How to uninstall apps on Mac completely

Before you start

• Quit the app. macOS won't move an app that is running to the Trash. If it won't quit, press ⌥ ⌘ Esc to open Force Quit.
• Cancel any subscription first. Deleting an app doesn't cancel what you pay for it. App Store subscriptions are in App Store › your name › Account Settings › Subscriptions; others are on the developer's website.
• Sign out or deactivate a license if the app limits how many Macs it runs on, so you can use it on another Mac later.

Method 1: Finder (works for every app)

1. Open Finder and choose Applications in the sidebar, or press ⇧ ⌘ A.
2. Find the app. Some apps sit in a folder of their own; open it and look for an Uninstall app first (see Method 3).
3. Drag the app to the Trash in the Dock, or select it and press ⌘ Delete.
4. If macOS asks for your administrator password, enter it. Apps installed from the App Store or from an installer package belong to the system, so removing them needs an administrator.
5. Empty the Trash: Control-click the Trash in the Dock and choose Empty Trash. Until you do, the app still takes up space and can be put back.

This removes the app itself. Everything it stored outside its own bundle stays behind; the leftovers section covers that.

Method 2: System Settings › Storage

Useful when you want to see which apps take the most space before you choose:

1. Open System Settings › General › Storage.
2. Click the ⓘ button next to Applications.
3. Sort by size, select the apps you no longer use, and click Delete.

Like Finder, it removes the app but not its leftovers.

Method 3: the app's own uninstaller

Apps that install drivers, system extensions or background services often come with an uninstaller, because dragging them to the Trash would leave those parts running. Use it when there is one:

• Look in the app's folder in Applications for an app named Uninstall or App name Uninstaller.
• Some apps put it in their menu, for example under the app's menu or Help.
• Adobe apps are removed from the Creative Cloud app; Adobe also offers a Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool for installs that went wrong.
• Security software, VPNs, audio drivers and virtualization apps almost always have one. Search the developer's support site for "uninstall".

Method 4: Launchpad, Homebrew and Terminal

• Launchpad (macOS 15 Sequoia and earlier). Open Launchpad, hold the Option key until the icons jiggle, and click the × on an app. This only works for App Store apps. In macOS 26 Tahoe, Launchpad is replaced by the Apps view; use Finder or Storage instead.
• Homebrew. If you installed the app with brew install --cask, remove it the same way: brew uninstall --cask name. Add --zap to also remove the leftover files the cask knows about.
• Terminal. sudo rm -rf "/Applications/App name.app" works, but deletes immediately with no Trash and no undo. Use Finder unless you have a reason not to.

How to remove the leftover files

A Mac app keeps its settings, data and caches outside its .app bundle, in your Library folder, and some install helpers and background services elsewhere. None of it goes away when the app does. To find it:

1. In Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder (⇧ ⌘ G) and type ~/Library. The Library folder is hidden by default; this opens it.
2. Look in the folders in the table below for items named after the app or its developer, or after its bundle ID, such as com.developer.appname.
3. Move what belongs to the app to the Trash. Leave the Trash unemptied for a few days, so you can put something back if another app turns out to need it.

To find an app's bundle ID before you delete it, run this in Terminal: osascript -e 'id of app "App name"'.

Login items and background items

Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions. Under Open at Login and Allow in the Background, turn off or remove anything left from the app. A launch agent whose app is gone keeps trying to start at every login until it's removed.

Installer packages

Apps installed with a .pkg installer can spread files across the disk. To see what a package installed, list the packages with pkgutil --pkgs | grep -i developer, then its files with pkgutil --files package.id. When you've removed them, sudo pkgutil --forget package.id deletes the installer's receipt. It only forgets the record; it doesn't delete files.

Uninstall apps completely with Tidy My Mac

Doing all of the above for every app is slow, and it's easy to miss a launch agent or delete something another app needs. Tidy My Mac's Uninstaller does it in one step:

• Pick an app and see every leftover it has, grouped by kind, with sizes: Application Support, caches, preferences, containers, launch agents and daemons, privileged helpers and installer receipts.
• Leftovers are matched by the app's bundle ID and those of the helpers inside it, never by a shared vendor name, and never a file another installed app uses.
• It quits the app, stops its launch agents, and removes the app and the leftovers you keep checked, asking once for your password if needed.
• Leftovers of removed apps finds what apps you deleted years ago left behind, and moves it to the Trash.

For the apps you keep, Startup Items turns off the helpers they start at login and Junk Cleaner clears their caches. Everything runs on your Mac. How Tidy My Mac compares with other uninstallers and cleaners is on the comparison page.

Apps you can't uninstall

Apps that come with macOS, such as Safari, Mail, Photos and Music, live on a read-only system volume and can't be deleted, not even with Terminal. They don't take space you can get back, and macOS updates them. Hide the ones you don't use from the Dock instead.