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Wish I could delete Mac applications like my iOS

T

TwoSocEmBoppers

Guest
Original poster
May 30, 2010
274
1
Sunny Southern California
I've become so accustomed to adding and deleting applications so easily on my iDevices that when I went to delete a Mac application that I downloaded from the Mac App Store as a test, I was kind of annoyed (too strong of a word) that I couldn't like how a mouse click over the icon on the dock and a little "X" pop up for me to delete. Now that would be cool!

Anyone else wish they could do that? Or just me? :D
 
delete program

There is a great application called "appdelete'.
Activate and drag desired application over icon and it deletes ALL files into file in trash can
 
joshsand66 said:
There is a great application called "appdelete'.
Activate and drag desired application over icon and it deletes ALL files into file in trash can
Click to expand...

Ignore this. Appdelete, App Zapper, App Cleaner, CleanMyMac are all worthless products. Drag the app to the trash. The end.
 
roadbloc said:
Ignore this. Appdelete, App Zapper, App Cleaner, CleanMyMac are all worthless products. Drag the app to the trash. The end.
Click to expand...

That's a matter of opinion. I think it quite worthless of OSX to leave all the plists and extra folders behind. I.e. dragging Garageband to trash and deleting it leave several GBs of samples and extras in you library-folder. That's quite a waste of space. AppCleaner, which I use, finds many of these extra folders and deletes them too.
 
gorjan said:
That's a matter of opinion. I think it quite worthless of OSX to leave all the plists and extra folders behind. I.e. dragging Garageband to trash and deleting it leave several GBs of samples and extras in you library-folder. That's quite a waste of space. AppCleaner, which I use, finds many of these extra folders and deletes them too.
Click to expand...
If you really want to delete 2kb of preference files then it has been proven that using Finder is much more effective than these 3rd party App deleting Apps. Doing a search in finder (file name and including system files) finds more than the 3rd party apps.

And do you really think iOS totally removes an App? Really? More than likely, there will be files left after deleting it. It's just that the user cannot see them. Ignorance is bliss.
 
roadbloc said:
If you really want to delete 2kb of preference files then it has been proven that using Finder is much more effective than these 3rd party App deleting Apps. Doing a search in finder (file name and including system files) finds more than the 3rd party apps.

And do you really think iOS totally removes an App? Really? More than likely, there will be files left after deleting it. It's just that the user cannot see them. Ignorance is bliss.
Click to expand...

I didn't mention iOS, the OP did. And I mentioned wasted space when leaving samples and so on, not plists. The plists are just irritating, not space consuming. What bothers me is that Garageband leaves several GBs of wasted space after being dragged to trash. Many other apps to the same.

But anyway I don't see why it's such a problem to use AppCleaner. It's free. In stead of dragging to trash, drag to AppCleaner. The result is that you remove more files than by dragging to trash with the same amount of time.
 
gorjan said:
I didn't mention iOS, the OP did. And I mentioned wasted space when leaving samples and so on, not plists. The plists are just irritating, not space consuming. What bothers me is that Garageband leaves several GBs of wasted space after being dragged to trash. Many other apps to the same.

But anyway I don't see why it's such a problem to use AppCleaner. It's free. In stead of dragging to trash, drag to AppCleaner. The result is that you remove more files than by dragging to trash with the same amount of time.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I like it for the simplicity. Dragging apps to the trash doesn't always work but AppCleaner does exactly what it says.
 
roadbloc said:
Ignore this. Appdelete, App Zapper, App Cleaner, CleanMyMac are all worthless products. Drag the app to the trash. The end.
Click to expand...
Quite true as to their worthlessness, but simply dragging an app to the trash leaves behind many files/folders related to the app, taking up space on your drive.
gorjan said:
AppCleaner, which I use, finds many of these extra folders and deletes them too.
Click to expand...
....But it doesn't find everything.
mrblack927 said:
.. AppCleaner does exactly what it says.
Click to expand...
Which isn't much.

AppZapper, AppCleaner, TrashMe, and similar apps do not do a thorough job of removing all files/folders related to deleted apps. I tested several of these, using Skype as the app to be removed. Of 17 items to be removed:
AppZapper missed 13 items
AppCleaner missed 11 items
AppDelete missed 8 items​
I also tested AppTrap, CleanMyMac and a few others, but don't recall how many items they missed. All left files/folders behind. In most cases, they remove .plist files and a few others, but leave behind much larger files and folders. (you will find a discussion of these tests in the thread linked below)

The only effective method for complete app removal is manual deletion:

Best way to FULLY DELETE a program
 
roadbloc said:
Ignore this. Appdelete, App Zapper, App Cleaner, CleanMyMac are all worthless products. Drag the app to the trash. The end.
Click to expand...

+1 your right. All they do is leave more crap behind. The most simple method is dragging to trash. For those who are anal about the 2kb text edit files left behind just go through the library and delete them in application support.
 
ECUpirate44 said:
A negligible amount of space though right?
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. Depending on the app, they could leave behind from a few MB to well over 1GB of "stuff". If you don't frequently install and remove apps, it's not a big deal. If you do, it's not a big deal until you start running out of space on your HD. By then, it's likely you wouldn't remember which apps you removed, so finding the leftover bits will be more difficult. If you get in the habit of completely removing apps, you preserve HD space and it only takes a minute or two to do it.
 
dukebound85 said:
Is there a way to find these rogue files even if I have long since deleted apps and don't recall what apps they were?
Click to expand...
You could search through the following folders and may identify some of them, but not necessarily all:

/Users/username/Library/
/Users/username/Library/Application Support/
/Users/username/Library/Caches/
/Users/username/Library/Contextual Menu Items/
/Users/username/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/
/Users/username/Library/Logs/
/Users/username/Library/PreferencePanes/
/Users/username/Library/Preferences/
/Users/username/Library/Scripts/
/Users/username/Library/Widgets/
/Users/username/Library/Workflows/

/Library/Application Support/
/Library/Caches/
/Library/InputManagers/
/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/
/Library/LaunchAgents/
/Library/LaunchDaemons/
/Library/Preferences/
/Library/PreferencePanes/
/Library/StartupItems/

As you can see, it's much easier to do it at the time you delete the app, so you can simply search by the app name, files installed at the same time the .app was installed, etc.

gorjan said:
I'm aware of that, but it removes more than simply dragging to trash. :eek:
Click to expand...
Yes, barely. It basically removes the .plist and a few other files/folders, but leaves the majority behind. AppCleaner missed 11 of 17 app related files, most of them much larger than the ones it removed. Of all the removal apps tested, only AppZapper was worse.
 
Dalton63841 said:
For the most part most app "stuff" is located in ~/Library/Application Support and /Library/Application Support. Most things are named something according to the app they belonged to.
Click to expand...
As you can see from my last post, that's only the tip of the iceberg. I think it's safe to say most apps install something in one or both of those folders, but most also install in several of the others listed.
 
GGJstudios said:
As you can see from my last post, that's only the tip of the iceberg. I think it's safe to say most apps install something in one or both of those folders, but most also install in several of the others listed.
Click to expand...

LOL Yea I know...Your list is far more comprehensive. That's why I edited my post.

@OP Don't worry...They way the OS is looking probably 10.8 will have the ability to click down for 3 seconds and click x to uninstall. :p

And don't get me started about the touchscreen, or I'll kick you in the head. <--Don't click that link! LOL
 
Last edited:
1. Drag the icon of app in the trash
2. Instead of clicking empty trash, click secure empty trash
3. Wait a VERY long time
4. Your "app" is now fully deleted!!!
 
ERICLRICH said:
1. Drag the icon of app in the trash
2. Instead of clicking empty trash, click secure empty trash
3. Wait a VERY long time
4. Your "app" is now fully deleted!!!
Click to expand...

That is completely false. Only the .app file is deleted. That doesn't delete the many files and folders that the app created.
 
Thanks for all the replies! I had downloaded App Zapper in the meantime and tried it out. It found a few more files than just dragging it to the trash but they were minuscule in size. Probably going to delete it as it's not worth it to pay for.
 
I agree with the OP, I certainly hope Apple incorporates the iOS way of deleting programs into Lion since they are incorporating a lot of iOS anyway, this would be a very welcome addition and another thing Windows wouldn't be able to enjoy the pleasure of having. :)
 
I use AppDelete to remove an app.
I then do a quick search in Finder (including system files) to find any further smaller files it may have missed.
 
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