Uninstall Mac Applications

In your Mac computing experience there will come times when you need to uninstall Mac applications. This might be due to a standard upgrade to an existing application or perhaps you are no longer interested in using an installed application and would much prefer freeing up disk space on your Mac's hard drive. Mac applications can be uninstalled through several channels.

At its simplest level, your Mac includes the trash bin icon where you can drag and drop an application you do not need anymore. However, be aware that this approach to uninstalling an application is not complete. To fully understand how Mac applications are installed on your Mac, you need to understand the two types of application formats delivered to your Mac computer; a packaged or bundled application with a collection of files and a self-contained application with one executable file.

Let's look at an example of a bundled Mac application; the web browser called Safari. This application bundle contains executable and helper files packaged under the Safari icon. When you right-click or use ctrl-click on the Safari application icon, you can see all of the Safari program files from the 'Show Package Contents' option. The files and file locations are shown. If this were the application that you wished to uninstall, ideally you would perform uninstaller actions by locating each file and bringing it to the trash bin.

Some installed programs contain all files in one folder. Still, it is important to know where all your application files are, including such things as preferences and application support files, some of which can be quite large such as those related to graphics animation and multimedia publishing and video development software such as DVD Studio Pro.

Preference files provide a reference point such that if you choose to reinstall the program, you will have your previously defined preferences in place. However, new preferences can also be established later so deleting them might be fine, especially for smaller programs. You will find your preferences files within your user name library folder (as ~/Library/Preferences) or in the root of your hard disk's system volume name as /Library/References.

The location of application support files can be either the Application Support folder within your user name's library folder, or 'Application Support' within the 'Library' folder. Use the Show Package Contents option by right-clicking the application icon to open the Finder window to view the files and folders that are part of the application. Click on the support file to drag it to the Trash bin. Be sure the application is not running during any uninstall Mac application action. Once you remove files from the trash bin, your application files are permanently deleted.

Some applications also come with their own Mac uninstaller. To check for this, go to the application installation file and run it for an uninstall option. Alternatively, use the command line by using the name of the application file with the uninstall name instead. For example: '[appname]uninstall.pl'.

There are also uninstaller programs available to do the uninstaller work for you. Find one that will remove all files to an application. A program such as AppZapper or AppTrap does in fact look for files beyond the application executable.