Are you looking for ways you can remove your apps from your Mac permanently? Are you wondering how you have less storage although you have deleted a lot of stuff including apps from your Mac? Do you require the best method to delete the app from your Mac? Is there less storage left on your Mac and you’re wondering how?
From people’s experience, at least 99% of Apple users have no idea how to delete apps on Mac the correct way.
Simply how to uninstall Mac apps with all the associated files. The proper way to delete the apps has yet to be discovered and the official methods of Apple to delete such apps isn’t the proper way as there is still some part of the storage left unexplored.
How To Fully Recover Apps On Mac?
Now today I’m going to walk you through how to fully remove or uninstall an application or program here in Mac OS for most users. Here we are going to show the most used and recommended methods and explain why the official methods are not the better idea to use.
We will also of course show you the right way how to delete apps on Mac so let’s go to better understand what’s wrong with the official methods.
What Usually Happens? (Official Method)
let’s first have a look at how it works. the official Apple support documentation recommends two ways
The First One:
- Is to open Launchpad app on your Mac.
- Holding the alt or option key until apps will start to jiggle and then just simply click the X or cross to delete it.
- Problem is it works only for Apple apps and apps from App Store.
What if you want to delete an app that is not from Apple? As you can see there is no cross in the circle next to your third-party installed applications. so this is the useless way.
Second Option:
- This recommendation is to use Finder to delete an app on Mac.
- This is the easiest way just open the Finder window locate the app you want to delete and just move it to your trash.
- Or hit command plus backspace and empty the trash easily right?
This method is also useless because this way you will delete only the app from your applications folder. don’t forget every app on Mac OS will have its associated support files which are located in system folders and not just in the applications folder. so if you want to delete any app on Mac the correct way you should uninstall or delete all of its files, not just a few of them.
Third One:
- What they do when they want to uninstall or remove a program.
- Is that they come here to the Finder.
- They select applications and then they locate the application or program they want to remove.
So for example, if we want to remove Discord most users will just click and drag it to the trash.
that does work it does remove the functioning application from your computer.
However sometimes when you use these steps it can leave behind traces or garbage on your computer.
So we are going to walk you through some simple steps you can use to do a full clean removal of any program or application on Mac OS.
Mac OS So For Example:
let’s say we want to remove Brave.
- What we’re going to do is come up here to the search in the top right and you are just going to type in brave and then we just want to make sure we have this Mac selected.
- Then we’re going to come over here to the right and click on + and then on this drop-down make sure we have a name that matches.
- We’re going to type in brave or you’ll type in the name of the application you are removing. then after you click enter or return just click on the + and then for this second drop-down menu.
We want system files and most of you will not have system files listed here.
- So what you’ll need to do first is click on other and then from the search just type in the system. system files just add a check to the box and click OK.
- If we return to the drop-down menu you will now have system files to select and change. this to our included and you can see that it’s now listing everything.
- Now before you delete anything you just want to go through each thing listed and just verify and confirm that it is related to the application or program you are uninstalling.
- The most recent version of Mac OS will list the location here as well below and then once you have confirmed or verified that everything here needs to be deleted.
- We’re just going to click and drag to select everything and then we’re going to click and hold. drag to the trash and then we’re going to click on the trash to open it.
- You are just going to go ahead and click on empty and then empty again.
- Then after you’ve done all those steps it’s usually advised to come up here to the top left click on the apple icon and go ahead and restart the computer.
For Older Versions
One quick thing. You would want to note if you’re using an older version of Mac OS.
- You come to this search option and you type in the name of the application you’re looking for but you do not see these little plus options.
- What you’ll want to do instead is come up here and click on go click on computer and then from here do the search and type in the name of the application or program.
- You should have those plus options again this generally happens. if you’re on an older version of Mac OS but that’s everything for you to do in this process.
- These are just some quick simple easy steps you can do to do a full clean uninstall or removal of any program or application here in Mac OS.
Why Are These Methods Still Not Fine?
Let’s have a look we will show you an example of a huge app in sIlluIllustrator. Let’s take an example of Adobe everyone uses this computer home folder is in total 2.64 gigs in size. Remember this number in a moment you will see why so if you would just stretch this folder as Apple recommends you would free up 2.64 gigs. it’s on your desk now have a look at the correct way open any Finder window and in the top right corner type the name of the Mac OS app.
You want to delete in my case illustrator as you can see it found 182 items in total on this Mac. but that’s still not all the files that belong to my illustrator in the top right corner click on the small plus button. we don’t want to limit the search for files that matches the name. we want to list also system files default this option is disabled to be able to see it click on the bottom of the other search for system and enable it to show in the menu.
So now in the drop-down choose system files and change this to our included bang. now as you can see on the bottom it listed 400 files instead of just 182 as before. a lot of those files are located in library folders application support and so on. so if I calculate the size of all these 400 files it’s 4.93 gigabytes. the illustrator folder is just 2.64 gigabytes.
That means the officially recommended ways by Apple itself how to delete apps on Mac are wrong because they would keep two points 2.9 gigabytes of data as leftovers on your desk. so now just move those 400 files to the trash and empty the trash before you will delete all those files. just make sure some of its system components are not shared with some other apps.
Cleaner Apps
You may ask isn’t there some more elegant way glad you asked? yes, that is an amazing free application called app cleaner with support from Mac 10.6 up to the current latest Mac OS 11. big set no installer needed. just download the app and zip the archive.
Place it in you’re applications folder open the cleaner and just drag any application you want to delete on your Mac to the app cleaner window. As you will see it is also listed for the various support files hidden in the system folders now just on the bottom click on Remove empty trash. and you are done.
Conclusion
It is recommended to use a combination of these two methods. It’s best to always compare the results from both before deleting any files forever. so you know you know how easy it is to delete apps on your Mac the correct way. We have provided you with all the information regarding how to delete your apps from your Mac the proper way.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
What Is The Easiest Method To Delete Apps?
This recommendation is to use Finder to delete apps on Mac.
This is the easiest way just open the Finder window locate the app you want to delete and just move it to your trash.
Or Hit Command Plus Backspace And Empty The Trash Easily Right?
This method is also useless because this way you will delete only the app from your applications folder. don’t forget every app on Mac OS will have its associated support files which are located in system folders and not just in the applications folder. so if you want to delete any app on Mac the correct way you should uninstall or delete all of its files, not just a few of them.
Which Cleaner App Would You Recommend Using?
The best application is called app cleaner. It is an amazing free application called app cleaner with support from Mac 10.6 up to the current latest Mac OS 11. big set no installer needed. just download the app and zip the archive.
Place it in you’re applications folder open the cleaner and just drag any application you want to delete on your Mac to the app cleaner window. As you will see it is also listed for the various support files hidden in the system folders now just on the bottom click on remove empty trash. and you are done.
How To Download That Cleaner App And How To Delete An App Through It?
app cleaner with support from Mac was 10.6 up to the current latest Mac OS 11. big set no installer needed. just download the app and zip the archive. place it in you’re applications folder open the cleaner and just drag any application you want to delete on your Mac to the app cleaner window.
What Is The Best Method To Clean Apps Other Than Using The App?
The best method would be this one. Though it is complicated it does do the job. Mac OS so for example
let’s say we want to remove Brave.
what we’re going to do is come up here to the search in the top right and you are just going to type in brave and then we just want to make sure we have this Mac selected.
then we’re going to come over here to the right and click on + and then on this drop-down make sure we have a name that matches.
we’re going to type in brave or you’ll type in the name of the application you are removing. then after you click enter or return just click on the + and then for this second drop-down menu.
we want system files and most of you will not have system files listed here.
So what you’ll need to do first is click on other and then from the search just type in the system. system files just add a check to the box and click OK.
if we return to the drop-down menu you will now have system files to select and change. this to our included and you can see that it’s now listing everything.
now before you delete anything you just want to go through each thing listed and just verify and confirm that it is related to the application or program you are uninstalling.
The most recent version of Mac OS will list the location here as well below and then once you have confirmed or verified that everything here needs to be deleted.
we’re just going to click and drag to select everything and then we’re going to click and hold. drag to the trash and then we’re going to click on the trash to open it.
You are just going to go ahead and click on empty and then empty again.
then after you’ve done all those steps it’s usually advised to come up here to the top left click on the apple icon and go ahead and restart the computer.
