In general, applications in OS X are packaged into a “.app” bundle that appears to be a single file but is actually a self-contained folder. Unlike Windows, in which an application usually installs a folder that contains the executable and supporting files, most of what an OS X app needs to run is stored within the.app bundle (if you’re curious, right-click on any.app file and select “Show Package Contents” to see what’s inside). Deleting an application bundle will remove that application’s binary and all the supporting files contained within. Many apps, however, also install additional files in the user’s Library folder, such as application preferences and caches. To manually remove an OS X app, first make sure the app is closed and that no services associated with it are running. You can check this by looking at the processes listed in the Activity Monitor application (there’s a search filter there to narrow the list down if it’s too long).
Select any associated processes and click “Quit Process” to end them. Next, head to the user’s library folder (in OS X Lion and above, hold down the Option key while selecting the “Go” menu from the Finder’s menu bar and select “Library”). Here, you’ll want to check for references to the application in the Preferences, LaunchAgents, and Application Support folders. Remove any files or folders that you are certain belong to the application you’re trying to uninstall.
You may also want to check the System Library folder by navigating to the top level of your hard drive and opening the /System folder, although most applications will confine their files to the user-specific Library. Once that’s complete, check to see if the application had a Dock icon. If so, drag it off the dock to remove it or right click on the icon and select Options Remove from Dock. To aid in the process of hunting down rogue application support files, use Spotlight in Finder to search, but make sure that Spotlight is in its search results.
Due to sandboxing requirements imposed by Apple, apps obtained from the Mac App Store are even easier to remove. Simply delete two items: the application file itself from the Applications folder and the application-specific folder in User Library Containers. There are many third-party app removal tools for OS X. Another way to remove OS X apps is to use third-party tools. Applications like, and all automate the removal of an application and its supporting files, no matter where they reside on your Mac’s drive.
Jul 12, 2018 - Here are three ways to uninstall Mac apps. If you're running a particularly old version of macOS (or OS X), this is the method you'll use. Once the app is sent to Trash, there is one more step you'll need to take to completely.
Take note, however, that automated tools can sometimes miss certain files or folders, and users employing these tools should always perform a manual check to ensure that all remnants of the application have indeed been removed. Finally, some applications such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite have their own uninstaller application. Wherever possible, use the application-specific uninstaller for these applications, which can usually be located on the installation disk, installation image, or in the application’s folder. You may also be able to download certain application-specific uninstallers from a developer’s support site. An application-specific uninstaller for Adobe's Creative Suite.
Regardless of which method you choose, remember that leaving behind the occasional abandoned preference file is not likely to cause harm or performance issues. In general, removing the app bundle from the Applications folder and a file or two from the user’s library folder is enough to remove the application from the drive and free up disk space.
If you’ve been using Mac for a long while, then over time, the number of installed applications could amount to up to 100. Most likely you don’t use all of them regularly, and some not at all. These programs take up space, not just in the Finder window, but in your hard drive. So it’s probably time to uninstall these apps with. App Cleaner & Uninstaller is a professional utility to remove applications correctly and completely.
You might know that when you simply move apps to the Trash, they leave their service files on the disk. So usually the users then go to the Library folder → Application Support and from there remove the app’s related items. However, with App Cleaner & Uninstaller you can save time and do all these necessary activities in just one click. The app finds all the service files of used apps and even the leftovers of already removed apps. On the screenshot, you can see the list of installed apps on the left and the program’s support items on the right.
Here you will not find default Apple applications like Safari, Notes, Photos and others. Read on to understand why.
Default Apple applications If you have tried to uninstall Safari, Photos, Mail, iTunes or other standard macOS applications, you might have seen this error message about the impossibility of deleting these apps because it’s a requirement of macOS. It is prohibited to delete standard applications in the regular way due to the fact that the removal of built-in applications may damage the viability of the system. Although you can download Safari or iTunes from the official Apple website, other important programs are not available to be restored. Apple doesn’t allow you to delete its necessary apps.
That’s why App Cleaner & Uninstaller doesn’t do it as well. This rule is extremely important for inexperienced users. However, if you are a computer geek and understand which default programs are safe to remove, you can do it via Terminal.
How to uninstall default apps on Mac? Despite the warning, it is possible to remove unnecessary standard programs via Terminal. But first, you should know that with the release of macOS 10.12 Apple has made changes in its security technology and it now forbids modifying system items on Macs.
The SIP limits the actions that the user can perform on protected parts of the Mac operating system. That’s why, before trying to remove default apps, you would need to disable the Apple System Integrity Protection.
To do this, restart your Mac and press Command+R key shortcut while the reboot is in progress. You will see an unusual startup window – this is the recovery mode. In the Menu bar click Utilities → Terminal. Type in Terminal the next command: csrutil disable Press the Return key.
You will see that your System Integrity Protection is disabled. Restart your Mac and move to the second step of the default apps removal process. You should login to your system through your admin account because you can remove default apps only if you have the administrator rights. However, if you have already signed into the user account, you can use a special command right in the Terminal to re-login.
Let’s launch Terminal and learn the commands for each situation. If you have signed into your administrator account, type the command cd /Applications/ and click the Return button. The application directory will be shown. If you have signed into the account with user rights, first re-login with the command login admin username=””/admin → enter the password → and then use the command cd /Applications/ Now you can start deleting applications.
Please be careful: when you remove items via Terminal, the system does not ask for confirmation. Each application has its own command:. Safari: sudo rm -rf Safari.app/. Mail: sudo rm -rf Mail.app/. FaceTime: sudo rm -rf FaceTime.app/. QuickTime: sudo rm -rf QuickTime Player.app/.
Notes: sudo rm -rf Stickies.app/. Chess: sudo rm -rf Chess.app/. Photo: sudo rm -rf Photo Booth.app/. ITunes: sudo rm -rf iTunes.app/ Important: After you have deleted the apps, don’t forget to enable back the System Integrity Protection in order to not remove other important apps by mistake.
For this, again restart your Mac → use Command+R shortcut → open Terminal and this time type the command csrutil enable. Then restart the Mac. Once again, you should understand that uninstalling macOS built-in programs is at your own risk. And it may happen that the only way to reestablish an app and solve issues arising is to reinstall your macOS system (El Capitan, Sierra, etc.) Therefore, if you are not exactly sure what you are doing, it’s better not to attempt it! If you need to free up space, we recommend uninstalling only third-party applications. You can use App Cleaner for this task.
![Apps Apps](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125349907/881554247.jpg)
Sort the apps by size and uninstall the biggest apps or those that have not been used for a long time. App Cleaner Quick Links:.
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