Clean a Mac/Uninstalling programs/apps

Please refer to Uninstall apps on your Mac - Apple Support.

Install and uninstall apps from the internet or a disc on Mac is also applicable for apps obtained from sources other than the App Store.

If I may assume you wish to delete apps in an effort to increase available storage space on a typically space-limited MBA, the following Apple Support documents may help you to identify files that occupy a large amount of space:

Free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

Optimize storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

As others already noted, non-Apple "cleaning" apps are generally scams that result in abject misery. Anything they claim to do can be performed safely using the tools your Mac already has.

For 3rd party apps I use AppCleaner . It finds the supporting and cache files for the app so you can delete them all. However, take special note of the Warning below. If you have more than one app from the same developer you may not want to use the app.

WARNING: If you use AppCleaner on an app that you have other apps from the same developer, like Adobe, you must be extremely careful checking all checkboxes and deleting.  Some for those files may support other apps from the same developer and deleting them can mess them up.  Adobe apps is a primary example. I know from experience.  For singular apps from a developer it's safe.

Thanks for that explanation. Well-mannered apps will place their support files in one or both of these locations:

/Library/Application Support

for all users of that Mac, and

~/Library/Application Support

for only those users of that particular app.

Legitimate apps make no effort to obscure their names, so you are likely to find an appropriately named folder in either or both of those locations that can be dragged to the Trash.

Similarly, individual app settings are likely to be found in

/Library/Preferences

and

~/Library/Preferences

... respectively.

To navigate to them directly, copy and paste those pathnames in the Finder's Go menu > Go to Folder... field.

Example:

In most cases any files left in those folders are small and inert and can be ignored after uninstalling an app you no longer need. Since you have reason to believe a corrupted setting may be causing your tax preparation app to misbehave, deleting them is justified. You are far better off doing that manually through the Finder than relying upon a third party app that has no way to determine which files are associated with the apps in question. They basically guess, and you can do that without their help.

Never install any app that claims to "tune up", "speed up" or "clean up" your Mac. These apps exist for one reason: to separate the unwary and inexperienced user from their hard-earned money. At best they do very little, at worst, they can damage your OS installation and cause far more problems than they "solve".

Everyone has the app they have had 'no issue' with. And let's face it, CleanMyMac is used by many too, and, in the hands of an experienced Mac use it might even be harmless too. But the risk is to the inexperienced user...

I dunno, maybe I'm missing something with the uninstall apps and programs. I've recently come over to Mac after being a lifelong Windows user, although I don't regret my decision to move platforms one thing I can't get my head around is manually uninstalling apps and programs. It seems Apple and board members on here would have you believe it's a simple case of dragging whatever to the trash and then emptying that trash.

I have found it's all the related junk in the library folders, preferences, caches, application scripts, launch agents, plists etc that get left there also have to managed even if the program has an uninstaller built in, that to me is a complete ball ache. Again maybe I'm missing something, the amount of system junk that Mac accumulates over a relatively short space of time is incredible. I'm a complete macOS novice as I said but something as simple as removing an app or uninstalling a program shouldn't be so laborious surely?

It's no wonder people turn to the app cleaners that are so frowned upon.

While Windows and MacOS do most of the same things, they do them differently. The Mac has no registry, the bits that may be left behind are inert and not dynamic, and so don't interfere with other apps or the OS. Caches can be deleted with a simple restart in safe mode, everything else you mention are tiny files, measured in kb. They do not take up significant amounts of disk space. So, yes, you can be a bit OCD and go in there and root out every last vestige of 4kb plist files. If that's what floats your boat, by all means sail away. The risk with uninstaller and other maintenance apps is when they remove things you didn't want or expect them to remove - and again, it's exactly the inexperienced user who is most at risk here. We regularly see folks on here who have hosed their systems to the point of needing to re-install the OS from scratch because they let a "maintenance" app loose on their system. And while I know reinstalling the OS is, apparently, a common enough task in other OSes, I'm using Macs for 30 years now and that's something I've done less than 10 times, and the first few of those is because I knew no better.

Cleaners are frowned upon by experienced posters here - not sure Apple have ever said anything about them - because we see the damage they do in inexperienced hands.

Why do you think that's weird? As I said Apple have made no comment about cleaning apps, and get 30% of every sale, so your point is? And by all means install one or more of them and use them to your heart's content. As you say yourself, you're an inexperienced Mac user so there's a good chance you'll get some excellent practice in reinstalling the OS. I would strongly urge you to have an up-to-date back up at all times though...

I thought it was weird that if they were so bad why would Apple push them in the App Store but now you have explained along with some wild assumptions which of course you could not know. Anyway it's not something I wish to put on my machine.

I'm sure I'll get used to the change in platform choice over time, incidentally what would you use to create an up to date back up?

Do you mean just files, folders, user settings and apps as I'm sure Time Machine would be OK just for that or something more comprehensive such as a bootable snapshot image, I don't thing anything like Macrium exists for Mac but again my inexperience with the platform could cause me to be incorrect

Time Machine is very good but it does requite restoring to recover from it. I use Carbon Copy Cloner, which stores the back up in the same format as the original.

https://bombich.com/download

As a general rule you'll find an app that does whatever you need doing. The difference between the Windows and Mac ecosystem is that you'll often find more choices, even if not necessary better ones...

"AppCleaner" will get rid of most or all of the remnants (more than just dragging the app to the trash) and it will not hurt anything unless you have an app from the same author that also shares some of the same files.

Go to Apple Menu > System Settings > General > Storage. This will give you a picture of your storage and the ability to remove Applications and Documents.

Three methods:

1. Use the uninstall program for the app
2. Drag the app to the trash
3. Use the free app "AppCleaner"

No need to install more software to remove software. Its all available for you to do in the Storage setting.