De-bloating/uninstalling Default Apps

[BigBlur]

Would be nice if Chess was moved to the App Store...or at least buried in the 'Other' category where the other useless apps are.

With the Launchpad we used to have, we could have put it in a folder or on another screen. Now we're stuck with it showing up all the time near the top of the list when using the new launcher.

 

[capamac]

Yeah but chess is 14mb.
On my base M1 Air, Chess is 0.00546875 percent of my 256GB drive.

My largest app right now is X-Plane 12 at 40GB. It was installed in my home folder by default and I just left it there. Here's the top 10 largest apps in my Applications folder. If I need to free-up space, large apps like these might be best to consider for removal.

 

[Wolf1701]

Yeah but chess is 14mb.
On my base M1 Air, Chess is 0.00546875 percent of my 256GB drive.

My largest app right now is X-Plane 12 at 40GB. It was installed in my home folder by default and I just left it there. Here's the top 10 largest apps in my Applications folder. If I need to free-up space, large apps like these might be best to consider for removal.

View attachment 2605569

It's not just a question of space; take the time to read a discussion.

It's a question of having a choice in what is installed with the operating system.

Personally, I don't use chess, diary, podcasts, photoboot, freeform, dictionary... things that Apple often presents as great new features of the (new) operating system. But what do they really have to do with the operating system itself? Nothing. It's marketing. They can easily be relegated to a ‘highly recommended, try it out’ category in the Apple Store.

I don't care if they're 10MB or 100MB, they just don't make sense as part of an operating system.

It's not a matter of life and death, it's a matter of not being fooled when half of the ‘new features’ of the operating system are apps that are completely unrelated to it (plus the already mentioned issues of visual clutter in the app folder and potential security concerns).

 

[capamac]

For ultimate choice, go with linux/bsd.

 

[BigBlur]

Yeah but chess is 14mb.
On my base M1 Air, Chess is 0.00546875 percent of my 256GB drive.

My largest app right now is X-Plane 12 at 40GB. It was installed in my home folder by default and I just left it there. Here's the top 10 largest apps in my Applications folder. If I need to free-up space, large apps like these might be best to consider for removal.

View attachment 2605569

I don't care about the size. I'm pointing out that Tahoe's new app launcher lists all your apps alphabetically, so therefore Chess is right there near the top, wasting real estate. I'd rather have another app I use displaying there, but there's no way to customize this like we could previously with Launchpad. It looks like you aren't running Tahoe, so you wouldn't know or experience this problem.

 

[capamac]

Why not just use the dock rather than the app launcher. Yeah i'm running Sequoia.

 

[fisherking]

I have to admit I don't really know what the current options are for custom launchers, what would this end up looking like? I've had the Applications folder in the dock in List view since around when Panther came out (late 2003/early 04), I only really want something like that ideally. I remember when Leopard came out, the list view option for dock folders was removed and it caused an uproar and was swiftly re-added a few months later. Nowadays, I may be in a minority using it.

you could do what my brother does:

he made a folder in Documents called "APPS"; dragged all the apps he wants to see regularly from the Applicationa folder into it (making, of course, aliases). put that folder in the dock.. and has what he wants (no 'chess' or 'tips', for example...)

 

[Bazza1]

...With the Launchpad we used to have, we could have put it in a folder or on another screen. Now we're stuck with it showing up all the time near the top of the list when using the new launcher...

Tahoe's App Launcher simply not a working as alternative to Launchpad for me (or many), so I went to the free Launchie - one of many similar apps since 26 - instead. Not ideal, but at least I can (As I did with Launchpad) create a folder called Apple Junk Drawer and drag the otherwise unused built-in apps there. And then drag the whole thing to the bottom of the Launchie screen. Mostly out-of-sight, and I'm not having wade my way thru them - alphabetically - in App Launcher.

 

[Wolf1701]

Tahoe's App Launcher simply not a working as alternative to Launchpad for me (or many), so I went to the free Launchie - one of many similar apps since 26 - instead. Not ideal, but at least I can (As I did with Launchpad) create a folder called Apple Junk Drawer and drag the otherwise unused built-in apps there. And then drag the whole thing to the bottom of the Launchie screen. Mostly out-of-sight, and I'm not having wade my way thru them - alphabetically - in App Launcher.

Personally, I've never used Launchpad; in fact, it was the first icon to disappear from my dock... I've never seen the point of it on a computer.

Currently, my “Launchpad” looks like the image (all apps are still available in Applications and with Spotlight).

 

[maflynn]

Personally, I've never used Launchpad; in fact, it was the first icon to disappear from my dock.

Same, never used. I found better ways imo that allowed me to launch my apps.

 

[elptdbi3lYI]

How do I delete and uninstall default apps on MacOS 26?

not detailed instructions but... disable sip -> mount system volume -> remove apps from mounted volume -> bless (command) the mounted volume -> reboot

 

[capamac]

Launchpad reminds me of At Ease, which I never much cared for nor used:

 

[blicked]

Please just let me delete Music. If I don't have my music app of choice (Swinsian) open and accidentally hit play or pause on the keyboard, Music and the use agreement pop up, and I have to force quit it. I just want Music gone. iTunes went downhill over the years, and Music is the nadir. Ridiculous that it can't be deleted.

 

[CrabQueenInc]

Please just let me delete Music. If I don't have my music app of choice (Swinsian) open and accidentally hit play or pause on the keyboard, Music and the use agreement pop up, and I have to force quit it. I just want Music gone. iTunes went downhill over the years, and Music is the nadir. Ridiculous that it can't be deleted.

I understand wanting to delete Music and also wish this were an option. Until then, maybe an app like Reflex might assist with managing the play/pause button.

 

[sashavegas]

check this post

Slimed Tahoe on M3 Air

First disable csrutil from startup menu Open terminal and type csrutil disable csrutil authenticated-root disable Reboot Create mnt volume sudo mkdir -p -m777 mnt Find sealed volume mount | grep sealed Returned /dev/disk3s1s1 on / (apfs, sealed, local, read-only, journaled) Mount mnt...

forums.macrumors.com

i put details instruction how to debloat

 

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

How about a tool like Xslimmer to remove Intel code from apps on Apple Silicon or vice-Versa, like in the old PPC days?

 

[bogdanw]

check this post
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/slimed-tahoe-on-m3-air.2466304/?post=34151979#post-34151979
i put details instruction how to debloat

To disable services from LaunchAgent and LaunchDemon
For example
sudo mv mnt/System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.familycircled.plist mnt/System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.familycircled.plist.bak
continue to whatever services you want to disable

With SIP disabled (csrutil disable), you can stop and disable launch agents/daemons and the modifications persist after updating.

Examples
launchctl bootout gui/$UID/com.apple.familycircled
launchctl disable gui/$UID/com.apple.familycircled

sudo launchctl bootout system/com.apple.familycontrols
sudo launchctl disable system/com.apple.familycontrols

More on Disable-Tahoe-Bloatware.sh https://gist.github.com/b0gdanw/0c20c2fd5d0a7e6cff01849b57108967

 

[Bazza1]

Personally, I've never used Launchpad; in fact, it was the first icon to disappear from my dock... I've never seen the point of it on a computer.

Currently, my “Launchpad” looks like the image (all apps are still available in Applications and with Spotlight).

View attachment 2605716

To each their own, of course - except with Apple, who think they know better than the user how to use their computers - but my problem with the new Launcher (and your list above) is that it simply lists the apps in alphabetical order, whereas the old Launchpad (and the app Launchie which I 'm now using) allows the user to list apps in an order that makes sense to them, or in created group folders. App names are not always the most intuitive as to what they do, so should you - on the fly - momentarily forget its name (so alphabetical a moot point) but if it - and a range of other apps them all have to do with, say, working with photos / editing - they can at least be put in a folder dedicated to that. Narrows the search field.

Like I said, make your computer work the way that best suits you.

 

[Wolf1701]

App names are not always the most intuitive as to what they do, so should you - on the fly - momentarily forget its name (so alphabetical a moot point) but if it - and a range of other apps them all have to do with, say, working with photos / editing - they can at least be put in a folder dedicated to that. Narrows the search field.

Like I said, make your computer work the way that best suits you.

Of course, to each his own. Mine was just a suggestion.

On the other hand, you can create as many subdirectories as you want with whatever you want inside them. The inconvenience lies in having to update the aliases.

 

[emulator]

You'll barely save a gigabyte if you deleted many of the default apps. That's not worth it. A typical user's cache folder has over a gigabyte of cached files.

i realize, if i deleted the apps i never use, i'd regain 200mb. eh. but still, don't see why we can't have that choice...

It's not about the storage, you would not need to scroll over 15 useless icons in the App folder. At least on tvOS I could make a folder and put every useless crap there.

 

[fisherking]

It's not about the storage, you would not need to scroll over 15 useless icons in the App folder. At least on tvOS I could make a folder and put every useless crap there.

why scroll the the apps folder? there are numerous ways to organize your apps; the Apps app, the dock, etc...

if i ever need to go to the apps folder, it's there alphabetically, so it'seasy to go the app i want.

 

[nebojsak]

It's not about the storage, you would not need to scroll over 15 useless icons in the App folder. At least on tvOS I could make a folder and put every useless crap there.

That's where the Spotlight (or other 3rd party launcher) steps in.

 

[ifxf]

Since they switched to the signed system volume "image-based" deployment method, customizations (in the way of taking pieces out) are less practical. Are they going to dynamically sign the package based on what you choose to include, or offer a whole bunch of different variations for you to pick from? And for what? Checking the size of the bundled apps that aren't from the App Store, most of them are single-digit MB's. A handful of them break into double digits. The security benefits of SSV outweigh the negligible space that you'd get back.

...I know they allow deletion of apps in iOS in some circumstances. I'm thinking that they probably just hide them from the home menu and not actually delete them, though? iOS uses the same signed system volume methodology. ...I haven't actually investigated if you actually get space back by doing this.

If they can support deleting Apple apps on ios, they can certainly offer the same functionality on macos.

 

[PotentPeas]

If they can support deleting Apple apps on ios, they can certainly offer the same functionality on macos.

Deleting the bundled apps on iOS doesn't really delete them, it just removes them from the home screen.

This makes less sense on macOS. When you look in Finder, you're looking at the file system, not an "app menu", and there is a strong argument for the idea that you don't want it not showing you files that are actually still there. (Similarly to iOS, you were allowed to hide them from Launchpad, back when that was still around.)

 

[ifxf]

Deleting the bundled apps on iOS doesn't really delete them, it just removes them from the home screen.

This makes less sense on macOS. When you look in Finder, you're looking at the file system, not an "app menu", and there is a strong argument for the idea that you don't want it not showing you files that are actually still there. (Similarly to iOS, you were allowed to hide them from Launchpad, back when that was still around.)

So you are saying Apple is lying when you can download them from the app store?