While uninstalling an application on a Mac is often very easy, some applications are difficult to uninstall properly. Here’s how.
Windows has a dedicated section for uninstalling apps, but Mac doesn’t. On a Mac, this process is supposed to be easier – you uninstall an app by simply dragging the file to the Trash and then emptying said Trash. It works very well for most applications, but some are more difficult to remove because they leave marks all over the machine.
The Mac AppCleaner utility is the most effective solution for removing most Mac apps and related files—it even cleans up the library and preferences files. However, some applications are not completely uninstalled without additional steps.
VM Parallels
The Parallels VM application is fairly easy to uninstall by dragging the application to the Trash and then emptying it. But deleting Parallels leaves all the virtual machines you had on your computer. Before uninstalling an application, open it, click the Parallels icon in the menu bar, and go to Control Center. There, right-click on the virtual machine, then click “Delete”and then “Move to Trash”. Empty the Trash to free up a lot of space on your computer.
McAfee Antivirus
To completely remove McAfee Antivirus, you need to use the official uninstaller that comes with the application. It is located in the Applications folder called “McAfee Internet Security Uninstaller”. Run the utility and follow the instructions.
Adobe Creative Cloud
To uninstall apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier, and more, open the Creative Cloud app on your Mac. In Dash, find the app you want to uninstall, press the three-dot Menu button, and select Uninstall. Then choose if you want to keep the settings and then follow the uninstall process.
Then uninstall the Creative Cloud app itself. Adobe now includes an uninstaller. Open Finder, navigate to the Adobe Creative Cloud folder and click Remove Adobe Creative Cloud. Follow the instructions.
Dropbox
Dropbox is one of the most sticky apps, it uses all sorts of workarounds to get system level functionality. Sign out of Dropbox and close the app. Then drag the app to the Trash and empty the Trash. (You can also use AppCleaner to remove Dropbox). Then open Finder and click Go > Go to Folder from the menu. Type “/Library”and click “Go”. There, delete the “DropboxHelperTools”folder.
To remove Dropbox preferences, type “~/.dropbox”in the “Go to Folder”window and delete everything in that folder.
Microsoft Office
Microsoft offers the Office Application Uninstaller for Windows, but not for Mac. Instead, find the corresponding Office application in the Applications folder and move it to the Trash. To easily remove related files, use AppCleaner; to do it manually, you can delete the files from the Finder. Click Go > Go to Folder and type “/Library”. Find and delete there:
- ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.errorreporting
- ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excelcom.microsoft.netlib.shipassertprocess
- ~/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Office365ServiceV2
- ~/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Outlook
- ~/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Powerpoint
- ~/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.RMS-XPCService
- ~/Library/Containers/com.Microsoft.Word
- ~/Library/Group containers/UBF8T346G9.ms
- ~/Library/Group containers/UBF8T346G9.Office
- ~/Library/Group containers/UBF8T346G9.OfficeOsfWebHost
- ~/Library/ApplicationScripts/com.microsoft.errorreporting
- ~/Library/ApplicationScripts/com.microsoft.Excel
- ~/Library/ApplicationScripts/com.microsoft.Office365ServiceV2
- ~/Library/ApplicationScripts/com.microsoft.onenote.mac
- ~/Library/ApplicationScripts/com.microsoft.Powerpoint
- ~/Library/ApplicationScripts/com.microsoft.Word
- ~/Library/Settings/com.microsoft.Excel.plist
- ~/Library/Settings/com.microsoft.Outlook.plist
- ~/Library/Settings/com.microsoft.Powerpoint.plist
- ~/Library/Settings/com.microsoft.Word.plist
Microsoft Teams
Teams is another Microsoft app that is not easy to uninstall. Log out and close (or force close) the app to make sure it’s not running in the background. Drag the Microsoft Teams app icon to the trash (and empty the trash). Then open Finder, click Go > Go to Folder and type “/Library”. Click Go, then find and delete files:
- ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.teams
- ~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.teams.shipit
- ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Microsoft/Teams
- ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Microsoft/Teams/ApplicationCache/Cache
- ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Microsoft/Teams/blob_storage
- ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Microsoft/Teams/Cache
- ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Microsoft/Teams/Database
- ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Microsoft/Teams/GPUCache
- ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Microsoft/Teams/IndexedDB
- ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Microsoft/Teams/LocalStorage
- ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Microsoft/Teams/tmp