Can't delete apps

[chubbles]

Discovered today that I can't delete apps. I'm using ITrash and drag and drop and neither works. ITrash runs for a second, but doesn't delete the app and dragging the app to the trash merely makes it jump back to it's spot in the Launchpad. These are not Apple apps, but rather third party apps. Does anybody have any ideas?

I'm on a 2019 MacBook pro.

Any help would appreciated,
chubbles

 

[Taz Mangus]

Try these:

• Reset PRAM.
• Boot into Safe Mode and back to normal mode.
• Download and run latest Catalina installer. This will refresh the system files, it won’t erase anything or touch your user files.

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help.

support.apple.com

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

To help determine whether an issue is caused by software that loads as your Mac starts up, you can start up your Mac in safe mode.

support.apple.com

‎macOS Catalina

‎macOS Catalina gives you more of everything you love about Mac. Experience three all-new media apps: Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Podcasts. Locate a missing Mac with the new Find My app. And now coming to Mac, your favorite iPad apps. You can even extend your desktop using iPad as a second...

apps.apple.com

 

[haralds]

What apps are you trying to delete? The ones shipping with the system cannot be removed easily.

 

[chubbles]

I seem to have a real sticky problem. I can't completely remove third party apps. I'm trying to completely remove VLC and nextcloud desktop client. I follow the instructions on this forum step by step, but nothing shows up except the main app file. I watched the video linked to the instructions, that didn't help; however, they date to 2010. I know there are files such as pirate/var folders, and user/library/Preferences associated with VLC, but they don't show. I know they are there as iTrash(a program that I have used to remove apps)finds them, but for some reason can't delete them. I have tried searching my hard drive for them, but haven't been able to make that work.

Maybe there is some setting deep in the OS that I messed up.

Thanks for reading and if you have any suggestions please post.

I using a MacBook Pro 2019 Catalina10.15.6

Thanks,
chubbles

 

[tyc0746]

It’s broken in Catalina, and the developer hasn’t fixed it. But I don’t believe iTrash was a particularly trusted piece of software anyway as there were reports of it deleting shared libraries which meant other apps stopped working.

Try appcleaner instead, but If you’ve already removed the main app, I don’t think there’ll be any application file list for AppClearer to use to find the hidden files.

 

[chubbles]

tyc0746 thanks for the reply.
I have been working on this for several days. Your right if I am going to use an app I need to find a better one and appcleaner is a good possibility.

I found this totally helpful post that described the situation in detail https://mac.fonepaw.com/uninstall-apps-mac.html .
I used iTrash to compare with "show package contents" and easily completely removed my 2 unwanted apps.

Someone needs to note on the post that describes manually deleting apps that it does not work with Catalina.

Thanks for the help,
chubbles

 

[tyc0746]

Be careful of random apps from random sites...a lot of them are not genuine and just want you to install something that at best will do nothing, but might be collecting your personal data, or even remove something which then needs their paid services to recover.

that Fonepaw one is full of stock images claming to be ‘staff’ and ‘happy customers’ and the reviews are usually self-published articles sent to equally dodgy sites. If you want to check, simply copy the link one of their staff/customer photos into google’s reverse image search and you will see whether they’re pulled from stock photos or social media profiles.

 

[Taz Mangus]

tyc0746 thanks for the reply.
Someone needs to note on the post that describes manually deleting apps that it does not work with Catalina.

Thanks for the help,
chubbles

I have not had the issue of not being able to delete a third party app. It is app dependent not an issue with macOS. Stick with using AppCleaner, I have been using it for years and it works great. There is a couple of small wrinkles with using AppCleaner with Catalina 10.15.6. It seems that if you drag the application from /Applications folder to the AppCleaner window it will remove the application from /Applications folder but it won't show up in the Trash, you have to logout and log back in for it to show up in the Trash. I work around this by dragging the application for /Applications folder to the Trash and then drag the application from the Trash to the AppCleaner window. Also, SmartDelete in AppCleaner does not seem to be working in Catalina. SmartDelete is support to detect when you drag the application to the Trash and then search for associated application files to delete. I just use the manual drag from the /Applications folder to the AppCleaner window for now. I have reported this to the developer.