- How To Delete Built In Apps On Macbook Pro
- How To Delete Built In Apps On Mac Shortcut
- How To Delete Built In Apps On Mac Safari
- How To Delete Apps On Macbook Air
When you’re hard at it working on your Mac, you don’t want to slow down – or have your computer slow you down – for any reason at all.
- Mac OS X and macOS both come with a built-in compression system that can zip and unzip files. This integrated system is relatively basic, which is why many third-party apps are also available. A quick look at the Mac App Store reveals more than 50 apps for zipping and unzipping files.
- Click the X on the app icon, which you want to delete and then choose Delete option when you see the pop-up window asking whether to uninstall app on Mac or not. Part 2: How to Delete Apps on Mac with Finder. You can also solve the problem of how to delete apps on Mac with Finder. It also is a very easy way you can simply get in what follows.
Some of them yes. Most of them, no. OS X El Capitan introduced this thing called “System Integrity Protection”. Like the similar feature in Windows called “Windows Resource Protection”, it protects system files from being changed or deleted by an. Exit the program you want to delete.; Open the Applications folder, which you'll find by opening a new window in the Finder, or clicking on the hard disk icon.; Drag the icon of the program you want to uninstall to the Trash. How to delete apps from your Dock; How to delete apps downloaded from the Mac App Store. Deleting an app you downloaded from the Mac App Store is a lot like deleting an app from your iPhone. Open Launchpad on your Mac. This can be done by clicking the Launchpad icon on your Dock, tapping F4 in the function row, or performing a four-finger pinch.
After all, you’re in the zone, and you expect your Mac to respond to every command with no delay.
Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
Without you even realizing it, the amount of storage on your computer begins to dwindle as applications and related data take up additional valuable space.
You download a program here to try out and download another game there to see if you like it, and suddenly, your system’s performance can be compromised.
And, to add insult to injury, you don’t want to be forced to reboot your Mac after deleting an app to free up memory when you’re ready to move forward with the project at hand.
We’ll go over the different ways below to delete apps with the least amount of hassle so you can get back to what you do best: conquering the world with your Mac.
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How To Delete Apps On Mac The Easy Way
Apple makes it easy for even computer novices to delete apps, and there are a couple of ways to do this using either Launchpad or Finder.
To delete apps you’ve downloaded via Launchpad:
1. Select the Launchpad icon in the Dock.
2. Position the mouse cursor over the app you want to delete.
3. Press and hold the mouse until all the app icons begin to shake.
4. Select the X in a circle on the app you want to delete.
If you want to reinstall a deleted app later, all you need to do is go back to the App Store to download and install it again. Happily, even if you’ve paid for an app you eventually delete, you will not have to buy it again.
Use Finder to delete other apps you’ve installed from, for example, CDs:
1. In the Finder sidebar, select Applications.
2. For apps in folders, look for an App Uninstaller or Uninstall App file.
3. If you see one of these options, double-click the file.
4. Follow the uninstall instructions.
5. If the app does not have an uninstall option or isn’t even in a folder, drag it
to Trash, located at the end of the Dock.
6. Then, select Finder.
7. Select EmptyTrash.
In theory, some apps like Safari can’t be deleted because they are bundled with the Mac OS. If you do try to delete these apps, you’ll receive a message saying the app can’t be deleted because it’s required by the Mac OS.
There is a workaround to allow you to delete default apps which we’ll discuss below. It’s only for experienced users, however, who have good reasons to be deleting the apps built into the Mac OS.
Nine times out of ten, deleting apps via Launchpad or Finder will be more than sufficient. You may be determined, however, to be rid of every remnant of an application. If you’re sure you want to do this, the labor-intensive process is to manually go through different folders on your hard drive to remove an app’s associated files. You should be able to identify these leftover files because the app name will be in the file name.
The seven folders you need to double check are:
/Applications/ (app binary and dock icons)
~/Library/Saved Application State/ (app saved states)
~/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/ (app crash reports) Best video chat apps in 2020 | Tom's Guide.
/Library/Caches/ and ~/Library/Caches (app support caches)
~/Library/Address Book Plug-Ins/ (app plugins)
~/Library/Preferences/ (app preferences)
~/Library/ (app library)
To paraphrase an old saying: Think twice and delete once.
That is, if you’re not sure you should delete a file, don’t!
Inadvertently deleting the wrong file can drastically decrease system performance or, in the worst-case scenario, force you to reinstall the Mac OS.
There is another option to remove apps and related files: Download an automatic app uninstaller from the App Store. One we like, in particular, is the free App Cleaner which has a 4.8/5 App Store rating.
The main features of App Cleaner include the ability to calculate the actual amount of disk space used by apps, preview install applications and extensions, and preview all startup programs like system daemons, launch agents, and login items.
After you see how much memory is being used at various points in your system, you can disable apps from launching during Mac OS startup.
Plus, you can more easily remove app leftovers as opposed to doing it manually as discussed above.
App Cleaner maximizes system performance by deleting hidden files, removing temporary files, and resetting apps to their first-run state. You can preview widgets and remove the remains of bad service files.
In addition, with the paid Pro version, you can remove unneeded system extensions and banner ads. Plus, you can uninstall apps or delete only their executable files.
Once again, you want to make sure you’re confident about everything you’re deleting so you don’t end up causing more problems than you solve.
Using a program like App Cleaner, however, should keep you from accidentally deleting critical files. That’s something which can more easily happen when manually deleting files as per the instructions above or removing defaults apps as discussed below.
Although we don’t normally recommend it – and especially not for inexperienced users – it is possible to delete apps such as iTunes, Safari, and other built-in Mac OS software.
If you’re positive you want to do this, however, perform a system backup first in case things go wrong. While you can download Safari or iTunes from the App Store, not all default applications are available there.
First, you must disable the Apple System Integrity Protection (SIP) system:
1. Restart your Mac.
2. While the reboot is in progress, select Command + R. You will see the
recovery mode startup window.
3. In the Menu bar, select Utilities.
4. Select Terminal.
5. In the Terminal window, type csrutil disable.
6. Press Return. Apple SIP is now disabled.
You will have to reboot your Mac again.
You can move on to the next step to remove default apps:
1. Relaunch Terminal during the reboot process.
2. As long as you are logged in with administrator privileges, type the
command cd /Applications/.
3. Press Return.
4. Now you can delete default applications by entering the following
commands:
One word of caution: There is no confirmation step when deleting these apps, so once you hit Enter, they are gone for good.
Finally, you will need to re-enable Apple SIP so you don’t accidently delete any applications in the future:
1. Once again, reboot your Mac.
2. Use Command + R to reopen Terminal.
3. Enter the command csrutil enable.
4. Reboot your Mac one last time.
Removing default programs is a labor-intensive process which requires rebooting your Mac several times. This does, of course, bely the second half of this article’s title about deleting apps without having to restart your computer.
Upon occasion, nonetheless, you may have the desire to delete default apps you know you’re not going to use. For example, if you’re overclocking your Mac, you may need every bit of possible memory so an extra 500 megs here and another 250 megs there really does add up.
But we can’t emphasize this enough – be careful and be prepared for unintended consequences which may result in having to reinstall your Mac OS.
Depending on additional types of circumstances, you won’t always be able to delete an app without having to reboot your Mac. This includes when you need to do a clean removal and reinstallation of software.
For example, you may be running QuickBooks when it becomes corrupted or otherwise damaged. Sure, the first thing you’ll do is reinstall it to try to solve the problems by overwriting the damaged files.
That won’t, however, always work.
In that case, you’ll need to uninstall QuickBooks and delete the PLIST files in the User and System folders. After that, you’ll have to reboot your Mac before reinstalling QuickBooks to make sure you have a 100% clean installation.
Want to learn more about how to delete apps on Mac and other workarounds? One good place to start is CNET’s Mac OS forum. At any given time, there are around six thousand discussions taking place on topics ranging from recovering a deleted javaAppletPlugin.plugin to suggestions for emulators.
Remember: Being part of the Mac community doesn’t mean just finding answers to your own questions, it also entails offering your help and expertise to other users.
Need to have the most storage space possible on your Mac’s hard drive? We’ve identified five techniques to remove unwanted and unnecessary files.
Quick question – how do you uninstall programs on Mac?
If your answer is to drag the app to the Trash, we’re sorry to say that you’ve been doing it wrong.
You probably know or guess that you can remove apps by dragging them to the Trash bin, but it is not quite so. Dragging normal files like documents and movies to the Trash works fine. But doing the same for apps leaves gigabytes of leftover junk files on your hard drive. We’re going to show you what gets left behind and what you can do to completely uninstall apps from here on out.
How to uninstall on Mac
If you are trying to delete an old application, reinstall a corrupted software or just free up disk space on your Mac, removing all components of the program is important. These include the app, its preferences and support files, and sometimes other hidden files.
To completely uninstall a program on Mac you have to choose one of three options:
- Using Trash.
- Using Launchpad.
- Using a native uninstaller
The ways mentioned above include navigating your Mac’s in search of the apps you want to remove and then locating their remaining data. The latter can take even more place than the app itself and can be stored anywhere in your folders.
I prefer clearing my Mac from apps using special software made for this particular task - CleanMyMac X. It’s Uninstaller feature, is an app-killer that sweeps away any program you don’t want on your Mac and clears remaining junk.
Now let’s go ahead and delete some apps!
1. Uninstall Mac apps using Trash
Whether you're running macOS Catalina or an earlier macOS, like Mojave or Sierra, the process of manually uninstalling remains relatively similar. Here’s what you need to do:
- Open Finder.
- Go to Applications.
- Choose the app you want to delete.
- Press Command + Delete (⌘⌫).
- Open Trash.
- Click the Empty button in the upper-right corner of the window.
And the app is gone.
Even uninstalling apps on macOS Catalina requires getting rid of leftovers, despite the fact that it's the latest and the most sophisticated system for Mac. Apple has done such a good job on macOS 10.15 but left this unfortunate issue unresolved for another year.
To completely remove programs from Mac manually, you have to find all the associated files that come along with the app. That means not just dragging the app icon to the Trash from your Applications folder, but searching the depths of the system files on your Mac.
We’re going to reveal the locations of the most common files that are associated with apps. To remove the app leftovers from your Mac just navigate to each of these folders and hunt for the app you want to remove. If you find files with the app name you can send them to the Trash.
So, when uninstalling any software, you have to go over each of these folders one by one and remove the following:
How To Delete Built In Apps On Macbook Pro
- Binary and dock icons are located in
/Applications/
- Application support files are located in
~/Library/Application Support
- Support Caches can be found in
/Library/Caches/
and~/Library/Caches
- Plugins are located in
~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/
- Library can be found in
~/Library/
- App preferences are located in
~/Library/Preferences/
- Crashes are found in
~/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/
- App saved states are located in
~/Library/Saved Application State/
There are many more hidden files, some of which cannot be accessed by the user. And macOS/OS X will prevent you from deleting some app files.
As you can see, it's not that easy to uninstall applications Mac doesn't need, even when you know what to do. By the way, be sure to look for the name of the app in the file names of the files you remove. Don’t remove anything you don’t know! https://intelligencetree836.weebly.com/blog/how-to-use-photos-app-on-mac. Do your due diligence before removing something from your system.
When you delete software on Mac manually, be sure only to remove an app file or folder when you’re sure of what it is. Look at the name very carefully before you nuke it. Removing the wrong files could cause problems with your system.
Remember, please be careful when deleting system files — you never know how it will affect your Mac if you remove the wrong ones (or the right ones for that matter!).
2. Uninstall Mac programs with Launchpad
How to uninstall on Mac by using the Launchpad? It's easy and this manual method works like this:
- Click Launchpad icon in your Mac's Dock.
- Find the app you want to delete.
- Click and hold the app until it starts shaking.
- Click X in the top-left corner of the app icon.
- Click Delete.
This will uninstall the app from your Mac. However, keep in mind that after removing the program, you should also delete its leftovers as we've described above.
Can't delete apps on Mac?
Unfortunately, manual methods won’t get everything. Some apps are pre-installed macOS components and protected by the system while others will refuse to delete because they are already open (even though that’s often not true).
So, how to delete the apps on Mac that won't delete? You can try the manual removal after force quitting the app in question (press Command-Option-Esc and if the app is on the list shut it down) or rebooting your Mac.
If you're still unable to delete apps on Mac or if you’re worried you won't do it correctly and want a safer alternative, there’s the easy method of uninstalling apps from your Mac so you don't have to force delete applications. It actually does a better (and safer) job and in a fraction of the time. Read on to learn how to delete apps on Mac automatically.
3. Uninstall apps with CleanMyMac X
When I referred to the easy method of uninstalling apps, I meant using CleanMyMac X. As for me, deleting apps is a pretty tiresome task. I’ve always put away this chore, as it will waste a huge amount of my time. But, my Mac was running low on free storage, so I decided to try CleanMyMac X to fix this problem and uninstall programs on Mac with ease. I used the Uninstaller module to get rid of multiple apps at once. Here’s what you need to do:
- Download CleanMyMac X, install, and launch it (it takes less than a minute).
- Go to Uninstaller.
- Choose All Applications.
- Check the boxes next to the app you want to remove.
- Press Uninstall.
As you can see, CleanMyMac X shows precisely how much place each app takes, so it’s easier to detect the heaviest programs. Another benefit is that you can bulk uninstall programs on Mac without dragging each app and its files to the Trash.
Is it possible to delete system files on Mac?
CleanMyMac X doesn’t let you delete system apps like Safari. Neither of Mac cleaners can do that. But, CleanMyMac X allows you to delete the data associated with system apps and reset them completely. Click CleanMyMac X’s menu in the upper-left corner and choose Preferences. Go to Ignore List and click Uninstaller. Here uncheck the box next to “Ignore system applications.” Best todo app for mac os.
Now, you can close Preferences and go back to Uninstaller. Click ► next to the app's icon to show its files. Then check the data you want to delete and choose Reset from the drop-down list next to the app’s icon. Then press Remove.
It will help to clear some space on your Mac. Note that your app logs may also disappear after the reset.
4. Use the native uninstaller
Many applications are designed to clean after themselves. They come with a built-in uninstaller — a self-destroying utility bundled with the main app. This is mostly true for third-party apps that you download from the internet. That’s why native uninstallers remain more of a Windows thing, not much heard of in the Mac world.
The original uninstallers can be found in Finder > Applications. If your app looks like a folder (within the Applications folder) most likely it will have a separate uninstaller. The name will read [Your app] Uninstaller or Uninstall [Your App].
The original uninstallers can be found in Finder > Applications. If your app looks like a folder (within the Applications folder) most likely it will have a separate uninstaller. The name will read [Your app] Uninstaller or Uninstall [Your App].
Open the folder, find the launcher, and just follow the onscreen instructions. After the removal is complete, you can enjoy your extra storage space!
Clear app leftovers: preferences files and caches
No sane developer wants people to delete their application. As your desperate ex, they would do everything to stay on your Mac, like planting pieces of their software around your Mac so one day they can return. Support files, preference files, and caches — all these will likely remain even if you’ve deleted the app itself.
Here I’ll show you how to root out these remaining traces. I’ll use the Telegram app as an example.
Here I’ll show you how to root out these remaining traces. I’ll use the Telegram app as an example.
Delete application support files
How To Delete Built In Apps On Mac Shortcut
Click on Finder > Go to Folder… (in the upper menu).
Paste in:
Paste in:
~/Library/Application Support/Your App Name
In my case it's:
~/Library/Application Support/Telegram
Now, delete the content of this folder.
Delete application Preferences
The Preferences folder contains your user settings. These files are tiny but there’s no reason not to delete them, just out of principle.
Click on Finder > Go to Folder…
Paste in:
Click on Finder > Go to Folder…
Paste in:
~/Library/Preferences/
Open the folder. Now type the name of your app in the search bar. Click to search 'Preferences.” Delete the found items.
Delete the caches
In the same vein, you’ll have to delete the remaining app caches.
This time, use the following command to paste in Finder > Go to Folder..
Paste this:
This time, use the following command to paste in Finder > Go to Folder..
Paste this:
~/Library/Caches/Your App Name
Note: In some cases, you need to search for the app developer's name, rather than the name of the app.
How To Delete Built In Apps On Mac Safari
Delete leftovers with CleanMyMac X
If you’ve been doing a 'spring cleaning' in your Applications folder, chances are some files are still left somewhere in your Mac’s system. CleanMyMac X detects and collects them into the Leftovers tab.
Go to Uninstaller once again and select Leftovers. How do you get rid of unwanted apps mac. Select all the remaining files and press Uninstall to say goodbye to the app remains.
Now you are just as good at uninstalling applications on Mac as any Apple engineer. Hopefully, you now have plenty of free space. Don't miss a few related articles below.