Mac App Store apps deletion process broken in macOS 26/27; Mac User Guide contradicts reality.

[eitanharlev]

The uninstallation process for Mac App Store apps broke entirely with the removal of Launchpad in macOS Tahoe, and it remains unchanged and unaddressed in Golden Gate. Despite replacing Launchpad with the new "Apps" section in Spotlight, Apple has completely failed to update its official Mac User Guide. Disclaimer: Since OS X Lion, Mac App Store apps had a distinct, simple uninstallation process mirroring that of iOS that didn't involve users digging through the Applications folder in Finder and then dragging the app to the trash or by means of using a third-party app remover. While you obviously still can remove apps (regardless of whether they were obtained on the Mac App Store or as a .dmg) via the Finder, it was nice to have an alternate method. Apple just never addressed this clearly...

The documentation still instructs users to use the deprecated Launchpad "jiggle mode" to delete apps. This legacy method does not function anymore.

Note: You can't tell by just the "Apps" screenshot alone but I am actually clicking and holding on the app icon for Canva trying to get 'jiggle mode' to engage, except it never does...

Currently, users are forced to navigate an undocumented, highly tedious path buried inside the Mac App Store interface just to remove a downloaded application. (I ended up finding this out because ChatGPT had to scour the internet to find this method last summer during the Tahoe beta testing period because I sure as hell couldn't find the way to uninstall Mac App Store apps in macOS Tahoe). Here are the screenshots in order of steps involved...

The "hidden" app uninstallation process

To delete a Mac App Store app in both macOS 26 & 27 you have to:

1. Open the Mac App Store.
2. Click your profile icon in the lower-left corner.
3. Select Apps & Purchase History, then go to Your Apps.
4. Scroll to the app, hover, click the three-dot icon, and click Delete.
5. Confirm the deletion prompt.

This is an unreasonable amount of steps to accomplish a task that up until two OS releases ago was rather straight forward, and the fact that it isn't documented anywhere leaves everyday users (even seasoned users like myself) completely in the dark...

Due diligence filed (But ignored)

I spent the entire macOS 26 development cycle submitting comprehensive feedback reports, screen recordings, and replication steps to Apple. I have done the exact same thing now in the current macOS 27 beta cycle. The issue continues to be ignored and the incorrect support documentation remains live, unchanged.

 

[CMMChris]

Just move the app to trash, enter your password, empty trash, done.

 

[eitanharlev]

Just move the app to trash, enter your password, empty trash, done.

Just move the app to trash, enter your password, empty trash, done.

So the screenshot of the Mac User Guide clearly shows the alternate method that everyone already knows of and states it as an alternative method which you just graciously reiterated, however in my post I was referring to the non-Finder uninstall method specifically.

 

[!!!]

There is no functional difference between using Finder and Launchpad, they both remove the .app and nothing else. As for the removal of Launchpad, well, that's yet another reason to stay on Sequoia.

 

[eitanharlev]

There is no functional difference between using Finder and Launchpad, they both remove the .app and nothing else. As for the removal of Launchpad, well, that's yet another reason to stay on Sequoia.

This post was not to discuss the functional difference (or lack thereof) between the app removal process of the old "Launch Pad" vs through Finder. For all intents and purposes, we already know we can remove apps obtained specifically from the Mac App Store via Finder or through a third-party app remover like "AppCleaner", but and the big but here is that the option was deprecated in macOS 26 but no alternative method was given (as my post highlights there IS an alternative method, albeit not documented), worse than that the official documentation from Apple still instructs users to uninstall apps obtained from the Mac App Store (quietly renamed as 'apps purchased with your Apple Account') via a method that does not work. You see the discrepancies there? When macOS Sonoma was released and you clicked on the desktop it would clear your windows out of the way and show you the desktop the same way that the trackpad gesture does "Show Desktop: Spread with thumb and three fingers. Yet you see that Apple gave users a heads up about this behavior despite there already being an existing method at accomplishing the same task. The app deletion via Spotlight's "Apps" however is non-functional and in no documentation throughout the beta cycle of Tahoe was this ever mentioned, (If it was I'd love to see it because I could never find it).

 

[Bigwaff]

Following this thread and it would seem the issue is the documentation, not implementation. The online documentation is stale. Is that your defect?

 

[eitanharlev]

Following this thread and it would seem the issue is the documentation, not implementation. The online documentation is stale. Is that your defect?

That’s only part of it.

 

[!!!]

the option was deprecated in macOS 26 but no alternative method was given (as my post highlights there IS an alternative method, albeit not documented), worse than that the official documentation from Apple still instructs users to uninstall apps obtained from the Mac App Store (quietly renamed as 'apps purchased with your Apple Account') via a method that does not work. You see the discrepancies there?

I guess I'm just not really surprised, Apple's developer documentation is in a similar level of disarray, and things like SwiftUI get introduced as replacements yet don't have all of the features of the frameworks they claim to replace. Apple introduced this great new inline SwiftDocs, yet in the same swipe mass deleted almost all C/ObjC documentation, your best bet for finding complete documentation of older technologies is to find an ISO of the WWDC 09 Dev Docs DVD.

Remember Liquid Glass, Apple found a way to make things look new and shiny, and in the process they lost consistency in the UI? This is just how Apple is now, "move fast and break things" except they're a massive company that can't really move fast.

Not too long ago I came across a link to a video Apple released when the iPhone was first released, it was a bit of a tutorial about using iPhone, since the concept of a smartphone and large touch screen were relatively new. I thought about posting it somewhere here, to contrast with modern day Apple, where they expect everyone already knows how to do everything. Plenty of people just have no clue how to remove items in lists, because they don't know that you can swipe on those items. The Apple of old, where they offered user-friendly ways of interacting with helpful documentation no longer exists.

In summary, I agree with you that it's bad Apple's documentation is outdated, and it's bad they've removed launchpad, but it's not like this is some outlier in Apple's behavior. Far from it, actually.

 

[eitanharlev]

I guess I'm just not really surprised, Apple's developer documentation is in a similar level of disarray, and things like SwiftUI get introduced as replacements yet don't have all of the features of the frameworks they claim to replace. Apple introduced this great new inline SwiftDocs, yet in the same swipe mass deleted almost all C/ObjC documentation, your best bet for finding complete documentation of older technologies is to find an ISO of the WWDC 09 Dev Docs DVD.

Remember Liquid Glass, Apple found a way to make things look new and shiny, and in the process they lost consistency in the UI? This is just how Apple is now, "move fast and break things" except they're a massive company that can't really move fast.

Not too long ago I came across a link to a video Apple released when the iPhone was first released, it was a bit of a tutorial about using iPhone, since the concept of a smartphone and large touch screen were relatively new. I thought about posting it somewhere here, to contrast with modern day Apple, where they expect everyone already knows how to do everything. Plenty of people just have no clue how to remove items in lists, because they don't know that you can swipe on those items. The Apple of old, where they offered user-friendly ways of interacting with helpful documentation no longer exists.

In summary, I agree with you that it's bad Apple's documentation is outdated, and it's bad they've removed launchpad, but it's not like this is some outlier in Apple's behavior. Far from it, actually.

I encourage you to post the video. Apple has been trying to satisfy everyone and their mother for a long time now, and with that they have (in my opinion) abandoned the core principles that made their software great in the first place, the simplicity and elegance that didn’t need to constantly state how much more “simple” things would get with every release. It seems like every new release of macOS and iOS Apple will highlight how they have “simplified controls in so and so app” and I’m looking at the app like “How is this more simplified? Everything is buried beneath a cascading hell of menus and filters, what used to require one or two taps now requires 5-6”. *Sigh* Before I get flogged in the comments section on my own post I have to say this: For every bad Apple has done with their software, they’ve also done a ton of good. The reason why I’m labeled as “nit picky” is because myself and others have been accustomed for countless years of Apple setting a very high standard and expectation for their software’s quality, simplicity, presentation, stability, and intuitiveness.

 

[Bigwaff]

Following this thread and it would seem the issue is the documentation, not implementation. The online documentation is stale. Is that your defect?

That’s only part of it.

Is the other part your expectation features of Launchpad should be replicated in Siri "Apps" feature now that Launchpad is gone?

 

[eitanharlev]

Is the other part your expectation features of Launchpad should be replicated in Siri "Apps" feature now that Launchpad is gone?

The interface is the same as in macOS 26 minus the bubble animations, you have to rely on remembering Command+1 in Spotlight (Siri Search), or placing the Apps icon on your dock which literally summons up the same exact broken interface as previously stated.

 

[paulushe]

Just move the app to trash, enter your password, empty trash, done.

Doing it this way is different, especially for apps downloaded from App Store. To begin with, it doesn't clean the associated data, e.g. in ~/Library/Containers (or Group Containers). For apps from App Store, deleting it from Launchpad behaves just like iOS: it will delete those sandboxed app data, thus freeing up disk space.