Unable to remove an app from the Applications folder

FWIW, I have used AppCleaner on occasion. On the rare occasion it seemed to balk at removing a file or files, I found right-clicking on the files in AppCleaner to reveal them in the Finder, allowed me to move them to the Trash then empty the Trash. Why, I can't tell you.

According to your screenshot, the app is already in the trash. Sounds like a buggy app cleaner, as they all are.

At least if you are running Sequoia, an app zapper can be more safely used. It's a little known fact that on modern version of macOS, there is no "app zapper" that works correctly. It's impossible. But at least on Sequoia, when they don't work and corrupt your system, you can more easily recover without erasing your hard drive and reinstalling the operating system.

As a System Administrator, you should just click the OK button in that image and it should pop a password dialog granting permission before sending that item to the Trash. I never use any so-called "App Cleaners" on my Mac, opting to manually remove all of the application's detritus instead.

hanyvo wrote:

I want to remove a comic reader "Simple comic app" I downloaded from the Apple App Store. To accomplish this I use an "AppCleaner",

Why? You never need an app cleaner and for App Store apps you certainly do not need an app cleaner. They don’t clean an app they just destroy your system.

You can see the exact path of those files. I'd try clicking the magnifying glass and then see if they can be deleted using Finder.

Anyway, on the subject of "app cleaners", leaving these small files behind is hardly relevant, they don't do anything once the app has been deleted, and the risk of a "cleaner" cleaning all too well (as many of us around here know) dwarfs any inconvenient of leaving a few inert files behind.

hanyvo wrote:

Right-clicking on the file directs Finder to its location which is not the Trash.

Once you see the two folders in /Users/yourusername/Library/Containers in the Finder, you can just drag them to the Trash and empty it.

Zurarczurx wrote:

Funny that. I've used App Cleaner in the past and my system wasn't destroyed.

That's not quite accurate. App Cleaners won't destroy your system. They will leave System Extensions installed and running out of control. The only way to remove them will be to erase your hard drive and reinstall the operating system. So technically, you are the one destroying your system.

The problem for some people who are slightly on the OCD spectrum

Then perhaps macOS isn't the right choice for you. You have no idea how much of a hacked-together kludge of various different operating system it is underneath. The Finder and apps are pretty, but if you start poking around, you'll find only chaos, hundreds of error messages being generated every second, useless (or seemingly so) files and directories constantly being created and destroyed.

dragging an app to the bin often (always, in my experience) leaves dozens, if not hundreds of files behind and these can be annoying to the point of distraction, even though they take no space and do no harm.

In many cases, removing them is the harmful act.

I'd installed a Google App on my Mac and after I'd deleted the main app by dragging it to the bin there were elements left behind that continued to phone home and nag me.

That's more of a Google problem.

I learned a lot from that experience and it was my introduction to Terminal and the Mac equivalent of nuking things from space.

The fundamental problem with these "app zappers" is the false impression they give that the user is under control. As I mentioned before, the operating system is a bit of a mess. A fundamental aspect is that there is absolutely nothing that guarantees an association between any particular app and its files. There are certain identifiers that are commonly used, and that's how those app zappers work. But there is no requirement for apps to use those identifiers. It's just commonly done. The irony here is that these app zappers work best when you don't need them. The apps that are the worst offenders of scattering random files across your system are also the ones most likely to defeat an app zapper.

Also, you have to make sure to only use Sequoia with an app zapper. Sequoia provides a way to easily remove System Extensions that are left behind from using app zappers. Before Sequoia those system extensions were very difficult to remove and app zappers (or people trying to manually remove apps with the terminal) were the primary reason for them to get baked into the operating system.

"Thats how it does work, unless .."

Not true. If I pick a couple of apps:

Quicktime - a native app - has its files scattered across 7 directories and those directories have files for more than one app, so you couldn't just delete the top directory

VLC - 5 directories - and those directories have files for more than one app, so you can't just delete the top directory.

I don't think you understand what I mean by a single directory. I mean a single directory that only has that app's files in it.

"Where did you have to go to “hunt them down?” Were they not in a standard directory for such things?"

I think you've misunderstood the whole discussion. There's no such thing as "a standard directory for such things". That's the whole point I made a couple of posts ago.

MacOS:

• scatters plists and other app setting/config files in across separate directories from the app;
• doesn't delete these app settings when I delete the app;
• doesn't index these files so searching with Spotlight won't find these files.

So I have to get a search app and search for all the app's files and then navigate to the directories that contain them and then delete the files, one by one. Just look at the search results for the VLC app - and that's not even an invasive app.

It's not a problem normally. I don't care if a few small config files are left behind but when it's needed - as in the case of the app I re-installed yesterday - it's a pain, and for no good reason.

I made the mistake of downloading a Google app many years ago. After I'd "deleted" the main app I continued to get Google nags and Google was active on the network and the web. When I searched the disc for Google stuff there were hundreds of files scattered over dozens of directories, many of them locked and some requiring recovery mode to delete.

FWIW, AppCleaner is no longer in the App Store if it ever was. Check to see if it's up to date. Current version is 3.6.8.

Zurarczurx wrote:

"Thats how it does work, unless .."

Not true. If I pick a couple of apps:

Quicktime - a native app - has its files scattered across 7 directories and those directories have files for more than one app, so you couldn't just delete the top directory

And that's where app cleaners usually fail.

VLC - 5 directories - and those directories have files for more than one app, so you can't just delete the top directory.

I don't think you understand what I mean by a single directory. I mean a single directory that only has that app's files in it.

Quicktime is not an app. It is a framework (or similar). It is used by many apps, thus there are hooks in various places.

My copy of VLC only has three directories. One is the standard config directory in Application Support, one appears to be in a standard HTTP reference library for all apps. The third is a container. Those are usually for sandboxing an app. I don't know if the sandboxing process would allow for it to be sandboxed inside the app bundle. I would prefer an app cannot modify its app bundle as then just about anything could modify the app bundle. I don't have any that contain other things.

Where are the other VLC directories?

I understand the what, but there's no reason for the "hooks" to be scattered across the disk. They could all be in one place and if that's not possible then there's no good reason for the OS not to find and delete them. It knows where it put them, after all.

Yesterday I wanted a clean install of a Safari extension. In a well-designed world I could just delete it and re-install it. When I did that it came back with my old settings, which I didn't want. To get rid of it so I could do a clean install meant hunting down files in directories with the name of the extension and then a whole other set with the name of the developer. If they'd been in a single directory it would have been one single delete. I'm not banging a drum for apps like App Cleaner because they don't find and delete everything either. I find them and delete them manually.

Screenshot of a vlc search below. Including videolan files I count 7 directories plus applications ignoring one Mail container and the crash report.