Same problem here, it’s possible you have to reboot and disable System Integrity Protection to be able to edit the file.
Google csrutil disable.
After editing you should be able to re-enable SIP.
I’m sure there is some system service that is able to edit this file, but I haven’t been able to find it or figure how to masquerade as that service. I suspect this issue is caused by adding a VPN config on a previous version of macOS, which then got locked in stone via the SIP security policies that Apple has added in later versions, making it impossible to remove.
Das Löschen von com.apple.networkextension.plist bei Apple Silicon präziser:
- Ausschalten
- Booten in Recovery Mode: Einschalttaster festhalten bis die Auswahl des Bootvolumes und der Options kommt.
- Optionen auswählen.
- Terminal vom Menü starten
- cd /volumes/SSD_Name/library/preferences
- ls
- in dieser liste sollte com.apple.networkextension.plist zu sehen sein
- rm com.apple.networkextension.plist
- Neustarten - weg ist sie!