How to Completely Uninstall a Mac App and Its Leftovers

Dragging an app from Applications to the Trash removes the app — and nothing else. Its preferences, caches, saved windows, support data and sometimes a login helper stay behind in your Library folder. Most of the time that's a few megabytes. Sometimes it's gigabytes: a video editor's render cache, a game's downloaded content, a chat app's message history.

The short answer: to uninstall an app completely, quit it, move the .app to the Trash, then remove the items named after the app or its bundle identifier in ~/Library — mainly in Application Support, Caches, Preferences, Containers and Saved Application State. Below is how to do it by hand, safely, and how Folia Files does the same thing for one app or several at once.

Check for the app's own uninstaller first

Some apps install more than a single bundle: drivers, system extensions, menu bar helpers, background services. Their developers usually provide an uninstaller — in the original disk image, in the app's menu, or in its settings. If there is one, use it first: it knows about pieces a generic method can't guess. Then come back for whatever it left.

Where an app leaves files on a Mac

Almost everything an app writes on your behalf lives in the Library folder of your home folder, ~/Library, which the Finder hides by default. Leftovers carry one of two kinds of names:

• the bundle identifier, such as com.example.notes — the most reliable clue;
• the app's name, such as Notes Pro — common in Application Support, Caches and Logs, but less certain, since another app can use a similar name.

To find an app's bundle identifier before you delete it, run mdls -name kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier /Applications/Example.app in Terminal, with the real name of the app.

The usual places, all inside ~/Library:

• Application Support — the app's own data: databases, downloaded content, plug-ins. Often the largest.
• Caches — data the app can rebuild. Safe to delete.
• Preferences — a .plist file named after the bundle identifier. Deleting it resets the app's settings.
• Containers and Group Containers — sandboxed apps, which includes most App Store apps, keep everything here. A container can also hold documents you created in the app.
• Saved Application State — the windows macOS reopens, in a .savedState folder.
• HTTPStorages, WebKit and Cookies — network and web data.
• Logs — log files.
• LaunchAgents — a .plist that starts a helper when you log in. If an app keeps coming back after you deleted it, look here.

Apps installed with an installer package may also have put files in the main /Library folder at the root of the disk (for example in LaunchAgents, LaunchDaemons or Application Support). Those are shared by all users, and removing them needs an administrator password.

How to remove an app's leftovers by hand

1. Quit the app, and its menu bar helper if it has one.
2. Drag the app from Applications to the Trash.
3. In the Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder (⇧⌘G), type ~/Library and press ↩.
4. Open each folder listed above and look for items named after the bundle identifier or the app. Move them to the Trash.
5. Don't empty the Trash right away. Use your Mac normally for a day or two; if nothing misses those files, empty it.

Two rules keep this safe. Only remove what clearly matches the app. And before you trash a container, or a folder you found by its name alone, look inside: if it holds documents you want to keep, copy them somewhere else first.

Uninstall apps with their leftovers in Folia Files

Folia Files has an uninstaller in Mac Care: choose Tools › Mac Care… (⇧⌘M), then Applications. It lists the apps in /Applications, /Applications/Utilities, ~/Applications and the Setapp folder, with their size and when you last used them.

Select an app, and the right side shows App and Related Items: the app itself and every leftover found in your Library — Application Support, Caches, Preferences, Containers, Group Containers, Saved Application State, network and web data, logs, login agents — each with its size and path.

• Items found by the bundle identifier are checked.
• Containers, shared containers and folders found only by the app's name are marked "may hold your documents" and are never checked in advance. Look, then decide.
• Click Uninstall: the app is quit, then moved to the Trash along with the checked items. Nothing is deleted outright, so you can put anything back from the Trash until you empty it.

Several apps at once

Hold ⌘ or ⇧ to select several apps in the list. The right side groups each app with its leftovers, and the button becomes Uninstall 3 Apps (or however many you chose). They're quit together and moved to the Trash together.

Find the apps you no longer use

The menu above the list offers All, Unused, App Store and Setapp. Unused means not opened for six months, or with no sign of use on this Mac. The "last opened" date that Spotlight keeps is often missing — after moving to a new Mac, for example — so Folia Files also looks at the most recent change to the app's own files in your Library. Sort the list by size to see the biggest apps first.

Leftovers of apps you already deleted

If you've been dragging apps to the Trash for years, the Leftovers & Installers tab lists what they left: Leftovers from deleted apps — to review, unchecked, because a folder whose app is gone isn't always useless. It also lists forgotten installers — disk images and packages still sitting in Downloads or on the Desktop — which are checked.

What macOS asks for

• Full Disk Access lets Folia Files read everything in your Library, containers included.
• App Management, in System Settings › Privacy & Security: macOS can stop one app from changing or deleting another. If it refuses, allow Folia Files there.
• Apps installed for all users — by the App Store or an installer — belong to the system. macOS asks for the administrator password, once for the whole selection.

In the App Store version

The App Store version runs in Apple's sandbox. It reads your Library once you've opened your disk to it (it asks when needed). For apps installed for all users, the free Folia Files Companion (from foliafiles.com/companion/) lets it uninstall them the same way, with one password prompt. Without the companion, the button becomes Remove with the Finder…: the Finder opens on the app, you move it to the Trash (the Finder asks for the password), and Folia Files moves the checked leftovers to the Trash as soon as the app is gone.

Is it worth the trouble?

Leftovers rarely slow a Mac down. The reasons to remove them are space, a clean start if you reinstall the app later, and login agents that keep a helper running for an app you no longer have. If you're trying to work out what fills your disk in general, see what System Data is on a Mac and how to see what's using space.