How To Uninstall Apps On Mac

Tips
1

I’ve installed a bunch of apps on my Mac and now my storage is almost full. Dragging apps to the Trash doesn’t always remove all their files, and I’m confused about the right way to completely uninstall them. Can someone explain the proper steps or tools to safely remove Mac apps without leaving leftover data or breaking anything?

2

Yeah, dragging to Trash only removes the app bundle. Lots of junk stays behind.

Here is the practical way to uninstall on a Mac and clean most of it.

  1. Use the app’s own uninstaller
    • Some apps add an uninstaller in:
    /Applications/
    /Applications/Utilities/
    • Check the app’s menu bar too: App Name > Uninstall / Remove.
    If it has one, use that first. Those usually remove daemons, login items, extra tools.

  2. Use Launchpad for App Store apps
    • Open Launchpad.
    • Click and hold on the app until they wiggle.
    • Click the X on the top left if it shows.
    That works for App Store apps and some others. It removes more than drag to Trash.

  3. Manual removal for leftovers
    After deleting the main app from /Applications, clean its support files.
    Common folders to check in your home folder (use Finder > Go > Go to Folder):

    • ~/Library/Application Support/
    • ~/Library/Preferences/
    • ~/Library/Caches/
    • ~/Library/Logs/
    • ~/Library/Containers/
    • ~/Library/Group Containers/
    • ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

    Look for folders or files named after the app or vendor, like:
    com.company.app.plist
    AppName
    VendorName

    Delete only things you are sure match that app. If you are not sure, leave it.

  4. Check system wide folders for heavier tools
    For pro tools, antivirus, VPNs, drivers, etc, check:

    • /Library/Application Support/
    • /Library/LaunchAgents/
    • /Library/LaunchDaemons/
    • /Library/Extensions/

    Again, remove only entries you clearly recognize. Those often start or install background processes. If you remove the wrong thing, some other app breaks.

  5. Use a third party uninstaller app
    If you want easier cleanup, use tools like:
    • AppCleaner (free, popular, simple)
    • AppDelete or CleanMyMac type tools if you accept paid stuff

    With AppCleaner for example:
    • Install it.
    • Drag the app icon from /Applications into AppCleaner.
    • It lists all related files.
    • Review the list, uncheck anything suspicious.
    • Delete.

    For most users AppCleaner plus a little manual check works well.

  6. Check how much space you free up
    • Click Apple menu > About This Mac > Storage tab > Manage.
    • Look at Applications and Documents.
    • Sort by size.
    This helps you target the big offenders instead of chasing tiny leftovers.

  7. Avoid deleting system or Apple apps
    Leave things in:
    • /System
    • /System/Library
    • Built in Apple apps like Safari, Mail, Messages
    Those tie into macOS. For those, remove only their user data if you must, not the app bundle.

  8. Quick example
    Say you uninstall Spotify. You would:
    • Delete Spotify from /Applications.
    • Then remove:
    ~/Library/Application Support/Spotify
    ~/Library/Caches/com.spotify.client
    ~/Library/Preferences/com.spotify.client.plist

If storage stays low even after cleanup, check large folders like Movies, Downloads, ~/Library/Mobile Documents (iCloud Drive), and any virtual machines, Xcode stuff, or big photo/video libraries.

3

Couple of extra angles to add on top of what @caminantenocturno already wrote, without rehashing the same checklist.

  1. Use macOS’s own storage tools first
    Before going app-by-app, open:
    Apple menu > About This Mac > Storage > Manage
    Then:
  • Look at “Applications” sorted by size
  • Also check “Documents” > “Large Files”
    Sometimes the apps themselves are tiny compared to giant project files, VMs, Xcode simulators, iMovie libraries, etc. People go nuclear on app leftovers and the real hog is a 60 GB VM sitting in ~/Documents.
  1. Focus on “noisy” apps, not every single one
    Real talk: most little preference and cache files are a few MB at most. The ones worth actually hunting down leftovers for are:
  • Adobe stuff
  • Office / Teams
  • VPNs, antivirus, backup tools
  • Music / video production apps
  • Big one: Docker, Parallels, VMware, Android Studio, Xcode

For those, look for:

  • Their “libraries” (e.g. Adobe libraries, Docker images, Parallels VMs)
  • Any “.dmg” or installer archives you kept around
    You can delete 2 or 3 of these and free more than an hour of carefully deleting random prefs.
  1. Use Finder’s search smartly
    Instead of clicking through Library folders blindly, do this:
  • In Finder, hit Cmd + F
  • Search “Kind: Other” > “System files” > “are included”
  • Then search for the app name or the vendor name
    This catches a lot of scattered files in one shot. Just be careful with short names (like “Mac” or “Pro”) so you don’t nuke unrelated stuff. If in doubt, sort by “Kind” and double check the path before deleting.
  1. Don’t obsess over every trace
    Mild disagreement with the “clean most of it” obsession: you do not need a 100% sterile uninstall in most cases. A few tiny .plist files or 5 MB of cache will not matter on a modern drive. The only time I’d seriously chase every trace is:
  • Something is misbehaving and you want a totally clean reinstall
  • It’s security related (old VPN / antivirus / kernel extension)
    For random utilities, delete the app + its big support folder and call it a day.
  1. Handle login items & background stuff
    Some apps keep starting even after you binned them. To stop that properly:
  • System Settings > General > Login Items
    • Disable anything from that app’s vendor
  • Also check “Allow in the Background” section (lower on that same page)
    Kill those and you avoid weird ghost processes and random CPU usage.
  1. For really stubborn enterprise-style apps
    If you have things like:
  • Endpoint security / MDM stuff
  • Corporate VPNs
  • Printer or scanner “suites”
    They often have a specific uninstaller pkg or terminal script from the vendor. Manually ripping their LaunchDaemons before running the official removal can break them in annoying ways. For those, I’d actually search “[app name] mac uninstall script” and follow their docs first, then clean leftovers.
  1. Last resort: archive instead of delete
    If you are scared of breaking something, quick trick:
  • Create a folder on an external drive: “App leftovers”
  • Move suspect folders there instead of straight deleting
  • Use the Mac for a few days
    If nothing breaks, then delete them off the external drive later. That beats restoring from Time Machine because you went too Rambo in /Library.

TL;DR:

  • Use the Storage “Manage” tool to target the real space hogs.
  • Only deep clean big or security-related apps.
  • Use Finder search with “System files included” for smart hunting.
  • Don’t panic about a few KB of prefs, focus on GB-scale junk.
4

Skip the Trash-dragging for a second and zoom out. You don’t actually have to chase every single crumb to “uninstall” apps on a Mac in a sane way.

1. Figure out how the app was installed

This changes what “complete uninstall” even means:

  • App Store apps

    • Deleting from Launchpad is usually enough.
    • Leftovers are tiny: a prefs file and some cache. Not worth a deep hunt unless you are debugging a bug.

  • Drag‑and‑drop apps (.app from a DMG)

    • Main app: /Applications (or ~/Applications).
    • Big leftovers usually live in ~/Library/Application Support/ under either the app name or the vendor name.
    • For many indie utilities, deleting that one support folder gets you 95% of the space back.

  • Installer package apps (.pkg)

    • These are the troublemakers: antivirus, VPNs, printer suites, “system utilities.”
    • They scatter stuff in /Library, sometimes load kernel extensions or system services.
    • For these, the vendor uninstaller is not optional. Hunt for:
      • /Applications/AppName Uninstaller.app
      • Or in the original DMG / installer archive.

If you don’t remember how you installed it: open the app in Finder, hit Cmd + I, and check “Kind” and the location. A .pkg-installed tool will usually not be a simple standalone bundle in /Applications only.

2. Time Machine & snapshots: the invisible storage hog

One angle people skip when doing “How to uninstall apps on Mac” cleanup: even if you delete a 30 GB app and all its data, that space might not appear immediately if:

  • You use Time Machine to an external disk.
  • Or your drive has APFS local snapshots piling up.

Quick checks:

  • System Settings → General → Time Machine → see if it is creating local snapshots while the backup disk is disconnected.
  • In really stubborn cases, you can free space by:
    • Connecting your Time Machine disk and letting a full backup run.
    • Or trimming old snapshots with tmutil in Terminal (only if you know what you are doing).

This does not uninstall apps, but it explains “I deleted 50 GB and my disk is still full.”

3. When not to use third‑party “cleaners”

I partly disagree with the idea that you should always hunt manually. There is a niche for cleanup tools, but:

Approach I’d avoid:

  • “One click optimize” apps that:
    • Mess with system permissions.
    • Run aggressive background daemons.
    • Promise RAM boosting or miracle performance.

They often create more junk than they remove, and they are not needed for normal app uninstalls.

When a dedicated uninstaller app is useful

If you are uninstalling many apps in bulk and keep forgetting where to look, a focused tool can be handy as a visual index of leftovers. Just make sure it:

  • Shows you the files and paths it will remove.
  • Lets you deselect stuff before deletion.
  • Does not install kernel extensions or “cleaning daemons” that run forever.

If you do use something like this, treat it as a helper, not a magic button: let it list files, then review paths manually before confirming.

4. Pay attention to data folders that behave like apps

Some software is actually tiny but manages huge data sets in your home folder:

  • Photo / video apps storing libraries in ~/Pictures or ~/Movies.
  • Music production software with sample libraries in ~/Music or a custom folder.
  • Development tools with SDKs and simulators in ~/Library or a custom workspace.

Uninstalling the app does not always remove those libraries because they are considered your documents.

What to do:

  1. Before uninstalling, open the app’s preferences and see where its “Library,” “Samples,” “Projects,” or “Cache” folders live.
  2. After uninstalling:
    • Decide which of those you safely no longer need.
    • Move to an external drive first if you are nervous, then delete later.

This matters more than obsessively cleaning ~/Library/Preferences/com.someapp.plist, which is usually kilobytes in size.

5. Background agents & launch daemons

This is where people get stuck on “I removed the app but it still spawns processes.”

Beyond the Login Items that were already mentioned, long‑lived system services usually live in:

  • /Library/LaunchDaemons/
  • /Library/LaunchAgents/
  • ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

If an app was installed by a .pkg, it might have a .plist there named with the vendor or product:

  • Example pattern: com.vendor.product.daemon.plist

Recommended approach:

  1. First try the official uninstaller.
  2. Only if that fails:
    • Stop the service with launchctl or by rebooting after deletion.
    • Remove the corresponding .plist plus the app’s support directory.
  3. Do not delete system Apple plists or anything whose purpose you do not understand.

This is where being conservative pays off: better to leave 2 MB of junk than to break networking or printing.

6. A safer workflow when you are unsure

Instead of deleting blindly:

  1. Create a folder on an external drive like ~/Uninstall_Staging.
  2. When you “remove” support folders (from Application Support, Containers, etc.), move them there rather than deleting.
  3. Reboot and use the Mac for a few days.
  4. If nothing complains, delete the staging folder from the external drive.

That gives you a rollback without relying entirely on Time Machine or snapshots.

7. Quick word on @caminantenocturno’s approach & a different emphasis

The advice from @caminantenocturno is solid and covers the practical hunting side really well. The only places I’d add nuance:

  • I’d be more strict with enterprise and security apps: always look for a vendor uninstall method first, do not manually rip them out unless something is already broken.
  • I’d be less worried about tiny leftovers for App Store and lightweight utilities, and more systematic about checking where big “library” folders live before uninstalling.

Get a mental rule of thumb: if it is not at least hundreds of MB, it is rarely worth more than 10 seconds of your time. Your time is worth more than a pristine Library folder.

Bottom line:

  • Use how the app was installed to guide how you uninstall it.
  • Focus on large data and system services, not microscopic prefs.
  • Prefer vendor uninstallers for anything that hooks deep into the system.
  • Keep a “staging” delete folder on an external disk when in doubt.