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How to uninstall Skype

A

anfield11

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 13, 2007
262
1
My experience in uninstalling programs has been limited and I have just dragged the application from the application folder on the HD to the trash and it seems to have worked.

I'm trying to help someone else who has tried this method with Skype and says "Anyway drag it to trash and its starts to delete for a fraction of a second then says there is an error and cant do it.....I have turned the computer on and off but it just comes up again...Any ideas????"

Any help would be appreciated.
 
I don't think anyone can offer any advice, since you didn't give very much info on the problem. (how about telling the person who has the error to post something?)

But try repairing disk permissions.
Go into disk utility, and click on your hard drive, and repair permissions.
Whenever OS X won't let you move/delete something, this always works.
 
Thanks for that tip.

I'm not tech dense, but this person is!! :)

From what I understand she's just trying to drag the Skype app to the trash to uninstall, then gets an error message.
 
natlinxz said:
I don't think anyone can offer any advice, since you didn't give very much info on the problem. (how about telling the person who has the error to post something?)

But try repairing disk permissions.
Go into disk utility, and click on your hard drive, and repair permissions.
Whenever OS X won't let you move/delete something, this always works.
Click to expand...

Apparently it isn't working. Every time she tries it, it comes up with an message error code -61.
 
Maybe you should learn how to use the terminal

"sudo rm" is a powerful tool. "sudo rm -rf" is even more powerful... but with great power comes great responsibility. In other words, you can **** your whole **** up. Seriously, make sure you learn exactly how to use it and you use the whole path to Skype other wise you'll ruin things. Don't just type "sudo rm" and hit enter. That will do nothing.

Also, if you learn you way around the terminal, you will become a more adept computer user.
 
ahm said:
Maybe you should learn how to use the terminal

"sudo rm" is a powerful tool. "sudo rm -rf" is even more powerful... but with great power comes great responsibility. In other words, you can **** your whole **** up. Seriously, make sure you learn exactly how to use it and you use the whole path to Skype other wise you'll ruin things. Don't just type "sudo rm" and hit enter. That will do nothing.

Also, if you learn you way around the terminal, you will become a more adept computer user.
Click to expand...

Ummmm okay!!!!
 
ahm said:
What? Is suggesting to use the terminal bad or something? It's efficient.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I had no idea what terminal was and thought you were extracting the urine. When I saw a later post from BlueRevolution I realized you weren't. Sorry.
 
ahm said:
What? Is suggesting to use the terminal bad or something? It's efficient.
Click to expand...

It's just confusing for neophytes, hard to remember if the problem appears again, and easy to screw up. You also didn't provide a very clear explanation of how to use it. I only direct people to go in from the command line when absolutely necessary.

anfield11, have you run the command I suggested?
 
BlueRevolution said:
It's just confusing for neophytes, hard to remember if the problem appears again, and easy to screw up. You also didn't provide a very clear explanation of how to use it. I only direct people to go in from the command line when absolutely necessary.

anfield11, have you run the command I suggested?
Click to expand...

I think there is a lot of value in learning how to do something without receiving step-by-step instructions... which is why I didn't give a clear explanation. And the terminal isn't just for last resorts. It's an excellent tool and really gives the user additional understanding of their operating system. And when you do simple things like deleting a file or directory, or emptying the trash, or moving a file from one directory to another... it makes more "difficult" tasks less intimidating. For instance, I was trying to create a bootable USB with Disk Utility and it wasn't working out. So I used the dd command and it worked. Everyone starts off as a beginner.

But hey you threw in the word, "neophyte" when you could have easily said, "novice" so you must really know what you're talking about.
 
What is this, 1993? Most people will never need to use the command line, and manage just fine without. Just because you are (presumably) comfortable in BASH doesn't make it easy to learn or use.

I apologize for assuming that readers have a reasonable grasp of the English language. "Neophyte" and "novice" are not interchangeable.

However, this is all rather peripheral to the subject at hand. Why don't we focus on helping the OP's friend with her problem?
 
BlueRevolution said:
It's just confusing for neophytes, hard to remember if the problem appears again, and easy to screw up. You also didn't provide a very clear explanation of how to use it. I only direct people to go in from the command line when absolutely necessary.

anfield11, have you run the command I suggested?
Click to expand...

Your comments are correct the first one wasn't clear to me, however, yours was. I was making the enquiries for a lady who is very inexperienced tech wise, even more than me. I didn't pass it on as I thought she might screw it up....and as she's my ex wife, it would be all my fault!! :)

I was able to find it very easily on my machine with your instructions though and thanks for your help.
 
anfield11 said:
Holy crap!!! That's amazing. How do people learn this stuff?!?!
Click to expand...

5 years of dicking around, and Doug.

anfield11 said:
I guess that's what attracts so many people to Apple, and it's ease of use.
Click to expand...

The same trick would be even easier on a Linux machine. I'd just make a shell script instead. (Shell scripts work on Macs too, but I'd have to worry about making sure the execute bit is set on the clueless person's computer, so it's easier just to use AppleScript to run the command.)
 
deleting skype

I also tried to delete skype. I drug it to the trash. Now I am finding it when searching it in finder and it says it is the alias which can not be opened because the original item can not be found. Can you help me???
 
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