How to quickly/efficiently delete an app in macOS26?

Derbrucke wrote:

Thanks for your answer.

this is a clever way to show at first the app i recently downloaded and i want to delete.

Now I am thinking that maybe I could add the Application folder to the dock. Click on it and look for the app i want to delete and just drag to the bin. (So no need to open Finder > Applications and stop what I am doing)

Yes, you can absolutely do that.

Use the Dock on Mac - Apple Support

Derbrucke wrote:

Result? I have many useless apps on my Mac!

Of course with Launchpad it was super easy, because I could remember where the app was located or, if recently installed, it was found in the last page.

If it was so easy with Launchpad and so difficult in Tahoe, that means you’ve chosen to install many useless apps in the past couple of months.

Open the Applications folder, secondary click (control or right or two-finger click), select the option to show Date Added or Date Last Opened, then click on that column header to sort by it. Your most recently installed or most recently opened apps will be at the top of the list. Select the ones you don’t want and drag to Trash or press Command-Delete to do the same.

Derbrucke wrote:

I am looking for a way to quickly delete an app, without having to go in Finder > Applications > look for the app > delete it.

Good, because that procedure won't always work.

I am trying to delete various apps from my MacBook Air M3 13'' running macOS26.

The problem is that

• if the app is in the Dock and I try to move into the garbage, it just removes the app from the Dock, but doesn't delete the app

• if I remember the app's name and search for it with Spotlight and I move the app into the garbage, it doesn't delete the app

• only possibility is to go in Finder > Applications > look for the app among hundreds of apps > delete it!

This is super time consuming and not efficient

None of that will work. It's more difficult and time consuming than that.

What you have to do is take an inventory of all of your apps that you have installed. Then, find out how to uninstall each one.

Anything that you installed from the Mac App Store can be deleted just by dragging the app to the trash. The old LaunchPad method would work too, but that's gone now.

But for anything else, you must track down the official (and correct) uninstallation instructions from the developer. Also note that some developers will lie to you. It's common for developers to scatter bits and pieces of apps in various hidden directories. I would say that most such apps make a conscientious effort to properly remove themselves when requested. But the more invasive the app, the less successful/truthful its uninstaller will be.

Many people will recommend their favourite "app zapper" tools. At least as of macOS 15 "Sequoia" and later, these "app zappers" are no longer as dangerous as they used to be. So that's a positive development. While I can thank Apple for making this improvement, it was also Apple that caused it in the first place.

However, the more complicated and difficult to remove an app might be, the less effective an "app zapper" is going to be. They work best on apps that you could uninstall easily yourself.

I guess I do not understand why simply opening the Applications folder, scrolling down to the app and then dragging it to the Trash is such a laborious task. It takes me about 10 seconds. I still use Sequoia and if I right click on the app in the dock it offers "Show in Finder" which takes me straight to the app. Then it takes about 3 seconds to delete it, or maybe 5 if I have to enter my password. I then right click on the app and select move to Trash. Is that option now gone in Tahoe?

Derbrucke wrote:

Thanks for your answer.

this is a clever way to show at first the app i recently downloaded and i want to delete.

Now I am thinking that maybe I could add the Application folder to the dock. Click on it and look for the app i want to delete and just drag to the bin. (So no need to open Finder > Applications and stop what I am doing)

It depends on how you "installed" the app. If it was an App Store app or a "drag & drop" from a mounted disk image, then that will work. If it is a built-in app then it will just make a copy in the Trash. If you used an installer, you normally would need to use the developer's uninstaller. A very few installer-based apps will recognize when you drag it to the Trash and run the uninstaller.

Note that most apps that come bundled with macOS live on the cryptographically-signed, sealed system volume. They cannot be deleted, at least not without taking extra effort to do things that will be interpreted as "tampering" and that will prevent your Mac from starting up from the drive that you tamper with. They also are not all that big, individually, relative to the size of modern startup drives.

The exceptions are Numbers, Pages, Keynote, iMovie, and GarageBand. These are the largest bundled apps, and also the ones that you can or must download separately from the App Store. You can delete them.

Derbrucke wrote:

Thank you for the answer.

Not deserved. I was wrong.

As I am doing a “cleaning” of my mac, I really need to completely delete the apps I don’t need.

As difficult as it is for me to say this, I guess an "app zapper" might be the best approach after all. Apple has fixed the problem with system extensions. When an app zapper breaks one of those and burns it into the operating system, you can still remove it via System Settings > Login Items & Extensions.

However, when Apple took away the LaunchPad in Tahoe, they also took away the uninstaller. What I said about uninstalling Mac App Store apps is now wrong. You can delete the app itself from the "Applications" folder, but there's no easy way to remove app data anymore. This was removed in Tahoe.

To clarify, I don't know if any "app zapper" tool can properly uninstall any apps. I haven't tried any and I'm not about to start. I'm simply at a loss, once again, on how to uninstall Mac software.