Can't delete NextDNS profile from macOS Network Preferences

Still happening on macOS 13.5 beta on a M1 MacMini  

Like many of you, mine persisted even after deleting. I went to apple.nextdns.io, downloaded another profile (named it in all lowercase so I know it's a new profile), installed it, then deleted it. Rebooted computer and no more traces of the old profile (or the new profile). This is with macOS 14.3.

I have the same error with MacOS 15.5 on an M4. The solution is this script.

#!/bin/bash
PLIST="/Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkextension.plist’
BACKUP="$PLIST.bak’

echo ‘📦 Create backup...’
[ -e ‘$BACKUP’ ] || cp ‘$PLIST’ ‘$BACKUP’ && echo ‘✅ Backup created: $BACKUP’

echo ‘📖 Search plist for NextDNS...’
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c ‘Print’ ‘$PLIST’ 2>/dev/null | grep -i nextdns | while read -r line; do
    key=$(echo ‘$line’ | awk -F= ‘{print $1}’ | xargs)
    echo ‘🗑️ Remove key: $key’
    /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c ‘Delete :$key’ ‘$PLIST’ 2>/dev/null
done

sudo launchctl kickstart -k system/com.apple.nehelper
echo ‘✅ Done.’

Nothing of the above and much more effort (AI trips to other universes) didn't help.
But this little scripts did (with a little help from ChatGPT), to execute in the terminal:

1. profiles list
Result was the profile name.

2. profiles remove -identifier io.nextdns.########.profile
(######## = profile number)
deleted it, as a test with

3. profiles list
proved that there is no profile existing anymore

On a 2nd Mac a similar problem: two old entries.
But the solution above won't work, because no profile was found after "profiles list".

Here the solution (with a little help from ChatGPT):

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkextension.plist

has 7 entries with "NextDNS"

I finally dared to just delete all entries in this plist that contained “nextdns”.
After a restart, they were gone—the leftover file remnants.
 

One step after the other:

The plist is protected, therefore:

1. Start Mac in Recovery-Mode.
2. Open Terminal from menu.
3. Deactivate SIP with "csrutil disable"
4. New start.
5. Copy  the file com.apple.networkextension.plist from /Library/Preferences/ to desktop.
    (a copy in an Folder for security would be a good idea) 
6. Open com.apple.networkextension.plist on desktop with a tool (I used Xcode).
7. Find (CMD F) "nextdns" in the $Objects-array. Delete all entries with the search string.
8. Save file.
9. Copy the file back to /Library/Preferences/ and overwrite the old one.
    (works, because SIP is inactive)
10. New start in Recovery-Mode.
11. Open Terminal from menu.
12. Activate SIP again with "csrutil enable"
13. New start.

It works wonderfully, even with the most stubborn orphaned NextDNS entries.

But take care with M-CPU Macs: New start in recovery mode please take time:
After the click in Options and booting:  wait for some seconds for the Mac identifies
itself via Firmware @ Apple. Otherwise "csrutil enable" gives an error.
With patience all works fine