How to Completely Uninstall Apps on Your Mac (An In-Depth, Step-by-Step Guide)

Do you know that gunked up feeling when your Mac starts slowing down, beaches nearing full storage capacity seem to pop up constantly, and you notice dozens of unused apps you don‘t even remember downloading?

We‘ve all been there as our digital lives accumulate more and more clutter over time.

The good news is with just a little maintenance, spring cleaning your Mac by fully uninstalling unneeded apps is surprisingly straightforward. In this guide, I‘ll provide an in-depth walkthrough to help you reclaim precious hard drive space and boost speed by removing unused software.

Why It‘s Important to Properly Uninstall Apps You Don‘t Use

Before we dive into the step-by-step details, let me convince you why periodically pruning unused apps can profoundly improve your Mac experience.

According to Apple, the average user has over 90 apps installed on their Mac, with dozens more on their iPhone and iPad [1]. Yet we actively use only a fraction of these on a regular basis.

Based on data from CleanMyMac X, the average amount of disk space wasted by unused apps is over 20GB – and it‘s not uncommon to see upwards of 50+GB used by app cruft.

That‘s gigabytes of your precious SSD storage occupied by software you likely forgot you even had!

Not only are unused apps gobbling up drive capacity, they can drag down performance by auto-launching background processes, syncing data and files you don‘t need, and adding bloat.

Plus there‘s a security consideration with abandoning old software. It risks exposing vulnerable code that may contain exploits if left installed indefinity.

So do yourself (and your Macbook) a big favor by following the guiding principles:

1. Regularly review installed apps – Open Launchpad every month or two and take inventory.
2. Remove apps you don‘t use – If you can‘t recall last launching it, delete it!
3. Cleanup after uninstalling – Check for leftover hidden files from deleted apps.

Trust me, once you see 20, 30, maybe even 100GB or more reclaimed, you‘ll be so glad you went through this exercise to get your Mac lean and mean again!

Now let‘s get into the nitty gritty steps to cleanly uninstall anything and everything…

How to Fully Delete Apps on Your Mac

There are two main methods for complete app removal on macOS:

1. Launchpad + Option key (for App Store downloads)
2. Finder drag-and-drop to Trash (for third party software)

The process differs slightly depending on where the app originated from. But in most cases, the overall uninstall procedure is pleasantly straightforward.

I‘ll cover the steps for both routes in detail below.

Viewing Apps Ready for Removal

Let‘s start by viewing all your installed apps to decide what needs to go.

The Launchpad app provides the perfect bird‘s eye view of everything that‘s eating up precious SSD real estate:

1. Click the Launchpad icon in your Dock or open it through Finder to view all installed applications.

2. Browse through the pages of apps and take mental (or physical) notes on unused ones wasting hard drive space.

3. Once you‘ve identified some uninstall candidates, it‘s time to begin removing them.

Pro Tip: Use Launchpad‘s search bar to quickly locate specific apps for deletion.

Your Mac‘s Launchpad shows all installed applications at a glance

Uninstalling App Store Downloads

If the app you want to remove was downloaded directly from the official App Store, uninstalling it is delightfully easy:

1. Click the app icon to highlight it in Launchpad.
2. While holding the Option (⌥) key on your keyboard, click the icon a second time.
3. All app icons will begin wobbling while you hold Option, and small X delete buttons appear on eligible downloads.
4. Click the X with your mouse or trackpad to select that app for deletion.
5. Confirm your choice when prompted to securely erase the app.
6. Repeat for any other App Store downloads you want removed.

See, I told you deleting App Store apps would be a cinch!

Uninstalling Non-App Store Software

For all other applications sourced outside the App Store, uninstalling requires using Finder instead of Launchpad:

1. Open Finder and click Applications in the left sidebar menu.
2. Locate the app you want to remove.
3. Click & drag the application icon to the Trash Can in your Dock or Finder window.
4. Authenticate as administrator if prompted.
5. Right-click on Trash and select Empty Trash to complete deletion.

Yes my friends, it‘s just as easy as dragging any file to the trash on a Mac!

Clearing Out Leftover App Files (Important!)

OK, so you‘ve mastered the basics of app deletion on macOS. But we‘re not done yet!

After the initial uninstall, many applications leave leftover files scattered around your hard drive:

• User settings and preferences
• Application support files
• Cached & temp data
• Odd misc. files

If you don‘t remove these remnants after deleting the main app, you‘ll fail to recover all that precious space sitting in limbo!

Here is the foolproof way to clear out the last traces of an uninstalled app:

1. Open Finder and hit Shift+Command+G
2. Paste in exactly: ~/Library/Application Support/
3. Search for any folders or files related to the apps you just deleted.
4. Send all the leftovers you discover to Trash!

You can also use a specialized cleaning utility like CleanMyMac X which scans your entire system and safely deletes unneeded junk files apps leave stranded. This ensures every last megabyte is freed up!

Pro Tips for Smooth App Uninstallations

Through many years of practice, I‘ve discovered some useful tricks for ensuring applications delete cleanly, completely, and without issues:

Some Key Things to Know

• Default macOS apps like Notes, Reminders, Mail etc. cannot be fully deleted – only hidden
• Occasionally an app will leave caches, logs, or preferences stranded. deleting these often allows a stubborn application to then uninstall normally.
• Always check Library folders for vestiges after uninstalling an app and clean up any remnants discovered.
• After mass uninstalling apps, restart your Mac to clear memory, caches, and refresh Launch Services.
• Back up critical user data beforehand in the rare case an uninstall causes file conflicts.
• Pay attention to app versioning. If an app that won‘t delete has an update available, installing it then uninstalling often works.

Additional Cleanup Steps to Try

In those rare instances where an application stubbornly refuses normal methods of permanent deletion from your Mac, here are some suggested troubleshooting steps:

• Reboot into Safe Mode – In some cases this allows deleting a troublesome app when normal boot fails.
• Delete relavant .plist and .pref files – This tricks the system into resetting app registration data so it uninstall cleanly.
• Run cleaning utility like CleanMyMac X – Clearing app caches/files lets you then attempt uninstall again.
• Reinstall the app first – Applying any available updates can clear corruptions preventing uninstall.
• Use Terminal sudo rm command – This forces deletion of the app package but must be done carefully!

Summing it All Up

If you‘ve made it this far, pat yourself on the back! Uninstalling apps on your Mac is a breeze thanks to the simple but effective built-in processes.

Here are the key takeaways:

• Regularly review installed applications and remove unused apps
• For App Store apps, hold Option and click X to delete
• For other software, Finder drag to Trash then Empty Trash
• Check Library folders for orphaned files left behind after uninstalling
• Use cleaning utilities to remove all hidden traces of deleted apps
• Troubleshooting options exist for stubborn applications

Stick to these best practices and keeping your Mac running like new with plenty of free space will become second nature. I think both you and your Macbook will be much happier for it!

Have any other tips or tricks for completely removing unwanted apps from macOS? Let me know in the comments!